Heavily oxidised non-bug bitten oolong in Taiwan

Semi-oxidized tea
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Sat Dec 15, 2018 3:17 pm

Is heavily oxidised oolong which is not bitten by bugs a "thing" in Taiwan? I guess less honourable vendors would try to pass it off as Oriental Beauty, but there are others who sell tea that looks a lot like Oriental Beauty (white tips and all), but there's no mention of bugs, like the imaginatively named Grand Oolong Top Fancy and Butterfly of Taiwan. They lack the fruity honey-like sweetnes that real Oriental Beauty is famous for, but have similar wood/spice notes otherwise. Are they basically the same as Oriental Beauty, except not bitten by bugs? Does such tea have an actual name?
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Bok
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Sat Dec 15, 2018 5:37 pm

I would call that black tea.

Honey like sweetness is something that Taiwanese black teas are famous for.

Makes perfect sense that not every farmer wants to sacrifice part of their harvest to the bugs. Incorrect labelling is so rampant in Taiwan’s teas, I wouldn’t even call it dishonest, it is something that is just done and most people here do not obsess too much over how correct a name is or not.

The retail vendor might not even be the wiser, if they do not check and supervise the actual farms.

There are also constantly “new” creations and hybrid teas on the market, with all sorts of new names. I wouldn’t care too much about it, price-value-taste should be fair, the rest is just a name.

I have been buying “DYL” for years, which I am 100% certain is not, but as taste corresponds to the price, I do not call it out.
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Sat Dec 15, 2018 6:47 pm

Bok wrote:
Sat Dec 15, 2018 5:37 pm
I would call that black tea.
I'm a bit confused. They have about the same level of oxidation as Oriental Beauty, and similar character (except for the peculiar sweetness caused by bugs). Does that mean you consider Oriental Beauty a black tea as well? I guess it's a matter of definition, but since they are distinct from "blacker" teas oxidised around 85%, I prefer not to lump them together.
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Bok
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Sat Dec 15, 2018 7:29 pm

Oriental beauty is for me personally in the same category as Darjeeling, which is technically black tea. But yes, I do agree and would say both are somewhat in between.
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Mon Dec 17, 2018 5:02 am

That's true, I should compare them some day!

But anyway, heavily oxidised oolong doesn't have a particular name in the tea community/industry then?
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Mon Dec 17, 2018 5:51 am

absence wrote:
Mon Dec 17, 2018 5:02 am
That's true, I should compare them some day!

But anyway, heavily oxidised oolong doesn't have a particular name in the tea community/industry then?
Heavily oxidised Oolong, but in Chinese, simple as that. The origin of the leaf might be indicated e.g Alishan, Lishan, etc
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Mon Dec 17, 2018 6:27 am

That's simple enough for sure. Do you know what the Chinese term is as well?
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Mon Dec 17, 2018 7:49 am

absence wrote:
Sat Dec 15, 2018 6:47 pm
Bok wrote:
Sat Dec 15, 2018 5:37 pm
I would call that black tea.
I'm a bit confused. They have about the same level of oxidation as Oriental Beauty, and similar character (except for the peculiar sweetness caused by bugs). Does that mean you consider Oriental Beauty a black tea as well? I guess it's a matter of definition, but since they are distinct from "blacker" teas oxidised around 85%, I prefer not to lump them together.
Black tea and oolong tea can often be oxidized to the same degree but that does not make them the same type of tea. The key to tea type is not oxidation level but production method. Black tea is rolled BEFORE oxidation and oolong tea is rolled AFTER oxidation. Many black teas (e.g. FF Darjeeling) are not heavily oxidized but they are black teas nonetheless because of the manner in which they are produced (in fact the old shibboleth that black tea is fully oxidized is just that; an old shibboleth.) I suspect that the tea absence tasted might be a Bai Hao that was not summer harvested (which is when you get the real OB character.) However, climate change is having a big effect on the prevalence and timing of bug bitten tea.
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Mon Dec 17, 2018 7:57 am

Tillerman was faster than me! Thanks!

Funnily enough, something similar came up when I bought tea last weekend. The seller brewed some tea just for the sake of it which had been given to him by a customer friend, some supposedly very high quality green tea from China. Had not been touched until a few years later. The brew was reddish and his spontaneous reaction was to say look it became black tea! Not to mention we did not go further than the one cup...

Climate change is felt in real time in the tea industry, all the seasonal characteristics tend to blur a bit, or out of character.
That said, the people I talked to said that this years winter harvest in Taiwan has been of good quality, but with a much lower yield due to the lack of rain. some teas I literally snatched up the last jins...
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Mon Dec 17, 2018 8:07 am

Is Bai Hao the generic name for this type of tea, with the bug bitten summer picking having the additional "nickname" of Oriental Beauty?
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Mon Dec 17, 2018 8:24 am

absence wrote:
Mon Dec 17, 2018 8:07 am
Is Bai Hao the generic name for this type of tea, with the bug bitten summer picking having the additional "nickname" of Oriental Beauty?
Bai Hao just means "white tip". The summer picking follows the most active period of activity by the green leafhopper (formally the Jacobiasca formosana) The name "Oriental Beauty (likely, as no one really knows for sure) was conferred on the tea in 1983 by the then premier of Taiwan, Sun Yun-suan. Tea of similar appearance is produced outside of this summer harvest but it tends to lack the honey notes you have described. Also, beware of the schemers and cheats who often will cull white tips from the summer harvest and add them to later, less distinctive, teas. I emphasize again, however, that climate change is playing havoc with these teas (all Taiwanese tea, actually.) The leafhopper is now found at higher elevations than ever before and some gaoshan teas are now able to get an additional harvest every year - not always to the benefit of quality.
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Mon Dec 17, 2018 8:54 am

Both the non-bug bitten teas in my first post contain white tips, and at least one of them is a spring picking (the other is unspecified), which confirms your suspicion. There seems to be at least some precedence for calling such teas Bai Hao, like this Bai Hao Spring Special from Thailand. I haven't tasted it, but from the photo the leaves look similar to real Oriental Beauty, as well as the non-bug bitten ones from my first post.
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Mon Dec 17, 2018 9:08 am

HY Chen calls his version of summer bug bitten tea June White. Totally different to OB though.
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Mon Dec 17, 2018 9:17 am

I've had some lighter oxidised ball-rolled bug bitten tea which was also quite different from Oriental Beauty. Clearly bugs are not the only criterium for OB. :)
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Mon Dec 17, 2018 10:11 am

Bok wrote:
Mon Dec 17, 2018 9:08 am
HY Chen calls his version of summer bug bitten tea June White. Totally different to OB though.
What was your impression of his June White? For some reason I didn’t know what to make of it.
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