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So a little while ago I was going through old discussion threads about milk oolongs and I saw the Tea from Taiwan Jin Xuan (milk oolong) sample pack discussed. As I have found out most milk oolongs are “flavored” by subjecting the growing plants to various things, but because this is done on the growing end of things almost all places that sell milk oolongs don’t mention it, if they know. Personally I don’t really think of that as “flavoring” in a normal sense since it’s all done while the plant is growing, nor do I have a problem with flavoring tea anyway. I was curious about the difference, though, and this pack has samples that you can actually compare. It has three milk oolongs: two that are all-natural, no flavoring added at any point, and one that is flavored. This is the flavored one.

The dry leaf does smell nicely creamy, slightly fruity, with a hint of greenish florals… in short, not unexpected. The steeped tea builds on those, with more florals and a definite buttery note. If I breathe in really deep I get a distinct vegetal note. At no point does this tea smell like acutal milk or sweetened condensed milk, which some people say is a tip-off that it’s been flavored. This is clearly a very lightly flavored one, so I’m interested to see how the unflavored ones compare. I can tell it’s a milk oolong from the aroma, but you could have fooled me by the taste. I probably steamrolled over the nuances in flavor by brewing it western style, but that’s how I brew all my oolongs. It’s fresh, green, vegetal and a bit buttery. I don’t really get a creaminess from this… actually almost the opposite as it’s a hint astringent. There is certainly none of the light sweetness you find in some oolongs (whether they’re natural or not!). I was honestly expecting a bit more from this one, and certainly expecting something a bit different. Oh well, it’s still pretty tasty.