Also’s ‘classic’ among Taiwanese teas.
Famous for the insects that attack the young leaves after which the leaf in a reaction already starts to oxidize. During drying, these insect bites turn white, seen as the white dots in the tea. As one of the few teas, Oriental Beauty is harvested in the summer, only then the insects are present.
- Taiwan, Xinzhu County
- Ching Xin cultivar
- Natural farming
- 60-70% oxidation
- summer harvest
- hand-picked
Oriental Beauty was not initially a very good tea in history. Tea farmers discovered one summer that the tea leaves they were about to harvest were infested with insects. Labeled as a failed tea, it was initially not sold.
British traders, during a trade trip, saw local people drinking this tea and wanted to buy it. The tea farmers refused this after which the English traders thought the local people were keeping the best tea for themselves. They kept insisting which led the tea farmers to then charge a high price. The English bought mountains of this tea, brought it to their Queen Elizabeth II who considered the tea a beautiful lady. A beautiful lady, an Oriental Beauty.
