Absolute Tea

Oooo La La Oolong

The history of Oolong tea is quite complex and very rich, as most all tea types are. Personally, I don't know all that much about oolong tea, but I know of some great places to find information. For this reason I believe that someone else should provide the expertise on oolong. My knowledge of tea will be used to identify the credibility in content of any site I analyze to help you find the best, and most accurate information. So this post is dedicated to all the other sites with info about oolong tea and I will rate their usefulness making your gathering process easier with an oolong portal.

Due to time restraints I am only able to analyze 2 sites with any depth. I will however, include a list of unanalyzed sites just to give you a wider variety of info to choose from.


The Oolong Tea

• Absolute Site Rating: [*][*][*][*][ ]
  

A great first stop on your way to discovering what oolong tea is all about. There are many different topics of discussion within the site giving quality information from respected individuals, such as honorary tea masters. As well, each page is designed for maximum clarity and ease of reading with well placed pictures, graphics, and subtitled sections.

Wide spectrums of information are provided to enhance a comprehensive knowledge of oolong tea. On top of this there is also a section devoted to health properties. Together, all of this leads to a very satisfying, yet brief introduction to oolong tea.

Some places this site is lacking lies within the detail of individual topics or subtitled info bits. They are great in many respects, but when it comes to getting into a deep and focused discussion of each part there is failing. There is also the fact that quite a few of the statistics are in either Chinese or Japanese characters. This makes it difficult to connect some of the images to what is being said in the text. I'm not exactly clear why there are two different languages on this site but it doesn't distract too much and kind of adds a little spice to the information they give. Now they just need graphics in English along side the other one.

On a final note for this site, I would like to mention that the URL address ends with a .org, which in my mind lends more credibility to the site, but it might not necessarily mean that it is. I just thought I would point that out to you since I so highly recommend you visit this site.


Oolong Oz

• Absolute Site Rating: [*][*][*][ ][ ]
  

This site struck me as unique among the countless other tea expert sites who try to get you to buy their products. Although it may only have one short page of general introductory oolong tea information, it is very solid and compact. In other words, there is very good and concise writing within this tea site.

Searching further, you discover that there is much more specific information regarding High Mountain Oolong Tea. In fact, a lot more with a large article by Daniel Reid that discusses many things I missed when I analyzed that same tea earlier this week.

Other interesting things I found about this site are the brewing instructions for High Mountain Oolong Tea. They are incredibly complex and long making them seem almost like a ceremony process. In all accounts, they are not practical for the average loose leaf brewer.

Some things that lowered this sites rating were the limited variety in content, and a lack of anything substantial to lend credibility to the information. They did have a nice place to learn things about what the site is about (such as they are Australians) and who and why they run it, but it just isn't enough for me.

A final thing I would like to point out about this site is its tea poetry section. It was well done and very surprising for me too find. I guess it never occurred to me that there was poetry about tea, which is odd considering I have poetry within this weblog. Just a thought, and maybe I will include some poems about tea in the future... who knows?


A Quick Run Through

These are the sites I didn't spend too much time on. I've rated each one, but this is just a first impression rating and should not be mistaken for my absolute approval.

Oolong (Wu Long) Tea

Absolute Impression Rating: [*][*][*][ ][ ]

Cool design - good content.


Wikipedia

Absolute Impression Rating: [*][*][*][*][ ]

I believe this site speaks for itself.


Chinese Tea For You

Absolute Impression Rating: [*][ ][ ][ ][ ]

Not much content and looks a little cheesy - has a nice little blurb.


Body Building.com

Absolute Impression Rating: [*][*][ ][ ][ ]

Different perspective - too much into marketing its product.


Adagio Teas

Absolute Impression Rating: [*][*][ ][ ][ ]

Great pictures with captions and a bit of intro info - all for marketing.



This concludes my oolong tea info list. I hope that the links above lead you to everything you ever wanted to know about this particular tea. I do recommend you try a variety of oolong so that you have a reference when you drink black or green tea. It will definitely help expand your taste bud sensitivity.

posted by Michael at 8:04 PM