Taiwan's mountains gave this tea its name, more or less. Portuguese sailors passing the coast in the 14th century called the island Formosa, meaning beautiful island, and the name has stuck to teas grown there ever since. Formosa sits only about 100 miles from the southeast coast of mainland China, tea's original home, yet production on the island didn't begin until the mid-19th century, during the political upheaval of the Qing Dynasty. Chinese immigrants with tea-growing experience settled there in large numbers, and their knowledge built up the plantations and factories near Taipei that turned Formosa oolong into one of Taiwan's best-known teas.
This is a house oolong made from large, wild, curly leaves, oxidised and fermented to roughly 50 percent, which puts it somewhere between green and black tea in character. The cup is mild, with the grassy notes that mark it out as classically oolong, and it carries around 35mg of caffeine per serving, more than green tea but less than black, which is partly why oolong gets called the in-between tea. Tea & Coffee packs it fresh to order to keep that flavour intact.
Vitamins, minerals and antioxidants turn up in the leaf, among them fluoride, manganese, potassium, sodium, quercetin, magnesium, niacin, myricetin and kaempferol. Oolong has long been drunk with digestion and immunity in mind, and some drinkers reach for it as part of weight management, the idea being that it supports the metabolism that helps the body turn food into energy.
To brew it, put the leaves in an infuser, heat water to around 90°C and steep for about 3 minutes. Any longer and the cup turns bitter. Serve it plain, without milk or sweetener, so the leaf itself comes through.
