Oriental Beauty, Bai Hao Oolong

 東方美人茶

"Oriental beauty tea" is a Taiwanese medium-dark roasted oolong (about 50% oxidation), and is also known as Bai Hao Oolong (White tips oolong) because of its white tips, or Wu Se Cha (Five colours tea) due to the appearance of its dry leaves. 

Unlike almost all styles of tea produced around the world, this style does not originate from mainland China, but is a genuine Taiwanese innovation. Apart from the suitable climate -- permanently humid and temperate highlands -- and terroir, Taiwan's island boasts one other important feature; Cicadellidae Jacobiasca formosana, a leafhopper. The bite of the insect starts a process which -- if the leaves are picked soon after -- adds a pleasant, characteristic sweet-and-sour note to the tea.

This tea type is one of my absolute favourites. Its flavours remind me of good highland whiskey; honey, malt, nuts, flowers, some oak and a little smoke (tobacco). Alcohol is replaced by a sourness. If you like Clynelish, Highland Park, or Japanese whiskies, you are likely to enjoy this tea! An illustration of what Oriental Beauty tea is supposed to taste like:

Tea suits Sweden

Why, say ye? Appropriate climate, reply I. As the British political climate breeds satire, so does our actual climate require some form of thermal compensation; some warming liquid. Scotch was already taken.

These past few summers' weather has been un-Swedish here, meaning nice. For example, two years ago, an average field on an average day would look like this:

Today, the same field looks like this: