Kuri,

Problems with English put us all on an equal footing. Many words are used
in a very sloppy way. Two of my favorites among these words are
"fermentation" and "roasting." We use the word fermentation when it would be
more accurate to say "oxidation." We use the words "roast," "fire," and
"fry" to mean the same thing. These are undoubtedly translations from a
single Chinese word. I've heard the words "uncooked," "raw," "green," and
"unoxidized" to refer to one type of Pu-erh, each word meaning the same. So,
the question of language is a problem for us all.

Recently I bought a hand held, hemispheric, handled, unglazed ceramic
"roaster" which I use to roast a half ounce of tea at a time by holding the
roaster over a flame and turning constantly. I've been enjoying this since
there are indeed changes that occur with my additional roast.

More interspersed comments and questions below

/13/04

Hi Michael,

roasting should stop oxidation, and lead to taste differences. *Exactly*
what they are eludes me sometimes. That's why I too need a bit of
clarification.

Me too. I have problems with English.
So far, I thought the term "roast" for tea was reserved to the roasting done
to certain teas (mostly green or oolong) after the whole first process is
done, after they are completely oxided/stopped/dried/fermented. The
operation to stop the oxidation is called anything but roasting (pan-firing,
steaming, heating, cooking....).
My understanding is the packages allude to that second-process roasting.

Not all oolongs are roasted. You can roast your tea yourself at home (it's a
good way to recycle greens that are getting a bit old) to see the effect.

Wouldn't nearly all Oolongs be at least a bit roasted as part of the complex
Oolong production process? Unless "roasting" refers to that final roast.

It appears
to me that if a tea is more heavily roasted, but not very highly oxidized,
it will appear quite dark as dry leaf, but become much greener in the
water.

No, in my experience, they appear very dark brown/orange in the water, they
get closer to coffee. In taste too.

I've noticed that in TGY's; however, what about Dan Congs from Phoenix
Mountain and Yan teas from Wuyi Mountain? These appear quite dark in the
leaf, but turn greener in the water to varying degrees. I was thinking of
these two when I made my statement.

About the health point of view. I don't have the reference here, but
roasting tea make it lose some exciting substances like cafeine/theine, so
roasted teas can be better for children or to drink in the evening if you
fear to have problems to sleep. They also have properties for Chinese
medicine, and are given to people that are sick and recovering. But they
lose vitamins or I don't remember what.


Are you quite sure the roast lowers the caffeine (teine) level? That would
be good news for people, like me, who are supposed to cut down.

Thanks, Kuri.

Michael