Milky Oolong Tea
Milky oolong is a lightly oxidized Taiwanese oolong tea made from the Jin Xuan cultivar of the tea plant. The cultivar is also known as 'Golden Daylily,' TTES #12, or Nai Xiang ('milk fragrance'). Its name comes from a soft, creamy, butter-like character that develops naturally in the leaf. Genuine milky oolong contains no dairy.
Documented in
- Butter by SKBI Brewery
Butter is made from semi-oxidised Milky Oolong tea from China.
SKBI - Butter
How milky oolong tea is prepared
Brewed hot in a gaiwan or small teapot for repeated short infusions, or steeped Western-style for a single longer infusion. Also served cold-brewed or iced. Used as a base in Taiwanese-style tea shop drinks, including oolong milk teas, bubble tea, fruit teas, and teas topped with milk or cheese foam. Appears in contemporary tea lattes and non-alcoholic mixed drinks, where its creamy aroma adds body without dairy.
Extracting an ingredient into a liquid or fat. Temperature and duration depend on the documented application.
Darjeeling First Flush.[6]
Service signal Works as a infusion component.
Fermentation with a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) that contributes bright acidity.
Jin Xuan, grown at 1,100 m in Chiayi County, Taiwan.[7]
Other preparations
The producer brews its teas with fermentation (producer claims d83dabc278d7, 425e745b47ce).[8]
Empress uses Milky Oolong Tea in Brut: milky Oolong Tea; how it is prepared is not specified.[11]
Tempera uses Milky Oolong Tea in OLYRA: milky Oolong Tea; how it is prepared is not specified.[12]
In depth
Oolong Roots in Fujian and Taiwan
Milky oolong grows out of the long tradition of semi-oxidized tea from southeastern China. In Fujian, growers developed the craft of partially bruising and oxidizing leaves before firing them. Settlers from Fujian brought tea plants to Taiwan in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By the later nineteenth century, Taiwanese oolong was being shipped abroad under the 'Formosa' name and ranked among the island's leading exports. This export trade and a strong local drinking culture laid the groundwork for the specialized cultivars that Taiwan would later breed, milky oolong among them.[1]
Breeding of Jin Xuan in the 1980s
After mainland Chinese teas returned to world markets, Taiwan's tea sector increasingly focused on distinctive oolongs. Its government research station bred the Jin Xuan cultivar through selective crossing, and it was released in the early 1980s. Farmers valued it for vigor and generous yields. Drinkers noticed something more unusual: a naturally creamy, milk-like aroma and smooth texture in the cup. The tea soon earned the popular names 'milk oolong' and 'Nai Xiang.' It took a place beside Dongding, Baozhong, and high-mountain teas among Taiwan's signature oolongs, and is often grown in the Alishan area.[2]
Gongfu Brewing and the Tasting Tradition
In Taiwan, milky oolong is drunk above all as a pure infusion, in keeping with the gongfu style of tea preparation that spread from Fujian. Tightly rolled leaves go into a small porcelain gaiwan or clay pot at a high leaf-to-water ratio. They are steeped repeatedly for brief intervals in water well below boiling, roughly the mid-80s to mid-90s Celsius. Each infusion shows a different stage of the tea's buttery, floral character. The practice treats the tea as something to savor slowly, and a single serving of leaves can yield many cups over a sitting.[3]
Natural Versus Flavored 'Milk Oolong'
As milky oolong gained an international following, a split emerged in the market. The creaminess of genuine Jin Xuan comes from the cultivar and its careful processing, not from steeping or steaming the leaves in milk, as some sellers have claimed. Some producers began adding milk-type flavorings to intensify the effect, yielding a sweeter, more obviously dairy-scented drink. Tea enthusiasts generally regard these flavored versions as a separate product from the natural tea. Reputable sellers usually state which kind they offer. Drinkers new to the style are often surprised to learn that the traditional leaf contains no milk at all.[1]
Spread to Thailand and Southeast Asia
The Jin Xuan cultivar has traveled beyond Taiwan. It became popular with growers in the highlands of northern Thailand, where oolong cultivation developed alongside older traditions of local tea use. There, milky oolong is brewed as a clean, fragrant infusion for local drinkers and visitors and is also exported. More broadly, oolong is especially favored in southeastern China and among ethnic Chinese communities in Southeast Asia. That regional taste gave the Taiwanese cultivar a ready audience.[2]
Milky Oolong and the Wider World of Milk Tea
Milky oolong's name places it in a crowded family of drinks. Across Asia, 'milk tea' traditionally means tea actually combined with dairy. Examples include salty milk teas of the Inner Asian grasslands, the strong evaporated-milk brews of Hong Kong cafés, and sweetened condensed-milk teas across Southeast Asia. Most of these use robust black tea. Milky oolong offers a lighter alternative that suggests dairy richness through aroma alone. For that reason it appeals both to drinkers seeking a creamy cup without milk and to those who want a delicate base for a milk tea.[4]
Bubble Tea and the Modern Tea Shop
Taiwan's bubble tea boom, which began in the 1980s and spread across East and Southeast Asia and then worldwide, gave oolong a new role as a mixing base. Tea shops typically offer black, green, and oolong foundations for milk teas and milk-free fruit teas. Fragrant oolongs such as milky oolong pair well with fresh milk, tapioca pearls, and toppings such as salted milk or cheese foam. Customers can usually adjust sweetness and ice, and many menus now include both hot and iced oolong milk teas. Bars have also adapted the bubble tea format into spirit-spiked versions, but the core tradition remains a non-alcoholic drink.[5]
Part of Oolong Tea
References
- [1]EncyclopediaTaiwanese tea — Wikipedia↑§1↑§4
- [2]EncyclopediaJin Xuan tea — Wikipedia↑§2↑§5
- [3]EncyclopediaOolong — Wikipedia↑§3
- [4]EncyclopediaMilk tea — Wikipedia↑§6
- [5]EncyclopediaBubble tea — Wikipedia↑§7
- [6]ProducerNino Discovery Set 1 (ninodrinks.com)↑prepared
- [7]Instagram@figa_kombucha — Sep 30, 2024↑prepared
- [8]Product informationSKBI - Butter↑prepared
- [9]FeatureAb sofort im Vertrieb bei Segnitz: Fermentierte Tees von AMA Brewery↑prepared
- [10]FeatureProfile: AMA Brewery, Irun, Spain - Booch News↑prepared
- [11]Product informationEmpress Brut - Vinmonopolet↑prepared
- [12]Product informationBoisson gastronomique sans alcool Olyra – Tempera↑prepared