I have so been dragging my feet on this review. I haven’t really had a good reason either. I just haven’t much felt like writing lately. I conducted a gongfu session with this tea a couple days ago. I found it to be a nice, light milk oolong.
As mentioned above, I gongfued this one. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 195 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was chased by 12 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 15 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.
Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted heavy scents of butter and cream underscored by a subtle vegetal character. After the rinse, I began to detect something of a grassy scent accompanied by scents of vanilla, custard, and fresh flowers. The first infusion brought out a subtle fruitiness. In the mouth, I mostly detected notes of butter, cream, custard, and grass balanced by indistinct hints of flowers and fruit. Subsequent infusions brought out the vanilla, while distinct impressions of pear, pineapple, green apple, tangerine, daylily, honeydew, coconut, and honeysuckle made themselves known. I thought I caught a hint of passion fruit at one point as well. I also began to pick up daylily shoots, minerals, and cucumber. The later impressions were smooth, offering lingering impressions of cream, butter, vanilla, grass, and cucumber balanced by gentle minerality and fleeting impressions of tangerine, pineapple, daylily shoots, and pear.
Normally I dislike flavored oolongs, but I found this one appealing. It had a pronounced fruitiness that balanced the fairly over-the-top creaminess and butteriness. It was a good thing, too, considering that I did not find this tea to be as floral as many teas of this type, and it is the floral qualities that often provide a semblance of balance in them. Though it’s still not something I would go out of my way to have regularly, this was a rock solid flavored oolong. I could see both fans of Jin Xuan and newcomers to milk oolongs liking this one.
Flavors: Butter, Citrus, Coconut, Cream, Cucumber, Custard, Floral, Grass, Green Apple, Honeydew, Honeysuckle, Mineral, Passion Fruit, Pear, Pineapple, Vanilla
