Dongfang meiren facts for kids

Dongfang meiren (Chinese: 東方美人; literally "eastern beauty") is a special kind of oolong tea from Hsinchu County, Taiwan. It's also known as Oriental beauty, white-tip oolong, or champagne oolong. This tea is unique because it gets its amazing honey-like taste from tiny insects!

These insects, called tea jassids, nibble on the tea leaves while they are growing. When the leaves are bitten, the tea plant creates natural compounds called terpenes. These compounds give the tea its sweet, fruity, and honey-like smell and flavor. The tea itself is a bright reddish-orange color and doesn't taste bitter at all. High-quality dried leaves have a lovely smell and show colors like dark purple, brown, and white hairs.

How This Special Tea Is Made

Growing the Tea Plants

Dongfang meiren tea comes from the Camellia sinensis plant. Farmers grow these plants without using bug sprays. This is important because they want the tea jassid insects (Jacobiasca formosana) to feed on the leaves, stems, and buds.

When these tiny insects suck juices from the tea plant, the plant reacts. It starts to make special natural chemicals. These chemicals are what give the tea its unique and delicious flavor. The bitten buds also turn white around the edges. This is why the tea is sometimes called "white-tip oolong." The insect bites also help the leaves begin to change color and add a sweet taste.

Where It Grows

Because the tea jassid insects need warm weather, this tea is mostly grown in warmer areas. In Taiwan, it grows in the hilly northwestern parts of the country. These areas are usually at lower heights, between mountains and flat lands. Places like Beipu and Emei in Hsinchu County are famous for making this tea. Beipu even has a museum about Penghong Tea and a yearly festival!

Tea bushes are planted on the sides of hills that are protected from strong winds. They need enough humidity and sunshine to grow well.

Harvesting and Processing

This tea is only picked in the middle of summer. Only about half of the leaves can be used, and the harvest can be affected by dry weather. This means not much of this tea is made each year, which is why it can be quite expensive.

After being picked, the tea leaves go through a process called oxidation. This means they are allowed to react with air. Dongfang meiren is heavily oxidized, almost as much as black tea. Unlike other oolong teas that use several leaves and a bud, this tea uses only the bud and two leaves. The leaves also take longer to dry. This longer drying time helps create the sweet flavor and taste that this tea is known for.

How to Prepare Dongfang Meiren Tea

To make Dongfang meiren tea, you use water that is not as hot as for other oolong teas. The water should be around 80°C to 85°C (176°F to 185°F).

You also need to let it steep (brew) for a bit longer. For the first cup, brew it for 1 to 2 minutes. For the next cups, you can brew it for even longer. Just like many other oolong teas, you can use the same leaves to make several cups of tea.

History and Names of the Tea

This special tea first became known in the late 1800s. That's when Taiwan started selling oolong tea to other countries. A tea merchant named John Dodd helped export this tea from Taiwan to the West.

The most common name for this tea in Mandarin Chinese is Chinese: 東方美人茶, which means 'eastern beauty tea' or 'Oriental beauty tea' in English. More recently, people have also started calling it Chinese: 白毫烏龍茶, which means 'white-tip oolong tea'.

Farmers in Taiwan used to call it names that referred to the insect that helped make it. As the tea became more valuable, it got the name Chinese: 膨風茶, which means 'bragging tea' or 'bluffing tea'.

There are many fun stories about how this tea got its name. One popular story tells of a farmer in Beipu. He found that small green insects had damaged his tea leaves. Instead of throwing them away, he decided to process them anyway. He took the tea to a merchant who loved it so much that he paid the farmer twice the usual price! When the farmer went back to his village, he boasted about his success. His neighbors thought he was exaggerating, so they called his tea Peng Feng Cha, or "Braggart's tea."