How do you spot a well aged oolong?

34-year-old tea from Taiwan + signs of a good vintage.

Age and bug-bitten beauty

The tea: Oriental Beauty Vintage 1990, sold by Te Company. $29 for 1oz.

Dongfang meiren, aka Oriental Beauty, aka bai hao, is a Leafhopper favorite, in part because the tea’s production necessitates bites from the leafhopper insect to trigger chemical changes in the leaf before harvest. Unlike past versions we’ve covered, today’s tea is an aged batch from a four-generation tea farming family, said to be from a 1990 crop. Bai hao is known for ripe grape flavors layered with honeyed sweetness—easy to drink and easy to love. The pleasures of this tea are less obvious. Aging has converted that sweetness to a drier character akin to a well cellared red wine.

Much of the aged oolong on the market is simply old stale tea that didn’t sell when it was young. Over time, good, well aged oolong gets sold or drunk, and the unpleasant stale stuff remains. So it’s always a treat to find a nice batch of aged oolong that speaks to quality base material and appropriate storage conditions. You’ll taste dried rose and woody notes here, along with a rich preserved sour plum aroma that will be familiar to fans of aged oolong and frequenters of Chinese herbalist shops. I get hints of cedar and wood ear mushroom. There’s an oxidative element that reminds me of sherry. What causes these flavors and aromas to appear over time? How do they manifest? The chemistry of aged tea is still largely a mystery. Like life itself, you just have to wait and find out.

The source: Te Company owners Elena Liao and Frederico Ribeiro are friends of mine, so forgive me some bias when I say that their cozy West Village tea room is one of the most hospitable spaces in New York. Elena is a former marketer with a keen eye for design, and Fred is a neurotic chef who makes all kinds of worldly delicacies for customers. I’ve been drinking Elena’s tea for a long time and have come to enjoy her bai hao, GABA oolongs, and Graceful Hill in particular. This month marks Te’s ninth anniversary, which the couple is celebrating with some golden ticket giveaways and the opening of a new, larger space in the East Village.

To brew: You can steep this tea in a small pot or gaiwan to tease apart its elusive aged flavors. It makes for a interesting session with seven to eight brews. However when it comes to aged oolong, I’m just as inclined to load up a mug with leaves and sip as they steep. The tea gains body this way, intensifying the aged characteristics while amplifying the deeper, spicier elements that I enjoy. Well aged teas don’t really get bitter or astringent with prolonged brewing, so you just get more of what makes them a joy to drink. However you brew, add more leaf than usual to draw out the special oomph, and always use boiling water.

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Ask a Tea Person: How do I find good aged oolong?

Welcome back to of Ask a Tea Person, Leafhopper’s tea advice column. Check out previous editions here, and submit your own questions by emailing max.falkowitz@gmail.com with “Ask a Tea Person” in the subject line.

Any recommendations for aged oolong? I’ve tried a few and would like to drink more if you know of good sources. — Shane L.

Well Shane, your question inspired me to dig Te’s aged bai hao out of my stash, so there’s one starting point. You may also enjoy their aged baozhong, which hews to a darker, more herbal and rootsy profile, almost like a good root beer.

Why we drink aged tea

More broadly, we should talk about why people age oolongs and what we can get out of them. After puer and other microbially fermented teas, oolongs are the category that’s most often aged. This style doesn’t undergo bacterial and fungal fermentation like puer, but there’s enough moisture in the leaves to slowly continue enzymatic activity, which causes oxidation and the formation of volatile aromatics. Over time, the leaves taste less like the style they were made into and more like other aged teas. Good aged oolong has a depth and presence that you just don’t get with fresh tea.

I often liken it to young hot celebrities. The older I get, the more similar they look. Sure they have great skin and hair, but it’s easy to be a bombshell when you’re 22, and once you see enough perfect abs and cheekbones, they all kind of blend together. There’s a reason Hollywood churns through attractive young people so quickly. The qualities that make them desirable to the public are ephemeral and disposable. Meanwhile, we love seasoned stars like Helen Mirren and Keanu Reaves because they’ve developed unique and indelible attributes above and beyond their smoke show statuses. They’re not better people, but they have a presence all their own. As with people and wine, you don’t age tea to make it “better,” but to make it different in interesting ways.