Customer Inquiry: I’ve always wondered why Oolong tea is called Oolong. The name sounds quite unique, but it’s a bit puzzling, and it’s really hard to answer when foreign clients ask about the origin of the name. Could you please introduce how Oolong tea got its name? Thank you!
Chang-Hsing Tea: The origin of the name Oolong tea has always been a subject of curiosity for many. Not only tea drinkers find it intriguing, but many tea scholars have also continuously researched it. To this day, however, there is still no consensus on how Oolong tea got its name. In Fujian, a legend is passed down:
According to Teas of Fujian and Fujian Tea Folklore, during the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, in Xiping Township, Anxi, there was a young man whose single-character given name was “Long” (meaning Dragon). He made a living by growing tea and hunting. Because of his dark complexion, the villagers called him Wulong (literally “Black Dragon”). One day, after harvesting tea, he spotted a game animal on his way home, chased it near a local spot called Guanyin Rock, and caught it. Once home, he was busy preparing the game and forgot about the freshly harvested tea leaves. The next day, he remembered them, but by then the leaves had fermented overnight and developed reddish edges.
Fearing they would go to waste, Wulong decided to pan-fry the leaves anyway. He didn’t expect much in terms of quality, but to his surprise, the finished tea had a very unique flavor, exuding a subtle fragrance. This led him to realize that the shaking of the leaves during the hunt, followed by overnight resting, produced a completely different taste. From then on, he incorporated tea tossing (langcha) and indoor withering into his tea-making process, experimenting repeatedly until he developed a brand-new method of tea production. This is how Oolong tea got its name.
▲ Through tea tossing and withering, the flavor of the tea is elevated, creating delicious Oolong tea.