A Tea Addict's Journal

Rough thoughts on Oriental Beauty

October 26, 2012 · 23 Comments

I’m working on a paper on Oriental Beauty (dongfangmeiren 東方美人), the highly oxidized oolong from Taiwan. It’s still in nebulous form, but I thought it might be interesting to jot down a few things that I have found so far that are worthy of mention.

The first, and most important, is that the name Oriental Beauty didn’t seem to appear until at least the 1970s. Before that, the tea was called “pengfeng cha”, which some of you know as “bragger’s/liar’s tea”. The reason it was called that was because, supposedly, the tea fetched such a high price that the folks back home in the village (probably Beipu) didn’t believe him, so they called the tea pengfeng cha, and the name stuck.

Now, the question is – when did this happen? I’m sure some of you have read stories about how Queen Victoria drank this tea and thus called it Oriental Beauty. That, I’m afraid, is almost certainly bogus. The earliest use of Pengfeng cha that I have found so far comes from the Japanese period, during the 1930s. The first reliable looking thing that mentioned the tea by name is from a record of a supposed sale that took place during a tea expo in 1932. I don’t think the tea dates to much earlier than that, if at all.

Now, my hunch is that the Japanese were instrumental in helping set up the conditions that were necessary to create this tea. Up to that point, Taiwanese oolongs were traditionally processed, with a Wuyi style “two frying and two rolling” procedure. The oxidation, judging from the amount of time the tea spent in withering, wasn’t very high. It was only a few hours of withering, which I think is pretty low. So, there was definitely withering going on, but it wasn’t a lot of it.

In contrast, Oriental Beauty requires a lot of time of withering – in fact, there’s an extra step, after the initial frying, where the tea is left to sit on its own for a short amount of time with a wet towel on top. The leaves are still hot, so it’s a heated process where the tea is probably oxidizing rapidly, and then only after the tea has cooled somewhat does the rolling begin, maybe half an hour later. This is the crucial step that distinguishes Oriental Beauty from other types of Taiwanese oolongs, and is what gives it its distinctive flavour profile.

I wonder if this process has something to do with the Japanese introduction of black tea to Taiwan during the same period, where Assamica varietal teas were transplanted to Taiwan as the Japanese colonial administrators were trying to compete with Sri Lanka, India, and Indonesia for the world tea market. Taiwanese oolong was already a strong exporter at the time, with the US being a big market (imagine that). Taiwanese farmers were sent to learn how to make black tea from others – I wonder if, for example, that some cross-fertilization was happening at that time with regards to this. It is quite clear though that the system of rewards and competition for teas in Taiwan that was originally established by the Japanese turned out to have promoted this tea. That I think there’s no doubt.

It also seems like Oriental Beauty was always an expensive tea, mostly because of the lower volume, and also because it was harder to make. Now this is the only tea that still retained traditional processing methods – most Taiwanese oolongs have changed in the intervening years. Anyone who’s had aged oolong from 30 years ago can tell that things have changed, a lot, for most Taiwanese oolong, but an Oriental Beauty from 30 years ago and now are still processed more or less the same way. That, I think, is an interesting fact in and of itself to us tea nerds.

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23 responses so far ↓

  • Phyll Sheng // October 26, 2012 at 7:42 am | Reply

    Hey LZ, perhaps picking ZY’s brain on this matter will yield some useful info. So hopefully you will get some spare time to visit his teahouse and meet him while you are in Taipei.

    It would be a paper I look very much forward to reading.

    Best,

    A

  • Phyll Sheng // October 26, 2012 at 7:54 am | Reply

    Great title, by the way. As long as it’s consensual,…

  • Ira // October 26, 2012 at 9:11 pm | Reply

    thank you, Professor! look forward to the finished paper…

  • psychanaut // October 27, 2012 at 10:42 am | Reply

    I suppose you’ve sort of answered why (processing technique), but I’ve always thought, relative to the ones I’ve tasted and how much I actually like them, it tends to be extremely overpriced. I recall drinking one varietal at 紫藤廬 that was something like 900 NT for 30 g..

    • ira // October 27, 2012 at 4:33 pm | Reply

      That may have been the brand Beipu pengfengcha, I saw at one online store that priced it at US$150 for 150 gram. Most outrageous. It does taste good but for that price I would rather spend on pu.

      • MarshalN // October 29, 2012 at 7:04 am | Reply

        Beipu pengfengcha is just the name of the tea, not really a brand. That’s a ridiculous price though. I bought some this trip for about 1/4 of that price that I feel is pretty decent.

  • EricG. // October 28, 2012 at 6:58 am | Reply

    When finished, where, if possible, will I be able to read the full paper?

    • MarshalN // October 29, 2012 at 7:03 am | Reply

      Hi – not sure yet, we’ll have to see.

      • Hektor Konomi // October 29, 2012 at 8:48 pm | Reply

        I have read a theory (Hojo) on Oriental Beauty having the distinctive taste/flavour because of insects that eat the leaves. Any basis for that?

        • MarshalN // October 29, 2012 at 10:04 pm | Reply

          Well, it’s not a theory, but his story is not true. It has nothing to do with European merchants chancing upon the tea. The most reliable story is a farmer bringing the tea to the tea fair that was organized by the Japanese at the time. It does have insect bites, although not quite as dramatic.

          His line about “The processing method of Oriental Beauty is changes year after year” is 100% incorrect. If anything, OB is the one tea that hasn’t really changed at all in how it’s processed since at least the 30s. All other types of Taiwan oolongs have undergone significant changes in how they are processed.

  • Daniel // October 30, 2012 at 8:04 am | Reply

    I have somehow acquired the impression that the insect bites invoke a defensive response in the tea leaves, making them more sour (as to avoid further pests). Do you know whether this is somewhat correct (although the extra step — a form of yellowing? — might be more responsible for the tea’s characteristic flavour)?

    • MarshalN // November 2, 2012 at 1:08 am | Reply

      Indeed, that is supposed to be true, although I’m not sure about the sourness bit – but the insect bits are supposed to change the tea, somehow.

      Also, not all OB have insect bites – these days a lot of them don’t really have those bites, especially the lower grade ones.

  • Luke // November 5, 2012 at 1:45 pm | Reply

    This is very interesting. And again a tea-myth is hunted down. Thanks for the research. I’ll remember this for sure!

  • Taiwanese Tea Compendium | TeaDB // August 4, 2013 at 1:34 am | Reply

    […] of a premium tea (despite being grown at lower elevations, 300-800 meters). Check out Marshaln’s blog post on Oriental Beauty for some very interesting speculation on it’s origins. Oriental Beauty is widely available and […]

  • Taiwanese Oolong (& Black) Cultivars & TRES | TeaDB // September 14, 2013 at 7:01 am | Reply

    […] TRES (Taiwan Tea Research and Extension Station), and perhaps even the very unique Oriental Beauty (Marshaln’s theory) are all reminders of the Japanese presence. Post-occupation TRES remained active and has been […]

  • Patrick // May 11, 2021 at 11:07 pm | Reply

    Can you explain further why you think Japanese black tea processing influenced the creation of Oriental Beauty? You point out that OB is processed with an extra step after frying in which the leaves are covered and piled for a bit of fermentation while still hot. This, of course, is something foreign to black tea production, which is not cooked prior to the oxidation step. It seems very similar to the “sealed yellowing” phase of yellow tea production, or to some kind of pre-drying piling done for certain Hunan heicha. Since the covered piling for OB happens after a round of pan-fying, it seems likely that exogenous polyphenol oxidase from microbes are needed to oxidize the leaves (just like in yellow tea production), in that case it would seem reasonable to call OB a “fermented” tea, or at least some variety of yellow tea (or yellow/Oolong hybrid).

    I would be very grateful for any further comments or thoughts!

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