Jesse's Dong Fang Mei Ren "Eastern Beauty" Bug Bitten Oolong

Locals discovered that the tea leaves bitten by the Tea Jassid, an insect, created a special honey flavor in the tea leaves after they were plucked and processed as oolong tea. The flavor is the result of terpenes released by the leaf in self-defense.

As a result, the "Eastern Beauty" was born - a bug-bitten oolong with notes of honey, cinnamon, and bursting with fresh fragrance.

Bright yellow-orange, the tea has suprising depth and sweetness. It's a real treat for oolong lovers!

Oolong teas are partially-oxidized teas, almost like a mix between a green and a black tea.

Oolongs are picked and then treated in a long, labor-intensive process that includes cultivating, harvesting, withering, oxidizing, fixing (or sha qing – “killing the green”), rolling and drying, and sometimes roasting.

The end result is a tea with a fantastic fragrance, almost like a green tea, but with a richer and more complex flavor than most green teas.

Oolong is best when stored airtight – that’s why I’m including a free nifty bag-closer with every order.

 What about the other DFMR on the site?

Fans of the site may know that we have a second type of this tea we have sold in the past. This new one is comes from Guangdong Province and has a slightly different flavor, though still packed with the bug bitten "honey scent" that Dong Fang Mei Ren is known for.

I usually don't have two of the same tea type on the site, but I made an exception here because I was able to find a high quality version that I could pack into 50g bags. Our previous DFMR tea was only available in larger bags and we couldn't give people in the subscription 100g without raising the price.

I hope this is a chance for new tea drinkers to be able to access this excellent tea, and for drinkers who have tried our other DFMR to get a chance to compare the same tea type across different growing regions!

Jesse’s Review:

Bug-bitten Oolong is a real treat! Even though "bug-bitten" sounds like something that will turn away tea newcomers, I have found people absolutely love this tea even if they are not big tea drinkers.

The munching of the leafhopper, or tea jassid, creates what locals call "Mi Xiang" - honey scent. It really feels like there is honey in the tea, even though there isn't!

This is a great tea for all tastes and I am glad to be able to feature it in our subscription.

These teas are high quality and can be re-steeped multiple times! Each serving makes between 4-8 big mugs of tea, so at around $.50 a cup, you get top quality Chinese teas at a price that you can enjoy every day.

Jesse's Teahouse started because when Jesse lived in Beijing, he realized the quality and value of the tea directly from the Beijing Tea Market was so much higher than what could be easily found in the States -- and around the world.

Jesse contacted his tea friends in Beijing, they shipped their best teas to him, and he sends them to you. That's it! 

Best Deal Alert! If you really love tea and want an even better deal, get this tea as part of Jesse’s “Team Jenk Combo Box.”

Jesse believes the key to making good tea is to help his Chinese tea friends share not just their best teas, but also their advice on how best make the teas.

That's why each box comes also comes with an info card that tells you:

• Tea Origin
• Steep Temperature
• Steep Time
• Directions for both teapot steeping and gaiwan steeping

There are also links to tea-making videos on QR codes on the back of the info card included in the tea box.

In Chinese Gongfu Tea Tradition, Tea Pets accompany you at teatime and you "raise" them by feeding them tea!