Honey Duchess Gui Fei Oolong Tea Honey Fragrance Lugu, Taiwan 150g
A uniquely aromatic ball-rolled Oolong with that bug-bitten taste of honey, resin and muscatel. Renamed from Honey Concubine.
Gui Fei Oolong was supposedly invented by accident in Dong Ding region of Taiwan in 1999. Because of the earthquakes the producers could not harvest their teas during Spring and had to wait until summer after the bugs had had a little feast of the leaves. They found that the resulting Oolong had a powerful honeyed fruits aroma similar to the other famous bug-bitten tea - Oriental or Eastern Beauty.
Due to the similarities with Oriental Beauty, the tea was named Gui Fei after one of the four beauties of ancient China - the famously beautiful Yang Guifei concubine of the Tang Dynasty.
The tea is produced using a harder wither and longer oxidation. This allows more sweetness and terpene development in the tea. But, this is not enough to bring out those honeyed and dessert wine notes. There is the requirement that the field has had some level of bug-biting from the little leafhopper jassids (which is why it is picked in summer).
This biting causes the plant to produce defensive secondary metabolites - aromas to repel the insects or call in their predators. The beauty of plant signalling is that even if a relatively small proportion of the plants are bitten, their release of these defensive terpenes signals the neighbouring plants to also produce the terpene to work as a team to drive away the insects. In this way the 'bug-bitten taste' is present in all of the tea.
This Honey Duchess combines the sweet and honeyed muscatel aroma with the milky and alpine notes of a Qing Xin Oolong. This is very different to Oriental Beauty which, due to its smaller leaf picking and even longer oxidation, has a more bright black tea character. Gui Fei is rounder and more resinous with dried apricots and forest honey.
This tea has undergone a light roast to lock in and stabilise the aromas, making it suitable for longer storage and a more settled taste
TASTING NOTES
EYES - DRY LEAF
Granola and raisin brown, small, rolled balls.
NOSE - DRY LEAF
Tarte tatin, milk and honey.
NOSE - WET LEAF
Cooked lychee in syrup, pine resin and forest honey.
EYES - LIQUOR
Peach golden liquor.
MOUTH - TEXTURE
Medium.
MOUTH - TASTE
Muscatel, cedar, orchid and honeyed apricots.
NOSE - EMPTY CUP
Evaporated milk and icing sugar.
MOUTH - FINISH
Fruity and fresh with orchid sweetness.
EYES - WET LEAF
Dark khaki, tender, medium leaves.
BODY SENSATION
Bright, warming relaxation.
SEASON
June 2024
CULTIVAR
Qing Xin
ORIGIN
Nantou, Taiwan.
PICKING & PROCESSING
Up to third or fourth leaf.
ELEVATION
800m
Brewing Directions:
You can use any kind of tea pot, but clay tea pot suits much better.
Warm up the teapot with the boiling water, put 3 grams of tea, and pour a small amount of the boiling water into the tea and pour out, then pour 250 ml of boiling water and cover the tea pot for three minutes before serving.
Boiling temperature – 85-95°C (185-203°F). You can use this amount of tea 3 to 4 times.
The tea leaves come unrolled for full flavor.
Additional information
This is one of the traditional ways of brewing. Depending on individual gustatory preferences you can you can vary brewing time from 35s to 5 minutes.
You can also use the Taiwanese traditional way of brewing - spilling, using Gaiwan, and brewing for 3-5 seconds each time.
Please note that it is natural tea with a high content of active elements, including caffeine and minerals, and some unusual feelings could appear. In that case, we recommend decreasing the quantity of dry leaves and brewing time.