Gui Fei Oolong

Leaf-hopper cicadas are allowed to nibble on the leaves of this tea before picking. The resulting tea has a blooming rose and spiced-honey profile. Notes of spiced honey, roses, and toasted cashew. Gui Fei Red, also known as Concubine Oolong is one of the sweetest oolongs.  It is from a category of tea we refer to as leaf-bitten oolong, and it has a dynamic profile that pairs a mild charcoal roast to fully maintained bouquet of honeyed flowers.  Leaf-bitten teas deserve to be in a category of their own.  There are several stories about how Gui Fei’s preparation method came to pass, and it appears that the most reliable story is that in 1999 there was an earthquake in central Taiwan and the tea farmers of Fenghuang village were forced to evacuate.  Upon returning the farmers noticed that the tea plants had been overrun with cicadas that had nibbled on the leaves and stems.  They processed the least damaged leaves and found that an almost magical transformation had occurred.  Tea tasted