Oriental Beauty is a heavily fermented (60-70% oxidised) tea produced in the Hsinchu and Taoyuan regions of Taiwan. Also known as Dong Fang Mei Ren, it’s the ‘Chin-Shin Da Pan’ (青心大冇) cultivar grown without pesticides to deliberately encourage a common pest, the tea green leafhopper (Jacobiasca formosana), to feed on its leaves, stems, and buds. These insects suck the phloem juices of the plant which leads to its production of monoterpene diol and hotrienol that together give the tea its unique flavour.

It was once thought that a tea farmer in Beipu noticed that small green insects, later known as cicadas, had damaged the leaves of his newly picked spring crop. Rather than destroying his crop, he decided to process the leaves into tea. He then took his product to a local tea merchant, who liked it well enough to pay him twice the price of his usual tea. When he returned to his village, he boasted to his neighbours about his success. They believed he was exaggerating and so named his tea, ‘Peng Feng Cha’ [膨風茶], or Braggart’s tea.

Brewing Suggestion

Time — 2 minutes
Temperature — 85°C
Water — 250ml