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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."
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