Oriental Beauty

The tea the insects made.

Oriental Beauty is the only famous tea in the world that depends on being eaten. Through the Taiwanese summer, tiny green leafhoppers settle on the bushes and nibble at the young leaves. The plant responds by producing its own defence compounds — and those compounds are what give this tea its extraordinary honeyed, muscatel character. No insects, no Oriental Beauty.

Because the leaves must be left unsprayed for the leafhoppers to arrive, and because only the bitten tips are worth picking, it is slow, painstaking work. The finished leaf is a mottle of brown, red, gold and the white down that earns it its other name, Bai Hao — white tip.

Heavily oxidised and closer to a black tea in body. Ripe peach, honey, muscat grape and a soft woody sweetness. No bitterness at all, however long you leave it.