Tai Xing Jin Xuan

When I first opened the vacuum-sealed packet, I was greeted with a delicious, creamy, sweet vegetal aroma. Not an aroma I’d necessarily typically associate with an oolong, but it was quite appealing! Brewed up, the aroma remained a creamy sort of vegetal, and the flavor reflected that quite closely. This is pretty tasty! Lightly sweet, with that boiled veggie flavor and an overlying creaminess. It’s not what I would label a milk oolong (based on some others I’ve had), but its creamy quality certainly lends itself toward the title. I’d definitely drink this again! Thanks so much to Tea from Taiwan for this generous sample!

Very belated ETA: The re-steep on this one was okay, but I’ve noticed that with many green oolongs, the first infusions are the most delicious and distinct, while subsequent infusions lack uniqueness and just taste generally oolongy to me. That was what happened here.

The Final Sipdown: Day 16
Decupboarding Total: 32

Apparently I needed to catch up on my sleep after this Thanksgiving. I spent most of today napping. Which makes it kind of hard to decupboard teas. Fortunately, I had one more Tea from Taiwan sample, which is good because they can be a single serving pretty easily so I’d still be able to make my quota for today.

The dry leaf of this one smells pretty awesome – fruity and honeyed and kind of sexy, actually. The taste is a little fresher than the smell but it’s still got that rich sweetness about it that makes me roll it around on my tongue. I think this tea is trying to seduce me.

Flavor-wise it really doesn’t strike me as a ‘milk’ oolong (which tend to bring up thoughts of Juicy Fruit gum for me… in a positive way, I promise) but this is still very good. There’s a touch of dryness that sometimes pops up in the middle of my tongue at the end of a sip but it’s just a flash and it’s actually not unpleasant. It gives the tea a bit of a sparkle which it might otherwise lack with the heavier flavors it’s got going on.

It’s heavy, silky, sweet, a little fruity, a little floral, honeyed, creamy but with a dash of fresh crispness that keeps it all from being too heavy. It’s all very attractive and seductive and pretty darn sexy for a tea. I don’t know if a tea can be sexy, but this one seems to manage it.

Honestly, I thought I was going to get through my Tea from Taiwan samplers without finding a ‘must have’ tea. But I think this one just broke that streak.
^8g/10oz

It’s been a while since I had an extended tasting of an oolong. This particular one had a ginseng candy scent the moment hot water hit the leaves. Interesting. It makes me a bit nervous though.

Steep one: vegetal. Tastes like cooked watercress. It doesn’t have the sweetness I’m used to in green oolongs. This tastes more savory. No milkiness. I feel like I’m having an off day. My nose isn’t picking up nuances as usual. The mouthfeel is silky smooth.

Steep two: the leaves have a honeyed vegetal scent so I’m thinking that the sweetness will make an appearance this round. Ah, there’s the sweetness on the tip of my tongue. The overall flavor is still savory though. It’s veggie soup. This isn’t milky still but very interesting nonetheless.

Steep 3: still veggie. This tea is not really holding my interest. It’s not bad but it doesn’t seem to have many interesting nuances. Or is there some thing wrong with me? Maybe I should take a tea break. :(

Steep four: The flavor doesn’t seem to have changed much. Hmmmm. Maybe I’m just not in the mood for this. I find it hard to believe that tea from Taiwan has made a disappointing tea.

Another Tea from Taiwan sample being brewed up in the Gaiwan. It does not seem to have been a real favorite with the Steepsterites but it’s hard to imagine how badly you could mess up a Taiwanese oolong so that I would rate it low… ha ha

Infusion #1 : ooh, this IS very green. I definitely am getting a strong smell of spinach from the wet leaves here. It is more vegetal than buttery at this point. The tea also smells very floral and almost vanilla.

Infusion #2 : curious. Still very green but this is consistent with my experience of ali shans in the past. Reminds me of a bit of the shade grown Japanese green tea I have here. A bit grassy, I wonder if I have oversteeped it here.

Infusion #3: Steeped with less hot water, around 160 F. Butteriness is emerging a bit and this tea has a fantastic smell.

Infusion #4: Still very fragrant but a bit short of flavor. I am losing interest in this a bit so will end my dissertation here. :-P

Prognosis: It’s a good tea but not good enough for me to want to buy it. Definitely seems more ali shan than milk. I’m not a big ali shan fan but if you are you would probably like this.

I’ve been spoiled with samples lately! I love oolong, so I appreciate these samples. The dry leaves here smell like SPINACH. I don’t mind it.. I eat enough of it! The steep color is a bright yellow. I let the water cool for quite a bit and steeped for 45 seconds. The taste is lovely! The flavor maintains a bit of that spinach flavor, but I’d say the dry leaves smelled more like spinach than the tea itself tastes like spinach. But it’s like spinach that is buttery and slightly sweet and also a tiny-tad-hint of spice, very silky… it really lingers. I’d say this oolong has more of a vegetal flavor that the usual floral.

But oh no! I just looked at the description and this was the tea that was the milk oolong. I had David’s milk oolong a few weeks ago and this definitely doesn’t taste like that one. The David’s was distinctly milky. This one is just buttery and sweet. I never would have even considered it was the milk oolong if I hadn’t looked at the description!

Second steep: Water was still cooled down a lot // steeped for 50 seconds. This cup is MUCH more like a floral oolong but mostly very peachy! Most of the spinach flavor is gone. I love the evolution of oolong.

Third steep: Water was much closer to boiling // steeped for one minute. I would say this steep is closest to the milk oolong flavor, but that may be because both the spinach and floral/peachy flavors are less distinct. It’s still good!

I think the first steep was my favorite because it was different as a buttery spinach oolong! On my oolong flavor rating scale where one has the lightest and most floral flavor and five has the strongest flavor, this one gets a two. But I think I’ll take a couple points off the rating just for not being what I’d call a milk oolong. A very delicious tea! One of the steeps (or all of them) is bound to be something any oolong fan would love.

yum. the leaves were very fresh and green out of the vacuum sealed package. this tea is creamy, clean and fresh. After sipping, it reminds me of biting into a fresh cucumber.

Very light, fresh and slightly buttery. Has a nice chlorophyll-laced buttery scent, too.

Maybe a little but too light for me, but otherwise very refreshing to drink.

Finally got my Milky Oolong samples from Tea from Taiwan after a long wait (they really are shipped straight from Taiwan).

Randomly picked this one out of the 3. I’ve had milky Oolongs from 2 other stores before is this has been by far the best. Sweet but not as “in your face” as others, creamy yet light enough – it was GREAT. The leaves were full and dark green -no doubt, this is good stuff.

4th steeping in, the taste remains intact albeit lighter. This isn’t a scented Oolong as it keep its true character steeping after steeping.

My only deception is that the sample was only good for a one shot try out and now.. I’m out. Fairly expensive (albeit not bad for a Milky Oolong of this caliber) … I’ll have to try the other 2 before I make up my mind on which one to order in large quantity next.

After my first successful sample from Tea from Taiwan, I was a bit nervous to try this one. Like many others have said, it’s a bit light. Sipping, I kept waiting for a punch of butter or a smack of sweet milk. Even with not a drop to spare at the end of the mug, I never did find that milky quality. Despite there being no real milkiness, I did enjoy this light cup of tea. Flavor was a bit subtle, but it was very smooth and drinkable. The scent was quite nice.. A bit more of vegetables and grass than I would have liked, but with hot water, I got something ALMOST buttery. Yes, this was a fine cup of tea. It didn’t excite me, though, and really lacked anything to push it over the edge.

I only got two infusions out of this (spring 2011) before deciding I need something strong and black to encourage me to stay awake to study. It’s a shame. This is really nice, fresh-tasting, and refreshing. A little bit buttery, but lighter than the description makes me think it’ll be. Hopefully I will find time for the abandoned leaves in the morning.

These “milk oolongs” just didn’t do it for me, but I’ll preface that by saying I don’t have a gaiwan. I ordered one today from Jing’s Tea Shop…a 125cc model I think, so I may try these “milky” ones again later after I get my cup. As it is, I tried the sample size with about 10-12 ounces water and steeped for 5 minutes at 195F. Just not the amount of flavor I am looking for…too mild. I think the sample sizes are 7 grams. If anyone has an estimate of steeping times and amount of tea for my new gaiwan when I get it in about two weeks, I am all ears. :)

My first flavored milk tea, and I must say that I really do enjoy it. I’m not sure if I have a preference for flavored or non-flavored milk tea yet.

Maybe I’m just used to drinking these Taiwanese oolongs now but I didn’t really get the “milk” flavor this time, or at least more than any of the others I’ve been drinking. I’ll have to try Rui Feng Jin Xuan again but I think that was my favorite of the milk oolongs (though it was also the FIRST of the samples I tried…)