Oolong is a traditional Chinese tea produced through a unique process including withering the plant under the strong sun and oxidation before curling and twisting. For this batch we used Ruby Oolong from DavidsTea. It is much darker than the other Oolongs we’ve tried and does indeed have a red color. We will go back to the Tie Kwan Yin Oolong at DavidsTea as it tastes a little more “oolongy” but we wanted to try the Ruby. For this batch we brought 6 cups of water to 185 degrees, added 35 grams of tea and steeped for 5 minutes covered, stirring midway through. We then added 1 1/4 cups of sugar to a gallon jar and strained the tea into it, dissolving the sugar. We added 5 cups of water and let cool to room temperature. Next we added 1 1/2 cups of starter tea and transferred the SCOBY.

We harvested this on 10/29 and it was very sweet. We put it straight into bottles and will try a bottle after nine days. If it’s too sweet we’ll play with a longer second fermentation.