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I’ve read before that some roasted green teas such as Longjing, have tea oil in them as well, so the leaves do not burn during production. It seemed likely to me that this was the case, as these types of green teas tend to have richer and warmer tastes.
Just this last week in my office, I was making some Biluochun green tea from a tea bag (whole-leaf tea bag). I had previously seen that in the “nutrition facts” of the box, and the total fat was not 0g as it usually is for tea, which I thought was strange. In any case, that day I made the tea too hot, and I also forgot about it, and let it sit steeping. When I came back, I could see that the oil was easily visible at the surface.
This led me to wonder how much oil is used for these types of teas, and what types of oil? Is natural tea oil the only type used? And also, are baked and steamed green teas totally free from this issue, due to the way they are produced?
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Pancakes,
The rich taste in roasted green tea comes not from the added oil but from the chemical changes of the content of the tea leaves during production processing. I have already promised a reader that I’ll write in better details about it and hope that you’ll read that article in the future to give me your comments.The tea master only wipes the wok once with a cotton pad dampened with an oil blend before roasting the tealeaves. You can read more about this at:I have not really measured how much oil there is to each kilo of dried tea. I’d say negligible amount, maybe 1 or 2 ml or something like that. So it could be like 1 or 2 parts to each 1,000,000, if there were no oil left in the wok and no evaporation in the process. That is to say it is quite impossible to have visible amount of oil in a few grams of tea on the water in which the tea is infused.As a matter of fact, I have too forgotten about tea in the pot/gaiwan/mug but have never seen oil floating on the surface.My immediate response in reading your post was that the “oil” (whatever that floats on the surface of your cup) comes from the material(s) of the teabag.I know for a fact that the processing of many fabrics or so-called non-woven fabrics for various teabag designs involved various chemicals to make the resultant tea bag looks appealing.Some mechanical parts in the teabag packing machines also needed oiling and that could get into the teabag too. Many people have criticized about the teabagging process and I’d probably do a research on the current situation to give an article later, but not now.There could also be contamination of the tealeaves before packing, but to have left so much of this contaminant in a few grams of tealeaves to be visible the contamination would have to be very bad. If this is the case, the contamination would have to take place after the tealeaves are made and before or during the leaves are fed into the bagging machine.Agricultural contaminants would not be visible, unless they are horrific amounts, such as an oil tank spill on the tea field.I am in holiday mood and have not wanted to respond to things at work but since I think this concerns your health so I am writing this. Please try not to continue using that pack of teabags and perhaps stay away from that supplier; for your health’s sake.Wishing you Health, Prosperity and Happiness for the New Year!Leo -
Thanks, guys, I hadn’t thought about the possibility that it may have been from the material of the tea bag itself. Very interesting information about the production process of roasted green teas, and it’s reassuring to know that there is very little oil involved.
To be on the safe side, I will avoid those Biluochun tea bags.
恭禧發財 🙂
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No, this cup is used only for tea, and is cleaned regularly. I’ve encountered this phenomena since then also, with other brands, and I think that confirms the view that it comes from the tea bag. It seems that around boiling temperature, water tends to break down the tea bag material itself a little.
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