Signor Soana was distraught.

�??I am so sorry,�?� he said. �??I have run out of my usual Formosa oolong. I can offer you another one instead. It is good, though not as good as my usual one.�?�

I was sorry too�??until I compared prices. Phew, that was an escape. Signor Soana�??s usual oolong is twice as expensive as the replacement one. Undoubtedly, it will also be twice as good, but since my tea expenses have already come under my family�??s scrutiny, settling for the cheaper one suits me just fine. Plus Signor Soana has been twenty-five years in the business so he knows decent tea when he sees it. Still, I joked that I wouldn�??t go back if I didn�??t like it.

Accident shaped my oolong palate on Formosa. At the shop where I worked, the only oolongs we carried came from there, chiefly because oolong was little known at the time and, in any case, here in Europe, Formosa was a synonym for it. Which is a bit unfair really because oolong teamaking first emerged in mainland China. Its birthplace was Fujian, where some enterprising grower first created it in the 17th century, or thereabouts. Fujian settlers brought the technique to Taiwan in the 19th century and it quickly became a local specialty, matching and perhaps even eclipsing the fame of the mainland version. This may well have had something to do with the Cold War, and with the fact that Taiwanese tea growers were very accommodating of Western demands and made some of their oolongs with high degrees of oxidation. But it is also true that Formosa oolongs, whether highly or lightly oxidized, are delicious, which is why I was particularly looking forward to my cup.
I put Soana’s Oolong Fancy to the test against a much pricier Formosa Imperial Phoenix Oolong by Whittard. I brewed them both gongfu style, filling the bottom of two gaiwans with leaves and steeping them for three breaths. They both yielded cups of a beautiful deep amber color. However, the Formosa Imperial Phoenix Oolong had a more pronounced floral scent than the other one. The FIPO was light and aromatic in the mouth while Soana�??s Oolong Fancy had a stronger black tea mouthfeel. It was not as sophisticated as the Whittard one, but held its own nicely, like aGainsborough against a Van Dyck.

When I visit Soana next, I�??ll tell him. I suppose this means he�??ll keep my custom. Even if he says he gets all his teas from a French importer, (the admittedly extraordinary) Dammann Frères, �??because the French are more reliable than the British.�?�