🗺️ Origins & cultivars
Tea jassid
A small sap-sucking insect. Leaves it feeds on develop a honeyed aroma.
Unka is the common Japanese name used in tea for a small insect that feeds on the leaf. Strictly it is a leafhopper — the tea green leafhopper — rather than a planthopper.
Leaves that have been fed on respond by changing their compounds, producing a sweet, honeyed aroma. Taiwan's honey black tea and Oriental Beauty are made by encouraging exactly this.
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