Oolong Tea substitute

Substitutes for Oolong Tea with ratios

1. 2Jasmine green tea

   Different taste

   Use the same amount brewed at 80 C or 175 F for 2 minutes

   Green tea scented with jasmine blossom.

   What changes

   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.

2. 3Hojicha (roasted green tea)

   Different taste

   Use the same amount

   Green tea roasted over charcoal or in a pan until reddish brown.

   What changes

   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.

3. 4Green tea (sencha, gunpowder or any plain green)

   Different taste

   Use the same amount brewed at 80 C or 175 F for 2 minutes

   Same plant, unoxidised.

   What changes

   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.

4. 5Rooibos (caffeine-free)

   Different taste

   Use the same amount and it cannot over-steep

   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.

   What changes

   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.

5. 6Pu-erh or another dark fermented tea

   Different taste

   Use the same amount using about a third less leaf

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

   What changes

   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.