China Fujian Anxi 'Jin Xuan' Milk Oolong Tea

Gentle sweet mango and milk.

The milk here is not over the top creamy and thick, but it’s present. Just mellow.

The sweetness lingers on the lips after each sip.

Quite a delightful way to start the day.

I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday.

Happy Christmas, Steepsters!

This tea is very forgiving. I forgot about it while gong fuing it, and it was lovely as ever, not bitter! Not a milky as some I have had…though those probably had artificial ingredients. Beautiful full leaves. I like this tea on lazy days since Milk Oolongs have such a rebrewing power. I go for 10 rebrews. Saw another reviewer for 12!

Sipdown (257)

With this tea finished, I have no more teas from 2017. Yay! So, now I need to work on my 2018 teas – as such, I moved the three blends I have from January 2018 into my focus box and my plan is to have a cup of one of those teas first each day and then I will enjoy my other teas. Hopefully it goes alright.

As for this tea, its a solid milk oolong. Always mellow and sweet. Touch floral but not overly so. It’s nice and I am always surprised by how much I enjoy it, even though I don’t really enjoy it often. I would consider ordering this again if I placed a What-Cha order but I just sleep on it too much.

Even though it has been less than a week, it feels like forever since I have posted a review. Where have I been? I took some time off to visit friends in Lexington, KY. I am very likely moving there in a month or two. I guess I’ll have to change my Steepster name since I won’t be living in the eastern part of this state anymore. Anyway, despite the fact that I haven’t been posting, I have been drinking tea. Yes, the backlog is once again full. Yes, I still have notes from October I need to post. Getting back into the groove of regularly posting reviews, I wasn’t sure where to start, so I just randomly chose this tea. I finished a sample of it late last week. I found it to be a very nice milk oolong.

Naturally, I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 185 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, I noted aromas of cream, butter, and vanilla coming from the dry leaves. After the rinse, I noted an emerging custard scent. The first infusion began to reveal aromas of steamed rice, grass, and flowers. In the mouth, the liquor revealed delicate notes of cream, grass, butter, and vanilla with floral impressions that reminded me of daylily, Narcissus, and orchid. Subsequent infusions brought out the custard and steamed rice on the palate. I also found new notes of coconut milk, spinach, mango, pineapple, daylily shoots, pear, lettuce, sugarcane, minerals, seaweed, and honeysuckle. Later infusions mostly offered hints of cream, butter, steamed rice, lettuce, grass, spinach, minerals, and daylily shoots.

This was a much softer, subtler, more refined tea than I was expecting. The aromas and flavors were masterfully integrated. Nothing came off as being uneven or heavy-handed. Normally, I find flavored oolongs of this type to go way too heavy on the milkiness, but this one (thankfully) did not. Despite the fact that I would not turn to this over a good Taiwanese milk oolong or a traditional, unflavored Jin Xuan, I found it to be a very good tea. If you are into milk oolongs at all, this one is definitely worth a try.

A fruity and well rounded milk oolong that rewards multiple steeps. Starts off very light, and gradually develops a very creamy mouthfeel.

When opening the package, the smell of the tea is a bit overpowering but i couldn’t take my nose off because it smells really good.

It has this coconut milk pudding smell that I love.

Usually the way I brew my tea is the Gong fu style. Once the tea it’s brewed the scent transfers to the liquour and the scent is not overpowering but very floral with a hint of coconut pudding.

In total, I love this tea and will buy it again.

This scented Jin Xuan is slightly more nuanced and subdued than the other Milk Oolong I’m drinking alongside it. It distinctly and consistently smells and tastes of creamy mango pudding. Sometimes that mango morphs into peach yogurt, which is equally fun. The pink-orange stone fruits with cream vibe make for a nice springtime cup.

Oddly enough, I find this one to have a powdery texture, but that may be my relationship with those particular fruit notes.

Steep Count: 3

I had some roasted seaweed with the last cup and somehow that doubled the mango flavouring. Food pairings work in mysterious ways.

(2016 Spring Harvest)

Sample from crowkettle this is a tasty milk oolong, but it’s nothing knock your socks off.

4 minutes seems like too long of an infusion for this one.

Another sipdown! It was just a sample, but still.
This was harvested spring 2015 from Tai Hua Mountain in Anxi, Jujian, China

I did 5 steeps of 225 mL hottish water (~90 *C) with 1 tsp leaves. Each steep was about 1-2 minutes.

This is a very sweet and creamy (milk/cream more so than salty/buttery). It was the perfect combination of creamy, sweet, grain/toasty, and umami. Not so much vegetal exactly (as in, not grassy), but with a greener or medium oxidation oolong flavour. This is my ideal oolong just because of the perfect balance between all of its aspects. I’ll be ordering this in my next what-cha order for sure. You can’t get any better than this.