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Dongfang meiren tea

Dongfang Meiren
東方美人
Type Oolong
Other names Oriental Beauty
White Tip Oolong
Origin Taiwan
Quick description The harvests in summer are most prized for the fruit and honey scent
Temperature 80–85°C
Dongfang Meiren
Chinese 東方美人茶
Literal meaning oriental beauty tea
Alternative Chinese name
Chinese 白毫烏龍茶
Literal meaning white tip oolong tea
Second alternative Chinese name
Chinese 椪風茶
Third alternative Chinese name
Chinese 膨風茶

Dongfang Meiren (Chinese: 東方美人; literally: "Oriental Beauty") or Baihao (白毫), also marketed as White Tip Oolong or Champagne Oolong, is a heavily oxidized, non-roasted, tip-type oolong tea produced in Hsinchu County, Taiwan.

This tea has natural fruity aromas and produces a sweet-tasting liquor, bright reddish-orange in color, without any bitterness. Dried leaves of high quality should exhibit a pleasant aroma with leaf coloration of dark purple and brown tones with white hairs.

Dongfang meiren is the chhiⁿ-sim tōa-phàⁿ (青心大冇) cultivar grown without pesticides to encourage a common pest, the tea green leafhopper (Jacobiasca formosana), to feed on the leaves, stems, and buds. These insects suck the phloem juices of the tea stems, leaves, and buds, which leads to the tea plant's production of monoterpene diol and hotrienol that give the tea its unique flavor. The buds then turn white along the edges which gives the tea its alternate name, white tip oolong. The insect bites start the oxidation of the leaves and tips and add a sweet note to the tea.

This process has inspired makers of other types of tea such as dongding oolong tea and the east coast black teas of Hualien and Taitung Counties to withhold pesticide use in order to replicate this process in other teas. Similar action of jassids and thrips helps form the muscatel-like flavor of India's second flush Darjeeling tea to which dongfang meiren is sometimes compared.

Because of the need for Jacobiasca formosana feeding, the tea must be grown in warmer areas. In Taiwan, it is primarily grown in Hakka areas of the hilly northwestern part of the country at lower altitudes (300–800m) between the mountains and the plains.Beipu and Emei in Hsinchu County are noted centers of production with Beipu being the site of the Beipu Penghong Tea Museum and hosting the annual Penghong Tea Industry and Culture Festival.


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