The June harvest yields long, elegant leaves with numerous white tips, picked by hand: this is Mariage Frères' Oriental Beauty, a blue tea from Formosa that the house regards as the most prized of the island's oolongs. A rare and distinguished tea, partially oxidised, with no fragrance added.

Declared composition: plain oolong tea; none of the fourteen allergens that must be declared is present. The tea appears in the catalogue under the Jardin Premier label. The caffeine content is low. Oriental Beauty is a more oxidised oolong than most, which explains its colour and sweetness; the white-tipped buds give it its delicacy.

The leaves release a great fragrance, which the house compares to that of the wild orchid. The liquor is amber and velvety. On the palate, the flavour is delicate, with a very floral note that caresses the palate, and those natural accents of honey, ripe fruit and muscat that our catalogue highlights and that make this tea's reputation. No astringency, and a long, gentle finish.

It is a daytime tea, to be drunk plain, without milk or sugar, alone or with a white fruit pastry, a peach tart or a mild cheese. The house reserves it for precious moments; the leaves are happily re-infused two or three times.

Allow 2.5 g per 200 ml of water at 95 °C and seven minutes of steeping, the time the long leaves need to unfurl. Oriental Beauty is weighed and packed to order in our shops in Bordeaux and Nice, from the 5 g sample up to the kilo, in a bag designed to preserve its taste; afterwards, store it in an airtight container, away from light.