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This was another tea that I tried in either late 2021 or shortly after the start of the year. I recall it being a tea I had been meaning to get around to trying for a while. Roasted Jin Xuan is generally something I enjoy, so I had high hopes for this offering. It mostly lived up to my expectations too. Though I had tried better roasted Jin Xuan prior to trying this tea, it was still a fun and likable offering that I would feel confident recommending to just about anyone.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After rinsing 6 grams of the rolled leaf and bud sets for 10 seconds in approximately 4 fluid ounces of 194 F water, I started my review session off with a 10 second infusion. This initial infusion was followed by 15 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 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, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, and 10 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry leaf and bud sets emitted aromas of toasted rice, roasted barley, coffee, cream, and bread. After the rinse, I noted new aromas of smoke, green olive, parsley, sugarcane, and vanilla. The first infusion added cooked spinach and cooked cabbage scents. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of cream, butter, toasted rice, and bread that were chased by subtler impressions of sugarcane, grass, coffee, vanilla, pear, roasted barley, daylily, and longan. The majority of the subsequent infusions introduced aromas of vegetable broth, daylily shoots, roasted carrot, and balsam. Impressions of minerals, parsley, smoke, cooked lettuce, cooked cabbage, vegetable broth, sour plum, daylily shoots, and balsam appeared in the mouth alongside stronger and more immediately detectable notes of grass, coffee, daylily, vanilla, and roasted barley. I also detected hints of roasted carrot, cooked cabbage, nutmeg, cinnamon, green olive, sour cherry, and green apple. As the tea faded, the liquor emphasized notes of minerals, cream, butter, toasted rice, cooked spinach, cooked lettuce, grass, and vegetable broth along with suddenly amplified roasted carrot impressions. Hints of pear, green apple, green olive, roasted barley, vanilla, sugarcane, balsam, and sour plum continued to round out the mix through the very end of the session. I should also note that some late emerging hints of popcorn were present as well.

For a light roasted Jin Xuan, the fact that the roast was so present surprised and intrigued me. I was expecting much lighter and faster fading roasted characteristics, but this tea did not provide the experience I was anticipating. What I got was a very grainy, grassy, vegetal tea with pronounced and durable aromas and flavors contributed by the roasting process. I would have liked to see more floral and fruity characteristics, but overall, this was a pleasant and nicely balanced roasted Jin Xuan with some interesting and memorable quirks.