Oriental Leaf Fu zhuan hei cha comparison, Lincang and Fengqing versions

 

red wrapper Fengqing version on the left, in all photos

I'm comparison reviewing two exceptional Fu cakes from Oriental Leaf.  I think the zhuan part relates to a brick form, so I guess these aren't that, but it still helps identify the material type, for people accustomed to only seeing them pressed as bricks.  

I've recently tried what seemed likely to be the best example of Fu zhuan hei cha I've yet to try from them, reviewed here.  The comparison theme serves a few purposes.  One is to get through versions and samples of teas faster, so that I can review 10 or so teas a month, instead of 5.  

Then it also plays a role in highlighting minor differences between similar versions, which is why I'm using it for this review.  It would be hard to spot differences in feel, sweetness level, aftertaste expression, and so on when reviewing similar versions days apart.  Even isolating flavor aspect differences could be tricky, if a basic flavor range is similar.  It works best for very similar character versions; trying two completely different tea types just adds work, and probably limits what you can notice.

These will be exceptional, it's just a matter of how.  All of the Fu versions I've tried from them have been great, and that's not going to change for these.  That last version was surprising for eclipsing earlier examples, and just being on par with that would be good.  

I'll add the vendor descriptions here first, which I always add back in to the post review notes after trying the teas.  I should also add that these were sent by the vendor for review (many thanks!).  The days of bloggers connecting with producers and vendors to review teas are winding down, or just blog writing is, but it's nice carrying on that form, especially to communicate about interesting and unique teas.  

I had others try those earlier Fu versions in a number of gathering based tastings, and essentially every person saw the version we tried as a highlight.  Work out visiting me in Honolulu and Bangkok and you can place that for yourself.

On Taoism Jingyang Golden Flower Fu Brick Tea - 350g Cake (2020)  ($65.50)

A 2025 World Tea Champion winner where five years of patient aging and Yunnan's finest spring buds unite with Jingyang's legendary flowering craft to deliver a Fu Brick Tea of extraordinary golden flower density and silken, honeyed complexity.

Jingyang Golden Flower Fu Brick Tea — Naturally Flourishing Golden Flowers, Mellow Sweetness, Silken Body

Abundant Natural Golden Flowers (Jin Hua)

Masterful Jingyang Flowering Craft (Fahua)

Smooth, Sweet, Zero Bitterness

Ideal for Daily Wellness and Long-Term Aging

What Makes It Unique

2025 World Tea Champion — Superior Leaf Award: Internationally recognized for best leaf profile and cup character, validated by blind tasting from global experts.

Extraordinarily Dense Golden Flowers: This tea has everything we look for: excellent base material, perfect "Golden Flower" growth, and great aging potential.

Premium Yunnan Spring Bud Material: Unlike conventional Fu Brick made with coarse autumn leaves, this tea uses 2020 spring harvest with exceptional bud density from Lincang and Fengqing.

plenty of golden flowers (the Fengqing version)

the Lincang version

nice looking leaf material, not chopped, as hei cha in general would often be

The black wrapper version is from Lincang, the red from Fengqing (from good Yunnan Assamica plant tea material, where a lot of hei cha source material would come from elsewhere).  I could see why this stood out in an expo event competition; these are pretty good.  Again, as related to trying two other smaller cake versions earlier, one matches my personal preferences better, but both are nice, distinctive, complex, and lacking flaws.

Related to that pricing, $65 for 350 grams, these are much better than any pu'er versions you would buy for that cost range.  The type costs less in general, since demand isn't as high, but for tea of this quality in general under 20 cents a gram pricing is pretty low.

This review doesn't mention golden flowers (which are there).  They add a distinctive yeasty, fruity sort of flavor input, which at best comes across as fresh bread and honey or dried fruit.  Those flavors get mentioned, I just don't elaborate on guesses about the fungus causing them, versus the original material.

Review:

Fengqing:  very nice!  It includes the range one might expect, if anything a little more distinctive and pronounced than expected.  Sweetness stands out, along a toffee or light caramel range.  Flavors are relatively light and bright; a main flavor is similar to fruit cake, a mix of bright range dried fruits, particularly something like dried apricot.  There is spice, and warmer tones, but those are secondary, and the warmth is limited.  There is warm mineral range, but that will evolve more as the tea is fully wetted.  I'll do a longer flavor list next round.

Lincang:  spice is heavier in this, and the tone is slightly warmer.  It's also exceptional.  That spice range is going to be hard to describe; I think it's more than one thing.  One part might be clove, and another cinnamon.  

Of course there is a yeast-like aspect to both, so some description to fresh bread or cinnamon rolls would make sense.  I'll try to sort all that out next round.

Fengqing #2:  it's pleasant the way this set of flavors integrates.  It may or may not sound like that; it is atypical range, related to a lot of other tea types' character.  

Dried fruit stands out, a little stronger, maybe heavier toned this round (for being brewed lighter, or relating to more leaf input than fungus related flavor).  Yeast flavor has already dropped back, but another part of this does relate to a fresh bread flavor.  The type isn't easy to specify; maybe closest to fresh cinnamon rolls or sticky buns (which are kind of the same thing, just presented differently).  

Light and warm mineral supports the rest, giving it a depth.  Pronounced sweetness seems to help tie it all together, now more clearly in a toffee range.  It's very clean in effect.  Feel is full and rich, and it provides some aftertaste experience, with some of the warmer tones and sweetness carrying on after.  

Lincang #2:  spice develops further.  This is really more than one kind of spice.  A warm incense spice stands out, something like sandalwood.  There is no astringency bite or sharp edge to this, but it includes spice range like a cooked form of ginger, a different kind of medium toned note.  That's closer to cooked lotus root, if that's familiar.  It doesn't come across as sweet as the other, but it includes sweetness.

Mostly related to personal preference for sweeter teas and fruit range I like the first better, so far.  But this balances well; the flavors are complementary.  Slightly stronger dark bread tones works well with the rest.  I've been brewing these a little strong because they work well that way.  The flavor intensity would support lighter infusions still being pleasant.

Related to comparison with the other earlier versions these might be a little better.  It's been awhile, so it's hard comparing across months of time since earlier exposure.  And when I drink tea just to enjoy it, or even in informal tastings, I tend to break them down as descriptions less, which sort of could help with analysis and ranking.

Fengqing #3:  it evolves; warmer tones keep ramping up, and lighter sweeter range is replaced by heavier sweeter range.  The earlier fresh cinnamon roll is closer to a fresh darker bread now, not a heavy version of one, but not light either.  The earlier dried apricot has changed to a heavier dried fruit, or mix of dried fruits.  Feel is still thick and rich; maybe even a little heavier.

As a sheng drinker one might consider if teas that lack the intensity and punch are somehow less appealing.  Flavor intensity is fine in this, but young sheng, or sheng with limited aging, is typically aggressive, in terms of feel and flavor, and this isn't that.  I never completely stop drinking black tea, versions along the line of Dian Hong, or related SE Asian forms, so I stay in contact with preference for a different range.

Some of this character isn't different than flavorful and intense black tea, that expresses a lot of depth.  The flavor profile isn't a close match, but it does overlap.  The warm mineral base and fullness can be comparable, again only related to black tea versions that emphasize depth.  The bread-like range is different.

In giving it one last taste before the next round something like dried blueberry might make for a good interpretation of part of it.

Lincang:  this evolves to include more spice range, again along the line of incense spice, perhaps close to sandalwood (although my incense spice range memory awareness is now limited).  It comes across as a little dryer.  Really it is sweet and full, with good depth, but small differences across a similar range stand out in comparison tasting like this.  A touch of fruit edge might relate to a warm citrus peel, not like chen pi (aged tangerine), but still not so far from that.  

There's almost a savory effect.  It's not similar in flavor that it links to related to sun-dried tomato, the other form of savory / umami flavor that tends to be expressed, beyond seaweed that's more common in green tea forms.  This might resemble dried seaweed a little, the roasted sheets version.  But it lacks the vegetal range; it's just the savory edge.  And that is secondary to the warm spice and dark bread context, along with warm mineral base.

Fengqing #4:  this shifts a good bit.  That dried blueberry I had mentioned is closer to dried cranberry now.  It's not exactly tart, but the fruit flavor has changed.  Maybe dried dark cherry works better.  The warm tones have shifted from a bread-like yeast note closer to cacao.  This is much closer to one set of flavor aspects that can come up in black teas, that dark cherry and cacao pairing.  The base feel and deeper flavor range context is different.  It doesn't include any of that sharpness in black teas, present in a very limited form in soft and full black teas.

Feel is a little creamy.  You tend to only associate that with milk oolong, or at least light rolled oolong, but it works as a description for this.  It's reasonably close to a milk chocolate and dried fruit experience, layered on top of warmer mineral and earth tones.  It's harder to isolate the earthy range in this, since the rest stands out a lot more, but I think it plays a role in this seeming so full and complex, and balanced.  It would be natural to just interpret it as warm mineral, but I think it's both, also including mild and sweet earthiness.  

Something along the line of a touch of sweet leather gives an idea of what I mean, but this doesn't taste that much like leather, it would at most relate to a base flavor tone.  Of course that vertical layering is something I'm adding in interpretation; I really do "see" the flavors in that way, but it's probably more in how I frame them than a naturally occurring positioning that everyone else would also experience.

Lincang:  that one spice note dominates this, and then there is a lot of depth and complexity beyond that.  I guess how much one likes this tea might relate to how they experience that one flavor aspect input, as much as the rest.  To me it's squarely within the range of incense spice experience, but I guess someone else might see it as tying to medicinal root spice, or something else.  If you think "bay leaf" when you taste it then it seems to resemble that conventional cooking spice.  

Since other spice range supports that aspect experience it's really complex, even if it's natural to see it as simple, with one note supported by others.  The rest sort of resembles that complex mix of spice inputs in pumpkin pie spicing, which of course overlaps quite a bit with masala chai spices.  I suppose preconceptions about flavors, what one expects, or associates with different complex ranges, would affect interpretation.

Fengqing #5:  this will probably be enough for note-taking, even though these won't be finished.  

Somehow yeast range seems to pick back up.  Interesting; that had seemed to fade.  That relates to a complex flavor set the golden flowers contributes, which seems to extend well beyond yeast, into some of this fruit range I've been describing.  The feel of this is interesting, and pleasant, really well balanced and full.  There is still that pleasant set of dark cherry and cacao flavors present.  This would work well as a Christmas tea with nothing added to it.

Aftertaste intensity is unique.  It's not one main flavor carrying over, or a set, but the rich feel and depth of flavors, and sweetness, all linger on.  Compared to sheng intensity or oolong creaminess and floral range it's limited, but it has a lot of depth, so it doesn't come across as limited.

Lincang:  the main spice note falls into a more even balance with the rest, letting this integrate the best it has.  Those other complex flavors worked well as supporting range before, but now it's all of a similar intensity.  It comes across as softer and fuller, and maybe even sweeter.  A yeast-like depth resembles a light rye in this, a fresh bread note.  Apparently this will brew a few more infusions that are even more pleasant, complex, and balanced, instead of narrowing in scope.

Again related to my own preference the first version stands out more.  I can appreciate spice range flavors, layered with fresh bread notes, but an even sweeter dried fruit and cacao set of flavors works better for me.  This probably relates to a difference between people who are attracted to lots of sweet flavors and deserts, like dried fruit based deserts, or even chocolate and ice cream, and others who like a savory and spice oriented range more.  

Why not both, as differing experiences at different times?  I do crave plenty of intense, bitter, aggressive young sheng, but my main preference within that range is lighter, fruity, strong but approachable versions.  Then sometimes I'll have Xiaguan that's not all that close to ready, and the variety of experience is nice.  A Da Xue Shan origin (I think it was that) "cannonball" form version works well to cover both ranges, and to balance, even related to being transitioned but far from fully transitioned, from 2017 or so.  I just looked it up; it was 2018.  The point is that some of my favorite teas aren't sweet and fruity.

Conclusions

A lot is concluded in this already.  The teas are good, from good plant material, sold at a good value.  I liked one more than the other (the Fengqing material version), related to it being sweeter, a bit fruity, and for tasting like cacao, while the other included more incense spice range, that transitioned to being more balanced by other inputs in later rounds.  

Both kept brewing; I tried another pleasant round that day, and two more the next day.  They needed more time for those 5th through 7th infusions, but you could stretch timing and keep going, or even simmer that type of tea, if you wanted to get the last of it.  Plenty of tea types you drink until the character is unpleasant, but these don't drift into tasting like some version of wood in late rounds (per my interpretation; maybe that simmered round would be off in some way).

To me a next question is how these would compare to the last exceptional Fu zhuan I just reviewed from Oriental Leaf (a 2010 Jinyang version).  I don't know, but I can guess, and might write about comparing them.  These are quite good but I think that tea was great.

You tend to miss things in trying a tea just once, as I do in these reviews, but I have to accept that limitation or else I would need to write and compare two sets of notes for each post.  There might be a difference in body / feel, flavor complexity, or depth between versions.  You can easily miss an important input that's kind of "in the background," like a touch of sourness, or a minor flavor.  I noticed mint on a second tasting of one recently; it was secondary, in terms of intensity, but it adjusted how the rest came across.  I would probably just compare the version that I liked better; three way tastings get to be a bit much.

Those earlier two On Taoism versions (identical tea, listed here, and reviewed earlier here, but sold as 190 gram cakes) were essentially an equivalent option, just sold at less volume, and a slightly higher cost (but still around 20 cents a gram).  I had reviewed them brewing them Western style.  That works, but for teas this good it's interesting to me to see the development of them across Gongfu rounds.  

If I'm in a hurry in the morning I'll still sometimes brew exceptional tea Western style, to keep things moving, and it's nice that these work both ways, as better black teas do.  For good oolong you kind of lose too much from transitions, but for inexpensive and medium quality rolled oolong, as most Thai versions are, Western style is still fine.  If an oolong version is limited in quality or flawed enough Western brewing is better.  Initially I kind of expected more limitations from these teas, an extra rough edge or feel gap, but they're solid, complex and well-balanced.

an orange kitten helped with this tasting

The political war extended to movie themes in the US

 

At first glance everyone already knows how this is going to play out:  there are conservative or liberal oriented movies, and then people on the corresponding side of the US political divide will watch one or the other, and reject the other.  That happens.  But there's a little more to it now.  There is a tendency for a middle group to reject anything remotely like Hollywood liberal inclinations, among people who aren't actually politically conservative.  At least that's how I see things playing out.

The early steps are well-known enough.  In movies like the Star Wars sequels, or Terminator sequels, or later Marvel movies, they tend to build up female protagonists, by "nerfing" or weakening male characters, and gender swap characters, to make white characters into minorities.  Of course this is regarded as fair and inclusive by some, or many, liberals, and rejected by conservatives.

There's a lot less to cite about the opposite trend.  Hollywood is liberal-oriented, so an example of a movie just for conservatives is harder to come up with.  Let's check with Google on that:

Major Hollywood studios rarely label or market films as explicitly "conservative," but 2025 saw a notable rise in mainstream faith-based projects, military/action features, and traditional values narratives. Notable examples include David from Angel Studios, alongside faith-themed and traditional family hits like The Chosen and House of David.

Right, I've never heard of those.  I saw a 20 year old (or so) time travel movie about conservative Christian ideology awhile back; it was odd seeing anything like that.  I had to look up what that was:  Time Changer, from 2002.  It was interesting at least seeing that opposing view, that people might re-adopt values from the 1800s (reject swearing, wearing more modest clothing, all the parts of a very literal interpretation of the Bible, etc.).

Let's skip ahead:  this is mostly about the reactions to the Christopher Nolan Odyssey film.  Of course, since they've replaced Helen of Troy with a black actor, and included a trans-man as a Greek warrior the issue is that it includes liberal signaling.  But the movie is kind of neutral, related to the rest of it, per reviews on both sides.

That brings up an interesting context:  more conservative viewers might either decide to never see the film, because of those issues, or if they did see it would need to find reasons to dislike it, even if ordinarily it would seem like a good movie to them.  That's simple enough.  You can just dislike the story treatment, the character development, any changes from the original Greek myth version, and so on.  And more liberally oriented viewers can find plenty to like as well, to justify why this socially progressive film is good, not only for being socially progressive, but also as a film.

There is a set of Youtubers who benefit quite a bit from this divide, by outlining why the liberal orientation is a bad thing, for viewers who want to feel common ground with others related to disliking that.  The twist is that they're not only conservatives (the viewers, or the Youtubers).  The guy who makes the Critical Drinker Youtube channel stands out among them, related to popularity, and to quality of content (authored by Will Jordan, the name of "the Drinker," per online inpu).  

He communicates clearly, and expresses ideas well.  His perspective seems fine, although it does tend to become repetitive.  His image gimmick is that he is Scottish, and drinks while watching films (supposedly; he has sort of moved beyond that early branding theme, although he still does reference it).

I see his perspective as matching one part of a "classic liberal" view.  This relates to someone who was liberal in the 1980s or 90s, but who then fell into a middle ground for political perspective when the left shifted further left.  There is one other complication to this:  it's normal for people to be more liberal when younger, and then more conservative when older.  This seems to happen for some of the reason I've just described, that society keeps changing, and when people fall behind the pace of the changes they are automatically a conservative.  I'll give an example.

My parents were quite liberal in the 1970s.  They were open to people of all races, nationalities, and social classes being regarded as equal.  My dad was even a social worker; that was his career.  But then as acceptance for people being gay became mainstream in the 1990s, and not just different races, that was harder for them to adopt.  A couple of my close friends were gay, and they never seemed to express disapproval for that, but they still saw people being attracted to the same sex as somewhat unnatural.

Is it possible that it is unnatural?  The question only makes sense within a conservative worldview, that can draw on categories of natural norms, instead of seeing these as assigned by society, and open to change over time.

So they don't really hate gay people, but aren't comfortable with that theme.  It's the same as for others who can't relate to transgender self-definition today, or people being gender neutral, or whatever else.  People who were liberally oriented in the 90s didn't have to accept these later designations, because they were either unheard of or very uncommon then.

I suppose some of this carries over to other minority issues, related to immigrants and such, or maybe to issues related to openness to societal class level changes, but I won't make this discussion more complicated than it has to be.  Feminism also works out to be a complicated topic.  Of course where I'm from, a conservative rural area, in Western Pennsylvania (not that it matters; rural areas are fairly culturally consistent in the US), people are more racist, and against any of the modern progressive agenda and perspective, and for most probably even the older forms of it (classic racism).

Related to that film, the Odyssey, it was interesting how the Critical Drinker, and others, were up against the challenge of explaining why they didn't like it.  It should be easy, right; any parts of the plot or character development could be regarded negatively.  Or the lighting, the action sequence development, use of CGI, and so on.  But in this case most reviewers felt that it's a pretty good film, so lots of that wouldn't work.

The Critical Drinker settled on the portrayal of the main character as the main critique, related to how Matt Damon acted out Odyssius.  Not so much as a personal criticism of Matt Damon's acting, but more the direction.  Even pro-liberal reviewers said that his character is a bit war-weary and one dimensional related to character depth, for most of the movie, so it was simple enough, and a natural choice.  Then the ending apparently doesn't match the original version, so that's easy to dislike.  And the scenery apparently doesn't look like Greece, which would mean more to me if I'd actually been to Greece (parts related to there; I guess Troy was in North-Eastern Africa, so generally near the Middle East, sort of?).

original source cited in the image, worldhistory.org

It's an interesting divide, coupling "classic liberals" with conservatives, related to one part of their media preference.  Maybe they're not so far apart, in terms of general perspective and worldview?  The US isn't set up for there to be any moderate middle ground though, politically.  People are suppose to be conservative or liberal, Democrat or Republican.  Lots of media tone reinforces this.  Trump throws that off a bit, for being so extreme, but in general the society really does break along that line, and media content does, related to news, television shows, movies, etc.

Then one other irony is that Trump isn't really a conservative.  He doesn't care about guns rights, or abortion, or really even about minority issues, although he can play the role of a borderline racist easily enough.  He is pro-Trump, and the rest is flexible.

So what does this mean?  Does this odd part of the culture war open up a space for moderate perspective?  Probably not.  It's just an idiosyncrasy, related to how some films work out, which I suppose would carry over to streamed television content.

These commentators aren't really leveling out the cultural field, in terms of saying that it's fine for people to be trans-gender, or that racial issues shouldn't matter anymore.  It's easy to interpret them as saying the opposite, even though they're not, supporting negative views on racism and transgender acceptance (with negative here meaning bad, being racist, or transphobic).

They earn Youtube views and income by saying what people want to hear.  They really do think that Helen of Troy shouldn't be a black character, and that casting a physically small trans man as a soldier doesn't really make sense.  But they're not necessarily racist or transphobic, or unusually supportive of  race or trans acceptance issues, more kind of in the middle, not particularly concerned with these themes, or against them.  It's easy to take that in different ways, as a viewer, depending on your own biases.  

That's how the 90s went; these things weren't issues, and people let others be however they wanted to be.  You could change your gender back then, and you wouldn't be hated, or seen as some sort of progressive champion.  You'd have been a social role and status outlier, which wouldn't have been regarded as good or bad, by most people.  Conservatives would have found it off-putting, as they do today.  For liberals it couldn't have seemed as normal, since it wasn't as conventional, but it still could have seemed fine.

It's interesting how "political correctness" has changed since, although it doesn't really shift the landscape of these ideas or positions all that much.  Words like "oriental" became regarded as negative (pejorative), and fell by the wayside.  The pronoun theme became complicated.  None of all of that changed the world and personal perspectives all that much though; even among supporters it was regarded as the language simply catching up to modified and updated perspectives.  Sometimes the changes don't stick, and they seem like overreach in retrospect, but often they do.

Thai wild Assamica based oolong, Jinxuan based "oriental beauty"

 

Chang Kham Thai oolong left, in all photos

This reviews a Thai forest origin Assamica based oolong and a Jin Xuan based Dong Fang Mei Ren, a tea type formerly known as Oriental Beauty.  They sell this as Golden Grace Beauty; more often vendors avoid the term "oriental" by calling it Eastern Beauty. 

These are from Chang Kham, a Chiang Mai based shop vendor, and Moychay, a Russian vendor now selling tea from Amsterdam.  Both sent the teas for review; many thanks! 

Both are sort of non-standard, but the Thai tea really falls outside of standard categories. Apparently it's tricky to make oolong from Assamica, with more on that in the review notes.  There is no product description here since this is from a physical shop, not an online source.  There may well be a sales listing somewhere for it, on a local Thai online platform like Shopee or Lazada, but I didn't look one up.

DFMR / OB usually isn't based on the Jin Xuan cultivar, I don't think, and this oxidation level seems unusually low, but the results aren't too far off the standard type outcome. 

Golden Grace Beauty Oolong (Jinxuan Meiren Cha)

Golden Grace Beauty Oolong is a rare type of Oriental Beauty tea made by Moychay order in Southern Fujian, in collaboration with Taiwanese tea artisans. 

Grown at an altitude of about 1100 meters in pesticide-free gardens, the tea is uniquely shaped by nature: the tea leaves must be bitten by a specific insect — the “small green leafhopper” (Jacobiasca formosana). This triggers a natural enzymatic response, promoting the release of terpenes and resulting in complex aromas of honey, fruit, and flowers. 

The tea is entirely handmade using the Jin Xuan cultivar and follows a labor-intensive oolong process that includes sunlight withering, oxidation (60–80%), multiple fermentations, and careful drying. 

Its distinctive appearance displays five hues — red, yellow, white, green, and brown — with prominent white hairs. The infusion glows golden like amber, with a smooth, rich, and lingering flavor. Layers of honey, fruit, floral, and tender vegetal notes unfold in the cup.

That costs 19.73 Euro for 60 grams, or $24 USD.  That's 40 cents a gram.  Is that good?  It's hard to say.  If the style is a good match to preference for someone, the changes from most typical type character, then that's quite fair, but some people might be put off by those differences, and then it wouldn't be about fair or low price.

That might be all the more true of the other tea version, that for people who happen to like that distinctive and unique style it could be a great tea, but that it being atypical might drop the level of appeal for others.

Review:

Thai wild Assam oolong:  that's interesting.  Warm tones and an astringency structure stand out first, but there is sweetness and plenty of flavor complexity.  I'm not sure what tea type this reminds me of.  It's probably not a close match to any standard type of oolong, but then being made from Assamica material is a step away from that, and material being from a wild origin source usually changes things, into a less familiar but often interesting form.  

It's hard to identify a flavor breakdown, or even to add range to this.  There's a lot going on, but warm mineral and astringency structure mask the rest.  There might be both fruit and floral range, and possibly some warm spice, and it's that complexity, so much going on, that makes it hard to identify distinct flavors.  A savory edge, and the flavor, might relate to sun-dried tomato.  I'll try again next round for more of a list.

Moychay Jin Xuan "Meiren Cha," Golden Grace Beauty oolong:  that does express a lot of the type-typical "oriental beauty" range, the muscatel oriented citrus, a raisin note, and warm spice, pretty much just cinnamon.  The color looks much lighter than I would see as standard, but the flavor range is heavier and warmer than expected.  Feel is pleasant; it includes fullness and richness already.  Aftertaste expression is even kicking in.  It's pretty good.  They might have got even better results adding just a touch more oxidation input, but you can't argue with the results as this stands.  

There's a hint of lighter floral range still, the more normal Jin Xuan character, and a good bit of creaminess.  It's not perfectly type-typical "oriental beauty."  I guess I could start writing out Dong Fang Mei Ren instead, and avoid using either the old, politically incorrect name, or else Golden Grace Beauty, which is just a work-around to not say "oriental."  It doesn't matter.

In trying the second version and then the first that astringency edge in the Thai version stands out all the more.  It's not like a black tea astringency, and definitely not like oolong, which almost always lacks any kind of edge.  So I guess it's the green tea range carrying over, in spite of added oxidation?  It's not bad; it will be interesting to see how it evolves.

Thai Assamica oolong #2:  this first sample is smaller, maybe 5 grams, while the other is 7.  For now I just poured out the second Jin Xuan infusion first, not adjusting timing by much, but I might have to.

This evolves to be a lot stronger.  It was brewed pretty fast, but it's already quite intense.  Faster infusion times may work for this, or rather the lower proportion relating to making a related change.

This is pleasant, but it tastes like a tea processing style still being developed.  Integration and balance are a little off.  Warm tones and astringency are fine, but sweetness and flavor complexity aren't there in the right level to balance those.  Sweetness is limited.  It has nice depth, and intensity is fine.  No flavors are really off; it all works, but it could balance better.  Feel is a little structured, even towards seeming dry, for this to be a normal oolong style.  

I don't think this is an early attempt at processing; I would expect that it took some work to get this to balance as well as it already does.  But converting oolong processing to work for Assamica material might be tricky.  I've tried other attempts, and only two really worked.  This is quite good in relation to the range of the rest, just not quite where those two were.  Those were from Vietnam, sold by Hatvala, prepared as rolled oolong, reviewed here in 2019.  I guess it's a theme that doesn't come up too often.

There's a unique flavor in this that's pleasant, that's hard to pin down.  It's on towards rust, a warm mineral input, but it's not that.  It's closer to a wetlands sort of variation of "forest floor."  That sounds unpleasant, like I'm saying it tastes swampy, and I don't mean that, it's nice.  It could use one or two other notes to balance it, but those may evolve over the next couple of rounds.

Jin Xuan Dong Fang Mei Ren:  that warm spice note really stands out, along with something like dried tangerine peel (or muscatel; that kind of works too).  The spice may be in between cinnamon and nutmeg.  What I interpreted as raisin is a fainter background input now.  Warm mineral supports the rest nicely, and all the other aspects integrate really well:  sweetness, rich feel, aftertaste effect, and balance of flavors.  Then it's unusual that a bit of lighter floral is in there as well.  It gives it even more complexity, but it also reduces the impact and effect of the rest some.

This is pretty good, as oriental beauty variations go, but it's hard for any version to be towards the top of that scale, which relates to an amazing overall set of integrated and balanced aspects.  These warmer fruit and spice tones could be even warmer, and more intense, and could combine differently.  A honey sweetness sometimes stands out.  The citrus note can pop more than it does in this.  It's a good version, but not completely type-typical, and not a great version, in terms of pleasantness of experience.  It's on a level above the other tea; that one doesn't come together in the same way.  But then they're producing something really non-standard, not just using Jin Xuan instead of whatever other cultivar is more standard for OB (a type of Qing Xin, was it?).

Thai Assamica oolong #3:  it's interesting how the color changes in the second version, how that evens up over the rounds.  And how this has been staying as intense as the other, even though it's around 5 grams instead of 7.

This is the best this has been.  The flavors tie together better than ever, and the feel picks up richness, with the earlier astringency mellowing.  It was never harsh or edgy, to be clear, nowhere near Assam black tea range, or sheng intensity and rough feel.  It just had a lot of astringency structure for oolong, and a touch of dryness, which is lighter now.  

That one flavor is all the catchier.  It's not so different than the one edge in black tea, towards malt, not completely unlike some cured hardwood tone.  But hard to fully describe.  It seems like floral range is filling in some depth and complexity, and spice is, but they're hard to make out as distinct flavors.  It might be more like a tropical hardwood, teak, mahogany, or the like (which I guess makes sense, for a forest origin Thai tea).  One part I'm not capturing well in description relates to spice, sort of along the line of bay leaf.  

It's pleasant.  It doesn't match any other standard tea style or type, but that's fine.

Jin Xuan Dong Fang Mei Ren:  the balance of those earlier flavors shifts a little, but they're all the same.  Maybe the citrus stands out a little more this round.  I'm brewing this quite light, for 10 seconds or so, and you could draw out the warmer and heavier flavors more just by adding more time.  I'll try that, and probably leave off notes after the next round.

Thai Assamica oolong #4:  that astringency edge is much stronger, brewed longer; no surprise there.  It leans towards a green wood effect made this way.  This tea is more suitable for being brewed lighter.

Jin Xuan OB:  warm spice does stand out a little more for being brewed a little longer, but this may be fading already, since intensity didn't really increase.  A couple of more rounds would tell for sure.  [later edit]:  it wasn't dying, but it was fading, which isn't a good sign for quality, that happening so fast.  It made a few more decent infusions, but intensity had already dropped off some.

Conclusions:

These kind of review posts probably don't work very well for vendor marketing.  For people who the descriptions ring a bell, related to them sounding great, or interesting, the teas would seem appealing, but it would be as likely that it's not enough of a strong sales pitch.  The teas were good, but not high up the scale as good teas go.

It's nice that Moychay is turning up interesting versions of some standard teas, and selling them at moderate cost, at a good value.  But I'd expect a lot of tea enthusiasts to be seeking out the most type-typical, highest quality, most pleasant versions, and this may or may not make the cut, depending on judgement.  It's pleasant, so that part works, but slightly off the most typical Dong Fang Mei Ren style.

The other tea is even more unusual.  It's fine, also good, but again few people are probably looking for distinctive oolong that has an atypical feel and flavor profile.  If it all meshed together really well then sure, and this tea version balanced ok, but it was only on the lower end of "good."