Taiwan Jin Xuan Milk Oolong Tea

Ru Yao dragon teapot gongfucha style.

Dry leaves: smells floral and somewhat like milk
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Wet leaves: smells floral, somewhat peachy and milky
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Light steep: I taste/smell light minerals, fruit (can’t distinguish), floral and milky.
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Medium steep: I taste/smell medium floral, fruit (still cannot distinguish ) and minerals. I also taste strong milk and light metallic. Special note: with green oolongs the leaves allways smell like weed after a few steeps :(

Heavy steep: I taste/smell medium minerals, milk, metallic, fruit (maybe berries or peach?) and floral.

All in all a amazing tea. The first time I tried it (using western style) I did not like it. Gongfucha is best.

bonus photo
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I got a pair of samples of this tea during the anniversary sale and decided I would do a side by side to see if I could tell the difference between brewing in a gaiwan and brewing in one of my yixing pot. Turns out the differences seem to be quite minor at this point. I guess with more frequent use the pot might take on more of the oolong character and change the flavor more. I’m not sure which method is best for pairing a pot with a tea so I’m trying different kinds in the pot to see which ones do better.

Anyways..the tea. It’s good. It tastes like a Taiwanese oolong and has a creamy background flavor. The “green” oolong flavor (maybe vegetal is the right word?) is very present and strong in the beginning and as the leaves open up they release more sweetness. At $12.90/100g the price seems right for it to be a solid daily drinker!

I’ve been on an oolong binge lately, so I decided to just keep it going.

This is my last tea before bed. I measured out a decent amount in placed in my warmed gaiwan. The aroma is sweet and alike berries. Its a mix between gooseberries and raspberries. I washed the leaves and prepared for brewing. The scent kept the consistent berry aroma; although, I could hint at slight scents of a fruity wine. The liquor was a pale gold. The taste was smooth and sweet. This had a decent mouth feeling, and it kept the creamy Jin Xuan classic taste. This brew, however, was more fruity and berry like than any other Jin Xuan I’ve ever had. The creamy factor seemed to be an undertone. Altogether, this was a decent tea, but it isn’t something to rave about.

Meh. This tea left me sorta disappointed. There was little to no milky flavor to it at all. I gave it a quick rinse and then brewed around 205 F for 2 minutes, followed by subsequent brewing at the same temperature with longer steepings. The flavor of the tea was vegetal and somewhat burnt. No milky/creamy notes at all. The second time I brewed it at lower temperature (185 F) and that began coaxing out the milk flavor from the tea. Still it was weak overall and prone to bitterness on subsequent steepings.

Honestly, it just tasted like a generic green oolong and lacking other aspects of flavor. It could all be me though so I’ll keep it around and report back if anything changes.

Decent milk oolong. Liquid smells caramel. Very light and unobtrusive .
Caramel doesn’t transfer to taste, which is good if you ask me.

This has that typical green oolong profile, but it’s not as flagrantly orchid or honeysuckle (or whatever that note I can’t stand is) as some. It doesn’t taste super milky or creamy in comparison to other green oolongs I’ve had, but it is very smooth. It almost reminds me of some Chinese greens in its hints of nut—mao feng, maybe? Given my bias against green oolongs, this is much nicer than I thought it would be (though still not something I want to purchase). I think I got this from someone at one of the NYC meet-ups, back in the day.

Very floral, green oolong. The milky aspect was there, but a little to subtle for my tastes. Has lasting power, but not one that I would drink over and over. I am not entirely sure that I would recommend this one. I was kinda bored. I love oolongs anyway, and did enjoy the little bit I had.

Sugar pea sticky sweetness. Hint of pudding-like creaminess. Medium mouthfeel. Slight floral note.

From the Not MY Cup O’ Tea TTB

Tasty milk oolong. subtle milk/creaminess going on. Doesn’t have the artificial milk flavoring that I find in some milk oolongs. Slightly floral. Quite lovely. I wonder how high the caffeine level is in this. I guess I’ll just have to look it up. I can see this being a good evening tea if it’s not too caffeinated.

With the 4th anniversary sale going on at teavivre.com, I wanted to try this one gong fu to see if I couldn’t pass it up (I’m anticipating that my tea budget will be very tight around here with the addition of a car payment!). Thanks to Dinosara for leaving me a bit more of this lovely tea before she moved, now I can spend some quality time getting to know it!
I followed the directions on the company’s site: 212 F, rinse,25s,35s,45s,55s,65s,75s,85s
The rinse had a very vague sugary taste (I always taste the rinse!), but nothing to write home about.
The first steep had a full, milky mouthfeel and slight milky aroma, but a pleasant sugary bass note, like Sugar in the Raw.
The second steep also had a full, silky mouthfeel, but the sweetness had deepened into an almost-bitter, but I still found myself chasing after it. The smell finally appeared in the aroma cup, a light gardenia-like smell, but mostly that fresh delicious green oolong character!
The third steep had that stevia-like bitter-ish but sweet sugar flavor, a little harsher and greener in character, but a great milky smell and intense floral green oolong aroma. I wish I could bathe in that scent (how expensive would that be?!). This steep had the strongest flavor of all the steeps.
The aroma of the fourth steep was thicker florals and a bit green. The liquid is much greener in flavor and has lost some creaminess. I consider the tea to be waning after this point, but no less tasty. It is still sugary, almost fruity sweet. It leaves a mineral water-like sensation on my tongue.
Fifth steep: more generic green florals, the sweetness has toned down quite a bit. Still with the minerals in the aftertaste. If a generic and cheap tea just tasted like this, I would have a cold brew operation going 24/7. That said, this is definitely a decrease in quality over the first steeps of this tea!
Sixth steep: Mostly just minerals and vague green-ness… Gets a decent echo of sweetness once it cools down a bit.
Seventh steep: I honestly would have stopped at steep 4 or 5 if not for the teavivre instructions. This steep was like fuji water. A little sweet a lot mineral, mineral greenness. Pretty okay for a 7th steep!

I have concluded that I do not need this tea in my collection, though it is very good. I just have three other oolongs that are too similar to this one to justify the purchase. Hence I will bump it down one point to push it below my threshold for tea buying. I still want some Premium Jasmine Dragon Pearls, though, so if anyone wants to go in on an order to hit free shipping, let me know!

I just looked at my old note on this tea: amazing how the first two steeps pretty much stayed the same, even though I was brewing for vastly different times!