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This was my most recent sipdown. I had difficulty sleeping last night due to neck spasms, thus I stayed up late drinking tea and listening to music. At first, I was unimpressed by this flavored/scented oolong, but it grew on me in a big way over the course of my review session.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of rolled, scented tea leaves in a 4 ounce gaiwan filled with 194 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was followed by 13 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 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, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry leaves emitted aromas of cream, butter, vanilla, and sticky rice. After the rinse, I noted emerging sugarcane and custard aromas and an almost overpowering sticky rice scent. The first infusion saw the sticky rice absolutely dominate the nose. In the mouth, the liquor offered strong notes of sticky rice, cream, butter, vanilla, and custard chased by hints of sugarcane and banana. Subsequent infusions gradually softened, revealing mineral, popcorn, grass, daylily shoot, spinach, and seaweed impressions in the mouth. The scent of sticky rice continued to dominate the nose, but it gradually smoothed out, allowing the scents of cream, butter, vanilla, sugarcane, and custard to reassert themselves somewhat. A hint of popcorn also gradually became evident on the nose. The final infusions were very soft and smooth, offering lingering sticky rice, butter, and mineral notes balanced by somewhat subtler impressions of vanilla, cream, popcorn, and seaweed.

I was tempted to give up on this tea after the first three infusions. Though I love sticky rice, this tea was way too heavy on the sticky rice aromas and flavors in the early goings. As I pressed forward, however, the characteristics of the tea began to assert themselves more and a nice balance of Jin Xuan and sticky rice was achieved. Due to this occurrence, I found that my opinion of this tea had done a complete 180 by the time I wrapped up my review session. Definitely a tea worth trying, give this one a shot if you are the sort of person who enjoys flavored oolongs.