Chinese: 东方美人乌龙
Origin: Huangshan, Anhui, China
Vintage: 2025
Cultivar: Qingxin Da Mao
Harvest: Mid-June
Picking: One bud + two leaves with silvery tips
Oxidation: approx. 85%
Processing: Plucking → Sun Withering → Indoor Withering → Rolling → Drying
Oriental Beauty is one of the most technically unusual oolong styles because insect activity forms part of the production ecology.
Before harvesting, tea green leafhoppers feed on the living tea leaves. The plant responds to this stress by changing its volatile aromatic chemistry. After processing, this contributes to the characteristic honey, ripe-fruit and muscatel-like aromas associated with Oriental Beauty.
The picking standard includes a white-haired bud and the following young leaves. Unlike lightly oxidized Taiwanese oolongs, Oriental Beauty undergoes deep oxidation — this lot is approximately 85% oxidized — producing a bronze-colored liquor and an unusually soft texture.
Although Oriental Beauty is historically associated with Taiwan, this tea is produced by a small farm near Huangshan in Anhui using techniques adapted to reproduce the style in a different terroir.
Profile: Wild honey · Gardenia · Rose · Muscatel grape · Ripe peach