Honey Gold Oriental Beauty Tea Fizz

THE LEAFIES｜Gold, two years running

Honey Gold begins with an Oriental Beauty awarded Gold at The Leafies in 2024 — making ZEN ZEN THÉ the only Taiwanese house to take Gold two years in a row. And we turned it into a sparkling tea. No sugar, no flavouring to dress it up; only the honey, rose and citrus the leaf already carried, opened up by carbonation.

THE ORIGIN｜Emei, Hsinchu — and a master in his late seventies

This tea comes from Emei Township in Hsinchu, made by a craftsman now in his late seventies. It took several conversations before he agreed, and a harvest window of roughly thirty-five days in which only one bud and two leaves were selected.

He picks late — the traditional way. Riper buds yield a deeper, fruit-forward sweetness, quite unlike the bright honeyed lift of modern early-picked teas. It is a practice fewer and fewer hands still keep, and it is why this tea carries the weight it does.

THE CRAFT｜Three months, and three days

Back at the studio, the raw tea rests for two weeks. Stems and broken leaves are sifted out, then the tea is dried in bamboo baskets at 60°C for six hours to draw off surface moisture, left to re-equilibrate for thirty days, and finished at 70°C for a further six hours to concentrate its sweetness.

After close to three months of ageing, the cup settles into honey, dried rose and citrus in balance — firm through the middle and long in the finish, the liquor a ruby-tinged amber.

Only then does it become sparkling tea, through three more days of cold extraction. Nothing is added; after extraction, the tea is stabilised without heat, so the aromatics we spent months building are not undone in the final step.

THE PAIRING｜The opening movement

Made for the first part of a meal. Crab, sweet shrimp, raw seafood and oily fish are all lifted by its clean acidity and honeyed length.

Carbonation sharpens both the sweetness and the acid, leaving ripe fruit at the front and a long honeyed finish behind. Serve well chilled — the bead and the florals sit in better balance cold.

THE SET｜Two bottles, one table

Honey Gold is also part of PAIRING SET No.01 Paired with Amber Glow, our red oolong tea fizz, it carries a table from seafood through to the grill — a full meal, without a drop of alcohol.