Interspecies Terroir and the Making of Bug-Bitten Tea

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dc.contributor.advisorJiang, Hong
dc.contributor.authorClark, Ashley Nicole
dc.contributor.departmentGeography
dc.date.accessioned2025-02-20T22:36:14Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.description.degreeM.A.
dc.embargo.liftdate2027-02-18
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/110146
dc.subjectGeography
dc.subjectagriculture
dc.subjectco-production
dc.subjectnonhuman agency
dc.subjectTaiwan
dc.subjecttea production
dc.subjectterroir
dc.titleInterspecies Terroir and the Making of Bug-Bitten Tea
dc.typeThesis
dcterms.abstractTerroir, the ‘taste of place’, is conventionally understood through the environmental factors that shape the flavor profile and quality of an agricultural commodity. However, this understanding overlooks the dynamic relations that co-produce the flavor profile of Pong-Fong tea. An oolong produced from Camellia sinensis tea leaves; Pong-Fong tea originated in Taiwan in the early 1930s as the first known ‘bug-bitten’ tea. Bug-bittenness, caused by Tea Green Leafhoppers (Jacobiasca formosana) who bite the tender leaves and buds of tea plants, trigger a chemical defense response that produces a sought-after honey fragrance. This insect-plant relationship transforms the raw tea material, shaping both the teas’ flavor profile and its economic value. Because Pong-Fong tea requires tea leaves to all be picked and processed by hand, this tea has never seen its own industrialization. Drawing on ethnographic interviews with Pong-Fong and Oriental Beauty tea producers in Taiwan, this study came to understand Pong-Fong tea as co-produced through the interplay of insect-plant relations, as well as the care, labor, and creativity of tea producers. In addition to naturally emerging from its environmental relations and local history, Pong-Fong teas’ terroir is intentionally shaped by both tea producers and organizations, such as the Tea and Beverage Research Station and annual Pong-Fong tea competitions.Marketing narratives leverage Camellia-leafhopper relations by expressing that the tea can only be produced in a ‘clean’, pesticide-free environment. While many tea producers agree that nature cannot be controlled, some tea producers influence leafhopper-Camellia relations in pursuit of higher degrees of bug-bittenness and honey-fragrance. For these tea producers, the intentional shaping of terroir begins in the field. Terroir suggests relative uniformity amongst agricultural products within a place, however this study found that each Pong-Fong tea was uniquely shaped by the degree of bug-bittenness and through the embodied knowledge and craftsmanship of the tea maker, giving every tea produced within a place its own distinct flavor profile and identity. In pursuit of a honey fragrance, tea producers intentionally shape the flavor of Pong-Fong tea through craftsmanship, storytelling, and leveraging leafhopper activity through land management practices. The intentional shaping led by tea makers combined with leafhopper-Camellia activity as well as bio-physical environmental characteristics all contribute to the co-production of Pong-Fong tea. Findings from this ethnographic study suggest that, more than the taste of place or taste of soil, terroir is an embodiment of and co-produced by the relations and networks within place. Through taste, consumers can directly and materially experience the relational terroir that emerges from multispecies interfaces— involving cultivars, cultivators, insects, and their environments.
dcterms.extent127 pages
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.publisherUniversity of Hawai'i at Manoa
dcterms.rightsAll UHM dissertations and theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission from the copyright owner.
dcterms.typeText
local.identifier.alturihttp://dissertations.umi.com/hawii:12442

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