Happy Halloween! Don’t Forget Your Boolong!
It’s that time of the year, the week when we turn to the atmospheric world of princesses and superheroes, vampires and ghosts, pirates and firefighters and nurses.
And for Ku Cha House of Tea, Halloween always compels us to have fun with one of our favorite words: Boolong!
That’s right, given the prevalence of “Boo!” during the holiday, we couldn’t help conflating the Halloween word with one of our favorite styles of tea — oolong.
If you haven’t explored oolong tea yet, this is your perfect excuse. Pro Tip: For parents escorting kids from door to door, a thermos of oolong will be much appreciated.
Why is oolong special?
Oolong tea occupies a middle ground between the grassy, herbal flavors offered by many green teas and the deep, robust tastes that develop when black tea is oxidized — that is, when exposure to oxygen turns the leaves from green to brown or black, and rich flavors develop.
Green experiences the least oxidation, and black the most. Oolong undergoes more oxidation than green and white, but less than black. It turns out that in-between zone is quite a sweet spot. Oolongs present immense variety in flavor, aroma and appearance.
Looking for an oolong with orchid aromas and apricot notes? Dan Cong Honey Orchid Oolong Tea is a smart choice. Interested in sweeter flavors? Taiwan’s Dong Ding oolong is just the ticket. Oolong tea sippers can taste peaches, dried fruit, cocoa — even river moss!
In this Boolong! guide, we offer three oolongs with divergent flavors and aromas. And we also suggest an herbal tea that kids are sure to love which also is a bit Halloween-appropriate.
Boolong Tea: Golden Peony Rock Oolong
Some oolongs lean more into the robust, malty flavors of black teas. Others flirt with green tea’s perfumes. Golden Peony somehow plays nice with both sides. It is the most floral rock oolong that Ku Cha carries, yet it also brews into a rich, roasted tea with citrus notes that linger in the back of the throat after each sip.
Golden Peony was cultivated as a hybrid of two other rock oolongs that Ku Cha carries: Tie Guan Yin and Huang Dan. Rock oolongs, from the Wuyi Mountains of China’s Fujian Province, are the most prized of all oolong teas. The mountains’ rocky soil forces the tea shrubs to struggle for sustenance, while the mild, wet climate provide ideal climactic conditions for tea cultivation. The combination yields distinct teas that convey their environment, or “terroir,” as we discussed in an earlier blog. Golden Peony is a special Yan Cha (Rock Oolong) experience, with unusual aromas of grapefruit and gardenia.
Boolong Tea: Jasmine Oolong
Jasmine Oolong is a Ku Cha customer favorite, which is not a surprise. This lovely tea, from South China’s Guangxi Province, combines superb oolong tea with aromatic jasmine flowers. It brews into a balanced elixir, a tea resting on a firm foundation of well-crafted oolong tea leaves and enlivened with the evanescent and enchanting aromas and flavors of jasmine. Our Jasmine Oolong is the real deal, relying on actual blossoms rather than artificial jasmine flavoring. Tea farmers combine night-harvested jasmine flowers for seven or more consecutive evenings, and combine them with harvested tea leaves. When the tea is ready to ship, the leaves have been naturally infused with genuine jasmine. Brew this, and taste the essences of both oolong tea leaves and jasmine blossoms, both of which grew on tea farms in southern China.
Boolong Tea: Silk Oolong
Silk Oolong, also known as Jin Xuan, offers a mild, smooth taste that leans more toward classic green tea, with floral, grassy notes. It’s subtleties, as well as its classic creaminess that is familiar among high-mountain oolongs like Dong Ding, are prized among oolong fans. This beguiling tea with green, oval-shaped leaves was developed in Taiwan in the 1980s.
Boolong Tea: Pink Pomegranate
Orange is probably the most prominent Halloween color — all of those grinning jack-o-lanterns and fields of carrot-colored pumpkins waiting for parents and kids to take them home and commence carving.
But red is awfully popular too — blood. There’s some boo! Zombies, ghouls and many other fright-forward costumes incorporate shades of crimson, candy apple and beets.
To pair a caffeine-free tea with the kids’ embrace of the scary stuff, we recommend our Pink Pomegranate, which brews into a rich pink color. This tea, just like the candy the juniors lug around in sacks, is a bit sweet, thanks to the pomegranate, pineapple, apple, dragon fruit and yogurt crunch in the blend. It also contains hibiscus, to up the red quotient carried by the pomegranate and dragon fruit.
Ready to celebrate Halloween? Excellent, it arrives on Sunday. Make sure to shout “Boolong!” when greeting the kids.
