HRH E II R, Queen Elizabeth the Second. Her name has appeared in these pages twice before now.
And why would a Chinese tea column be concerned with the former monarch of the United Kingdom?
Actually, Strainer first mentioned her as the name of a donkey ridden on a trip to Yunnan. [Well done for remembering that my wife rode a braying Obama].
And then there was the column about Chinese tea sellers seeking actively validation for their product through international celebrities.
The story goes that Queen Elizabeth II, when introduced to a new variety of oolong tea from Taiwan, described it as “sweet and subtle, just like an Oriental Beauty”, thus christening a tea which had been struggling to find a sticky name. “东方美人” is the equally-sticky Chinese version. And for many, including me, the name will forever be tied to that occidental beauty who departed us recently, finally becoming 27 again.
I was moved to go and buy some leaves.
This was a test for our local market, a test it passed comfortably; the couple who sold me the tea come from either side of the Strait, both seeming unsurprised at my request. Their store had a large bag of the stuff, closeted but not refrigerated. I bought 100 grams and it only cost me ¥136.
It’s important to say that this is an “insect tea”, one whose flavour is defined by the nibbling of its leaves by a tiny species of grasshopper, a “leaf hopper”. Previously considered a “problem”, this became a lucrative virtue, imparting a unique honey-like sweetness to the finished product. There’s still debate about whether the effect is an immune response by the tea bush or if there some form of nutritional saliva backwash from the insect. Aphids, apparently, don’t perform the same service when they nibble.
I’m happily slurping on the infused drink right now. There’s a powerful fruitiness, which fills the aroma. Very inviting. I love that in an oolong. And, while there is astringency, it is just perfectly balanced, contributing to that beguilingly-sweet after taste.
The question of when the insect discovery was made is an important one. And I’d long assumed it to be in the second half of the 20th Century, just in time to receive that royal pronouncement. Different versions of the story have Queen Liz in Taiwan’s Nantou County and at a World Tea Expo in London. But the invention of the nibbled tea was probably much earlier than that. Moreover, the name seems to have been around for a longer time. And there are even versions of the tale featuring Queen Victoria, which may actually be less anachronistic.
I should say that my sellers didn’t know any of this. Nor were they aware of any stampede to buy Oriental Beauty this week.
So maybe you’re going to accuse me of talking up a rumour and debunking the rumour at the same time. Yes. Fair enough. That’s me having my mooncake and eating it.
But let me admit that I’m as fascinated and shocked as anyone these past weeks. She may have had pretty unimaginative taste in tea; black Earl Grey in the morning, milky Assam in the afternoon; but she was a whole lot of woman.
