Pinglin (unknown)

This is a Dong Fang Mei Ren tea from Pinglin, Taiwan. Most of the Oriental Beauty teas are from Hsinchu, so I wanted to review one from a different area. Apparently, these are getting more popular within Taiwan precisely because the Hsinchu Oriental Beauty teas are more popular elsewhere…and hence more prone to being adulterated. Apparently.

An immediate benefit of the Pinglin oriental beauty is its price, which is easily half of that of the Hsinchu teas.

Appearance of this is what one would expect of a quality Oriental Beauty — a fair amount of white tips along with brown, black and greenish hues in the dry leaf and very small leaves.

The infusion is typically aromatic with honeysuckle, wood, very mild malt, lemon oil and fresh autumn leaves.

Very smooth on the palate with a delicate honeyed sweetness.