408 Tasting Notes

88

Well, it’s done. I now have tasted all the teas of my Taiwan Tea Crafts order .

Beautiful leaves, very long and crunchy dark, were waiting for me in a nice dark green package .

This is also delicious. I’m really satisfied with my oder . The advantage of this brand is to offer tea in mini bags of 25 g, which is really ideal to taste new teas. But then the disadvantage is that you regret having bought only 25 g . And with this order it is the case for the majority of the teas. … Terrifying when you think about it …for the wallet .

This tea is no exception to the rule but it is a little below those of TTC I’ve tasted so far. The texture of the liquor is a little too light to totally seduce me. However my daughter does not stop to serve and re serve it again and drank half of the teapot. It’s true that I love Mi Xian in general, but this type of tea does not cross the barrier of my top 10.

Fruity and honey are there and are absolutely divine- There are too some touches of cereals. But I just wish there was a little more body to the liquor. Nevertheless, it is a small reserve , really.

Some pics of my session with this tea are available here : http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2014/11/22/baguashan-mi-xian-black-tea-lot-302-taiwan-tea-crafts/

Flavors: Fruity, Honey, Oats

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec
Cameron B.

I really need to order some samples from Taiwan Tea Crafts… :D

Ysaurella

oh yes you should this brand is absolutely fantastic I loved all the teas of my order

Sil

cameron – totally worth it with the free shipping for 25$ worth of sample sizes. they’re a great company if you like taiwanese teas.

Angrboda

What is their shipping like to Europe? Is it reasonable? I seem to see this brand around a lot.

Sil

angrboda – it’s free shipping worldwide on their specials. so 25$ worth of 25g samples (which is a great thing in my books) and you don’t pay shipping. I love it because canada (and europe) usually gets the short end of things..

Angrboda

Ooooh lovely! I shall have to have a looksie. Thanks Sil.

Ysaurella

I can add the customer service provided by the owner is absolutely fantastic : caring and very professional

TheTeaFairy

Lovely as always sweet Ysaurella XOX

Ysaurella

merci douce cousine québécoise :)

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98

So how to say that with elegance ? I see no other possibility than that: This tea takes me out of my seat and I almost levitated … When I think that one year ago I was afraid to taste Pu-erh … if I had started with this one I would not have waited another 6 months to try the second.

I have a "packed"leaf typical since my sample is a piece of a cake . We can admire large pieces. This is a Pu- erh Sheng (raw and green) and not a shou .

Look at this beautiful whole leaves of a bright green and yellow…

The liquor is a light golden yellow . The taste was a festival of yellow fruit with delicious little acid notes. But that’s not all , it also has an herbal taste and even a taste of hay (although I am not stupid to the point of having already hay for dinner … but I ’m sure it has that taste , hay ) . Very little bitterness , just a touch .

This is simply exquisite . Thank you to Angel from Teavivre for allowing me to discover this delicious tea. It goes directly into the wish list … but why… why did I just pay my local taxes … misery …

You can see some pics of my session with this lovely tea here : http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/fengqing-wild-tree-yesheng-raw-pu-erh-tea-cake-2013-teavivre/

Flavors: Hay, Herbs, Stonefruit

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 30 sec

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72

Another tea that comes from Lisbon , from a with cteresa … Teresa Obrigada ! yes, I know I could find Tea Tibet here but I did not want to buy it and this is really a good way to taste before you buy a tea that you might not like at all.

It is a blend that is unremarkable at first , dark black and green twigs ,shot cut. It smells Jasmine and Jasmine and a touch of rose.

I decide to brew it 4 minutes no more.

I get a very dark liquor , more than I would have thought given to the colour of the leaves that are very green once infused .

I start to taste it : it’s pretty amazing. So here I remain quite quiet … cannot tell if I like it or not . Very strange . It is relatively floral : Jasmine is the star. The rose softens the entire body of the cup. We can also clearly detect citrus . bergamot . and ? So I jump on the MF site and I read that it is supposed to contain as well mandarin . I ’m not sure to get it.

I am at the end of my mug … and if I drink this tea without displeasure I cannot say that I am excited . Probably too floral for me. Yet I like some very good jasmine teas . But there, blah . I understand that one can appreciate it but it is really not a cup for me.

Here are some pics : http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2014/11/16/the-au-tibet-mariage-freres/

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 4 min, 0 sec

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88

I am enjoying another tea from my order at Taiwan Tea Crafts . Again this is an oriental beauty and very different vs the 2 ones I already tasted .

It is on the fruit and honey side of Oriental Beauty but is not as sweet and honey as oriental beauty premium grade Oolong lot 342. It is a tea somewhere halfway between the latter and Oriental Beauty Oolong Superior Grade lot 341 .

This is a very well balanced and absolutely delicious tea. The premium grade Oolong lot 342 remains my favorite though.

You can see pics of my session with this tea here : http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2014/11/16/oriental-beauty-select-grade-oolong-tea-lot-340-taiwan-tea-crafts/

Flavors: Honey, Stonefruit

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 0 sec

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77
drank Milky Oolong by unknown name
408 tasting notes

Well sorry no idea of the name of the the tea company … that would be German .

It therefore comes from the tea shop les thés d’Émilie, better known by its brand name on the Boulevard Haussmann : Twinings shop . You can see photos on their website, I’m sure this shop is familiar to any walker on the bd Haussmann http://www.lesthesdemilie.fr/ . I also received a very warm welcome.

I found this little tea in the midst of many twinings boxes.

Scent : the dry leaf is very buttery like any good Milky Oolong tea but with a very vegetal note.

The leaves swell quite a lot during brewing .
They unfold and we get beautiful whole , fine and very green leaves.
The liquor is a lovely pale yellow, translucent

The taste is an extremely creamy and very vegetal tea . It’s creamed spinachs for me. It is therefore a very little oxidized variety of Oolong .

At the second infusion the vegetable side fades considerably, but the creamy side as well. This tea has a pleasant taste but nothing more.

This is clearly not the Milky Oolong that could dethrone the Theodor in my heart.
Unlike what the nice lady told me at the Twinings shop , no, all the milk Oolongs are not the same and moreover they do not all come from Taiwan. Some also come from Fujian in China. So weird to hear from a personne working in a tea shop that all Milk Oolongs are the same.

You can the big leaves here :http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2014/11/15/milky-oolong-les-thes-demilie/

Flavors: Butter, Cream, Spinach

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 5 min, 0 sec

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90

What is good with public holidays is that you can prepare a full teapot and drink it quietly without running behind a train, a bus or the people of the accountancy or IT service :)

And a nice point with Taiwan Tea Crafts is that their teas names contain the lot number , which reminds us that each year is different due to the harvest and tea like wine is by the way a little different.

This tea is a black tea, necessarily Taiwan . It has long , veryyyy veryyy long black dry brittle leaves and its odour is undergrowth and fresh mushroom. Let’s go , I’m following the package instructions because I am a good girl : I boil water and pour on the pretty leaves and let’s go for 3 minutes waiting . And it is long indeed when you are just dying to drink a cup of this tea !

The filter of my glass teapot annoys me , it is much too tight for the leaves to express themselves and unfold, it had to be designed by a guy who does not drink whole leaf tea … this is not possible otherwise. Fortunately after the second infusion the leaves managed to unfold.

This tea has a beautiful amber color.

The taste is completely different from the smell of this tea, it’s fun. It was a tea " disguised " . Honey and yellow fruits are the guests of honor here. There is an explosion of flavours in the mouth.

Taiwan Tea Crafts states that this tea is a blend of two original tea and a Jin Xuan Si Ji Chun. Unfortunately I am not savant enough to know all the specificities of these two teas but I’ll try to find out more.

This tea is absolutely delicious , it’s simple : I swallowed the contents of afull teapot just the time to write this note and I am exploring my second teapot . It resteeps perfectly.

Pics of the session with this tea are here : http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2014/11/11/golden-dragon-black-tea-lot-241-taiwan-tea-crafts/

Flavors: Honey, Oats, Stonefruit

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec
Cameron B.

Oh Ysaurella, how I love your notes! And what an adorable teacup and saucer you have.

darby

+1 on the teacup! I love it too!

Tabby

Ooh, I love your teapot.

Ysaurella

thank you girls ! when you’ll come in Paris I’ll invite you to share a tea in my teapot and teacups :)

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85

This tea arrived straight from Canada , from a swap with Jillian – Jillian Thank you so much . It’s crazy , isn’t it? A French tea which did the way France – Canada and is now back to its " home " country … Hello carbon … not to mention the first trip of the original tea which probably came from China :) Anyway, even if I feel a little guilty for being a nasty polluter of the planet I can enjoy this superb Earl Grey.

There is nothing to do for Earl Greys, I ’m definitely a huge Mariage Frères fan . I tasted at least 7 or 8 of their EG and I loved them all. Some more than others but all have in common a perfectly balanced bergamot , balanced and scrupulously respectful for the tea base used to accompany it.

This tea has the distinction of containing tips silver . They usually make tea more delicate and refined. This is actually a lovely tea and refined tea. Still relatively smooth and with the perfectly balanced sweet bergamot which slowly but surely tickle the palate. Very successful.

The liquor is very dark amber .

You can see pictures of this tea here : http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2014/11/09/earl-grey-silver-tips-mariage-freres/

Flavors: Bergamot

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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72

Backlog from yesterday night
This is an interesting chai tea and as its name suggests it, this is a Rwandan tea. Which is rarer than a chai made on an Indian tea base .

We immediately see by the size and type of leaves that we are dealing with a Rwandan tea. The leaves are super short , with a chocolate colour and have almost a circle shape.

We have lovely and nice mixed spices : ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and pink berries

I opted for an Indian style of preparation because of the gloomy weather. I got so a barely beige liquor.

This chai had not a very strong flavor , spices are present, very mixed, difficult to feel each one separately. Cardamom is nonetheless a little more present in this chai .

I’m not super excited . I much preferred Anichaï of Dammann Frères too . I love an heavy spice chai , this one was very discreet.

But my cat loved it :)

You can see pics of this tea and of the thief cat here : http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2014/11/08/the-des-mille-collines-dammann-freres/

Preparation
Boiling 5 min, 30 sec
mrmopar

Looks a lot like “Chairman Meow” in my household.

Ysaurella

strangely he doesn’t try to sip Pu-erhs…but Chaï and milk of course are interesting. I love red cats :)

boychik

Love the pics ;)

Ysaurella

thank you boychik :)

carol who

Oh what a cute picture of your cat!!

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88

Let’s go, I continue to explore the wonderful teas of my Taiwan Tea Crafts ’s order . I ’m really not disappointed . The appearance of this Oolong is very rocky , the leaves look like small green stones as they are rolled so tight.
They do impress me these leaves !

And even wet , they unfold but not completely … as if they had terrible secrets to keep …

The liquor offers me the classic honey but especially very mineral notes . Mineral notes are dominating in my opinion. Cereals are also there as nuts … walnuts, almonds. A delicious tea, perfect for sippingin the morning as in the middle of the afternoon.

This is a very lovely and unexpected (physically) tea, you can see pics here : http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2014/11/08/baguashan-gui-fei-oolong-tea-lot-262-taiwan-tea-crafts/

Flavors: Honey, Mineral, Nuts, Oats, Walnut

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 5 min, 0 sec

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96

Oh Lord I am so happy to have found this tea…really it is a wonder. I’ve always loved Oriental Beauty teas but this one is soooooo sweet, so fruity. Muscatel & Muscatel & Muscatel here + Honey & Honey & Honey !!! I am in heaven
I am knowing by now I will survive after my last cup of TWMB from Butiki Teas if this Oriental Beauty premium grade Oolong Tea lot 342 continues to exist !

Pics of my session with this wonderful tea are available here : http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/2014/11/02/oriental-beauty-premium-grade-oolong-tea-lot-342-taiwan-tea-crafts-2/

Flavors: Apricot, Honey, Muscatel, Raisins

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 5 min, 0 sec
Sil

it’ll be different lots going forward, so essentially just different harvests but glad you found this one!

Marzipan

Green Terrace has a great one if you haven’t tried it.

Ysaurella

thank you girls yes it is a nice one, I’ll have a look at Green Terrace for sure

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Profile

Bio

First, please forgive me for my English and all the grammatical mistakes you’ll find in my posts.
As English isn’t my mother tongue it sometimes makes things more difficult to express cleverly and accurately what I feel.

I was mainly in black flavoured teas, green as well if not bitter.
I’m now drinking much straight teas because my palate is now developed enough to appreciate them .

My favourite brands are : Taiwan tea Crafts, Teavivre, Mariage Frères,Theodor,Butiki Teas,Dammann Frères, Betjeman & Barton.
My ratings are as follow :

100 to 95 : my darlings; always in my cupboard (or very often ! )

94 to 90 : Excellent tea

89 to 80 : very good tea, a pleasure to drink it

79 to 70: not bad even quite nice, why not having it sometimes, but well,it’s not so urgent !

69 to 50 : Meh, deceptive or just not for me – but has some qualities

49 to 30 : I just don’t appreciate it

Under 30 : is this thing supposed to be tea ?!?!?

My tea blog (in French)
http://thevangeliste.wordpress.com/

Location

Paris, France

Website

http://thevangeliste.wordpres...

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