Oriental Beauty Oolong Tea: Select vs Superior Grade

Tiny bud and leaves (My hand model did a great job!)

I haven't reviewed tea in a while, but I had this post since the start of the year and thought I'd revisit it.  In my Christmas tea gift set, I received 2 different grades of Oriental Beauty tea (also known as Dong Fang Mei Ren 東方美人or Bai Hao Oolong 白毫烏龍茶): Select and Superior grade from Taiwan Tea Crafts.  Love the taste of this tea as it has a strong natural sweetness to it!

Oriental Beauty is a high oxidized oolong tea.  They often get a section all to themselves because of the unique way in which the flavour is produced.  Jassids or little leaf hoppers bite the leaves and stems (while the plant is still in the field) starting a chemical process that results in a nice honey flavour profile.  This is something that was discovered by accident as these jassids were thought to have been a pest, ruining the crop.  But, upon one farmer harvesting and brewing the leaves, this oolong tea was conceived; and it is believed the Queen of England had a taste of it and named it "Oriental Beauty".

The Select grade is not from the original terroir in which this tea became known (Hsinchu, Taiwan), but the Superior grade is from the original terroir.

Could I tell the difference?

I wish I did a blind taste test, but my first tastings were done on individual days.  From my recollection, I think the superior grade was slightly more flavourful, but not by a huge difference; I definitely enjoyed both teas.  Most oolongs require near boiling water to brew but this one is unique in that it requires a much lower temperature, approximately 85 degrees C.  As you can see, it is very delicate and the whole experience from smelling the dry leaves, to brewing, to smelling and tasting the tea (also known as tea 'soup') and finally, admiring the open tea leaves.  I love looking at tea leaves once they have opened!  If you let the leaves cool, there is also a wonderful sweet smell to the leaves....would love to bottle that smell!

Select grade

Superior grade

Superior grade - wet leaves

This is definitely a nice drinking tea alone or with a light cake like chiffon so you can truly enjoy the natural flavour of this tea!  For those that also look for tea that doesn't use pesticides in it's farming practice, this tea can only develop where there is NO pesticide use.  Otherwise the jassids would not be able munch on the leaves so it's a good choice for those concerned with pesticide use.  I had to update this post as I just read an article that says it is possible that tea farmers may still use pesticides on tea plants that eventually will become Oriental Beauty Oolong tea.  They can still get these leaf-hoppers to munch on the leaves as some pesticides may prevent other pests but do nothing to hinder the leaf-hoppers.  Always good to be learning!  The article is very informative and provides more in-depth info on this teas production if you're interested.              

In terms of re-steeping, it doesn't re-steep all that well in that the first cup is quite the flavourful cup already and I think by the 3rd steep, it loses quite a bit of flavour.  However, both these grades are not too expensive so that's the trade off, and besides, I rarely get to the point where I'm re-steeping tea leaves 5 or 6 times these days.

Although this tea can be drunk any time of the year, I'm looking forward to drinking this more in the autumn when the weather gets colder (I know, for summer lovers like myself, hard to be reminded that summer is ending soon!).