Datian Mei Ren Cha

Datian Mei Ren Cha is the leading mainland version of the famous oriental beauty, Dong Fang Mei Ren — the heavily oxidised summer oolong whose sweetness is a gift of an insect. It comes from Datian county in Sanming, Fujian, the fruit of years of work between Taiwanese and Fujian masters who carried the method across the strait.

The secret is the leafhopper. When the tiny Jacobiasca formosana bites the growing leaf in summer, the bush responds by producing the compounds that, after heavy oxidation, give the tea its honey-and-muscat sweetness. No bites, no beauty. The finished leaf is mottled five colours, and the bouquet is described in six notes — fruit, honey, flower, sweet, tender and a faint mountain air.

In the cup

Brew it gongfu or Western, just off the boil. There is no bitterness to manage, so it forgives a long steep; the cup is soft and silky, all honey, ripe peach and muscat grape, with a long sweet finish. Cooled, it can show the faint haze of a fine oxidised tea — a mark of quality, not a fault.