Taiwan 'Jin Xuan' Rose Oolong Tea

Had more in the scent than the taste for me. I just couldn’t get a handle on individual flavours except “tea” and “rose”. There’s either complexity I’m missing, or it’s not varied enough for me to find the strands.

It was okay though. I’d drink it again but not buy it again.

Thanks so much again, Kawaii433! I had this one a couple weeks ago but it was a tough tea to describe. I see little rose petals in the oolong, but I wasn’t tasting it much. This time, it was a little more noticeable. The oolong wasn’t my favorite, it was a little harsher in flavor than I’d like my oolong. The flavor was very vegetal. Maybe like salty seaweed. So not the best pairing with rose notes. But possible also, the idea was to distract the not-so-tasty oolong base with some rose? My steeping parameters were all over the place though, so maybe it’s my fault. I also think I forgot a rinse. And little crumbs from the oolong liked getting through my porcelain infuser on EVERY steep (even with making sure the mug was clear of them on the next steeps… I have no idea how so many crumbs get through this infuser on every steep.) So I’m sure it didn’t help the flavor at all with the crumbs that kept steeping. Sorry, rose oolong, you just didn’t get a fair chance.
Steep #1 // 1 teaspoon for smaller mug // 30 minutes after boiling // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 12 minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 2 min
2019 Sipdowns: 19

Thanks, Kawaii433, for letting me try this! It’s a tea I wouldn’t have ordered on my own volition because sometimes rose frightens me.

I prepared 5g with longer gongfu steep times, maybe 6 steeps starting at 40s following a short rinse.

This tea turned out to be incredibly light in flavor and aroma. In the dry leaf, I picked up on toasted rice, scalded milk and faint rose. Warming the leaf had additions of cucumber and grass with the rose getting a little stronger. The rinse brought a very pronounced lychee fruit note, followed by grass, grains, rose, light cherry blossom, some kind of yellow flower, milk and light brown sugar.

In the mouth the tea was very oily and viscous for the first few steeps. The tastes were light and refined with milk, jasmine?, minerals, grass, lychee, peach, and scalded milk with a quick finish of butter almost rancid…? Hm. To be honest, I wasn’t picking up on rose. Hm. Light brown sugar returning sweetness. A tad drying but nothing distracting and my mouth was quite tingly. Refreshing and light. After those first two steeps, the flavors became almost imperceptible and the tea lost my attention but I kept going, hoping to pull something else out of it.

Not sure what’s up here since this tea has some good reviews.

Every once in a while I get an itch to order a rose-scented tea and I would like to get more of this in the future to see if there is a difference between harvests. I’d be interested in trying this tea western style for hopefully a few full flavor steeps.

Alright, it’s time for another review from the backlog. This was yet another November sipdown, this one coming from towards the end of the month. Even though I normally do not go for flavored or scented oolongs, this one was excellent.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a brief rinse, I steeped 6 grams of the rolled tea and rose petal mix in 4 ounces of 185 F water for 10 seconds. This infusion was chased by 18 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 12 seconds, 16 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, 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and 30 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, I detected aromas of rose, cream, butter, and vanilla. After the rinse, the rose scent was still present, though I also noted subtle scents of grass and custard. The first infusion introduced a faint sugarcane scent. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of rose, cream, butter, and grass that were chased by hints of vanilla and sugarcane. The subsequent infusions introduced scents of apricot, steamed milk, daylily, and honeydew. New impressions of apricot, steamed milk, minerals, green apple, cantaloupe, seaweed, pear, honeydew, daylily, and daylily shoots appeared in the mouth along with belatedly emerging hints of custard. As I ended my review session, I could still note fairly clear impressions of minerals, cream, butter, rose, and vanilla that were backed by hints of sugarcane, pear, daylily shoots, honeydew, and grass.

I love both roses and Taiwanese oolongs, so I guess it should not have come as a shock that I enjoyed this offering so much. I was especially impressed by how clean and clear the aroma and flavor of rose remained throughout the session, and I was also shocked by the ridiculous longevity of this blend. I am pretty certain that I gave up before it did. Even if you are not a big fan of rose-scented teas, at least consider giving this one a try. The rose and the jade Zhu Shan Jin Xuan worked almost unbelievably well together.

Good morning. ^^

If there is one thing that guarantees me an asthma attack, it’s someone sitting by me at a restaurant or standing next to me in line with a gang-load of cheap rose perfume. lol So when I got my package, I wondered why I ordered the “Rose” tea since I have an aversion to strong rose smell and it’s one of the few aromas I can detect due to that.

I kept passing it over, it was the last What-Cha tea of my package that I haven’t tried… Just looking at the unopened package throughout the week, moving it aside each time. lol Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised. It’s creamy, seemed even creamier than the base Jin Xuan. It’s ever so subtle, delicate, comforting.

Looking at the dry leaf, they are a pretty pink and green, rolled up balls. The dry leaf aroma was sweet, vegetal, and fresh rose petals and nothing like the people at the restaurants lol. The wet leaf aroma is the Jin Xuan vegetal aroma, maybe cranberries, cream, rose petals. The liquor looks like champagne with its pink hues. I tasted butter, cream, honey, rose, vanilla, vegetal and the balance was nice, nothing perfumy about it. Now I just can say… I hate cheap rose perfume on people :P but a nice rose tea such as this one, I can fully enjoy.

5g, 110ml, 200°F, 9 steeps, 25s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 1m5s, 1m15s, 1m25s, 1m35s, 1m45s

A nice oolong, well balanced, but a bit tannic. It would benefit from a splash of milk or a short steep/gongfu styled session. The rose is well balanced with the oolong base. It is a slightly roasted (roasted barley flavour) oolong, but not very oxidized. Some creaminess, but not as much as many of the high quality Jin Xuan teas I have had before. (It might be this particular harvest?) but it was a great cup, and I could see it resteeping very well if the steeps are shorter or with milk.

Drinking this one again, after ripping myself away from my Thailand Sticky Rice binge. I finally came up with an arbitrary rating but it will likely change with time. Also, it smells like Turkish Delights, and second steep is always better than the first steep (duh).

The pink packet it comes in is nice too, and I like it.

That’s my Deep Thought tea note for today (I drank tea!).

Steep Count: 4

(2017 summer harvest)

The ultimate grandma tea. I’ve always wanted to try a rose green oolong, but hesitated because I was afraid it being too light and delicate. What-Cha put some on their website, and I trusted that it would be good. I am actually surprised how much I liked it. It was very close to being liquid rose turkish delight. The oolong balances with the rose better than a lot of blacks and whites, and there were only a few times that the oolong was grassier and stronger than the rose. Otherwise, the first steep after a minute is incredibly creamy, almost being milky (A JIN XUAN THAT ACTUALLY TASTES LIKE IT’S SUPPOSED TO OMG). It was sweet enough for my grandmother to take without sugar…which is saying something. Of course it paired ideally with Coconut Bliss Chocolate ice cream. I did add sugar to a cup eventually, and she groaned saying it was perfect.

I hate to admit this, but I preferred this scented oolong to a lot of my higher grade regular ones. Even when the tea cooled to 60 F, it was excellent. This would probably make an amazing cold brew. I personally would not drink this tea every day and reserve it for the spring and summer, or more than likely for a Mediterranean meal. My grandmother, however, said she could drink this any time.

Like I said, this is the ultimate grandma tea. I am going to hold off on rating it though I’m leaning towards high eighties and nineties.