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I was really excited to try this mao xie, but honestly I was pretty disappointed by it. I have the autumn 2015 harvest, which went out of stock about right when I bought this.

At first, it’s very apple skinny, sorta milky, but there’s a bit of acidity too. Vanilla, edamame, there’s a lot of roasty heartburny acidity, (this is the bit that disappointed me) lemongrass, regular grass, metallics, light astringency, spinach, wet rocks.

It reminds me of when you’re licking gravel and then it gives you heartburn, you know?

Tea headache. Do you guys get tea headaches from certain teas?

This tea gives me one of the worst headaches. I’m slightly dizzy.

The roasty acid rockiness becomes overpowering in the middle of the session. It basically becomes this taste, and then slowly fades out, gaining a tiny bit of sweetness in later steeps.

Head still hurts :(

Cream, radish, spinach, carrots, it’s an interesting creaminess though, like whip cream, it’s pretty sweet, cucumber, what’s more though is that after the beginning, it’s really boring. It’s exactly what you think of when you think of oolongs. It’s a solid tea, pleasant, very drinkable, but yeah it’s not interesting, it’s definitely aptly described by idestea.

Stems, suppressed flowers, earth, there’s a musty, sweaty..ness, a bit of creaminess, but also some sourness, a slightly harsh astringency, grass, grape, something like lemongrass, or lemon zest. There’s something bitter too. Also, the musty sweatiness is pretty disturbing, and I’m not really sure how this can really appeal to anyone. But honestly that’s usually what I feel about baimudan.
Beans? ew beany tea.
I got a tea headache from this.

So, I think IDEStea’s gone out of business, the website is gone. Its too bad, I was definitely going to repurchase, once I ran out of these oolongs. I might just email the IDEStea guy, see if he has stock lying around.

Anyways, so I have this on my ‘hall of fame’ already. I haven’t gotten around to reviewing it.

So yeah, at first, it’s super sweet, almost sugary, with notes of cooked spinach, and crispy sweet carrots, with a decent amount of creaminess, it’s almost too sweet, like syrupy with vanilla, and a hint of cinnamon, creamy orange, light and suppressed flowers. It has a very pleasant astringency, and a very nice, dense thickness. Cucumber, hints of basil, sweet peas.

There’s a bit of a soapy/perfumey taste that comes through in the middle, alongside the cream, vanilla and spinachy-cucumbery vegetals, it’s thick, heavy, sweet, even with a bit of a honey-like quality, or ooh! Like agave. Also lemon-lime, lychee.

You know, I really love this tea. It has nothing I dislike, which almost never happens in an oolong, they either fall into roastiness or deep into florals, and this is neither! which keeps me coming back. This is what I look for.

Okay, I’ve given it some time, some air, and it’s developed a roasty, vegetal scent in the dry leaf. So I brewed it, and it tastes like hot lemon relief.

I hate that stuff.

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I’m kinda sad to see this go, because I don’t think it’ll ever come through my hands again. Not that I’ll be avoiding IDEStea or anything, I can definitely see myself going back to them, but more likely for the jade mountain oolong, the honey oolong, or dayulin. But who knows?
Anyway, I did my initial review so long ago and straight out of a vacuum-sealed package, so I’m just going to do a completely new one. I think the first time around, I was disappointed because it didnt seem creamy, and it’s a Jin Xuan. I think it just needed some fresh air, because the cream is perhaps the most notable thing about it now. Lovely, light cream atop delicate florals, and clean lettuce, with thick green beans, the exhale leaves a buttery feeling, and slight astringency. The leaves haven’t unfurled yet, but there’s something so airy about those early steeps that make me feel like I’m floating above a lazy river.
There’s even a bit of a nutty, almond-like taste, with hints of spinach and snap peas, a bit of orange, like a creamsickle. You could get lime creamsickles, orange, .. the pink one, it’s very creamsickley.
After six steeps, it started tasting a bit stale, empty.. not as creamy, not as.. anything. I’m gonna reheat the water.
Okay, well it’s very different now, lots of minerals, and thick grassy leaves, almost reminiscent of a sencha, but with the thickness of an oolong. Still with a creaminess, and almost a bell-peppery quality. it’s less complex than earlier steeps, which is a bit disappointing. The beginning was immensely delicious, and I had all but changed my mind about this Jin Xuan before, but I’ve gone back to my original opinion.
I got like 12 steeps in total, which seems like not very many? considering I used more than average amount of leaf, but I mean i don’t usually keep track of how many steeps I get in a session, so.. Could this be average for oolongs? I hope not.. I’m gonna count next time.

I’m honestly pretty tired of these upton samples.
This tastes like wet autumn leaves. Light barky kind of earth.
It reminds me of teavana’s Qilan Fired Oolong, which I got like 150g of because it was on sale I think they discontinued it way back when before I knew anything about tea. Anyways, the point is, I drank that one like twice and then gave the rest away because bleh.
Now, granted, this is a bit better, there’s some complexity, there’s a grassy sweetness and a bit of buttery burnt toast. Some minerals. There’s something about it that slightly repulses me on the sip, like a sort of dark acidity. It’s one of those teas that seems to be giving me a headache. It gets astringent in the middle..

You know what I’m gonna be honest, this session has, I’m sure, lots of longevity left, but I’m really not up for it.
I don’t like this.

I’m gonna drink some pu’erh. Pu’erh’s always nice to me.

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oh. I never reviewed this one. Oops.
I just heard about all the 2016 spring laoshan teas verdant just got in, and since I told myself no more buying tea until I get my cupboard down to 50 teas, I got really motivated to get a move on, so I can get all my laoshan teas. This was almost empty, so. Also, THERES WAY TOO MANY TEAS TO TRY. I want them all. Why must I have such expensive tastes?

God I love laoshan greens, I don’t think this one was quite as good as the 2015 pine needle green, it’s a bit rougher around the edges, but it’s still so delicious! I’m so excited to try all the fresh 2016 spring teas, so I gotta get drinking

The beginning is really sweet, right from the first steep, nice and thick ginseng flavours, cant really taste any of the leaf until much later in the session, it’s a bit grassy and earthy at first, and it develops a bit of lemon (maybe thats just part of what ginseng tastes like)
It gets a bit more complex in the middle, though still very much ginseng, and consistently sweet. Even after the leaves have unravelled.
Eventually most of the ginseng steeps out, after 10-15 steeps, leaving a .. not overly noteworthy tasting oolong; lemon, earth, wood, still with a hint of ginseng that never truly disappears. I actually quite enjoy it, even still, though I don’t have any other experience with ginseng oolongs. So maybe i’m not as credible as some, but I know that I like ginseng oolong! And this is certainly an affordable choice. It’d be interesting to try a ginseng oolong with a higher quality base, but I fear that this sort of thing is what manufacturers do with lower quality oolongs. Which is smart, because ginseng covers it well. Either way! A very enjoyable session :)

Also, this tea is what I’m basing ‘ginseng’ taste on, so if this is really bad ginseng, I’d have no idea! I can only describe it as sort of like matcha with a bit of ginger, earth, lemon, and some sort of root beery-ness