Tea

Dry, herbal and faintly smoky, like freshly steeped dark leaves with a honey-warm floral note and a touch of hay.

• For the Taiwanese oolong “Oriental Beauty”, growers deliberately pick leaves that tea green leafhoppers have fed on – the plant’s defence response boosts aroma compounds such as hotrienol and gives the tea its honey-like sweetness.

In the fresh leaf, linalool and geraniol are stored as water-soluble sugar conjugates (β-primeverosides), which is why it barely smells; only the enzyme β-primeverosidase releases these floral aroma compounds during processing.