American "Chinese Restaurant" tea blends

[Baisao]

@GaoShan, I’m sure there are a great number of people who use boiling water. It’s probably the majority of people. But my experience and understanding suggests a lower temp for lowland or summer teas is best.

[GaoShan]

GaoShan, I’m sure there are a great number of people who use boiling water. It’s probably the majority of people. But my experience and understanding suggests a lower temp for lowland or summer teas is best.

I don't like astringency in my tea, so I don't tend to use boiling water for high mountain oolongs either. My preference seems to be 195F.

[mbanu]

There's clearly two different kinds of oxidation going on among the leaves, and a small amount of jasmine flowers.

Tea that have been in tins for decades often have a tin flavour and aroma. That said, if the tin is larger, full, has quality leaves, and sealed in shrink wrap, it can sometimes still be worth it.

There's not much to say about this tea. I don't recommend it Seriously weird vibe from drinking it. Tin aroma and stale tea mostly. I'd say it tasted more of old hongcha and stale green tea, than a variation involving old oolong, but hard to assess with all the unpleasantness of that tea.

Of course, I don't know if this is the original tea inside. The content is old, and it doesn't seem like the sort of tin someone would use to top up with loose weight tea. Given that I didn't pay much for it, I don't think anyone went out of their way to top it up with decades old tea they'd sourced from elsewhere.

Fantastic -- it sounds like, provided the tea in the tin is the original, that it too was a "Chinese Restaurant" blend rather than pure oolong. Thank you for doing the research!

[mbanu]

If I'm reading Pratt correctly, it sounds like he recommends a seven minute steeping time for Bai Hao. :O Has anyone actually done this? I imagine it would create an incredibly bitter mess.

An eight-minute steep is the way oolong was served by the Army, as described by The Manual for Army Cooks, 1896. I would not be surprised if a seven-minute steep made its way along into the future. Part of this was that many Americans preferred oolong with sugar as the standard way of drinking it. I haven't tried it plain with a Taiwanse oolong, although I've had an unsweetened shuixian brewed this way that turned out well when it was older and starting to go flat. Were Americans drinking "Chinese Restaurant" blends with sugar? I'm thinking the answer here is no, as they were trying to duplicate the tea they had had at Chinese restaurants to go along with their own home cooking, but I'm not sure on that.

army-tea1.jpg (159.18 KiB) Viewed 6068 times

army-tea2.jpg (373.19 KiB) Viewed 6068 times

(The odd steep-time for "English Breakfast" was due to that tea being made exclusively out of soft-brewing Chinese black teas back then -- this was the U.S. equivalent of gaiwan brewing, basically.)

[mbanu]

Maybe some fun context, someone did a video on Joyce Chen's "Peking Ravioli". Maybe a good example of the kind of environment that created interest in "Chinese Restaurant" tea blends for serving at home during the 1960s.



*Edit: Joyce Chen did a segment on adapting Taiwanese teas for use in flower teas in 1966, starts roughly at the 15-minute mark -- http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_325 ... D653A98409

[Bok]

GaoShan, I’m sure there are a great number of people who use boiling water. It’s probably the majority of people. But my experience and understanding suggests a lower temp for lowland or summer teas is best.

I don't like astringency in my tea, so I don't tend to use boiling water for high mountain oolongs either. My preference seems to be 195F.

Sounds more like a quality problem, Taiwanese teas usually are not afraid of hot water - across the bank, even greener teas like Baozhong.

[Bok]

When we sample teas, we often use bowls style so basically just add boiling water and leave it for extended periods, ladling cups out with a spoon. Astringency is one fault in teas to look for and discard it/identify as cheaper quality.

[GaoShan]

If I'm reading Pratt correctly, it sounds like he recommends a seven minute steeping time for Bai Hao. :O Has anyone actually done this? I imagine it would create an incredibly bitter mess.

An eight-minute steep is the way oolong was served by the Army, as described by The Manual for Army Cooks, 1896. I would not be surprised if a seven-minute steep made its way along into the future. Part of this was that many Americans preferred oolong with sugar as the standard way of drinking it. I haven't tried it plain with a Taiwanse oolong, although I've had an unsweetened shuixian brewed this way that turned out well when it was older and starting to go flat. Were Americans drinking "Chinese Restaurant" blends with sugar? I'm thinking the answer here is no, as they were trying to duplicate the tea they had had at Chinese restaurants to go along with their own home cooking, but I'm not sure on that.






(The odd steep-time for "English Breakfast" was due to that tea being made exclusively out of soft-brewing Chinese black teas back then -- this was the U.S. equivalent of gaiwan brewing, basically.)

That's interesting, and I'm impressed that the U.S. Army had access to oolong at all. I may have to try really long Western steeps with some lower-quality oolong to see what it's like.

[GaoShan]

GaoShan, I’m sure there are a great number of people who use boiling water. It’s probably the majority of people. But my experience and understanding suggests a lower temp for lowland or summer teas is best.

I don't like astringency in my tea, so I don't tend to use boiling water for high mountain oolongs either. My preference seems to be 195F.

Sounds more like a quality problem, Taiwanese teas usually are not afraid of hot water - across the bank, even greener teas like Baozhong.

This could indeed be a quality issue with some of my teas, but I still find that water off the boil brings out softer, less vegetal flavours in most green oolongs. I'll be putting this to the test when I finally open your Lishan next month.

[mbanu]

Some older shops still offer these blends, although they don't quite agree on a standard.

Old Towne Spice Shoppe is a greener blend with green, oolong, and jasmine mixed -- no mention on whether these are the Taiwanese varieties. (https://www.oldtownspices.com/product/c ... tea-loose/)

Simpson & Vail skips the oolong entirely, and sells theirs as a green & black mix. (https://www.svtea.com/China-Restaurant- ... nfo/T0023/)

Prestogeorge mixes in some Ceylon black, presumably as a substitute for Taiwanese black? (https://prestogeorge.com/chinese-restaurant-blend-tea/)

Herbs by Merlin does oolong, black, and jasmine with orange peel. (https://www.herbsbymerlin.com/p/ht45.html)

Empire Coffee & Tea doesn't say, although you can see some jasmine in there. (https://www.empirecoffeetea.com/collect ... restaurant)

Edit*:

Nicholas Coffee is oolong, gunpowder, and China Keemun. (https://www.nicholascoffee.us/store/Chi ... p102701259)

Baltimore Coffee and Tea is green, jasmine, and oolong teas. (https://www.baltcoffee.com/node/54200)

First Colony Coffee & Tea used to sell a Chinese Restaurant blend, and when White Coffee bought out their tea blends, it was included with the others. They sell it through Amazon in 3-pound bags with no description whatsoever. (https://www.amazon.com/Bencheley-Tea-Ch ... B00CPSW6R0)

St. John's Botanicals sells an Oriental Blend along the lines of Herbs by Merlin, with oolong, black, jasmine, with orange peel, rose petals, and peach flavoring (https://www.stjohnsbotanicals.com/shop/ ... black-tea/)

[Ethan Kurland]

This could indeed be a quality issue with some of my teas, but I still find that water off the boil brings out softer, less vegetal flavours in most green oolongs. I'll be putting this to the test when I finally open your Lishan next month.

I feel that boiling water can bring out the worst of many teas. I also feel that unwelcome astringency is often a characterisitc of low-quality tea while bitterness may easily be part of what a high-quality tea can offer. A difference of being bothered by a rough edge to what we put in our mouths versus something being one food & drinks' many flavors.

As you do, GoaShan, I prefer to highlight flavors that can be buried by the taste of strong vegetal domination of the palate. I think that over time many of us get used to the taste of vegetal flavors, perhaps moving from disliking them, to not minding them, to liking them as part of the array of flavors, to wanting them to be the greatest part of what we drink. I like thinking about the situation not as one of training palates as more of one of getting fond of something through familiarity.

I agree w/ Bok that good Taiwanese tea is not ruined by boiling water, but of course there is no reason to use temperatures hotter than the temperatures that produce the results that we prefer.

[GaoShan]

This could indeed be a quality issue with some of my teas, but I still find that water off the boil brings out softer, less vegetal flavours in most green oolongs. I'll be putting this to the test when I finally open your Lishan next month.

I feel that boiling water can bring out the worst of many teas. I also feel that unwelcome astringency is often a characterisitc of low-quality tea while bitterness may easily be part of what a high-quality tea can offer. A difference of being bothered by a rough edge to what we put in our mouths versus something being one food & drinks' many flavors.

As you do, GoaShan, I prefer to highlight flavors that can be buried by the taste of strong vegetal domination of the palate. I think that over time many of us get used to the taste of vegetal flavors, perhaps moving from disliking them, to not minding them, to liking them as part of the array of flavors, to wanting them to be the greatest part of what we drink. I like thinking about the situation not as one of training palates as more of one of getting fond of something through familiarity.

I agree w/ Bok that good Taiwanese tea is not ruined by boiling water, but of course there is no reason to use temperatures hotter than the temperatures that produce the results that we prefer.

You're right that I may be confusing bitterness with astringency, as I'm not used to thinking of bitterness as a component of greener oolongs. While I don't dislike vegetal flavours in tea, I prefer to minimize them if possible. (I don't drink a lot of green tea because I find the vegetal flavours too prominent.) For example, I didn't think your Shanlinxi was "ruined" by boiling water, but still preferred to drink it off the boil to highlight the wonderful floral notes.

[LeoFox]

It is amazing that jasmine, black and green were once blended - and possibly to mimic some superficial aspects of oolong. It reminds me of this passage from tillerman's blog regarding the original baozhong as a low grade scented tea that is roasted:

Then, in 1881 a Cantonese trader, Go Fok-lu, introduced the method of making bao zhong (paochong) tea in the Taipei region. The process involved scenting the tea with jasmine, cape jasmine, gardenia or similar fragrant flowers.  After scenting, the tea was roasted over a low fire.
[...]
Only inferior quality leaf was used to process bao zhong, the better quality leaf being reserved for the making of Formosa Oolong. And unlike Formosa Oolong, bao zhong production was almost entirely in the hands of Chinese packers.[6] Also unlike Formosa Oolong, bao zhong was tea not destined to a Western market but rather was shipped through Amoy (Ximen) and aimed at satisfying the Chinese diaspora in south-east Asia and America.[7] This trade represented a healthy 12% of the total trade in Taiwanese tea.[8]

https://tillermantea.net/2018/06/wensha ... ng-part-2/


Also - trying one of these rubbishy old tins is one thing, but would it be interesting to make the blend yourself using decent material: nice jasmine tea with some hong and green that have not gone off? @mbanu- you willing to try?

[mbanu]

Also - trying one of these rubbishy old tins is one thing, but would it be interesting to make the blend yourself using decent material: nice jasmine tea with some hong and green that have not gone off? mbanu- you willing to try?

It would be fun -- just need to drink down my existing teas first.

oolong-1968.jpg (167.24 KiB) Viewed 5935 times

Not directly about "Chinese Restaurant" blends, but a clip from a 1968 article in the FDA's magazine, FDA Papers, by Robert Dick, the FDA's Supervisory Tea Examiner for the New York District at the time. He seems to suggest that Formosa Oolong was not very common, and that high-quality ones were quite hard to find, even in the last place it had enduring popularity, Boston. This seems to echo what the 1960 paper on the Taiwanese industry implied, that production of oolong tea was almost extinct at that time, with it making up 1.8% of exports and 2.6% of all refined tea produced in Taiwan. That might explain another reason for the restaurant blends, in that the blenders wanted to mix in green and black so that if the supply of Taiwanese oolong became more or less scarce, the blends could be adjusted to a different proportion of oolong.

[mbanu]

There's clearly two different kinds of oxidation going on among the leaves, and a small amount of jasmine flowers.

Tea that have been in tins for decades often have a tin flavour and aroma. That said, if the tin is larger, full, has quality leaves, and sealed in shrink wrap, it can sometimes still be worth it.

There's not much to say about this tea. I don't recommend it Seriously weird vibe from drinking it. Tin aroma and stale tea mostly. I'd say it tasted more of old hongcha and stale green tea, than a variation involving old oolong, but hard to assess with all the unpleasantness of that tea.

Of course, I don't know if this is the original tea inside. The content is old, and it doesn't seem like the sort of tin someone would use to top up with loose weight tea. Given that I didn't pay much for it, I don't think anyone went out of their way to top it up with decades old tea they'd sourced from elsewhere.

Fantastic -- it sounds like, provided the tea in the tin is the original, that it too was a "Chinese Restaurant" blend rather than pure oolong. Thank you for doing the research!

formosa-ching.jpg (640.38 KiB) Viewed 5925 times

Another possibility, Mr. Pratt could have mixed up Ch'a Ching with Wagner's branded Formosa Oolong -- it looks like they sold both. The exact quote from the book was

Most of us have made the acquaintance of an Oolong of some sort at Chinese restaurants, where it's universally esteemed as a perfect dinner-time tea, both for its flavor and its lesser caffeine content. Wagners commendable Ch'a Ching Chinese Restaurant Tea is an above average representation of this grade of Oolong, probably falling somewhere between the Superior and Fine grades. Nothing, however, can prepare you for the delight of Fancy or Fanciest Formosa Oolong.