Taiwan 'Jin Xuan' Milk Oolong Tea

This tea is joy. Steaming leaves boofed right up my nose with nougat, caramel, condensed milk. Alistair assured me the flavoring was all plant-based or I’d be side-eyeing this scrumpkin.

Slow open with caramel and minerality on the nose. Mouthfeel is smooth with mineral water, rock sugar… no cream yet, actually.

Second steep boofs up my nose again — condensed milk, nougat. Taste opens up to lilac, maybe lavender… thicker now, and creamy. Butterscotch! Mild astringency and vegetals.

Nougat is persistent on the nose. I love it. Third steep keeps astringency, sweets are moving down from the nose onto the palate now. Some raw vegetal notes, like broccoli stems. Grandma is slipping me a Werther’s Original while the other adults eat crudite.

Nice full mouth in the fourth steep; this keeps steeping like a champ. Astringent, creamy, cucumber, fleeting anise… seems like the oolong is really coming through the flavoring now. Shining. Lily in the next steep, with sugar and caramel sweetness lingering.

I poured a few more steeps. The base is so nice, delicate and wispy here at the end. Clean baby (sorry not sorry), honey, medium mouthfeel.

I adore this layering of punch and subtlety, both. There’s so much to find if you feel like poking around here, but it’s also a very comforting and easy friend (who brought cake) if that’s what you’re in the mood for.

My last teabox oolong (this one came from the Discovery Teabox, so thanks to Skysamurai for coordinating and all who contributed!), and also my last milk oolong from my cupboard (booooooo!) until I restock one.

My sample was just the right size for about the leaf-to-water ratio I use when I cold brew a litre of oolong, and I have never tried milk oolong that way (though I have done other green oolongs cold brewed, and typically love them that style!) so I figured I’d go for it. 7.5g of leaf (I usually use 8g but eh, close enough!) in about 946ml of water in a mason jar, left to brew in the fridge overnight, and then strained the next morning. I’ve been sipping it out of a cold thermos throughout the hot (too hot!) day.

Refreshing, still with buttered vegetable notes. I’m getting a bit of a fresh cucumber/zuccini note, which is the first time I’ve tasted that in a Jin Xuan… not sure if it happens to be this particular variety and harvest or the cold brew preparation, but it is very pleasant. The florality feels a little more muted to me prepared this way… It’s coming out a bit as a floral sweetness at the back of the throat toward the end of the sip, but not as a strong flavor. It tastes a bit more green or herbaceous… like a very sweet grass rather than blossomy/perfumy. The butter note is still quite present, and on some sips it really lingers on the tongue.

I’ll certainly miss having a milk oolong around, but know it’ll never be too long before another will make its way back into my cupboards… I love the stuff! Thanks for allowing me to sample this one!

I hope everyone celebrating has a great Thanksgiving! I had this one a couple days ago. A delicious oolong. Surprisingly I didn’t notice much in the way of a ‘milk’ flavor, whether natural or added. The flavor is light, but I do appreciate when the flavor of an oolong doesn’t get bitey. Not much to say on this one. Dare I say it’s kind of flavorless? Maybe it’s the way I brewed it. It’s a good oolong. But to call it ‘milk’ oolong I would have liked to notice that aspect in the flavor. All three steeps seemed identical in flavor, so at least it is consistent.
Steep #1 // 1 heaping teaspoon // 20 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 10 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 2 min

Sipdown.

Notes of vegetables, broccoli, artichoke, spinach. Buttery popcorn, some cream, and light floral notes and sugarcane sweetness. Compared to Republic of Tea milk oolong, this is far better (no artificial taste) but compared to some of their other Jin Xuan that What-Cha offers, it is nothing exceptional. I used gongfu style before, but for this sipdown, I put the remainder in a teapot. I think it tastes much better this way. Maybe it just tastes better because it is a sipdown… That means I’m closer to be able to purchase some of my favorite What-Cha teas instead. ^^

I am on my 8th rebrew and it’s still strong. The dry leaf smell is intense and so buttery. I had the other milk oolong What-cha had, and I prefer this one. I know there’s extra flavoring, but it’s so good!!! It’s like buttery spinach in a cup. I taste the butter popcorn others noted. Excellent milk oolong, probably one of the best I’ve had.

First oolong. First grandpa-style brewing. Overwhelming tastes of butter. There’s butter popcorn down there somewhere, and buttered veggies. But mainly just butter and it’s delicious.

Brewed grandpa style with about a 1:1 grams/oz tea and water. I’m sensitive to bitterness so I typically do my grandpa style fairly cool.

The water at 175 may be a little cool for this one but the tea did come out delightfully subtle, predominantly green with a mild butteriness, a little like buttered steamed green beans. If you find this tea too popcorn-y I’d recommend it this way but if you like the strong butteriness I’d go gongfu.

Here is another tea that I meant to get around to quite some time ago, but just made time for recently. I think I was probably just trying to focus on some of the unflavored teas I had larger amounts of and ended up forgetting about this one, but man, do I wish I had gotten to it a little sooner! This was a very nice milk oolong.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in a 4 ounce gaiwan filled with 185 F water for 7 seconds. This infusion was chased by 14 subsequent infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 10 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, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and 7 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted pronounced aromas of cream, butter, popcorn, and grass underscored by a faint floral scent. After the rinse, I detected a subtle lilac aroma coupled with more powerful aromas of custard and coconut milk. The first infusion introduced hints of ripe melon, spinach, and honeysuckle to the bouquet. In the mouth, I easily detected gentle notes of cream, butter, custard, popcorn, damp grass, spinach, and coconut milk balanced by subtle traces of fresh flowers. Subsequent infusions introduced a slightly more pronounced lilac presence, as well as emerging impressions of honeysuckle, butterscotch, cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple, broccoli, daylily shoots, minerals, and bok choy. The later infusions were smooth and silky, offering a subtle mineral presence and lingering hints of cream, butter, coconut milk, popcorn, spinach, broccoli, and daylily shoots.

This was a nice milk oolong. I normally do not enjoy enhanced/flavored Jin Xuans like this, but this one was excellent. It had a wonderful texture, a satisfyingly full body, and a unique, yet approachable mix of aromas and flavors that displayed unexpected longevity. I would have no issue recommending this tea to seasoned oolong drinkers and neophytes alike.

I’m still figuring out whether I like this tea or not. I’m leaning more towards enjoying it, then not enjoying it. When I opened the package it smelled overwhelmingly of movie theater popcorn. While that’s not a bad thing, it was a much stronger smell then I was anticipating. I’m on my first steep now, and it has quite an overpowering taste. I hope that when I steep it again the flavor will itself mellow out. It took me a few minutes to figure out what exactly my first flavor impression was but, I finally put my finger on it, it reminds me of artichokes.

Butter and floral sweet, honeysuckle if I squint. And then, slight gentle vegetal green, like quickly steamed young bok choy.