Great articles on Muscatel flavour, Darj & Taiwan OB

[cyberhoofer]

Hi guys, check these excellent links out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://hojotea.com/item_e/o01e.htm

http://hojotea.com/item_e/b06e.htm

Search for 'green fly' on both pages & you'll get a hint what muscatel flavour is all about.

-cyberhoofer-

[Intuit]

The article and accompanying photo on Oriental Beauty on the Hojo website suggests that the little green fly is an aphid. Aphids are known to exude a sweetish 'sap' that attracts insect cohorts - most often ants and molds, typically 'sooty' molds that cause leaf discoloration (chlorophyll loss) and deformation.

That sap comes from excess sugars sucked out of the leaf that is exuded through their anus.

So it appears that the sweetish flavoring has an insect component and maybe a mold contribution as well, in the insect-induced leaf damage that imparts unusual and apparently desirable (given the cost) favor and probably odor attributes to this tea.

Plants do not have an immune system of their own, and do not normally make antibodies (but transgenic plants can make them when the gene is inserted into their genome).

http://www.independent.com/news/2009/ma ... r-friends/

[Janine]

According to other info I've read, the insects are jassids. These are fairly universal; you can find them around the world.

The tea plant reacts with its own self-protective secretions and that's what causes the distinctive flavor at the time/just after the jassid invasion.

So I've heard, and that explanation makes sense to me.

[sneakers]

Aphids are not usually referred to as "flies," as they have no wings.

[Intuit]

Yeah, I saw Empoasca flavescens referred to as both aphid and leafhopper.

http://www.ehow.com/video_4943659_formo ... g-tea.html

I can understand the ester released that attracts the predatory spider defense, but I don't see how there is attendant chlorophyll loss and leaf deformation as a result of the change in metabolism in response to the aphid/leadhopper attack.

Maybe the damage is far less than depicted in the article posted by the thread author.

TeaMasters has a nice article on Oriental Beauty grades and production.

http://teamasters.blogspot.com/2009/06/ ... -from.html

Male aphids have wings, females don't. *shrug* It looks like an aphid.

[sneakers]

According to this, the pollen that the insect carries imparts the sweet flavor.

http://www.jteainternational.com/teas/f ... olongs.htm

[sneakers]

I have been corrected by a higher authority. Pollen can't possibly bond with leaves.

[cyberhoofer]

Another interesting page about Taiwanese OB and a pictue of the jassid!!

http://www.teacoffeeasia.com/news.asp?id=966




-cyberhoofer-

[Victoria]

We are definitely talking two very different types of bugs here!

[wh&yel-apprentice]

We are definitely talking two very different types of bugs here!

Yes we are, definitely *not* an aphid, though the pix linked below do not match with the leafhopper/jassid from those of formosa area above???

link with pix of :

Tea green leafhopper,, Empoasca flavescens Fabricius

(Cicadellidae or Jassidae: Homoptera) :

http://teaboard.gov.in/NTRF_2009/NTRF_NESTP/page17.htm


http://www.tocklai.net/Cultivation/pests.aspx

^4 different leaf sucking insects (other than mites) listed in link above.

The tea growing environment in the North East India is conducive to a large number of pests and diseases. Detail studies have been made at Tocklai on the biology and control of tea pests during the last decades

[silverneedles]

^
"B) Sucking Pests"

...

so ! thats why some teas have no flavor !

[sriracha]

I've been wanting to try that tea but after seeing the pic of that HUGE bug I'm not sure I could get the image out of my mind

I've a tendency towards phobia, spiders first and foremost but anything too big with too many legs will definitely provoke the same feeling in me..

*shudder*

[Victoria]

Ummm yeah, I'm picturing one of the big ones rolled up and in there with the tea.
I knew about the bug bitings but seeing it is another thing.
I'm not so keen on Oriental Beauty anyway, even less now.

[sneakers]

I've been wanting to try that tea but after seeing the pic of that HUGE bug I'm not sure I could get the image out of my mind
I've a tendency towards phobia, spiders first and foremost but anything too big with too many legs will definitely provoke the same feeling in me..
*shudder*

They're not so bad. Spiders have 8 legs, insects have only 6.

[sneakers]

Are you all aware that a certain percentage of insect parts are allowed by the FDA in commercially packaged herbs because they're too difficult to separate out? That would be the leafy ones like basil and bay leaves more than whole ones like nutmeg and cloves. I don't know what the percentage is; maybe you don't want to know either.

Now here we have tea leaves that have been only nibbled by insects. Don't you feel better about that already?

Never mind the price of OB. Go ahead and buy a few pounds.