Magnolia Fragrance (玉蘭香, Yù Lán Xiāng, "Jade Orchid Fragrance") - One of the ten original Phoenix oolong breeds. Magnolia is called Yù Lán 玉蘭 (“Jade Orchid”) in Chinese, and the Chinese magnolia is one of the most prized of flowers and floral fragrances in China. The Chinese magnolia has a different shape and perfume than the American magnolia. This tea really does have a fragrance evocative of the sweet summer smell of fresh magnolia blossoms, with high notes of rose, orchid, and lychee. One of our all-time favorite Phoenix oolongs, this tea is a masterpiece of careful roasting by Master Lin Yaobin.
1 Review
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exquisitely sublime divine
When I was an undergraduate at the University of Georgia, I used to climb the grand, old Southern magnolias on North Campus and stick my face in their yellow-white blooms–aromatherapy overpowering. Lifting, upward, setting my mind to floral frequencies among the hubbub of a restless campus. Sitting on those huge limbs, halfway up, puffing on my pipe…perhaps hinted at a life of tea in the decades to come…. I’m told Chinese magnolias have a different-scent profile than the lemony-citrus of our deep Southern specimens. Same for the mountain species here in high Appalachia–they have scant scent at all and are deciduous instead of evergreen. It would seem that magnolias are, like people, wonderfully diverse in their multitudes of variation. I hope to one day meet a Chinese magnolia flower, pistil-to-nostril, full-stop. This Magnolia Fragrance batch, masterfully crafted by Mr. Lin Yaobin, is truly one of the finest dancing oolong’s I’ve had the pleasure of tasting. Upon opening the bag, dry-scent is fruit floral joy settling into orchid floral. Maybe hint tangy around the starry edges and twinkling. ….pour-off rinse in the cup….is that a faint hint of what might resemble cinnamon brandy, provided such a thing exists?!....perhaps my imagination wafts whimsical more than usual…. ….removing lid from yixing pot, first post-rinse pour: like diving into a fruit-floral forest, knee-deep, nose-first….all grounded in a driving scent I cannot place but do not doubt the omniscience of Chinese magnolia, distant-friend-unmet…. And the taste. Jade orchid-magnolia-floral–nice and comforting, not overwhelming. At least not at first. By the end I’m overwhelmed but in a perfectly contented way hinting at ecstatic. A touch of honey-sweetness in the hui gan brings back my grandmother’s southern sun-tea from a mulch pile of childhood memory: tasteful, not overdone. I could scarcely ask more from a tea. I wouldn’t dare, for fear of the gods. They have allowed us too rare a grace by way of this delicate, intrepid leaf.
