Supreme Oriental Beauty Taiwanese Oolong

Our 2023 Supreme Oriental Beauty is mind-blowingly delicious.  Copious aromatic notes of citrus, honey, and mango with just a hint of spice and mystery make this a compelling and very luxurious tea experience.  Lots of work went into making the quality or Oriental Beauty oolong, including handpicking and a very fine hand-sorting to retain only the most tender buds and leaves.

A quick note about Oriental Beauty oolong generally: it is one of the famous leaf hopper teas from Taiwan.  What this means is that a tiny little jassid called a 'leaf hopper' chews on the leaf in the summer and basically those little bites start oxidative and other chemical change processes (like the production of terpenes) in the leaf before the leaf is even picked!  The presence of leaf hoppers is good, as it makes for a tea with an intensely rich aroma profile and reduced astringency as well as it indicates that the tea is clean because if you spray pesticides then the leaf hoppers won't come and do their leaf hopper magic.

Oriental Beauty is one of the most oxidized oolongs in the oolong category.  It generally is taken to about 80% oxidation. The color of the leaves is varied - in fact, the tea is sometimes called 'five color tea' because of that.  The injuries that the leaf hoppers do to the leaves result in a variety of shades of bronze, brown, or red developing in the leaves and make for a beautiful dry leaf.

2023 Summer Harvest, Qing Xin Da Mou bushes in Hsinchu, Taiwan