How to Choose a Good Wu Long Tea ?
Before you made any purchases of Wu Long Tea, you need to find out the following from your suppliers:
1) The Type/Grade of Wu Long Tea
Wu Long Tea is just a name for a type of Chinese Tea Category Classification similar to Green Tea, White Tea, Black Tea etc. For Wu Long Tea, its fermentation is around 40%-50% compared to the 0%-10% of green tea and 10%-20% of white tea. Within Wu Long Tea category itself, there are various grades depending of the source,location and harvest season of the tea which i will cover in the next section below. Common type of Wu Long Tea found are the Ti Kuan Yin (Tie Guan Yin) which is the best grade of Wu Long Tea, Dong Ding Wu Long (Tong Ting Wu Long) from Taiwan (commonly known as Formosa Tea) and Wuyi Cliff Tea (Wuyi Rock Tea) from the Wuyi Mountain in China. Those Wu Long Tea outside these grades are those of normal quality and are only known as Wu Long Tea just because they undergo the same processing method (same fermentation level). So be careful which type of Wu Long Tea is the one you actually buying.
2) Source, location and harvest season of the tea
Wu Long Tea is mostly found in Fujian,China and Taiwan (Formosa). As there are many tea farms in those area, the quality of land, altitude (height of tea farm in the mountain) and harvest seasons will affect the quality and taste of the Wu Long Tea. Personally, my favorite is Ti kuan Yin, as i love its smooth after taste effects, followed by Wuyi Cliff Tea and Dong Ding Wu Long. It is difficult for me to describe the taste for each type of Wu Long Tea for you and the best way to choose it, is by trying it out yourself and see if you love its taste. Tea is not medicine. One should appreciate it and drink it as a form of lifestyle and enjoy the process of drinking it.
3) Is there any proof that the tea's pesticide content is within allowable level ?
One of the most common problem in Wu Long Tea is the high pesticides content especially from China. Locally in Singapore, our government is very strict with tea merchants importing tea. Every batch of tea imported must be lab tested for pesticides content. Any batch that failed the lab test will be destroyed. Therefore, i am quite confident of the tea i obtain locally. For US , i believe as long your FDA approved the product for sale in US, it should be all right. Try not to purchase directly from China. I have yet to find any online tea merchant displaying any lab test report for their tea. You might be interested to ask them to email one to you if available.