Taiwan Jin Xuan Milk Oolong Tea

Thanks to Angel at Teavivre! I tried this today and I must say, I am impressed. Steeped Gongfu style, it provided a much needed calmness to my morning.
Dry the leaves give faint notes of cream. The liquid color is pale yellow. I went 5 steeps on this and only the 5th was noticeably less in flavor. Still good, the 5th steep was just lighter. As Dinosara noted, it lacks the intensity of ATR, owing mostly to the stated fact that ATR uses TQY. I hadint known that before but it makes sense now.
I have been a devoted fan of ATR’s Milk oolong but I think for the price, I have a new favorite.

An order will be following.

My second batch of samples from Teavivre arrived today! I was very surprised when my mail lady knocked on my door as I didn’t think I would have to sign for this package (I didn’t have to last time, which is weird). Regardless, I was very excited when I took it inside and opened it up! Again, I was at a loss for what to try because I’ve been eyeing all the samples they sent me this time. So, I flipped them over so the label was facing the table and lined them up and shuffled the order around and asked my little sister (I’m babysitting) to pick a number between 1 and 5. She chose 3, and this was the third one in the lineup, so I decided to brew this up. I specifically asked for this one when I asked if I could get another box of samples (thank you again Teavivre!) and so I’m super excited to try this! I’ve also never had a milk oolong before, but I’ve heard wonderful things about them so I’m so excited to try this one.

So.
Dry Leaf: Again, the packaging is wonderful. For this tea (and two or three of the others I got), there are 4 individual baggies with tea in them inside one bigger bag. I don’t know how much is in each because the little baggies are in Chinese (further proof of the high quality of this tea) and it doesn’t say on the bigger bag they’re all in. I assumed that one package would be enough for 10 oz of water, so I threw one in. The dry leaf is pretty green and it smells very fresh and vegetal, a little salty, actually.

First Infusion: About 200 degrees (it says boiling but a.) I think that’s a little too high and b.) my kettle boiled and I wasn’t right there so it cooled for about a minute and a half and I was too lazy to put it back on :P) for 2 minutes in my Noble Mug from DAVIDsTEA. The resulting brew is fairly light. It still smells a little vegetal. Again, I’ve never had a milk oolong so I don’t really know what to expect. It tastes very fresh and slightly vegetal but not in a savory way. Usually when I think of vegetal I think of the opposite of sweet, but this is different. It’s like fresh garden picked veggies. Aasdklfjdaslk this is so hard for me to put into words, but the best I can say is sweet veggies. Definitely not as sweet as a fruit but still slightly sweet. There’s a very distinct heaviness left in my mouth afterword, which I’m assuming is the milk part coming through. As this infusion cools, the sweetness comes out more and more. This is a pretty good, but based on this infusion I wouldn’t repurchase.

Second Infusion: Boiling water for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. It’s times like this when I really wish I had a gaiwan. The leaves have opened up so much and it’s hard to brew them in a basket like I do. I’ll try to find one around here (though finding tea supplies is not-so-surprisingly hard here in Vermont). This infusion is much creamier. I can definitely sense the milkiness of this. It’s smooth and heavy in your mouth. This time it’s a bit sweeter. Not a lot, but it definitely got sweeter. Still vegetal though. I think the main difference in this infusion is the way the creaminess came out. Like the first infusion, as this one cools the sweetness comes out more. It’s starting to turn more fruity than vegetal. I don’t think the leaves have it in them to make a third infusion, so for now this is my review. Not phenomenal (I don’t think I prepared it exactly as I should’ve, so I’m going to try it differently next time.

On somewhat of a side note, I have a good idea for my TeaTrade blog (it’s still a little confusing to me so I don’t really use it). I was thinking about making a tea review blog that connects teas to the arts. Like taking whatever tea I choose to review and then say music that compliments it or art that it makes me think of. It sounds kind of weird now, but what do you guys think? Any comments/suggestions would be great!

Backlog from Thursday night, since my computer was Down With the Sickness.

THIS is the oolong I effed up the first time I tried it! So I attempted it once more the other night after I got home from work. Recently, I found this article that’s actually from Verdant Tea’s website, written by David Duckler. It’s about how to best enjoy tasting a tea, and I found it so enlightening that I’ll leave it here if you haven’t seen it: http://verdanttea.com/how-to-taste-tea/ What hit home the most with me is that, rather than being the Tea Critic who jumps to figure out what I’m tasting, how it compares to what I’m told is in it, and how highly I would rate the tea, the most important thing is just being present in the experience of the tea and enjoying what I’m drinking.

With that article in mind, I took a bit of time to do some gaiwan brewings and tastings of this oolong. This time, I used a thermometer to gauge the water temperature so that I was sure I did not burn it.

I’m not sure I liked the tea itself, it reminds me too much of other oolongs I’m not crazy about, but it was a very enjoyable experience. I did four steepings. The first two had a roasty, slightly “burnt” flavor, but I did find that on the third steeping, the roastiness had subsided and I was getting more of the fruity/floral tone. I’ve rarely had luck with multiple steepings, so I enjoyed finally being able to discern a difference. I also enjoyed smelling the flavor of the wet tea leaves in the nose cup, if that’s what you call it.

But my favorite part about doing gaiwan steepings, honestly, is the auditory experience. Working in a music store, I relish the lack of background noise that I get in a quiet room (we live in what I’d call a rural suburb, so it is possible to achieve complete silence.) There’s something about the sequence of pouring water and the little clacking of the lid on the cup that’s exquisitely soothing, in this way I can’t really describe. I think I would quite enjoy having a whole gongfu set, which I plan on putting on either a birthday or Christmas wish list.

So the tea? Eh. The tasting? Mmm!

Thank you Teavivre for this sample!

This is my first time with a milk oolong and I’m very glad I get to try it after reading so many good reviews about it. I like green oolongs and was afraid of following the directions by using boiling water on this tea, but I did and the results were surprising good!

Little green balls that smell creamy and floral. Wet they smell very very rich and creamy. The infusion was pale yellow-gold with hints of creamy vegetables. I brewed this gaiwan style. I was too afraid to do it western style with boiling water.

Taste: Cream, creamy, creamy! Creamy taste with a nice creamy texture with some sweetness. Hints of floral notes of orchid taking a backseat to the creaminess but letting themselves be known. There was a slight hint of juiciness, of what I couldn’t pinpoint. The aftertaste was creamy at first then had a sort of drying effect in the mouth.

In later steepings the creamy notes waned a little, and vegetal notes started appearing. The drying effect became a little stronger in the aftertaste as well. It reminds me of a tiequanyin without the heavy mouthfeel and lasting aftertaste. I prefer this over tiequanyin simple because this lacks that super thick, heavy mouthfeel and aftertaste.

This is my first milk oolong. I’ve tried black milk teas before, but this is almost entirely different. While in black teas with milk flavoring, I felt like the milk was there to soften the bitterness of it… but with this oolong, there is no bitterness or harshness to hide. It’s only there to add a subtle creaminess.

Last night, I made it hot, and enjoyed it greatly. I decided to have it again as my take-to-work tea, over ice since it was already in the 90’s when I left. It was wonderful iced. The Teavivre oolongs I’ve tried before were on the floral side, but this one is fruity! The flavor reminds me of peaches! It’s like a light peaches and cream oolong! I absolutely love it. Best oolong I’ve ever tried; will order.

Thanks once more to Angel and Teavivre, and I apologize for taking so long to get to all of them! But I really enjoyed all of the samples I received and this one was no exception.

The dry leaf smells sweet and green with a good amount of floral. It lacks the milk candy creaminess I normally associate with a Milk Oolong, but it smells really good, regardless.

First Infusion (200F/2 min)

There was a surprising amount of creaminess, and a lovely buttery mouthfeel. The taste is delicate and very lightly orchid-floral, as well as that very classical green vegatal taste oolongs have. The ending is sweet and lingers.

Second Infusion (200F/2 min)

Very slightly creamier, more orchid in this cup with a smoother finish (that I didn’t think possible!)

Third Infusion (205F/3 min)

The creaminess actually drops off here, and it becomes a more floral cup with hints of sweet hay and subtle fruits.

Fourth Infusion (205F/3 min)

The cup is primarily sweet, fruity and green at this point, with the type of butteriness I expect from some green tea, though the flavors are getting more delicate. This is also the first cup I’ve gotten any astringency from.

I would imagine I could get a fifth steeping out of this, but a sixth would be difficult. I think the leaves outlasted me today, though.

Overall, a very good oolong. Not as creamy as I’ve come to expect from milk oolongs, but good in it’s own right, with sweet orchid and veggie notes.

For pictures:
http://atinyteapot.tumblr.com/post/66108282844/taiwan-jin-xuan-milk-oolong-tea-from-teavivre

I’m trying out my first milk oolong thanks to the most generous staff at Teavivre. Thanks! I have actually had this a couple of times now and I keep coming back to it – there is just something special about it. I feel very lucky to be able to play with the steeping times with this tea – thanks to the generous sized samples that were sent. I have to say that Teavivre has great customer service in my experience.

On to the tea! The dry leaf is tightly rolled and smells both sweet, floral, and just a tiny bit vegetal.
1st infusion (1.5 minutes)- The tea is a medium golden color and smells lightly floral. The taste is also light and slightly sweet. There is just a hint of vegetation, but to me it isn’t actual vegetables – more like a lush plant. The taste is very smooth and the tea itself feels as thick as a broth. There is a heavy feeling on the tongue – almost like the feeling of drinking something creamy but without the flavor. The aftertaste is clean and neutral.
2nd infusion (2.5 minutes) – The tea is still light, slightly more on the vegetation side of things, but it isn’t off-putting. The tea still feels very smooth and the texture of a creamy drink is a bit more prominent. I’m still not actually tasting a creamy flavor, but that may be because this is the first unflavored green oolong I’ve had and my mouth is a bit overwhelmed at the novelty.

I’m looking forward to trying more infusions with this tea! I’ll be updating this later. Thanks again to the very generous staff at Teavivre! I’m so looking forward to trying the other samples that I received.

Sipdown!

I got this sample with my first ever Teavivre order last week. Only one packet… 7 g of tea… I wanted to make sure I did everything right. There was no room for error.

I opened the package and smelled the dry tea. The scent was largely vegetal with a hint of creaminess. I wanted to compare so I popped open the package of Quangzhou Milk Oolong from David’s Tea, the only other milk oolong that I’ve tried. DT’s milk oolong dry tea smells very sweet and milky.. there is no doubt about it and very different from Teavivre’s.

I agonized how to prepare this milk oolong. Teavivre calls for boiling water, whereas I’m used to steeping milk oolong at 82C. After reading some of the reviews on Steepster I decided to steep it at 82C because some people did notice that the subtle milkiness of this tea was compromised when steeped over boiling water.

1st steep: 7g of leaf, 8 ounces of water, 82C, 3 minutes. I wanted to do shorter steep but noticed that at 1 or 2 minutes mark the leaves didn’t even unfurl. Given that I was steeping at a lower temperature I decided to give the first steep full 3 minutes.

The resulting liquid was pale green/yellow with delicate vegetal and floral scent. The tea itself tasted delicious. It was smooth, vegetal, slightly floral with a hint of a cream. The milkiness of this tea is definitely more subdued than that of David’s, you can’t really compare. I’ve come to the peace with a fact that David’s milk oolong is probably infused at some point of production, just like many other milk oolongs probably are. What I’m tasting in Teavivre’s milk oolong is natural milkiness, I’m quite sure of that.

2nd steep: 82C water, 4 minutes. The leaves are beautifully unfurled now… they take up most of the space in my little steeping pot. The liquid is still pale yellow but stronger than the first steep. All the flavours from the first steep are still present although I think it’s less creamy now. Still very delicious though and full of body. I detect lovely, very well balanced astringency throughout the sip. Given another chance I think 3 minute second steep would have been sufficient. This tea packs a lot of flavour.

Overall this is delicious tea definitely deserving of a shelf space. It’s so different from DT milk oolong though, I would have to own them both to be perfectly content. I definitely couldn’t replace one with the other.

Edit: 3rd steep 82-85C, 3.5 minutes. The milky flavour is back in all it’s glory. I think I definitely over did the second steep, should have stopped at 3 minutes.

The final new-to-me Teavivre sample I have to review! I must say that I love Teavivre just for how generous they are. I love the contest they have going right now… I hope I win! I swear whenever I see a Steepster note for anything from Teavivre, it is mentioned as being a free sample! They know their teas are the best! I would probably buy ALL of them if I had the money.

This one is an actual milk oolong, and the milk flavor is in the leaf growing process and not actually flavored with something artificial. I know this because this one is called a Jin Xuan and not just ‘milk oolong’. Teavivre’s instructions are for 212 degrees, 2-3 teaspoons with a rinse and then 1,2,3 minute steep times. One sample package had about two teaspoons (honestly if I used three teaspoons, the unfurled leaves would have been pouring out of the brew basket!)

Steep #1 // few minutes after boiling // 1 min
It’s new to me that boiling will not burn an oolong. It certainly doesn’t ruin this one. I just thought it would be more like green tea and less like black tea. Steep times and temps seem to be the most different with oolongs. The dry leaves are so bright green and actually smell like vegetables. The steep color is a light butter yellow and the main flavor profile is the same. It isn’t floral, fruity or vegetal — it is sweet, creamy, butter. Less like milk, but when it is an ACTUAL milk oolong and not flavored as such artificially, it doesn’t have as strong of a milk flavor.

Steep #2 // a few minutes after boiling // 2 min
More delicious butter! That is still the main flavor profile. So so good. I love the different flavor profiles that oolongs have. I’m surprised this cup stayed so similar to the first cup, since oolongs usually change. The bottom of this mug tasted like cream, even cold!

Steep #3 // just boiled // 3 min
This one seemed a touch too bitter, less butter, though it was still drinkable. It tasted more like orchids this time! I would have went two and a half minutes for this steep. This tea is lovely!

Oh this is a perfect tea for a cold and rainy afternoon. Soft, warm, a hint of buttery osmanthus and of course the gentle, inconspicuous milk note. The green of the unfurling leaves matches the few mossy things left outside in the fog that haven’t been swept away in the coming of winter. The aroma of the brewed tea is comforting and restful. I think I’ll have another steep or three (and it will be a re-order for sure). Stay warm, friends!