Rolling, firing
& finishing
The last steps shape both the leaf and the flavor. Rolling forms the tea and releases its juices; firing stabilizes it; and roasting adds an entire second flavor axis on top of oxidation.
The finishing steps
Click through the choices that finish a tea:
Here’s the idea that unlocks the oolong sessions ahead: oxidation and roast are two independent dials. A tea can be lightly oxidized but heavily roasted, or highly oxidized but unroasted. That’s why oolong is so varied — it moves on both axes at once. Keep them separate in your head and the whole oolong world (Sessions 10–11) gets far easier to read.
Questions
Flashcards
Lock it in
From memory:
- What two things does rolling accomplish?
- What is the purpose of the final firing?
- Onto which type is the roast axis most often layered?
- What does heavy roasting add to a tea?
- How is jasmine green tea made — and is it a separate base type?
Green
tea
The low end of the dial, and the world’s most-consumed tea type. The defining split is how it’s fixed — pan-fired in China, steamed in Japan — and that one choice changes everything.
What green tea is
Click through the green-tea landscape — including where yellow tea fits:
The defining split
Chinese green (pan-fired)
- Fixed in a wok or drum
- Nutty, toasty, rounder, chestnut
- Longjing, Bi Luo Chun
- Generally less grassy
Japanese green (steamed)
- Fixed by steaming
- Grassy, marine, umami-rich
- Sencha, gyokuro, matcha
- Vivid green; shading boosts umami
Tasting one Chinese and one Japanese green side by side is the single fastest lesson in this block: the same near-zero oxidation, two completely different fixing methods, two distinct results. Everything else in green tea is a variation on this axis.
Questions
Flashcards
Lock it in
From memory:
- Where does green tea sit on the oxidation dial?
- Contrast Chinese pan-fired and Japanese steamed greens.
- What does shading (gyokuro, matcha) do, and why?
- How does yellow tea relate to green?
- What is the biggest brewing fix for bitter green tea?
White
tea
The least-processed tea of all — barely more than withered and dried. Its minimalism is exactly the point: white tea is a naked expression of the raw leaf and bud.
What white tea is
Click through the category:
White tea is often dismissed as faint. That’s usually under-brewing — it needs enough leaf and time to show its delicate honey, hay, and melon notes. Because almost nothing is done to it, the quality of the raw material shows nakedly: great white is subtle but deep, and cheap white is simply thin. It sits just above green on the dial — a little passive oxidation during the long withering.
Questions
Flashcards
Lock it in
From memory:
- What makes white tea the least-processed type?
- Contrast Silver Needle and White Peony.
- Why does material quality "show nakedly" in white tea?
- Where does white tea sit on the oxidation dial, and why?
- Which white teas are increasingly aged?