Rui Feng Jin Xuan

I decided to sip down my sample!

I drank 3 steepings – all light, buttery and vegetal. Now I’m full of caffeine, like I feel my eyes are huge but almost tired. I wanted a nice oolong before dinner, maybe this was a little too much before dinner!

Well, hopefully I’ll do another couple steepings tomorrow morning. Very tempted to have them right now, but I’ll be going crazier than normal at jiu jitsu tonight!

Ok, so I went for the third steep after all. I needed something to wash down the cake I just ate for breakfast. :D

Steep 3: Actually much better. Steeped with cooler water. Less vegetal and more floral. Buttery is fading to plain milky creamy.

The aroma from this packet was vegetal in much the same way as the Tai Xing Jin Xuan, however the sweetness wasn’t as present, making the aroma less appealing to me. Likewise, the aroma from the brewed cup was less creamy, but still vegetal. Drinking a sip of this and comparing it to the Tai Xing Jin Xuan, I much prefer the latter tea as it has a sweetness and creaminess that is absent here. As well, the vegetal note is less rich boiled veggie, and more of a green veggie… if that makes sense. It’s not as pleasing, either way. This is not a bad tea, but it’s much more like a regular green oolong, in my opinion. Thanks again to Tea from Taiwan for sending me a sample of this tea :)

ETA: Re-steep was akin to any green oolong. Tasty but unremarkable.

Mmm, smells nice – sweet and like a light floral. There’s also a buttery smell to it. So flower butter maybe. Brewed up, the scent is more solid green floral oolong base but there is still some creamy butter laid over top.

The company’s note says that this tea has slight astringency and I can kind of see that. It’s not what I would normally peg as astringent since it isn’t that strong but it definitely has a sharper edge than I’m used to in green oolongs. But it’s very pleasant. On the first part of the sip I’m getting sweetness and soft floral, then I get the rougher taste of green bushes (or something) – fresh and solid but not heavy. As it cools it becomes creamier like butter heavily flavored with bushes. Why bushes? The taste isn’t sweet enough to be grass or not heavy enough to be tree but it is something green and fresh. And that’s the only thing I could think of to compare.

Anyway, it makes it nice. Simultaneously light and solid, this is a softer tea that isn’t delicate but nor is it heavy. So I’m grooving on the bush butter tea so far.

Second steep, also @ 2:30, the bush taste is a little softer, the butter taste more milky aftertaste. Quite nice. As it cools, the milky tastes almost gets a little toasty hint and I’m reminded of Samovar’s Ryokucha which is never a bad thing.

All in all, a milder milk oolong (I’m guessing because there is no artificial flavors) that I find very nice.

ETA:
Third steep @ 3:30. Not overly special or distinctive but has a sweet, floral, milky note that fills my mouth and makes it attractive. Almost tastes a little sugared.

Fourth steep @ 4:30. The taste is milder now, softer. The milky is fading into a general smoothness along with a more generic green oolong taste.
3g/6oz

Thank you Tea from Taiwan for this lovely sample.
Its not my all time favorite oolong but it is quite lovely.
A good beginner oolong perhaps or more suited for those who appreciate a lighter oolong.
It has a lightly milky flavor, a slight floral note, very light on the buttery aspect.
There is a nice refreshing floral after taste.
I can’t wait to try the other two samples.
Look for the review on http://sororiteasisters.com/ on November 15th.

I’m finishing off the last of this sample today, it seems very floral, slighty sweet and more buttery than I remember. Kind of sad to see it go! See my previous tasting notes…

Tea #2 of the Tea from Taiwan Jin Xuan (milk oolong) sampler. This is an all natural, no flavoring whatsoever milk oolong, although based on my experiences with the “flavored” one of this pack I am not really expecting this to remind me of a milk oolong.

This time I threw the entire package in my mug, which is a little more leaf than I would normally use, but I realized I wouldn’t really be able to get another cup out of the sample with the leftovers. To compensate I steeped it for 2 minutes instead of my usual 3, and I don’t think it came out too strong. It does have a slightly milky, slightly buttery aroma to it, but that definitely doesn’t come through in the flavor. The first thing I think of when I take a sip is a big pile of sauted spinach. It’s very vegetal, and some florals come out in the tail end of the sip, but not many. Honestly, this is really not the oolong for me. But they can’t all be the tea for me, otherwise my cupboard would explode!

Seems a bit “richer” than the Tai Xing. Steeps darker. Tastes more savory and floral. Not detecting much butter or milkiness. Very smooth, to me. Cooldown seems a little “starchy” like a white tea. And there’s this almost jasmine-like scent—just a hint.

For me, this is good but somehow “meh” overall? It’s just very very mild.

Next sample. The leaves in the little packet are so lovely. Big, dark, and all rolled up. They smelled nice and lightly creamy but very fresh.

The only thing I have to compare this to is DavidsTea’s milk oolong, the only other milk oolong I’ve had. It’s not a huge departure taste-wise as far as I can tell, but it has a different body/texture. It’s not as creamy, and it’s milder, though I steeped it far less, and a bit lighter. It’s nice and soft.

My first milk oolong. I having a hard time tasting the milk aspect of this time. It really comes off as a green oolong to me.