Oriental Beauty
There are many different types of Chinese tea produced in Taiwan, and when asked which one is my favorite, I sometimes find it difficult to answer. Baozhong, Tieguanyin, and Oolong each have their own unique merits, so it's hard to choose just one.
It is a crop that is affected by the weather of the year, and just like wine vintages, even if it is grown in the same field, the taste can vary greatly depending on the year and season.
To evaluate tea, experts conduct sensory tests, judging tea brewed under the same conditions based on its color, aroma, and taste. This is somewhat similar to the four Cs of diamonds: color, clarity, cut, and size (carat). Unlike gemstones, the taste is determined by human senses.
Taiwan's "Dongfang Meiren" tea is also delicious. It is a classic style of semi-fermented tea, with a fairly high degree of fermentation, and can be brewed with a taste, aroma, and color closer to black tea.
My first encounter with this tea was over 10 years ago. I had become fascinated with Taiwanese tea and wanted to learn more about it, when I went on a research trip to Taiwan. A Taiwanese person working for the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, which is equivalent to Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, gave me this "Dongfang Meiren" tea as a souvenir of my visit to Taiwan.
The tea was different in color and shape from any tea I was familiar with, curled but looking like it had dried naturally, with a beautiful reddish brown base, with some green remaining and the silvery white of the new shoots covered in down.
When I returned to Japan and tried brewing it, I was surprised at how mellow it was, and what's more, it had a wonderful aroma. It was very floral. The aroma rising from the teacup made me feel like I was in a flower garden.
In November, I headed to Hsinchu, a provincial city in Taiwan, for the first time in a long while. I then took a series of buses to the outskirts of a small town called Zhudong to meet Kage, a tea merchant.
I was given the opportunity to sample a variety of rare teas and this year's best teas, and when I happened to look at the display case, I saw a can of the amazing ``Dongfang Meiren'' tea, which won a special prize at a contest held in Hsinchu County this year.
I heard that the tea leaves were from the same fields as the tea entered in the contest, and that there was also a product made by the same winner. I was given some right away and have been drinking it almost every day. The other day, I gave it to someone from India, telling them it was a good Taiwanese tea, and they were amazed by the wonderful taste and aroma. The name "Oriental Beauty" sounds nice, and it's interesting because it embodies the feelings people had towards tea in the past. It's a tea that truly lives up to its name, the queen of teas.
