Showing posts with label Jin Xuan. Show all posts

What-Cha Vietnam Ta Jin Xuan Green tea

What-ChaVietnam Ta Jin Xuan Green Tea
Origin: Hong Than I, Tan Cuong, Thai Nguyen, Vietnam
Harvest: Spring, March 2015
Cultivar: Hybrid of Ta & Jin Xuan
Like always when I am facing an ever growing mountain of un-sampled teas I randomly decided to try one today, and by random I mean I threw about 30 packets in a box and picked whichever one I found on top.  I had a rather interesting Lotus Scented Vietnamese green tea recently  and was looking forward to trying more of What-Chas new Vietnamese teas. While I did like what Alistair sourced last year of the new 2015teas I tried so far I’ve been very impressed at how much better they are. I am curious if this will be an improvement on some of the greens from last year (1  2) which were nice, but a little on the bitter side which I could see turning many off. While I did consider buying another sample of the teas from the Discover Vietnam sampler (namely the Flowery Oolong and the Wild Silver Needle White tea) I have yet to purchase any of them again (and I just realized I never got to write my thoughts on two of the teas of the Discover Vietnam sampler). Nevertheless What-Cha describes this as:

A splendid Vietnamese green tea with the creamy tones associated with Jin Xuan coupled with the powerful grassy strength of typical Vietnamese greens, very much living up to the high reputation of its parents.Ta Jin Xuan is a great example of the tea experimentation currently ongoing within Vietnam, it is a hybridisation of the native Vietnamese tea cultivar 'Ta' (meaning 'our' in Vietnamese) and the famed Taiwanese cultivar 'Jin Xuan'. Sourced direct from the Trong branch of the Vu family who operate a number of small farms around Vietnam, with one family member typically managing a single farm. The Vu family were one of the first to cultivate tea in Thai Nguyen, now considered one of the foremost Vietnamese tea regions.
Dry Leaves: The dry leaves have a slight ashy color although it is still very obvious there is some green in there. There is a slight chocolatey scent reminiscent of some Long Jings. The leaves are both twisted and slightly coiled.







First Steeping
Temperature: 167oF
Brewing Time: Fifteen Seconds
Aroma: Grassy
Flavor: Fresh Cut Grass and Spinach
Tasting Notes: It starting out a little simple, but still a very nice tea so far; there is not much to the aroma although it is apparent, but it quickly fades away. This is a very grassy tea, but there is a bit of sweetness in there. It was interesting that this felt grassier than a Korean green and Japanese green even though it lacks both astringency and bitterness.







Second Steeping
Temperature: 170oF
Brewing Time: Thirty Seconds
Aroma: Grassy
Flavor: Fresh Cut Grass, Spinach and Dry Stray
Tasting Notes: Not much is going on here that is different from the last infusion. I rather like this tea so far, but there is a strange thickish mouthfeel to this. It is a little on the thick side for a green tea, but pales in comparison to many Oolongs. The mouthfeel is not entirely pleasant nor is it unpleasant, it is a just strange for a green tea in my opinion.





Third Steeping
Temperature: 175oF
Brewing Time: Forty-Five Seconds
Aroma: Grassy
Flavor: Fresh Cut Grass, Spinach and Dry Stray
Tasting Notes: Not much of a change from the last infusion, the aroma still is weak and does not improve much from here on. I almost wanted to describe this as a lackluster tea because of how very simple it is, but there is something pleasant about this tea. Ordinarily I write off as simple teas as this one, in fact I had quite a few senchas that I decided against writing anything on because of their simplicity, but I decided to write on this even though I have very little to say about it because of how comforting this is. It sort of reminds me of chicken noodle soup, despite its plainness this is a very good tea.

At the time of writing this What-Cha is currently selling this for $6.86 for 50g and is well worth the price if you are looking for a nice simple daily drinker, you should probably avoid it if you are looking for something more complex although this is pretty good for the price it is being sold at.


Read More

Eco-Cha's Jin Xuan (April 2014)

(Tea Provided For Review)



Today I decided to look at Eco-Cha’sJin Xuan (April 2014). I know I’ve been looking at a lot of oolongs, recently, but I decided to try this today rather than a green tea or even a nice puerh. The leaves aren’t particularly aromatic like some teas; in fact they are quite subtle. Sometimes I overlook the subtler teas that don’t instantly grab my attention so I decided to try this one.


Jin Xuan Oolong
Origin: Zhu Shan NanTou, Taiwan
Harvest: April 2014
Elevation: 400M



Dry Leaves: There is a very intense floral aroma to the dry leaves and a little bit vegetal. And the dry leaves have a very interesting shape, sort of like tightly twisted crossed with pearls, there is some uniformity to the tea leaves, but you can see a lot of uniquely shaped pearls as well. At first I thought the dry leaves were kind of ugly, since I really like uniformity in tea leaves, although after I studied the leaves for a bit, they started to grow on me. Some of them have a rosebud-esque look and you can see a lighter green one that looks a little like popcorn.



First Steeping
Temperature: Boiling
Brewing Time: One Minute
Aroma: Fruity, Floral and Green bean
Flavor: Bamboo leaves, Woody and Creamy
Tasting Notes: There was not a strong milk taste so far and it had a slightly thin mouthfeel for a Taiwanese oolong, although the milk taste did linger. This steeping was very subtle, I was correct I my suspicion that I’d taste many of these flavors in subsequent steepings.




Second Steeping
Temperature: 190oF
Brewing Time: Two Minute
Aroma: Peach, Milk, Floral, and Green Beans
Flavor: Milk, Bamboo Shoots, Malty and Sugarcane.
Tasting Notes: It became very milky this steeping, and had a thicker mouthfeel this time although not particularly thick for a Jin Xuan. I was surprised to find that this Jin Xuan had malty notes in it, I haven’t had many lighter oolongs that come close to anything resembling malty. It was quite pleasant, this is probably my favorite steeping, I like the progression from Bamboo leaves in the previous steeping to bamboo shoots; it had a lovely green tea feel to it, most of the unflavored Jin Xuans I had this year leaned more towards the floral oolong side rather than vegetal green and I quite enjoyed it





Third Steeping
Temperature: 195oF
Brewing Time: Three Minute
Aroma: Mild Peach and Floral
Flavor: Creamy, Woody, Bamboo Shoots and Honey
Tasting Notes: It became considerably less sweet this time, although I could still taste some sweetness in it. Considerably milkier then the last infusion; I liked the return of the wood taste and it meshed really well with the Milk taste. The bamboo shoot taste was lighter than the previous infusion and it felt less like a green oolong, more like a lightly roasted one. With the exception of the bamboo shoots, this tea lost it vegetal edge.


Overall very nice Jin Xuan, most of the Milk Oolongs I’ve tried tended to be more floral so I was surprised at the vegetal elements in this tea. I forgot to take a picture of the used leaves, but you can definitely tell they were machine harvested (although Eco-Cha has that listed on their website, I always appreciate a store that is honest when they could have not listed that) there was some slight tearing on the leaves, but they were in fairly good shape for being machine harvested. For 38 grams at $8, this is definitely worth the price, this is a nice everyday tea, not as milky as other Jin Xuans, but not as floral. So if you want a Jin Xuan with a light milk taste and a mild floral aroma, this is the tea for you.


Read More

What-Cha's Fujian Milk Oolong Jin Xuan & Beautiful Taiwan Tea's Golden Lily Oolong

Today I am going to write a little something different then my thoughts on my first impressions of trying teas. Spoiler alert, I really enjoy the teas I’ve tried from both What-Cha and Beautiful Taiwan Tea, so I thought I’d compare two similar yet very different Jin Xuans. I love both of them, but for very different reasons.

What-Cha’s Fujian Milk Oolong




This is a very unique Milk Oolong, which isn’t much of a surprised as  I am always pleasantly surprised by What-Cha’s teas distinctiveness; this is a flavored Milk Oolong which is a little off putting to a lot of people. I’d probably have skipped this if it wasn’t from What-Cha, I’ll admit it I am a little prejudiced against flavored Jin Xuans, especially flavored ones from China, but I decided to take a risk and purchase it.


And I am glad that I took the risk. This is the best flavored Milk Oolong I have ever had, ok that bar isn’t set very high, but this along with the Golden Lily Oolong is my favorite Jin Xuan that I have tried this year. There are a lot of different tastes in this. If this was from that Tea Company that everyone knows it would probably be called something like “Majestic Tropical Milk Flowery Oolong”, ok probably something more ridiculous then that. The major flavors in this is Mango, Toasted Coconut, Butterscotch, and Orchid; while some of the minor notes are milk, pineapple and a little vegetal. While I don’t drink a lot of flavored teas, but from what I understand most flavored teas cannot be steeped more than once without a significance loss in flavor; I got four long (three minutes first steeping, four minutes second steeping, six minutes third steeping and seven minutes for my fourth) before the leaves started to feel completely used up.


Beautiful Taiwan Tea’s Golden Lily Oolong




Unlike What-Cha’s Jin Xuan this is unflavored. This was the first of BTT’s that I have tried and this is the tea that sold me on the company, while it isn’t as nuanced as the other GeoShanCha at BTT, it is wonderful, I almost want to say it is my favorite, but whenever I purchase this tea I always drink it all within a week and I won’t want to drink anything else besides this tea.


This feels like a more traditional Jin Xuan, and unlike the Fujian Milk oolong from What-cha, this has a very thick mouthfeel, almost syrupy. This is primarily milky (more a sweet creamy butter then milk though), but I can taste a little bit of nutty vegetables, and some strong floral notes. While I don’t have as much to say about this Jin Xuan, I’ll just say this leaves me breathless and when I am done I regret not having more.



While both are very different Jin Xuans, I have been comparing all Milk oolongs to these two, and most fall short.  I’ve bought 150g of What-Cha’s Fujian Milk Oolong within two weeks and I have no idea how much I’ve bought of Beautiful Taiwan Tea’s Golden Lily Oolong, I have at least four empty bags littering the bottom of my box of tea. I was actually surprised that Alistair had his Milk Oolong since starting his store and I hadn’t noticed it. If you like oolongs, you should definitely try both these teas, both are good introductions to the seller’s sites. 
Read More
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)