Oolong tea substitutes

Fully oxidised tea from the same plant. It is the safest all-purpose replacement and the standard base for milk tea anyway.

Best for

milk tea and boba, iced tea, tea-braised dishes and tea eggs, cakes, custards and soaking syrups

Stronger, maltier and considerably more tannic, so a milk tea made with black tea tastes bolder and slightly drying where oolong tasted rounder and more perfumed. Because black tea grips harder, cut the steep from four minutes to three, or you will need extra milk and sugar to balance it. It also brews darker, so an oolong-coloured pudding or jelly will come out deeper brown.

Green tea scented with jasmine blossom. It is the best match specifically for oolong's floral, orchid-like side, which is what most people are actually after in a milk tea or a dessert.

Best for

milk tea and boba, panna cotta, ice cream and custards, iced tea, poaching syrups for peaches and plums

Lighter in body with an unmistakable jasmine perfume that oolong only hints at, so the drink tastes prettier and more scented and slightly thinner in the mouth. Very good in dairy. Watch the temperature: boiling water on green tea turns it bitter and spinach-like inside a minute, which is the usual reason a substitution like this goes wrong.

Green tea roasted over charcoal or in a pan until reddish brown. It nails the toasted, nutty, biscuity half of oolong's character, especially the darker roasted oolongs.

Best for

roasted or dark oolong recipes, milk tea and lattes, ice cream and panna cotta, evening drinking, since it is low in caffeine

Toastier and much less astringent, with almost no bitterness and only a fraction of the caffeine, and it brews a warm red-brown. A hojicha milk tea tastes like toasted rice and caramel rather than flowers. It is more forgiving than any real oolong: you can use boiling water and a long steep and it still will not turn bitter.

Same plant, unoxidised. A fine substitute as long as you brew it cool and short.

Best for

light iced tea, delicate desserts, lower-caffeine versions, green or lightly oxidised oolong recipes

Grassy, vegetal and pale yellow-green rather than honeyed and amber. In a clear drink the colour difference is obvious, and in a milk tea it can taste slightly savoury and seaweedy against the dairy. It also has less body, so if the tea has to carry milk and sugar, use about a third more leaf.

A South African shrub, not tea at all, but it brews deep red-brown, tastes naturally sweet and woody, and never turns bitter however long you leave it.

Best for

caffeine-free milk tea and lattes, long simmering, braises and syrups, iced tea, colour in a batter or a jelly

Sweeter and softer with a vanilla-woody note and no astringency at all, so a rooibos milk tea tastes mellow and slightly dessert-like and lacks the clean tannic edge that keeps an oolong drink refreshing. If you miss that edge, add a splash of strong brewed black tea if caffeine is not the issue, or a tiny pinch of salt, which sharpens the perception of the tea flavour.

Aged, post-fermented tea, useful when the recipe wanted a dark roasted oolong such as a heavily fired Tieguanyin or a Wuyi rock oolong.

Best for

tea eggs and braises, very dark roasted oolong recipes, cutting through fatty pork or duck

Deeply earthy, woody and almost damp-forest in aroma, far more assertive than any oolong, and it dyes everything a strong reddish brown. It works beautifully with fat and soy in a braise and badly in anything delicate or dairy-based. Use less leaf than you would oolong and taste before committing it to a dessert.