Bug-bitten oolong? The secret behind Taiwan’s rare honey-flavored tea — and where to enjoy it
Maggie Hiufu Wong, CNN
(CNN) — As the leaves rustle atop the hills in Nantou, Taiwan’s largest tea-producing area, the farm suddenly comes alive, millions of tiny green bugs hopping into the air.
While many farmers might frown at the sight of these pests munching on their crops, Lee Ming-cheng, a third-generation tea farmer and maker, can’t hide the broad smile on his sun-kissed face.
This “green insect fog,” as locals call it, is a sign they’ll have a good harvest of Gui Fei Oolong (also known as Honey Flavor Dong Ding Oolong or Concubine Oolong), a special tea that’s prized for offering a hint of honey flavor.
And it’s these endemic insects, called Jacobiasca formosana, or tea jassids, that are to thank for it.
When the jassids feed, the leaves go into defensive mode and produce a sweetened hormone that tastes and smells like honey, creating one of the world’s most intriguing teas: mixiang cha, or honey-fragrance tea.
The bug-bitten leaves are oxidized and roasted to create a variety of beverages. There’s mixiang black tea (made with fully oxidized leaves) and oolong teas like Oriental Beauty (partially oxidized and not roasted) and the previously mentioned Concubine Tea (partially oxidized and roasted), to name a few.
Unlike Taiwan’s ubiquitous bubble tea, mixiang tea is still highly limited and largely off-the-radar. But what was once a hidden gem among serious tea lovers is now starting to gain international attention.
Mixiang tea goes global
Food scientists Natalie Chiu and Charlie Winkworth-Smith are the founders of Saicho — a British-Hong Kong sparkling tea brand — and huge fans of Taiwan’s mixiang teas.
In 2019, the husband-and-wife duo launched the company to offer diners an alternative to wine. Their sparkling teas, which have three standard flavors and a “Rare Tea Collection” line, have since become a popular offering at many hotels and restaurants, amassing a cult following around the world.
“We met tea master Junjie Lin in the UK at a ceremony called the Great Taste Awards in 2023, often referred to as the Oscars of food,” says Winkworth-Smith.
Saicho’s tea was named one of the top products that year, while Lin’s honey-fragrance black tea, harvested on Sixty Stone Mountain on the east coast of Taiwan, was also nominated.
Lin shared his tea with the couple.
“From just the first sip, I knew it was special. On the nose, you get that beautiful dark honey aroma and fruitiness like apricot,” Winkworth-Smith explains. “On the palate, you first taste ripe mango and grilled pineapple, but then there are notes of cedar wood and smokiness that add so much complexity and depth.”
The couple was so impressed they traveled to Taiwan’s Sixty Stone Mountain to learn about how it’s grown and harvested. They purchased the year’s entire available stock — which was only 15 kilograms — for their most exclusive tea line.
“We’re very particular about the types of tea we want to showcase in our Rare Tea Collection. It has taken us three years to find this honey-fragrance black tea,” adds Chiu.
The limited-edition Sixty Stone Mountain tea — named after the mountain — was launched this year, with fewer than 2,000 bottles available for sale.
“The response has been fantastic,” says Winkworth-Smith. “In the United Kingdom, we launched exclusively with Harrods for retail, and they’re also stocked in four Michelin-starred restaurants in London. We couldn’t do more than that due to our limited quantities.
“With its sweetness, savoriness and acidity, it’s quite versatile. It pairs well with dishes, from honey-roast pork to crème brûlée.”
A shaky start for a rising star
Clint Liang, a Taipei-based tour guide from Topology Travel — a bespoke tour agency specializing in organizing private in-depth tours — tells CNN Travel that mixiang tea is still in its infancy when it comes to market awareness.
“Tea has been an important industry in Taiwan for about 400 years, when tea plants and tea-processing skills were brought over from Fujian (a tea-producing Chinese province). However, the commercialization of tea only happened a few decades ago. The development of mixiang tea as a product is even younger,” says Liang.
For generations, tea master Lee’s family primarily produced regular Dong Ding Oolong tea — one of Taiwan’s most famous teas, which requires high oxidation and roasting skills — on the high mountains of Lugu, Nantou.
“Just a few decades ago, the jassids were considered pests — they still are on many farms,” he notes.
“This honey fragrance was thought to be too wild so no trader wanted to buy and sell it.”
Then, in 1999, a big earthquake hit Nantou and changed everything.
While people were busy rebuilding homes and roads in this central Taiwan region, many farms were left unattended, allowing jassids to multiply. The farmers couldn’t afford to lose their entire harvest, so they decided to go ahead and roast the bug-bitten tea leaves anyway.
These brews were collectively named “Gui Fei” tea in honor of their alluring taste and aroma. (Gui Fei means “noble consorts” in Chinese.)
Over the last two decades, more people have been introduced to them, and other mixiang teas have since been developed. Lee says his Gui Fei tea is so popular it often sells out before it can even hit the retail market.
Despite their growing popularity, mixiang teas remain a rarity
Oriental Beauty is one of Taiwan’s most recognized mixiang teas and has become a hot commodity in auction markets in the last decade.
In the latest Tokyo Chuo Auction in Taipei, three 75-gram cans of Oriental Beauty fetched a record-high price of NTD416,880 ($12,820).
“With the element of surprise from the tea jassids, Oriental Beauty boasts myriad variations — some are as elegant as flowers and honey while others are as rich as wood and ripe fruits. It’s a beauty just like its name,” says Arial Chiang, a young tea maker who has been learning to produce Oriental Beauty tea in Hsinchu, in northern Taiwan, since 2020.
So if the demand is already there, why don’t farmers simply produce more? If only it were that simple.
“The quality of mixiang tea, like Oriental Beauty, for example, depends heavily on how much it has been bitten by tea jassids,” says Chiang. “The degree of tiohian (salivation) affects how the tea will be crafted in the next stages — it tests the experience and skill of the tea master.”
If the tea leaves aren’t oxidated and roasted just right, the honey flavor will dissipate and the tea will become bitter and musty, adds tea master Lee.
Tea jassids are also unpredictable, meaning farmers have no control over whether the green insects will breed on their farm that year. Growers just have to avoid spraying pesticides and hope that the insects will return — usually in the summer.
“Another major deterrent is that since the tea leaves and trees have been nibbled on, they sustain a certain level of damage,” says Kuo Huan-ling, tea master Lee’s wife, who also happens to be a rare tea scholar.
“The tea leaves will slow down its growth and the plants need almost a year to recover. If a farm has hosted jassids, the production of tea leaves can drop to as little as 20% of its original harvest. Therefore, not many farmers are willing to sacrifice the quantity of the harvest and cultivate Gui Fei tea.”
But these challenges don’t stop those who have already fallen in love with honey-flavored tea, and that includes Kuo.
She tells CNN she first met Lee in the 1980s while visiting his shop and is now the family’s Gui Fei tea expert. In fact, she’s so passionate about bug-bitten oolong that she decided to return to school to research and write a master’s paper on it.
Their two sons have joined the family business in recent years and help promote Gui Fei tea whenever they can.
“The beauty of mixiang teas, like Oriental Beauty and Gui Fei, is how we have turned a disadvantage into an advantage,” says Kuo.
Where to try honey-fragrance teas
For those who want to learn more about mixiang tea while traveling in Taiwan, it’s now grown in various regions on the island.
Lee’s teahouse, called Lee Te, is in Lugu, Nantou (72 Luzhang Road, Lugu, Nantou County). They also run a tea shop in Taipei called The Red Top Tea Gallery (166 Dunhua North Road, Songshan District, Taipei).
Meanwhile, Saicho’s founders recommend visiting Lin’s tea garden at Sixty Stone Mountain, where they also have a bed and breakfast that sometimes opens to visitors.
For a truly immersive experience, Topology Travel customizes tea tours for visitors.
“Hsinchu in the northwestern part of Taiwan is famous for its Oriental Beauty,” says tour guide Liang. “Hualien (on the east), Nantou (in the central region) and Alishan (the mountainous indigenous township in southwestern Taiwan) are all excellent places to check out tea gardens and sample tea.”
Their tea tour itinerary often includes a tea-making class in the tea garden and a tea ceremony in a bamboo forest.
“We don’t always receive requests to create an itinerary specifically for tea, but about 80% of my tour groups involve tea sampling as part of their experience. That’s how important tea is to Taiwan’s culture,” Liang adds.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
