The Jin Xuan cultivar is well known by tea lovers around the world for its creamy, milky and buttery flavour and mouthfeel. It is often imitated with a different (cheaper) oolong which is combined with artificial flavouring. Occasionally the tea vendor is honest and sells it as a scented Oolong but most will tell ridiculous stories that the tea was fed or steamed over milk during processing. This is nonsense and we would recommend that you avoid any shop that feeds you lies about tea.
We have a deliciously creamy Jin Xuan tea called Alishan Cream for those interested in tasting this remarkable cultivar.
This tea is something very special and the result of our tea experimentation. We have taken the Jin Xuan tea and roasted over charcoal in the Fujian tradition. The tea that this produces is beautifully complex yet balanced and smooth.
The flavour profile is forever shifting. The flash of sweet orange aroma moves to the deeper sweetness of raisins and then into the indulgence of buttered popcorn, cream and dessicated coconut. Molasses and honey comes to the fore with the ever present roasted charcoal enveloping everything with a soft and smooth tone which does not mask but blends the flavours.
In this video we taste Midnight Sun when brewed in Porcelain or Yixing clay.
This tea works very well with cheese (skip to 3:10 for Midnight Sun).
