Jin Xuan Premium Winter Oolong Tea

TTB #30

A huge THANK YOU to whoever put the Tea Side oolongs in the traveling tea box! I’m a pretty casual oolong drinker and had never heard of this company, but both of the ones I tried from them were outstanding. This one somewhat reminded me of a milk oolong, as it had a very creamy flavor and silky texture, but it was sweeter than most with notes of caramel and berries. The second steep was just as delicious as the first and I’m guessing I could get several more good steeps out of these leaves before they give out. I may be placing an order with this company in the future!

Even though this is a Jin Xuan, which is a varietal I don’t usually go for, the notes on the vendor’s website and Steepster convinced me to give it a chance. Flavours of berries and caramel? Tastes like a Dan Cong? Count me in! Thanks to Tea Side for the sample.

I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma of these fairly large, loosely rolled nuggets is of berries, grass, and orchids. The first steep has notes of cream, caramel, grass, orchid, and raspberry. It’s quite silky, although it’s not quite in heady Dan Cong territory. All these notes intensify in the next steep, especially the berries. There’s also some indistinct tropical fruit in the aftertaste. The third steep has notes of raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, sour cherries, grapefruit, cream, caramel, grass, and faint florals; it’s a bit perfumey, with a big aftertaste. The berries start getting more tart in the next couple steeps; it kind of tastes like chokecherries. Subsequent steeps have fainter notes of sour berries, grass, cream, spinach, and other veggies.

True to what other reviewers are saying, this is not your typical Jin Xuan. It has the usual creamy, caramel flavours, but is much more fruity and perfumey than most other Jin Xuans. Is it like a Dan Cong? Sort of. It has a similar heady, fruit-forward profile with a grassy and floral background and a nice mouthfeel, but it’s missing the stonefruit and tropical flavours that I generally associate with Dan Congs. The sourness and grassiness also get out of control in the later steeps. Nonetheless, this is a very enjoyable oolong.

So many new things for me in this one tea, first Thai harvest tea, first winter oolong, plus its been a long time since ive had one of my first tea loves, Jin Xuan. The leaves are tightly balled, more closely resembling an Anxi style oolong than a taiwanese one. Not super bright coloured.

In my warm gaiwan, it smells like a mi lan xiang, mango/lychee, with some darker tones.

After the rinse, it’s become even more like a dancong, mango, deep cherry, strawberry even, its just a fruity delicious, vibrant smelling tea and I can’t wait to drink it.

Brewing at 95C, 60ml gaiwan full of wet leaf.

Okay picture a flavour profile somewhere between a ya shi and a mi lan xiang, with a smooth creamy mouthfeel, and then a lingering aftertaste of like rich caramel. Wow. Okay honestly, I chose this one to do first because I had the least hope for it out of all of them, if this is this incredible I can’t wait to dig into the rest of the samples tea side sent me, it’s coated my entire palate in this amazing caramelly, cherry, strawberry vanilla beautiful fruity mess. There’s a throat feel that’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced. it’s really syrupy and like a.. diet coke feeling, just.. after its gone flat and such. Anyways this is beautiful. This is one of those teas that.. every time I swallow, coats my entire throat in its oils.
The smooth, creamy mouthfeel is probably coming from the Jin Xuan varietal, and it feels a tad out of place, but that’s probably just because I’m essentally thinking of it as though it is a dancong and it’s.. not being one.

As the leaves have unfurled, the flavours are smoothing out, it has a slight astringency and a bit of a minerally greenness

I’ve never had anything like this. It’s breathtaking