Alishan Jin Xuan Oolong Tea

Lately, I’ve been trying to reduce my current stash and visiting more with Brie, so I’ve even been drinking less tea. :-// I received my Fong Mong Tea samples Monday or Tuesday, but didn’t have a chance to sample this until last night. A huge Thank You to Fong Mong Tea for these samples! :))

Right away this tea looked greener. The few green oolong teas I’ve had never seem to infuse as well as a good Tie Guan Yin, but I do like them. My initial smell of the dry leaves reminded me of a milk oolong. When I put them in my warmed tea press, the aroma was more buttery than the two milk oolongs I’ve tried. The steeping leaves were sssoooo buttery sweet. The wet leaves were very buttery to me, and when cooling, they had a flowery sweetness I can only describe as gardenias.

The cup is ecru in color, with a definite sweetness and light buttery aromas. There is also a fruity nature in the cup. There is a very smooth, buttery quality that stands out, yet it is gentle and calming. The flowery sweet flavors are more discernable on the back of my palate after swallowing.

My second cup steeped even more buttery. The wet leaves were most buttery and vegetal-like buttered corn or peas, cooling to a vegetal sweetness. Cup is slightly darker, and more aromatically buttery and fruity. My palate was happy, with buttery goodness at the forefront, so sweet and so smooth. :)) Light fruits seemingly emerge-light peaches, not as pronounced as a good Tie Guan Yin though. There is absolutely no astringency at all!! The best cup of the three. :)) [1:15 at 180*]

Although the aromas in the third cup are fading, it was still quite creamy and sweet. The tastes are also waning, with a light creamy sweetness on my palate. This was the most vegetal of the cups, reminding me of peas on the back of my palate. The fully opened leaves are big & beautiful! [5 minutes at 180*]

I really enjoyed this cup of tea-the buttery nature and smooth cup really stands out. On a sad note, I lost my pet bunny Tchai last Saturday. Such a sweet, gentle girl! <3 :-(( Hop on Tchai!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6EeObPCMR8

Cupped: Friday, June 15, 2012.

Reviewed: Saturday, June 16, 2012.

Well I got the job and now the only problem is I didn’t realize by mid-October she meant starting two days next week. Ummm. Because I have been zoned out all day (it’s amazing I actually got myself to the mall) I didn’t even think to say anything about the wedding I have to go to in 2 weeks…and now she’s on vacation. Well. I guess I’ll say something Tuesday? I am finding it incredibly hard to be excited because of how horrible I constantly feel and I’m starting to question if it’s even just ragweed.

So my mom was all like oh get yourself a beer or a nice cup of tea. I was just like oh god not drinking right now. I instead got myself another nap and now I’m going to see how long I can stay awake and drink a nice tea. I’ve been holding onto these samples to have them when I feel like I can devote time to them.

I can’t smell very well though. Of course. I put the entire 6g into my yixing pot and rinsed the leaves first, then steeped for 20 seconds.

I don’t know if that is too short or what, but this is more like a sweet garden of flowers dipped in mineral water and cream. And I really hate that I decided to drink this because I don’t think my tastebuds are going to do it justice.

Okay, gave up on that steep and am trying one for 45 seconds. It has much more color to it. Now we have butter and a mouthful of gardenias for sure. It is so velvety too.

This is fabulous! A little Alishan … a little milk Oolong … all in one cup! Yum!

I do love Alishan, it’s my favorite of the Oolongs for its delicious subtle complexity. That this is also a Jin Xuan really was enticing to me. This is probably not my first Alishan that is also a Jin Xuan but it’s the first time I’ve noticed it and put it together.

A delicious, delightful Oolong. So very nice.

Thank you FONG MONG TEA for this lovely sample tea!

This is the last of the generous samples to review from FONG MONG TEA. I must comment on the high quality of the tea and supurb experience with the shipping, and packaging. I know that I am not alone in thanking this company for introducing so many of us to their fine tea’s.

This morning I selected this tea to fit the dappled sunshine coming through my window. Sparkling morning light reminds me of reflective light bouncing off water or peeking through the trees. I often pick a tea to fit the weather like setting a scene.

I brewed the tea in a ceramic vessel, used half the sample packet for a 6 minute steep.

The liquor was sunny yellow gold and clear.

My first sip was the flavor of juicy white asparagas…vegital but not too ‘green’ tasting. There was a sweet candied violet background flavor under the asparagas…unique.
My mouth began to tingle a little and I recognized the splay of tannin on my tongue just at the end of the tasting.
As the tea cooled, there was no additional tannin and little change in texture (a little creamier).
I sweetened the tea which flipped the floral flavor to dominant and the vegital to secondary in taste order. An interesting way to customize the experience to suit individual taste preference. Vegital…straight and for Floral…add sweetening.

Second steeping:
This steeping holds up well. The flavor profile remains unchanged.

An additional note…on how addicted I am to tea. :^(
While writing away, I had a small pot of HONEY on the STOVE on low with some LAPSANG SOUCHONG in the pot to infuse it for use as a drizzle on chicken or fruit/cheese. WELL I FORGOT ABOUT IT! I ended up with a nice smelling house and HONEY/LS TAFFY! GARRRR!
(No I refuse to chalk it up to old age or disability! It’s tea addiction! I get so engrossed in these tea tastings and reviews that the end of ages could come on Dec. 12th and I’d still be on Steepster!)

Oh great, now my mouse is sticky!

Argh, Steepster ate my quite long tasting note! Maaaan. Sipdown, 181. Thanks to Fong Mong for the sample, and sorry it took me so long to get around to reviewing it. I decided to brew this one gong fu today, using the 6g vaccum sealed sample in my teapot.

I did a rinse first and then a 20 second steep. I normally would have a shorter first steep for gongfu, but even at 6g these leaves didn’t look like a lot in my tea pot so I decided to steep them a bit longer. It turned out well; the first steep smells floral and a bit buttery, and it tastes like buttery sugar snap peas. It definitely has a hint of vegetal sweetness.

For my second steep I actually decided to go ahead and go 1 minute because the first steep was fairly light as it was. I also just used the water in my teapot that had cooled to 190degF. This steep is more vegetal but it still has a floral quality and a sweet note here and there. This one isn’t particularly creamy but it does have a very smooth texture. Definitely an enjoyable tea for this afternoon.

Thank you to Fong Mong Tea for this sample!

I did a quick rinse of my leaves in warm water, I am so accustomed to doing this now after hanging out in Chinese tea shops where they rinse everything and today I’m infuser mugging it since I’m not at home, but decided to use the entire 6g sample so I could have more of a gong fu experience.

Steep #1: around 45 seconds?? This is already very nice. I’m getting an aroma of buttered popcorn and the tea is quite creamy with some light floral notes. I know some milk oolongs are artifically flavored but I think this is natural.

Steep #2: also around 45 seconds. There are some more floral notes coming up now, I want to say gardenia? Still very buttery, a bit nutty, definitely seems creamy and a bit vegetal. Does remind me a bit of buttered peas or corn.

Steep #3: Slightly more vegetal and less flowery but still a very pleasant cuppa.

I have to admit that Jin Xuans are not my favorite type of oolong, I must have requested this without realizing what it was. Still, it was very enjoyable and a tasty tea. I think I will really appreciate the High Mountain oolong and the Dong Ding.

My samples arrived today from Fong Mong Tea, many thanks to them. After I dealt with the mailman who seems to be a bit suspicious of a seventeen year old repeatedly receiving packages from China and Taiwan, I immediately sliced open the package in the most haphazard and self-endangering way I possibly could. I thought to myself “What’ll it be, a roasty highly-oxidized oolong or a floral and sweet green oolong?”; I concluded that today was a green oolong kind of day.

It was a warm and sunny day, I had just finished my last day of finals and I was now out of school…which in my mind warranted something reminiscent of summer, and to me a green oolong is the best representation of summer in a cup. For one, it’s deep green like the trees and other plant life now thriving in the absence of winter’s oppressive cold. And, of course, the sweet floral goodness that only a green oolong can provide.

This oolong was pretty much what I was expecting as far as its characteristics were concerned. Floral, check. Sweet, check. But it exceeded my expectations as far as just how WELL it actually pulled those things off. As I held the mug up to my face, I was transported to green fields in some vague yet familiar countryside filled with rolling hills and vividly colored flowers. I do love when a tea can fill my head with pleasant imagery. The sweetness was natural and balanced. And my favorite part about this tea, man it was MILKY. It felt very thick as a swished it around in my mouth and I just love that in a tea. You could cut it with a knife.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this oolong experience and I want to say thanks again to Fong Mong for the samples.

The tightly coiled pellets give off a creamy, sweet milky oolong scent. There were sticks/extra dried stems present, seen previously in their Fruity Sijichun. I don’t care personally, but thought it was worth a mention.

The tea is light apple in color with a faintly sweet, smooth vegetal taste. It has a heavy mouthfeel for an Oolong. At 5 minutes it smells overcooked, but doesn’t taste it. Bonnie is SPOT ON with her White Asparagus note, that’s EXACTLY what this reminds me of. Subsequent steepings became sweeter and more floral. This seemed like excellent quality, but I’m not sure Alishan’s are for me.

Oolong after Oolong after Oolong…YES…it appears I had a LOT of Oolong to drink in my NEW-TO-ME Pile! I have made quite the dent in it this week tho! YAY!

This really didn’t have a scent to it before or after infusion.

The tea-on-the-tongue, however, was very creamy, velvety, smooth. Light on the sweetness and light on the buttery notes! This is an extremely relaxing Alishan – and I do love a good Alishan. AhhhhhH!

Wow…. an 8-minute infusion when I meant to infuse for three. Good thing the instructions recommended 6?? Here’s hoping it’s not ruined :( The smell is pretty delicious, like a milk oolong.

Ahhh, not ruined, but definitely oversteeped, because there’s astringency here that would probably not be around otherwise. The flavour is quite vegetal and a bit sweet. Not really floral nor creamy. I’ve learned though, that an oversteeped oolong mushes all the yummy flavours into a big ball of mediocre, so this is definitely not a fair assessment of this tea. I’ll try harder to keep an eye on the time with the second infusion!

Thanks for the sample, Fong Mong Tea!

ETA: Second infusion (~4min/82C) is quite tasty. Light and oolongy, with some delicious creaminess. Very slight bit of astringency, so the first infusion was clearly a mistake, that I regret immensely. Luckily there’s enough in the packet for two infusions, so I’ll get a second chance later (probably once I make it through all of these!) I think I’ll have to do some big oolong comparison at some point though – I’m having trouble remembering from one sample to the next. I think this one might be akin to Teavivre’s unflavoured milk oolong… but I don’t really know! Either way, this is delicious. I love oolong :)

Last tea I tried yesterday, but how could I not compare? I could tell this one was special as soon as the dry leaves hit the bottom my warm mug, creammmy! I started with a flash steep on this and am glad I did. While most of the oolongs I tried yesterday benefited from higher temperatures and longer steep times, I feel this did better with short ones.

I was rewarded with a heavenly experience both in taste and aroma. I don’t think I can compare this to anything. I’ve seen other’s review milk oolongs and say they are more like milk candies or more like butter or cream than milk. I’ve never had milk candies and couldn’t be bothered with differentiating my dairy last night, because I was blissed out from this tea, but I will say it was a sweet milkiness that left a cool tingle on first the back of my tongue, gradually working its way forward with each sip. I remember calling down to the husband last night “oh dear, I think this is going to be something I crave!”

Unfortunately I did add more time to the second steep and it fell short of the first. I hoped the third would be better, but it wasn’t until I returned to short steeps that I got that special something. Perhaps it would be fine with one longer steep, but I used all my leaves and was all tea-ed out by that time last night anyway. I just revived this this afternoon and it tastes like a good green oolong with a bit more fullness and coolness in the mouth. I will definitely pursue more Jin Xuan! Thank you so very much Fong Mong Tea for the introduction!

Very strong flavour. I’m detecting a flavour reminiscent of grapefruit which I have associated with Milk Oolong in the past. Strong roasted tone (bordering on bitter) and mild milky undertone. I’m also detecting some lemony-type flavour on the sip. Sweet on the finish. The after taste is sweet and has floral hints.

As the tea cools, I’m getting more of a full milk oolong-like hit with each sip. The roasted tone moves more into the background and the milkiness is allowed to come out more. Very delightful! I can detect some grassy notes as well. The finish is still very sweet with mild floral hints. After taste is mainly of roasted and floral flavour.

Second infusion- The milkiness really comes out The roasted flavour isn’t as prevalent, which is nice as it was a little strong on the first infusion. Smoother and softer version of the first infusion.

The flavour held pretty well for 3 infusions. I didn’t try past 3 though.

Free sample from Fong Mong Tea

This is the last of my samples from Fong Mong and I had high hopes of it based on my experience with their other teas. I am pleased to say that I was not disappointed.

The floral aroma that wafted off the tea both when I opened the packet and when I brewed the tea was lovely. The first steeping had a heady scent of tropical gardens that made me want to dive straight in. The tea itself was sweet and floral with a buttery feel. A slight vegetal hint lurked behind all that goodness and the buttered corn that others have commented on was definitely present. With all those heavy flavours and aromas the tea was still light and easy to drink.

The second steeping was like the first but with more vegetal flavours coming through while the third had largely lost the floral elements and had a stronger vegetal note still.

The leaves in the pot were whole and still joined to the stalks in pairs mostly with a couple of threes. They looked lovely and really spoke to the quality of this tea.

Overall, I really enjoyed this tea. It was like a floral assault on my tongue that left me grinning with delight at the end of each sip. I could certainly see my way to keeping a packet of this in the cupboard ready for use at all times. I would also love to try brewing it gongfu style to see what else I can get from it.

Thanks for the sample, Fong Mong Tea.

I debated whether or not to use all of my sample for my testing. I decide to use half of my sample (3g), just in case something messed up. I followed the directions and brewed in my cast iron.

I’m still getting into more refined oolongs, but this definitely has some subtle floral notes and a little bit of sweetness. Nothing too prominent. I steeped it for 6 minutes, which seemed a little bit long, although there wasn’t any bitterness to speak of. I plan to steep it a little less next time with my second infusion.

**A review Alishan Jin Xuan Oolong Tea by Fong Mong Tea

I am having another oolong tea from sampler received from over seas (Taipei, Taiwan). This tea came in a seal bag (gold in color) and I have to scissor of the top of the bag to get at the rolled up tea: I shook some out into my palm to see that they are indeed finely curled (rolled up) into tiny pellets.

I take half of the bag’s content and place in my cup and pour water that had been boiling on the stove into my cup and cover leaving the tea to steep for five minutes.

In remove the saucer from the cup I am pleasantly surprised to see how fully the leaves have unfold into my cup of tea. They are a luscious green and fuller than the previous oolongs I have tried from this vendor. They smell very steamed; a warming effect to the face. And something of the smell as I scoop out the leaves from the cup makes me think of my veggies; green broccoli or spinach more-so.

I have strained the tea-leaves from the tea cup and I am left with a tea that is light green in color; slight yellow undertone and still smelling of veggies. I take my first sip and it is a lovely in that it the fragrant of the tea is very light making the tea creamy and not astringent at all. And no, I must say this tea is not a broth either. I continue to sip this tea while quietly enjoying fragrant green to be found within the cup.

I am fortunate to try this tea with yet another steep and another; each time tea’s color is lighter more to yellow or lightish yellow. It is not brown. The leaves remain the same color throughout each steep.
There is less of the veggie taste in the cup with 2nd steep and with 3rd steep it is slightly astringent, but very mild and not at all bitter.

Overall, this tea has many folds…that veggie green intake of one’s broccoli or spinach flavoring is very pronounced with the first steep and one can indeed observe this upon examining and even to tasting the tea leaves which are creamy in texture and not at all bitter. No sprinkling of salt etc on leaves like when having some vegetables.

For tea itself; I enjoyed the first steep immensely as it is light and warm with a good heft to it and the aroma is a fragrant of green. Another reviewer had mentioned lilac scenting to this tea. So possible it is there and I cannot discern this.

This is very good tea. This Alishan Jin Xuan is best of the oolongs to date. Thank you to Fong Mong Tea Co. for sending me the samplers.

This is the best Alishan Jin Xuan tea I have tasted to far. Flowery, with a sweet pecan taste, and milk fragrance which is not too overwhelming, but delicate and balanced. I have been drinking of lot of Taiwanase teas lately. Most differ little from each other, at best in potencies. So, to find a good Jin Xuan tea has not been easy. Most Jin Xuan teas are artificially flavored with milk perfume; very few can offer natural creamy milky flavor of their own. This Fong Mong is among them. The milk flavor is there, but it is not a taste of a cow milk, but milk coming from the plant. Vegetal milk. Very unusual sensation. The tea opens with the flowery outburst followed by the creaminess of resinous vegetal milk. The tea is also good for at least 4 steeps.

Wow I just finished ..my tour of, oolong tea by Fong Mong and this last one was my favorite. It doesn’t have an overbearing floral taste like the jasmin oolong but it has a delicate sweetness to it.. The tea is great… It has an invigorating smell and a strong roasted flavor. with out all the rhetoric and fancy wording. This tea rocks my socks off