Folks all over the globe take pleasure in drinking wu long tea, which is also known as wu-long, wulong or oolong tea, for its distinctive flavour and natural health benefits. There are numerous varieties of this aromatic beverage, each one with a slightly different flavor, color and fragrance. Amongst the better-known varieties are Formosa, Tie Guan Yin, Shui Xian and Da Hong Poa.

Although nobody really knows for sure who first had the idea of adding hot water to the leaves of the Camilla Sinensis plant to make a brew, we do know that tea is a very ancient beverage. In England, where afternoon tea could be considered a national pastime, it was only introduced recently from a historical standpoint.

In India, the Hindi word for tea is Chai, so calling this beverage Chai tea is actually a redundant and illogical term. English speakers are more likely to call it masala chai which when translated means spiced tea. Many eastern languages use chai as their word for tea including the Kurds, Turks, Russians and Serbs. What we might call Chai tea is actually called masala tea because masala is the Hindi word for spice.