Teavivre graciously included a sample of this oolong with a recent order, and since it felt like forever since I tried a flavored Jin Xuan, I decided to go ahead and give it a shot. Flavored Jin Xuan is usually hit or miss for me, but this one was quite good. I would not call it a favorite, but I would definitely be willing to buy a larger amount to play around with in the future.
I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 7 grams of rolled tea leaves in 5 ounces of 195 F water for 8 seconds. Oddly, Teavivre recommended a water temperature of 212 F for this tea, but that seemed too high to me, so I stuck with my usual 195 F instead. For whatever reason, I cannot get into using a higher water temperature for Taiwanese oolongs, though I often do for green Anxi oolongs. Go figure. Anyway, the initial 8 second infusion was chased by 13 additional infusions. Steep times for those infusions were 10 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 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 aromas of cream and butter that were underscored by traces of grass and sugarcane. After the rinse, I found a stronger sugarcane aroma as well as hints of orchid and ginseng. The first infusion then released a stronger ginseng scent. In the mouth, the tea liquor opened with grass, ginseng, and unexpected spinach notes before revealing cream, butter, and orchid notes around mid-palate. On the finish, the ginseng returned just as the sugarcane emerged, leaving herbal impressions and sugary sweetness on the tongue and back of the throat after the swallow. The subsequent infusions saw the sweetness reigned in as the liquor started to soften and grow smoother. New impressions of steamed milk, minerals, violet, lettuce, kale, orange zest, daylily, and fresh daylily shoots emerged, and yes, I finally started to note a spinach presence on the nose as well as in the mouth. The later infusions (the longer ones) offered notes of minerals, butter, and steamed milk underscored by lingering touches of violet, lettuce, and ginseng.
Far from a bad flavored oolong, it took some time for me to warm up to this tea. I absolutely hated the first infusion, but the tea pulled me in from there. Though flavored oolongs are generally not my thing, I would have no issue coming back to this one at some point. I would imagine that fans of flavored oolongs would enjoy it and that is the audience to whom I would recommend it. Personally, I would have liked to see more fruity character and more complex, prominent floral notes to better balance everything else, but this should still be a pleasing tea for fans of flavored oolongs.
Flavors: Butter, Cream, Floral, Grass, Herbaceous, Kale, Lettuce, Milk, Mineral, Orange Zest, Orchid, Spinach, Sugarcane, Sweet, Vegetal, Violet
