Having a ball: oolong is a labour of love

Oolong has always been our favourite tea type because it has the greatest variety. We offer 10 Taiwanese oolongs and each one delivers a different sensory experience. If you're a fellow oolong lover you've watched the leaves unfurl from their semi-ball rolled shape, releasing beautiful aromas and flavours with each infusion. But do you know how the tea leaves are shaped that way?

Silvia, our Alishan Mtn tea grower, provided us with photos and explanations for everyone to better understand the ball rolling process. Follow the images clockwise from the top left.

First process: using hard cloth, a stick, hand and feet to roll the tea and make it look like semi-ball shape.

Second process: using a hard cloth, put the tea inside and then by hand and machine pack tightly into a ball, and use the rolling machine to press and knead. 

This way can preserve most of the aroma and taste in the tea, but it is still a hard job to do and the ball shaping will not look as good compared to the newest way of ball rolling process.

Third process: using the compressor to do the ball rolling. It can give the tea a perfect ball shape, but it is easy to lose tea aroma and flavour, and it is not easy to roast out the water and any unwanted flavour. However, this method decreases injury as well as cost, so we created a solution with our tea master to use skills in both second and third processes.

Fourth process: combine skills from second and third processes. Use the compressor to slightly compress the tea leaves to make the hard stem softer and then use the second ball rolling process to keep the aroma and flavour.

We often say there isn't a recipe for producing oolong because these skills are passed on from one generation to another. It's the tea master who knows when the desired shape, aroma and flavour have been achieved. So the next time you brew a semi-ball rolled oolong, take the time to appreciate the journey the leaves took to get from the farm to your cup.