2025 Hsinchu One Plum Blossom Award Competition Grade Taiwan Oriental Beauty Oolong 150 g

Legend tells that, long ago, the Queen of England once tasted this remarkable tea and was enchanted by its unique fragrance and mellow sweetness. She called it “Oriental Beauty,” a name that has since become inseparable from Taiwan’s most elegant oolong.

In Taiwan, it is also affectionately known as champagne oolong, baihao oolong, or Pong Feng tea. Its harvest is rare and brief — limited to the heat of summer. During this season, a small insect known as the tea green leafhopper (Jacobiasca formosana) gently bites the tender leaves and buds. This natural event halts their growth and triggers a delicate chemical transformation. Once harvested and expertly oxidized and baked, the leaves yield a golden-amber liquor with notes of honey, ripe fruit, and wildflowers — a taste that exists nowhere else in the world.

A Competition Like No Other

Among Taiwan’s many tea contests, none carries the prestige of the Oriental Beauty Oolong Tea Competition held annually in Emei, Hsinchu County. It celebrates one of Taiwan’s oldest artisan oolongs — a tea literally shaped by nature and the bite of a tiny leafhopper.

Because its production depends on both climate and the presence of this particular insect, Oriental Beauty is made in only very small quantities. Each batch reflects the harmony of weather, soil, and craftsmanship, and for that reason it commands extraordinary value.

Every year, the Hsinchu County competition sets the standard by which all Oriental Beauty is judged. Teas that win the official competition seal are prized immediately — often sold out within hours.
The Plum Blossom Awards, given to the highest-scoring teas (one-, two-, and three-flower distinctions), represent the pinnacle of this art. Only a handful of these exceptional teas ever leave Asia.

The Taste of Elegance

Competition-grade Oriental Beauty is unlike any other oolong. Its liquor glows with amber clarity; its aroma drifts between orchard fruit and summer blossoms. The first sip is smooth and honeyed, followed by floral notes reminiscent of apricot, muscat grape, geranium, elderflower, wild honey, sandalwood, rose, caramel, gardenia, and lilac.

It is a tea both complex and graceful — refined, fragrant, and endlessly layered.
Each cup tells the story of Taiwan’s hills, the patience of its farmers, and the invisible touch of the leafhopper that began it all.