Kimberley's Kyusu

Hey Teacups! I’m back today with a Let’s Talk Tea post and this time around I’m going to be reviewing Jing Sheng Yu’s – Oriental Beauty (Oolong). Those of you who know me well will know that I’m a huge oolong fan so when Jing Sheng Yu’s team reached out to me and asked if I wanted to try some of their teas (most of which of different kinds of oolong) even though I had not heard the brand I jumped at the chance to be able to explore the world of oolong just a little bit further. Jing Sheng Yu is a tea company based in Taiwan and they are a company dedicated to promoting a modern tea lifestyle, and they have been been leading the Taiwanese tea trend in Taiwan since 2009. They believe that the best tea in the world is Taiwanese tea.

Taiwan is blessed to own multiple tea tree species and the most favourable planting environment along with the pioneering craftsmanship in tea making based on centuries of inheritance which result in about hundred kinds of tea flavour variation Taiwanese tea is therefore the crystallization of nature and culture, the art of the interaction between human beings and Mother earth. They started Jing Sheng Yu to promote Taiwanese tea by making them a part of everyone’s life. They strive to provide unique and perfect Taiwanese tea drinking experiences for people who want to learn more about the magnificent taste of Taiwan.

Here’s what Jing Sheng Yu themselves have to say about this tea over on their website: Sweet and sour taste like first love. Taste the happiness of fruity honey. Deffinelty Short and sweet in terms of information from them but what they did have to say about this oolong made it sound pretty good to me. Sometimes simple works and theres no need for a description that has to push sell a product.

Tea Tasting Notes

For this tasting session I steeped this tea in my glass Kyusu and used 85-89°C water. In total with the tea leave I used, I managed to get quite a good few cups and 3 full steeps in total which I don’t think is bad at all and if this session is anything to go by the leaves I have left in the tin I was gifted are bound to last me quite a while. Jing Sheng Yu describe this tea as sweet & sour with notes of fruits and honey and for the most part that is incredibly accurate but there is definitely much more to this tea than that brief description and they definitely undersell all of the layers of depth this teas has within it’s flavour profile. My first steep was naturally sweet like honey but not over the top sweet at all and worked perfect with the other notes, it was also much more floral than I expected it to be and that note really lingered in the mouth but was again not overpowering at all and the sweetness did a great job of making sure it didn’t get out of control.

In terms of fruity notes they mostly came through in the cups from my second steep and I was able to pick out quite a few different fruity elements and they only seems to keep on emerging from my first sip when the teas was warm through to my last sipped when the tea had cooled substantially. I was able to pick out raisin, peach, pineapple, honey suckle melon and stewed stone fruits. It really did amaze me that one tea could offer so much in the way of different fruity notes and that they all worked really well together as well. That list of fruits has things in it I never thought would have worked well together but in my second steep with this tea I was proved completely wrong.

My third steep with this tea was a little more reserved and the sweetness and floral and fruit notes were much subtler than the pervious steeps and the overall flavour profile was much more autumnal, with added nutty notes (pistachio), subtle woody notes and a hint of muscatel making this taste a bit more like a Darjeeling than anything. With this tea I was so surprised that even in the third steep in quite a decently sized Kyusu, I was still able to continue picking out new notes and the tea was transforming so much from steep to steep. Looking back at this tasting session I probably could have steeped this one more time to see what an extra steep would have meant for the flavour profile, I can imagine that I would have been just as fantastic as the first three steeps and it’s definitely something I’ll experiment with in the future. I can also see this being really great cold brewed so that’s something I’ll be trying out when it’s a little warmer here in the UK.

Whether or not you are a seasoned oolong fan or completely new to oolong and wanting to find something new to try I highly recommend trying out this particular oolong, it’s sure to provide you with an amazing experience and I guarantee that you will not be disappoint with this tea and it’s extremely expansive and ever changing flavour profile. After enjoying this tasting session so much I am definitely eager to try more teas from this company (especially oolongs) to see if the other teas they offer are as good as this one is. I’m sure I am in for many more eventful tasting sessions with teas from this company in the future.

Overall Teacup Rating: 5/5

If you want to find out more about Jing Sheng Yu and purchase some of this tea for yourself, you can do so here. As always if you have any questions at all either stick them in the comments or send them to me on Instagram @teaisawishblog. I’ll do my best to answer them all as soon as I get the chance.

Speak to you all again soon. Happy Steeping – Kimberley

*The tea featured in this post was gifted to me for the purpose of this review. All opinions are my own and have not been paid for*