Taiwan Jin Xuan Milk Oolong Tea (Flavored)

I was craving a bit of milk oolong this afternoon, and remembered that I hadn’t tried this one generously sent to me by Teavivre yet!

The aroma of both the dry and steeped tea is kind of a caramelly, milky aroma. Very appetizing.

The flavour is pretty delicious as well. I can taste a vegetal oolong beneath the milky, caramelly flavouring, which blend fairly well together (although I don’t recall such a sharp, vegetal flavour with other milk oolongs I’ve tried, but it’s ok). The milky taste and oolong aftertaste linger in your mouth for a while after, which is enjoyable.

Unlike Teavivre’s unflavoured milk oolong, which I enjoyed but didn’t find particularly milky, this one clearly tastes deliciously milky, but I feel a bit like it’s not quite what I want from a milk oolong. I really can’t quite put my finger on it; it may be that it’s flavoured and there’s something not quite meshing, or for all I know, I messed up the brewing parameters. Either way, it is certainly enjoyable!

I think DavidsTea’s Quangzhou Milk Oolong is going to be awfully difficult for other teas to beat… (although the Silky Green from Bird Pick Tea & Herb was very, very close, if not better).

First off, I got an apartment, woot woot! It is a nice little one bedroom and I am really looking forward to it. Finally!

I had a huge lunch of Indian food today so I wanted something relatively light. I also wanted to try to use up some of my Teavivre samples that have been opened so that they don’t age too badly. I decided to have another go at this one. It is very tasty but it lacks a creaminess to the body that I usually want from my milk teas. It is nicely fresh and green, with a bit of buttery peachiness. It’s particularly delicious as it cools down, making me think this would be a fantastic and refreshing iced tea as well.

It is a cold and rainy day today, so I decided to break out my flavored milk oolong that Teavivre generously sent me to try. Now, I do have to confess that I have had it at least one time before and I just forgot to log it. I also figured that it would be good to review this after I drank the regular milk oolong.

I tossed about 4 teaspoons into my french press this time. I normally brew about 3 teaspoons at a time, but I had a little extra fall when I was shaking out the packet. So I will actually try to steep this tea to death this time because of the slight extra I used. I don’t want to waste any.

So far, the first steep at 2 minutes is very smooth. It has a slight milky scent and is creamy on the tongue. Because it is flavored, the milky quality is upped to the point where I can almost smell warm milk. There is no mineral taste at all yet. It is all satin on the tongue.

Second Steep at about 2 and a half minutes. I noticed that the liquor was a bright golden and it smelled ready, so I stopped it there instead of going onto three minutes. The smell is divine! It smells even better than the first steep. The leaves were opening up more and I can see that the leaves are going to be huge. They still aren’t fully open yet. The taste is still creamy smooth. There is a hint of floral riding with the taste now and a slight caramel hint. It is present enough to make my tastebuds register it as a sweet taste. Not overly sweet, but sweet enough. So second steep, nice and sweet.

Third Steep is even more golden in color than the second steep! Wow. And it has only been for brewing for three minutes now. It is starting to smell wonderfully buttery and I am restraining burying my nose deep into my cup. It now tastes sweet. The sweetness was creeping up in the second steep, but this steep is starting to taste like I put a little agave syrup in it. Not sugar sweet, but agave sweet. It is two distinct sweet tastes. The milky taste is starting to turn and starting to taste creamy instead of milky. There is still no mineral taste like there is in the regular milk oolong. There is a slight taste of green in there because of the oolong base, but no minerals.

It is time for the Fourth Steep! I swear, this tea is like honey dripping out of my french press. Warm and creamy scent to the nose still. I steeped it about 3.5 minutes. The silky smooth taste has drifted from milky to creamy. It is not as sweet as the third steep, but you can tell that it is much sweeter than the first and second steeps. I feel almost like I am drinking a dessert tea. The flavor is not waning at all yet. I am starting to get a hint of butter on the right tip of my tongue. Just a hint. Other than that it is all golden smooth cream. I am still not tired of the flavor yet.

I’m going to pause for a moment before the fifth steep and think about how I have taken one thing of tea from breakfast until dinner and probably one more drink after dinner if the flavor is still strong enough on this steep. Brewed this one for a whole four minutes. It is still as golden as it ever was. It is beautiful. It smells like butter to me now. No more milk, no more cream. Just butter. Wow, just wow. It tastes like cream. Thick and sweet cream. Five steeps in and it still tastes like this. I’m blown away.

I took a shower and decided that I at least needed to go onto the sixth steep. So now I smell like lavender and the tea still smells like butter. This one sat for four and a half minutes. It is starting to develop a very light mineral smell. I think the green oolong might finally be showing its head through the flavor. The flavor is definitely a little lighter on this steep. There is a lot less of a creamy mouthfeel in this steep than was present in the last steep. The flavor is still present but has developed into butter that you can taste best on the back and sides of your tongue. It is still sweet though.

I am stopping at the sixth steep even though I think the flavor could carry you through at least one more steep. The flavor profile is weakening and I think the next steeps will be weaker and weaker. That being said, every steep I made was like steeping enough for two cups so I got at least 12 cups of tea out of this. That is a lot of tea!

I now know why people really like milk oolongs. They are light and sweet. I think I may have found a new favorite type of tea besides Earl Grey. I am delighted that Teavivre let me try and enjoy this tea.

Thanks for being patient with my tea review for today. Next time I do a big one like this, I’m putting it in a notebook first. I didn’t expect to go through six steepings of this wonderful tea!

Sipdown!
What a wonderful sample. Seriously Teavivre, thank you for the sample! I have decided that currently my favorite milk oolongs go: Teavivre, Teavivre (flavored), and then David’s. This is mainly due to the fact that I like the floral/sweet/fruity notes in Teavivre milk oolongs as compared to David’s more creamy version. All are wonderful though.
I normally do 3, 3min brews of this tea and it stands up quite nicely. This is a very sweet, smooth tea that would be great for anyone looking for milk oolong.

right off the bat, thanks to angel for this wonderful sample! ‘in your experience how is teavivre’s customer service, james?’ funny you should ask, because i was planning on mentioning that first off (because that’s what we all consider first with a tea delivery, lol).

my teavivre samples arrived yesterday afternoon. i was running around like a crazy man and didn’t even have a chance to open the box until evening. then (following short sorceress’s very sensible plan) i vowed not to open it until i had finished my other open samples… after all no tea purchases (mostly) until august. and then i got an email.

it was angel from teavivre. she had received notice that my parcel had arrived and she wanted to make sure there was no damage to the samples. well i HAD to open it up then, didn’t i? it would be rude not to! seriously, i was very impressed… watching the delivery confirmations, checking for damaged samples??? i have received free tea samples before— as a rule the companies aren’t too worried about whether there’s any damage when it’s sent for free. it was also significant that teavivre appeared to be as happy about me receiving my samples as i was to have them. huge props specifically to angel for that lovely bit of diligence.

the tea, ooooooooooooooh the tea. light, sweet, creamy, mild floral notes finishing up with a mild marine note. echoes of a green oolong. no astringency, no caffeine stick on my tongue. this is a comfort tea. the kind that hugs you when you are stuck in traffic and running late. it is naturally sweet and when i take a small sip it seems to fill up my mouth.

i was up early today, running all over the city with nothing but this tea to keep my sanity. i was pressed into a new assessment protocol with this one; i took an extra five minutes (which made me late, but too bad) and recorded my observations on my iphone. another thing: i am notoriously bad for resteeping. i am generally so busy trying new teas that i only steep the one time. the sample package i opened this morning is the only tea i have had all day. why? 1)because i like it that much, 2) because it is that good on a resteep.

i really like this tea, so this is where i take a moment to become a drama llama… (i also sincerely believe this has been well earned):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-FfEcVcHWU

impressive. in every way. yes i will buy it when i run out of samples.

OH! AND THAT WAS NOTE NUMBER 100!!! appropriate that i hit triple digits with such a great tea…

Finally getting this sample! Thanks Teavivre!

First impression of the dry leaf is that it smells a lot like DT’s milk oolong. Make you wonder if theirs is flavored. It’s like condensed milk. Yummy!

First steep is more like cream cheese frosting than milk. There is a lot of vegetal flavor coming through. Smooth and sweet.

Second steep is less milky and more vegetal. Maybe like creamed veggies. :)

The leaves expand like crazy, of course. Good old dependable green oolong. :) I think I might like the unflavored version more but this is something I’ll enjoy to the last drop anyways.

Second tea of the morning….. (SRP #40)

We finally have weather cool enough that I am craving oolong. I still don’t know how all of that works for me, but I seem to be craving green and oolong tea less with the warmer weather. I guess it is that I crave iced tea, and for me that is usually a black tea. I blame my midwestern upbringing on that one. At least I have moved beyond Lipton Instant…or Lipton sun tea. Maybe there is still hope in that I can move beyond the black teas for iced….. After all, this is a journey, and my tastes have all ready changed a little.

My sample was purchased. The leaves are tight bright green pellets. The scent of the dry tea is of cream and butter. I am pretty sure I am going to like this one better than the unflavored. The liquor is a golden yellow, and really a little deeper than I expected. The leaves brew up absolutely huge. The scent of the brewed tea is of cream and butter, again, with a hint of something very lightly floral. I definitely like this better than the unflavored version. If I am ever in the market for a milk oolong again, this will be the one I purchase. It is still not quite as good as the Milk Oolong from American Tearoom, but then I am not willing to get a second mortgage on my house to buy tea (meaning it is way too expensive a tea that is not in my absolute favorite type.) This one is very good and a great value at around $11 for 100g. For comparison, the other is $60 for the same weight and it has a Tie Kwan Yin base.

Usual mug method for 2 minutes, no additions. I followed the brewing parameters on the label.

I’m surprised nobody has logged this one yet. I should probably start with the one without flavoring, but I was more curious to know if all the other milk oolongs I’ve had are definitely flavored. This is the first that has actually been upfront about it.

When I took the steeper basket out, all I could smell was the milky scent. I can definitely say that I’ve never had that happen before.

So then I was worried it was going to be SUPER strongly flavored but it’s not. It does though taste like a couple milk oolongs I’ve had, namely the first one I ever bought from a local shop.

Not really a problem, because I bought 100g of this tea. I like to have the milk flavor last for a couple infusions, as I’m sure it will given the smell of the leaves. First one was very creamy and buttery, with a floral aftertaste.

Second one coming up after I finally call my mom to wish her a happy birthday. Although I may not return because the person who has just moved in above me is extremely obnoxious after two days. So, if I kill him, bail me out with tea.

Oddly this empty threat made him and his buddies go inside. I was getting really mad last night because he dropped something RIGHT above where I was sitting while working on my paper and I nearly had heart failure since I was really into the paper at that point.

Anyway. Second steep. I was distracted on the phone while drinking it, but it really tasted very similar to the first steep. A bit more floral, for sure, but still good on the creamy taste. I can’t help but go with one more for the night now…

Still creamy on the third steep! I think all my other oolongs have probably been flavored just a tiny bit judging by this and what others have said about the unflavored version of this tea.

Though I must say, I love that Teavivre even puts the name of the flavoring company on the product page for the tea. Cool to know!

I finished the last of this today, and it is all gone. I had held onto it til I could get more milk oolong locally I liked as much, which I have. Neither are quite as good as this, but they come close, so I am good with that.

But this tea, oh, it makes my heart sing. It is one of the few teas I own that I don’t sweeten because it is amazing on its own, and I enjoy the sort of salty, brothy, vegetal notes in this layered with a creaminess that is subtle on the tongue.

Am I sad to see the last of this go? Yes I am. I have enjoyed it greatly, and thank Angel at Teavivre for this generous sample. On the other hand, I can now move on to some of the other samples from my last shipment.

My friend Michelle and I tried this flavored version again compliments of Michelle on here, after a few steeps of the unimpresive non-flavored version. This tea smells like peaches! And tastes like peaches & cream! It’s kinda intense and unfortunately a wee bit cloying but still tasty. I have more of this to play around with so we’ll see. But neither were as good as Fong Mong’s Milk Oolong, even though I do think highly of Teavivre.