On a recent visit to a tea shoppe which I now consider a standard for
Chinese teas if you dont want to wait for China Post I looked at their
Taiwan Oriental Beauty. Immediately I could see it was marble size
rolled green tea stems similar to Dong Ding. My two versions of OB
dont look anything like this. Mine is elongated twisted black leaf of
protruding white hair which accounts for the alternate name of Bai Hao
or White Fur. I didnt buy any but the store clerk assured me the
leaves were eaten by the special bug and mine show no signs of that.
I know OB was the favorite of Queen Elizabeth. I dont know why but if
I didnt know better Id think by taste I was drinking an Indian tea.
Im curious how your OB compares.

Jim

> wrote:
>On a recent visit to a tea shoppe which I now consider a standard for
>Chinese teas if you dont want to wait for China Post I looked at their
>Taiwan Oriental Beauty. Immediately I could see it was marble size
>rolled green tea stems similar to Dong Ding. My two versions of OB
>dont look anything like this. Mine is elongated twisted black leaf of
>protruding white hair which accounts for the alternate name of Bai Hao
>or White Fur. I didnt buy any but the store clerk assured me the
>leaves were eaten by the special bug and mine show no signs of that.
>I know OB was the favorite of Queen Elizabeth. I dont know why but if
>I didnt know better Id think by taste I was drinking an Indian tea.
>Im curious how your OB compares.

Open the can, stick your nose in and take a big whiff. If you get a
nose full of wintergreen, it's the right thing. If it tastes like
an Indian tea, something is probably wrong, but if it SMELLS like
an Indian tea, it's definitely wrong.

I actually recommend the Ten Ren Oriental Beauty tea. Buy the lowest
or second lowest grade... the price goes up faster than the quality as
you go up the scale and the lower grades are pretty good.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Marble-sized rolled green tea? Well, you are surely right, it is not
Oriental Beauty. The clerk is glorying in ignorance. As you say, the
leaves in Oriental Beauty are longish, twisted and have that white
streak down the spine where the jumper-larva have been feeding (they
are microscopic things right inside the leaf, not worms nibbling holes
you can see). OB is decidedly sweet in taste and reddish-brown in
brew, it is a highly 'fermented' oolong, well on the way to being an
(Indian-style) black tea. In fact the person I know who makes it has
gone into producing 'red tea' as well, he finds he gets bored with the
OB taste, which is not the most subtle of oolong tastes. It is
essentially a late-spring early-summer tea. See http://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/Peipu.htm
for a few more details.

Some more research after my post yesterday which supports this post.

This Chinese site says it was Queen Victoria not Elizabeth. This
Chinese site is as representative as any on Oriental Beauty aka
Eastern Beauty aka DongFengMeiRen aka BaiHao Wulong aka PongFong.

http://tinyurl.com/alqpoq

The Red Box says DongFengMeiRen (Oriental Beauty) and has a picture of
the leaves which matches mine from several sources. Nothing like I
saw in the shoppe.

This site mentions a Darjeeling taste and confusion over which Queen.
The dry and wet leaf matches mine. My infused leaf is a little more
darker red.

http://tinyurl.com/aahpy5

Jim

On Jan 30, 1:24 am, Brother Anthony > wrote:
> Marble-sized rolled green tea? Well, you are surely right, it is not
> Oriental Beauty. The clerk is glorying in ignorance. As you say, the
> leaves in Oriental Beauty are longish, twisted and have that white
> streak down the spine where the jumper-larva have been feeding (they
> are microscopic things right inside the leaf, not worms nibbling holes
> you can see). OB is decidedly sweet in taste and reddish-brown in
> brew, it is a highly 'fermented' oolong, well on the way to being an
> (Indian-style) black tea. In fact the person I know who makes it has
> gone into producing 'red tea' as well, he finds he gets bored with the
> OB taste, which is not the most subtle of oolong tastes. It is
> essentially a late-spring early-summer tea. Seehttp://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/Peipu.htm
> for a few more details.

On Jan 30, 9:46*pm, wrote:
> Some more research after my post yesterday which supports this post.
>
> This Chinese site says it was Queen Victoria not Elizabeth. *This
> Chinese site is as representative as any on Oriental Beauty aka
> Eastern Beauty aka DongFengMeiRen aka BaiHao Wulong aka PongFong.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/alqpoq
>
> The Red Box says DongFengMeiRen (Oriental Beauty) and has a picture of
> the leaves which matches mine from several sources. *Nothing like I
> saw in the shoppe.
>
> This site mentions a Darjeeling taste and confusion over which Queen.
> The dry and wet leaf matches mine. *My infused leaf is a little more
> darker red.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/aahpy5
>
> Jim
>
> On Jan 30, 1:24 am, Brother Anthony > wrote:
>
>
>
> > Marble-sized rolled green tea? Well, you are surely right, it is not
> > Oriental Beauty. The clerk is glorying in ignorance. As you say, the
> > leaves in Oriental Beauty are longish, twisted and have that white
> > streak down the spine where the jumper-larva have been feeding (they
> > are microscopic things right inside the leaf, not worms nibbling holes
> > you can see). OB is decidedly sweet in taste and reddish-brown in
> > brew, it is a highly 'fermented' oolong, well on the way to being an
> > (Indian-style) black tea. In fact the person I know who makes it has
> > gone into producing 'red tea' as well, he finds he gets bored with the
> > OB taste, which is not the most subtle of oolong tastes. *It is
> > essentially a late-spring early-summer tea. Seehttp://hompi.sogang.ac.kr/anthony/Peipu.htm
> > for a few more details.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

01. It is probably a legend that Queen Victoria named the tea Oriental
Beauty. In that period, she drank only Darjeeling andd Indian teas.
Oolong tea was not widely favored in the UK
02. OB was a name in the 19th century which include ALL oolong from
Taiwan, not jus one specific oolong; when the other oolongs gained
names such as Dong Ding, Li Shan, Cui Yu, Jin Xuan, etc, the name Peng
Feng (which means Boastful) for the insect bitten oolong from Xin Zhu
county was renamed Champagne Oolong (Xiang Bing Wulong), vendors
nicknamed it Oriental Beauty, some called it Five Colours tea (Wu Se
Cha), some insisted on its farmer's name Yan Cha (Yan is the name
given to the small insect also known as leafhopper)
03. OB is similar to Darjeeling, in that it is heavier oxidized (up to
70%), the initial sip is similar to a black tea but the fruitiness in
the fragrance and a slight sourish mouthfeel set the teas apart. This
type of OB is produced in the Xin Zhu county region, long, wiry and
twisted.
04. OB, or rather, the insect bitten oolong, is also produced in other
regions in Taiwan, the type from Nan Tou is produced differently: the
tea is balled like Dong Ding, but the bite is not evenly spread
throughout the tea crop. A vendor in Nan Tou told me this tea came
about during the earthquake in '92. nan Tou was affected by the
earthquake, which brought on an attack of the tea crops by the
disturbed insects. The farmers quickly picked the tea and processed it
and called it Gui Fei Mei Ren (Beautiful Concubine) oolong. Vendors
overseas didn't think the name Concubine has a nice ring to it and
renamed it Bai Hao Oolong, some named it OB.

Confusing.

I would say enlightening. So there was the original pest which didnt
leave a trace except for white fur. Now any green chomp biten crop
rates as OB. I wished my Darjeeling looked this sexy and tasted as
good. Ive tasted blenty of oolongs that dont remind me of
Darjeeling. Where there is a legend there are misconstrued facts.

Jim

On Jan 30, 8:42 pm, Kevo > wrote:
> On Jan 30, 9:46 pm, wrote:
....im on the scent...
>
> 01. It is probably a legend that Queen Victoria named the tea Oriental
> Beauty. In that period, she drank only Darjeeling andd Indian teas.
> Oolong tea was not widely favored in the UK
> 02. OB was a name in the 19th century which include ALL oolong from
> Taiwan, not jus one specific oolong; when the other oolongs gained
> names such as Dong Ding, Li Shan, Cui Yu, Jin Xuan, etc, the name Peng
> Feng (which means Boastful) for the insect bitten oolong from Xin Zhu
> county was renamed Champagne Oolong (Xiang Bing Wulong), vendors
> nicknamed it Oriental Beauty, some called it Five Colours tea (Wu Se
> Cha), some insisted on its farmer's name Yan Cha (Yan is the name
> given to the small insect also known as leafhopper)
> 03. OB is similar to Darjeeling, in that it is heavier oxidized (up to
> 70%), the initial sip is similar to a black tea but the fruitiness in
> the fragrance and a slight sourish mouthfeel set the teas apart. This
> type of OB is produced in the Xin Zhu county region, long, wiry and
> twisted.
> 04. OB, or rather, the insect bitten oolong, is also produced in other
> regions in Taiwan, the type from Nan Tou is produced differently: the
> tea is balled like Dong Ding, but the bite is not evenly spread
> throughout the tea crop. A vendor in Nan Tou told me this tea came
> about during the earthquake in '92. nan Tou was affected by the
> earthquake, which brought on an attack of the tea crops by the
> disturbed insects. The farmers quickly picked the tea and processed it
> and called it Gui Fei Mei Ren (Beautiful Concubine) oolong. Vendors
> overseas didn't think the name Concubine has a nice ring to it and
> renamed it Bai Hao Oolong, some named it OB.
>
> Confusing.