Minnan oolong · light aroma · Anxi, Fujian
A Tieguanyin and Huang Jin Gui cross, ball-rolled and only lightly oxidised: orchid on the nose, and a cup that stays green.
Orchid → clean and lightly sweet → a fresh finish with no roast
Top, middle and finish are a way of organising time, not a standard term or a promise. Re-tasted against each lot; weight and brewing are below.
Aroma and palate, in the order they reach you.
Typical of the style · re-tasted against each lot
Ball-rolling wraps the leaf in cloth and rolls it under pressure, which bruises the edge without breaking the shape. Light oxidation then stops before the green aroma compounds are used up, so what survives into the cup is floral rather than toasted.
No heavy final roast is applied, which is why the leaf stays green rather than turning brown. Skip that step and the cup keeps its top notes, but it also cannot take a long steep — the same compounds that make it fresh turn it bitter if you push them.
Because little has been driven off by heat, the aroma fades faster than a roasted tea's does — both in the cup and on the shelf. That is why this style is stored cold and drunk young.
Lilac. Fresh cream. A green stem snapped in half. If those are familiar, the middle of this cup is familiar too — the leaf is doing something recognisable, not something exotic.
Oxidation is stopped early, so the leaf never browns and the floral compounds are never converted into the toasted ones an oolong gets from a heavier make.
The leaf is wrapped in cloth and rolled into pellets. Tight pellets release their aroma slowly, which is why the third and fourth steep often smell better than the first.
Jin Guan Yin is a Tieguanyin and Huang Jin Gui cross, released as Mingke No. 1. It is its own cultivar. “Golden Guan Yin” is a translation of the name, not a second plant.
What you can see
Light-aroma oolong is easy to ruin and easy to check. Three things to look at before you brew it.
Tight green pellets, glossy, stems removed. Green is correct here — a brown pellet means a different style, whatever the label says.
Pale gold-green and clear. If it pours yellow-brown, the water was too hot or the steep too long.
DB35/T 943-2009, the Fujian oolong geographical indication standard. Licence SC11435052404856, held in Anxi.
One gaiwan reading and one mug reading of the same leaf. The gaiwan is where the orchid shows.
Parameters stated for this product · adjust to taste, then keep them
Twenty seconds on the first steep, ten more each round, seven or eight infusions in total. This is how most Minnan oolong is drunk at home, and it is the version that keeps the flower in the cup.
The aroma peaks around the third steep. Do not judge the leaf on the first one.
A mug version needs cooler water and a shorter steep than the gaiwan, or the light-aroma leaf turns bitter before the floral notes arrive.
Lift the leaf out at two minutes. Left in, it keeps extracting and the second half of the mug is a different drink.
A number is an identity, not a stock code. Where a field is unknown, it is left out rather than guessed.
One leaf, six fates. Nothing here is blended across regions.
