Taiwan Tea Crafts

nom. one of my other teas from today – mostly i just wanted that distinctive taiwanese black tea taste, so this one got pulled out. I love these teas…esp since PTA is no more.

Final Count: 165

I pulled this one out of the cupboard a few days ago to try, in case i needed to break my no ordering rule to make sure that i get a bit more of these harvest from ttc before they’re gone. This was amazing. As a general rule, i’ve always really enjoyed this tea from TTC, regardless of the lot. I have to say though, that this lot is incredible. it’s cherry, malty sweetness in a cup. It was a couple days ago, so i can’t recall much more than that, but i do remember being really sad when i finished my travel mug lol

Ok, I NEED more of this tea. It’s amazing, and by far the closest tea I’ve tried to Butiki’s Premium Taiwanese Assam. It doesn’t quiiiite taste right, maybe a bit more on the caramelly side, but the distinct raisin notes? Oh yes. So good. SO SO GOOD. So perhaps Sun Moon Lake should be the tea I investigate to replace PTA? It probably means I’ll be making an order with Taiwan Tea Crafts sooner than I would have thought. I hope they still exist, haha. Thanks so much for sharing, Sil. (I still have enough left for one cup. That is exciting.)

OMG this tea is the BOMB!!

My first couple of sips I had a sneaking suspicion that there was some unknown and unidentified sugar element hiding down at the bottom of my clean mug and that the dishwasher was on the fritz… And then I realized… NO ITS THE TEA!!!!

The scent of this tea is insanely intoxicating… it smells like fresh buttery sweetbread or pastry! Taste wise, wow! Talk about delicious! Its malty, naturally sweet and has a slight pastry and stone fruit jam taste… I need more of this RIGHT now!!!!

free sample with my order from TTC. The nice thing about samples is that they’re not always things that i’d pick for myself so i get to branch out. This one is pretty nice. Most people aer aware that i’m generally not a fan of oolongs -unless they’re roasty ones, and even then it’s hit or miss. This one falls somewhere in the middle..it’s not super roasty but it’s not a green oolong. there’s a sweetness to this that i like but there’s also another flavour that i can’t exactly pinpoint. Maybe fruit?

here’s hoping cavo can do better since i know she received it as a sample as well haha

I feel like I’ve been adding a lot of teas to the database lately, which is fun.

This one comes from Taiwan Tea Crafts and is their top grade Oriental Beauty tea for 2014. The leaves are very curly and beautiful, look very delicate, and these have been cared for and packaged very well. They all retain a beautiful shape without broken leaves.

The scent of the rinsed leaves is just bursting with flowers, apples, and honey, maybe even plums. There’s a lot of sweet fruit and flower scents going on. It’s almost a sort of sangria of teas. The aroma of the tea is really honeyed and with hints of autumn leaf and spice. I tend to get a similar scent impression with Oriental Beauty and White Peony, though the former is often much sweeter than the latter.

The taste is sweet and honey-like, really clean and mouth-filling. It’s got the same hints of autumn leaves and subtle cinnamon spice that the aroma does, while the aroma is more floral. Oddly, there are hints of lemon, or even more accurately, lime, in the taste as the tea cools off a bit.

The second infusion smells even more floral. The taste reminds me of dried fruit now. There are still some spice notes, still a very clean mouthfeel and slight cooling sensation to follow.

After just a couple infusions of this, I am feeling a really euphoric relaxed feeling. I feel like my body is very light and relaxed. Mmmm.

I have to admit I got really hungry and took a break to eat here, so my palate is nowhere near sensitive enough after those first two infusions to keep going from there with an accurate review. Mostly I’m getting the spice, earth, and autumn leaf notes at this point.

I have only had maybe two other Oriental Beauty teas before this one, and of the three I’ve had, I would say this one was the best. It had more complexity and was much more fragrant in surprising ways. I can’t say Oriental Beauty is a particular favorite tea of mine, but It’s an interesting one. I’m much more partial to Gui Fei. Funny how that works cuz I have another friend who hates Oriental Beauty but Gui Fei is one of her favorites. You’d think they’d be similar since they both involve bugs biting them in the growing process to give them their sweet honey-like flavors, but I think varietal makes a big difference in flavor.

This is good stuff. Give it a try if you like Bai Hao. I think you won’t be disappointed!

Brewed in a 100ml Gongfu pot with 5g of leaf, 15 sec infusion at 185/85. Short infusions of ~10 sec to follow, gradually increasing.

The leaves of this tea are rather large and winding. After letting them sit in a hot gongfu teapot for a minute they smell heavily of stone fruits, mostly cherry and plum, and ocean air.

The rinsed leaves yield a very, very strong stonefruit smell and a scent of orchids with a hint of eucalyptus. The first infusion is a gorgeous amber color and smells sweet like honey and oats. As it cools, I’m getting more of a fruit and spice scent.

The first infusion is incredibly sweet and fruit-like, just a hint of malt and lingering spice on the back end. The mouthfeel is very clean and the tea leaves a lingering cooling sensation on the tongue and throat.

The second infusion smells more cherry or grape-like. While the body of this tea is somewhat thin and the texture is a bit dry, it makes for a very complex and interesting pairing with the sweet fruity flavors and the cooling almost minty sensation it produces. This infusion tastes like tart cherries with a light wood note. The dryness on the tongue lingers, but there is no dryness in the throat. It still feels very clean. This is not an astringent kind of dryness. It’s more like drinking a dry red wine.

The leaves as they open up are a gorgeous ruddy copper color. The third infusion again smells like stone fruits. The sip starts out sweet and finishes dry, hints of honey and malt accompanying. The mouthfeel is as clean as ever.

By the fourth infusion, in some ways I would say this tea reminds me more of an Indian black tea than a Chinese red tea, though it is almost like a curious mixture of the two. The drying quality reminds me a lot more of Indian tea, as well as the berry-like fruit flavors, but then the sweetness and the mellow honey and malt type flavors remind me more of Chinese red tea. That minty tingle is unlike most red teas I’ve ever had and really makes this one intriguing.

I’m going to end my review here, but if anything really different emerges in later infusions I’ll update. This is a really cool tea and one that I’d recommend for red/black tea lovers. It’s got a really complex balance, a duality of sweet and dry.

I think this tea feels more clean than any other red/black tea I’ve had.

Spring break! I LOVE having the time to break out a new tea to explore before the sun comes up, listening to the birds slowly join into the cacophony of country morning noises. This morning a second assam from Taiwan Tea Crafts is the choice. I seem to be having some struggle getting the flavors in Taiwanese assams to come to the front of my palate…I’m guessing due to my steeping parameters. I almost double-leafed this, so here goes!

There is something about Taiwanese assams that I deeply enjoy. The flavor profile is so very different from Indian assams that it is often hard to believe they come from the same cultivar. This cup is no exception. Heritage Assam Lot 334 leads with the gorgeous raisin note that is not to be ignored (nor would you want to!). It is accompanied by the taste of grain, which gives this Taiwanese assam a lovely full mouthfeel. There is a slight tanginess to this tea that is gently nudging the sides of my tongue and oddly making the smoothness of the malt flavor more noticeable. The fruitiness and sweetness of Heritage Assam Lot 334 is very apparent, but what makes this tea charming is the slight woodsy note to the grain that reminds the drinker that it comes from older trees with heritage….history. This is where the magic lay in this tea. Heritage Assam Black Tea Lot 334 is a beautifully balanced tea, full of fruity and grainy sweetness with a touch of history that is shared in the cup.

goodbye delicious tea. Hopefully another lot of this same tea will knock my socks off like this one did. so amazeballs.

Final Count for October: 105 which is far from my goal of 60 but is damn good considering i was at 176 at the end of September. So there.

goodness i love this tea. So sad i didn’t get more of it before the lots change…now i can’t be sure the new lot is as delicious as this one was!

noms. wedding pictures are back from the photographer and OMG …so many faces of Sil. it’s the one thing i noticed…or rather became obvious in looking at them…i make faces a lot…expressive faces…laughing faces….weird faces…HI faces…. also. I think a lot of people saw my boxers that day hahaha. so um not really a tea not but so what. haha

still so annoyed at myself for missing out on getting more of this one. i adore this one..it’s seriously the best harvest of this tea that i’ve had in forever. juicy, taiwanese deliciousness…

My other tea from this morning. I finished off enough of the first 50g package of this one i picked up, to be able to add the remainder to the other package. yay for getting rid of a package ha! I adore this tea. It’s seriously one of my favourite straight teas from TTC. I’m struggling because i want to buy a ton more before the lot changes, but i REALLY have no room in my house for more tea at the moment lol honey, apple, cinnamon, bread like delicious tea.

so good. soooo sooo good. highly recommend. i dunno what else to say..it’s like baked apple cinnamon sweet pastry noms.

This lot really makes me happy even though it’s not a travel mug tea. I’m nearing the end of 25g of the 50 i bought, and seriously contemplating more…even though i’m about to explode my cupboard in a week. It’s just so damn good. I haven’t even tried the sun moon lake that i also picked up because i just want this one. noms. bready, apple, cinnamon, deliciousness. so good.

Final Count: 101 ( my bellyrub teas came in…so now i’m really not going to make my april goal haha…and yes i know it’s berylleb…but bellyrub is so much better.)

yes, i had this one again the other day. I love this one. It’s not as delicious in a travel mug but it is still pretty good. Torn on whether to pick up more of this.

final count yesterday: 94

i seriously don’t want to write a tasting note for this one. Not until i have more in my hands. There are 2 strains? of tea that TTC carries that always seem to appeal to me out of their whole selection. the others i enjoy, but not enough to NEED them in my cupboard. Courtney was awesome enough to send me a sample of this one in our swap. i bought 50g of this last night after drinking it. I’ve had it several times, resteeping etc. it tastes like an apple pie….sweet, cinnamon, appley, baked good, delicious….incredible. even my other half was like omg wtf that is NOT a straight tea. i am blown away by this one. really. it’s a happy tea. I may need to order more once my order gets here before the lot is gone because even now i can still remember the incredibleness of the taste.

Oh delicious roasty amazingness where have you been all my life? Brewed up in my little yixing pot, you make my mouth water in anticipating of every single sip, my tastebuds sing as you hit my tongue and my tummy sighs in simple delight at the end of your trip! You taste like walking through a fir tree forest in autumn just before sunset – all wood, sweetness, the lightest touch of spice, a hint of leather (or is it tobacco??) and a creamy mouth feel. Its just a pity your so darn expensive but then again your ability to steep many many times reduces your cost per sip and lets be honest, even six steeps in you still taste pretty darn amazing. Worth every penny!

So I finally managed to get my husband over the hump and on the mend from this flu and it looks like all of my compassion and voluntary nursing has been rewarded by my immune systems surrender and slow demise to the same tyrant virus… Thanks a lot immune system!! So instead of being at work this afternoon I’m working from home which at least has the benefit of being in close proximity to my tea stash… Before my taste buds go the same way as the immune system I decided to commiserate my impending doom with this tea…. Mmmm… opening the packet I’m greeted by a malty cocoa scent… brewed its big malt, honey, baked bread flavors with a slight hint of sweet potato… I may have to hoard the rest of this until I’m feeling better!