Reader Question: Is oolong tea green tea? Oolong tea and green tea both look green, and their brewed flavors are quite similar. What is actually the difference between green tea and oolong tea?
Is Oolong Tea Green Tea?
Oolong tea is a partially fermented tea, while green tea is an unfermented tea. They belong to completely different categories in tea classification, so oolong tea is not green tea. The production process for oolong tea includes withering (fermentation), fixation (kill-green), rolling, and drying, whereas green tea only goes through fixation, rolling, and drying. The key difference is that oolong tea includes an additional withering (fermentation) step.
Many people mistakenly think oolong tea is green tea because there are many varieties of oolong tea, some with light fermentation and others with heavy fermentation. Heavily fermented varieties like Oriental Beauty and Red Oolong have a fermentation degree of over 70%, making their flavor closer to black tea (black tea has a fermentation degree close to 100%). High Mountain tea and Pouchong tea have a fermentation degree of only 8%-25%, so their flavor is closer to green tea. Those who mistake oolong tea for green tea have likely tasted High Mountain tea or Pouchong tea, which are these two types of lightly fermented oolong teas.
In recent years, Taiwanese tea has shifted from roasted teas to High Mountain oolong. To showcase the unique aroma and high-mountain character inherent in the tea leaves, High Mountain oolong has been made with increasingly lower fermentation degrees, leading to a phenomenon known as the “greenification of High Mountain tea.” Because of this, many people mistakenly believe High Mountain oolong tea is green tea. However, judging by its production method, High Mountain oolong tea still belongs to the oolong tea category, not green tea.