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    "id": 1070287,
    "title": "Oriental Beauty: the oolong made by insects",
    "slug": "oriental-beauty-tea",
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    "url": "https://teas.co.uk/wiki/oriental-beauty-tea/",
    "modified": "2026-09-18T00:45:35+01:00",
    "excerpt": "Oriental Beauty is the Taiwanese oolong made from leaves bitten by leafhoppers, which is where its honey and muscatel aroma comes from. How to buy and brew it.",
    "content_text": "Oriental Beauty \u2014 Dongfang Meiren in Chinese, also sold as Bai Hao oolong or \"champagne oolong\" \u2014 is the tea that depends on being eaten. Tiny tea green leafhoppers feed on the young shoots in summer, the plant responds to the damage, and the leaves develop the honeyed, ripe-fruit aroma this tea is famous for. Taiwan's tea research station describes the leafhopper-affected shoots as part of how the tea is made. Taiwan Tea Research and Extension Station\r\nIt is heavily oxidised for an oolong, closer to a black tea in colour, and it needs no roasting to taste sweet.\r\nWhy the insects matter\r\nThe leafhoppers nibble the leaf edges and stunt the shoots. In response the plant produces defensive compounds, and those compounds carry through manufacture into the finished aroma \u2014 honey, ripe peach, sometimes a muscatel note like a second-flush Darjeeling. Research on leafhopper density and tea-plant chemistry has examined exactly this relationship. Leafhopper density and tea plant metabolites\r\nTwo consequences follow:\r\n\r\nNo insecticide can be used, or there are no leafhoppers and no Oriental Beauty.\r\nYields are small and uneven, which is why good lots are expensive.\r\n\r\nWhat it looks and tastes like\r\n\r\nDry leaf: a mix of colours \u2014 white, red, brown, green \u2014 with obvious downy white tips.\r\nLiquor: amber to deep orange-red.\r\nAroma: honey, ripe stone fruit, a hint of spice.\r\nTaste: soft, sweet and round, with almost no astringency and a long honeyed finish.\r\n\r\nIt is an excellent tea for black-tea drinkers curious about oolong: nothing about it is grassy or green.\r\nHow to brew it\r\nIn a pot: 3g per 200ml, water at 90\u201395\u00b0C, 2 minutes for the first infusion, then longer for later ones.\r\nGongfu style: 5g per 100ml, 90\u00b0C, 20 to 30 seconds, adding time each round.\r\nDo not use fiercely boiling water \u2014 the aroma is delicate for such a dark-looking tea \u2014 and do not add milk: you would lose everything that makes it special.\r\nBuying it\r\n\r\nOrigin: the classic areas are Hsinchu and Miaoli in north-west Taiwan.\r\nSeason: summer harvest, when the leafhoppers are active. Any other season is not the same tea.\r\nTips: plenty of white tips is characteristic, though it is not a grade on its own.\r\nPrice: genuine Oriental Beauty is never cheap. Very cheap versions are usually ordinary oxidised oolong.\r\n\r\nIts natural home in the wiki is beside Formosa oolong and Taiwanese tea; the brewing basics are in how to brew oolong tea.\r\nCommon questions\r\nAre there insects in my tea?\r\nNo. The leafhoppers feed on the growing bush; the leaves are processed normally afterwards.\r\nIs the \"British queen named it\" story true?\r\nIt is a well-worn legend rather than documented history. The tea is interesting enough without it.\r\nIs it a black tea?\r\nNo, it is classified as an oolong, though it is oxidised enough to look and taste close to one.\r\nDoes it need a roast?\r\nNo. Its sweetness comes from oxidation and the leafhopper effect, not from charcoal.",
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