Kanayamidori vs Jin Xuan
Two cultivars from different countries that both produce a naturally creamy aroma, and both are routinely assumed to have been flavoured. Jin Xuan gave rise to the entire ‘milk oolong’ category and to a great deal of artificial imitation of itself.
What is being compared
Why these get confused
‘Milk oolong’ describes a cultivar characteristic and a flavoured product under one name, and the flavoured version is far more widely sold. Jin Xuan is the plant; the syrup is not.
Point by point
| Aspect | Kanayamidori | Jin Xuan |
|---|---|---|
| Country | Japan. | Taiwan. |
| The aroma | Distinctly milky, almost creamy, and genuinely aromatic. | A soft buttery, creamy note requiring no additive. |
| Category made | Sencha, and used as a blending component to soften sharper cultivars. | Oolong. |
| Origin of the plant | A Japanese selection. | Bred by the Taiwan Tea Research and Extension Station and released in 1981 as Tai Cha No. 12. |
| Agronomics | Used partly for blending value. | Higher-yielding and considerably hardier than Qing Xin. |
| How elevation changes it | Not the defining variable. | Grown low it is an ordinary everyday tea; grown high it is genuinely fine. |
| The misunderstanding | Assumed to be flavoured. | Assumed to be flavoured, and frequently is — imitation milk oolong is a large market. |
The short answer
A creamy note in tea is a plant characteristic before it is an additive, and two breeding programmes on different islands arrived at it independently. The practical test is price and persistence: added flavouring is loud in the dry leaf and gone by the third infusion.
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