Hi Seb,

Long time no hear! How are you?

I think the rolling of leaves was a much earlier process in China. Wang
Caotang mentioned this in his essay "Shuo Cha" (Talking about Tea) in 1717.

Traditionally, the South Fujian Oolong is shaped into curl that is called
half-balled, it is only in the late 80s - 90s that it is shaped more like
Taiwan oolong, into a balld shape.

Feng Huang Dancong began life in Chaozhou and were later introduced into
Wuyi in the 1800s.

Danny


"SEb" wrote in message
oups.com...
Alex wrote:
Southern Fujian oolong was 'unfurled' until recently, I think. Does
anyone know when it switched?

Hi Alex,

You are right. Fujian Anxi only started to use the machine to roll the
leaves in early-mid 90's. Prior to that the Anxi oolong (tie guan yin,
se zhong, huang jin gui) looked very much like Wuyi Oolong and were
more heavely baked.

The machine was created in Taiwan and so rolled taiwanese oolongs were
available in the west prior to the early-mid 90's.

SEb