Cultivar: Jinxuan Oolong

Harvested by hand: April 5th, 2025

Origin: RuiFeng, Ali Shan (1000 m)

See my video of the Ruifeng area tea plantations here.

Process: Light oxidized, rolled, dried.

1. View

The dry leaves are tightly rolled with few stems, and they come in light green hues. The brew has a very good transparency and light yellow/green color. There are some signs of light oxidation on the rim of the leaves, but overall it's a light oxidation level.

2. Scents

The dry leaves have a very fine scent of spring flowers, freshly cut grass and sweet milk. The brew has nice scents of fresh flowers with cool mountain scents.

3. Taste

The taste is mellow and light. The sweetness is very good and there's no astringency or bitterness, even in competition testing mode (6 minutes brew). This Jinxuan feels particularly cool and high mountain. There's also a menthol freshness in the mouth after drinking a cup.

Brewing tip: This rolled Oolong needs not just boiling water to open up, it also requires a thorough preheating of the tea vessel (porcelain or gaiwan). Wait 1 minute or a little more for the first brew.

Conclusion: The Jinxuan cultivar was created in 1981 by Dr. Wu Zhen Duo. Its experimental code was 2027 and it was released as Taiwan Tea Experiment Station (TTES) No 12. The name Jinxuan is the first name of Dr. Wu's grandmother! He created this cultivar to help farmers increase their yields so that they could produce a good quality and fairly priced light oxidized Oolong. Its elegant fresh scents and lack of bitterness (when processed well!) makes this a great choice for an everyday mountain Oolong. It is the best value to start exploring the fresh world of High Mountain Oolongs. This year's spring weather was unusual for its coolness. This has delayed the harvest of Jinxuan by roughly a week compared to last year. (For Qingxin Oolong, the farmers expect almost 2 weeks delay in Alishan!) The impact of the cooler weather is smaller leaves, which means more concentrated aromas. Such leaves are most suitable for light oxidation, which is why this year's batch has the character of a true high mountain Oolong, but it's still at the price of Jinxuan. It's a great pick!