Taiwan Wenshan Baozhong Tea

Wenshan Baozhong is a lightly oxidized Taiwanese oolong, closer to green tea than to a roasted oolong, with long, lightly twisted leaves. The cup is floral and silky, with gardenia, cream, melon and a buttery finish. Brewed in a teapot at 88°C.

Origin & Story

Baozhong is a tea halfway between green tea and oolong. It is lightly oxidized, so the leaf stays green and the cup tastes of spring flowers rather than roast, and most tea writers file it with the oolongs. The leaves are long and loosely twisted, like short pieces of rope, rather than rolled into balls like a high-mountain oolong.

The name means the wrapped kind. It goes back to the 19th century, when the tea was wrapped in paper, according to different accounts for drying or for sale. The Fujian tea merchant Wu Fuyuan is said to have brought the method from Anxi to Taiwan in 1881, and the tea has been made in northern Taiwan since the 1880s.

Wenshan is the old name of the district in northern Taiwan where the tea was made, and today Baozhong comes mainly from Pinglin, in New Taipei, in the hills southeast of Taipei. It is often made from the Qingxin oolong cultivar.

At its best Baozhong gives off a floral and melon fragrance and has a rich, mild taste, and this one adds gardenia, cream, melon and a buttery finish. Because it is so lightly oxidized, boiling water is too much, so cool it to 85 to 90°C. A common Western method is about 3 g of leaf in 240 ml for two to three minutes, and in a gaiwan many guides use 5 to 6 g in 100 to 150 ml with short steeps of 40 seconds to a minute.

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