Taiwan Tea Crafts

Yeahhhhhhhh… had this a few more times, and I think I might even like it more than my other TTC love – Yuchi Wild Mountain Black.

It smells SO amazing, like raisins and honey and malt. And the taste is equally as potent! It never ceases to blow my mind how something this flavourful and delicious just came out of the ground at some point.

When I think about which tea I want at night, TTC is winning, lately. I am trying to force myself to drink other teas to knock my cupboard down some in order to justify the giant TTC order I’d love to place one day.

Dreams do come true!

Watch me… I’m about to rate this………… 100.

THE PERFECT TEA. (for me)

OMG!! HELLO DELICIOUS TEA!!

Another whopping success from my TTC trials. MOREPLS!

Thank you to Phillip at Taiwan Tea Crafts, for the sample!

This oolong is very smooth and creamy. It has a nice interplay of mountain forest and floral scents and flavors, and the taste is mildly creamy and sweet with just enough roast to give it a mild nutty quality, or a bit of flavor like flaky puff pastry dough.

I’m brewing this gongfu style in a small gongfu style teapot. The second infusion brings more of the flavors from the first, with a fuller body and more green forest notes. By the third infusion, I’m picking up a bit of a metallic taste in the finish and the other flavors have become a bit more muted (checked my water at this point to make sure the kettle wasn’t responsible for that flavor, and it wasn’t). After that, didn’t get a metallic taste again, just a nice, round lightly roasted oolong flavor. This is a pretty enjoyable and rather “standard” Taiwanese oolong of its type. Good stuff.

This tea has a dominant charcoal taste that reminds me of tobacco.
One session with this tea was definitely enough for me.
The smoky flavor wasn’t really my liking.

Here’s the full review from yesterday that I couldn’t get Steepster to publish for some reason….
Spider legs! These are big fat spider legs that “poing” out of the spoon when I try to measure the correct amount of tea… I love Butiki’s PTA (Premium Taiwanese Assam). I will miss it. I have used Butiki’s demise as an excuse to order all the assams (and a few other teas) from Taiwanese Tea Crafts, and this is one.

According to their website, this tea is a lighter version of Indian assams and they are right. Although my mouth tastes malt and raisin at the same time for the primary notes, they are a mid cup note, that added with a touch of deep cooked cherry and prune, makes for a flavorful assam without the weight of heavy malt. Malt takes the back seat to the fruity notes and delivers an obviously Taiwanese assam profile.

How does it compare to Butiki’s? It’s a lighter flavor profile, but still very much identifiable as a relative to PTA…a cousin perhaps? Not sure yet. I’ll have to try to not be such an impatient and greedy tea drinker and measure out the huge twisty gorgeous smelling leaves a little better next time. Holding out on a rating until next steeping….. but enjoying every sip!

Spider legs! These are big fat spider legs that “poing”

For the comparison I’m really getting the stonefruits in this one. Very clearly. I prefer the Tippy.

I’ve been enjoying this tea each morning as we prepare, and prepare, and prepare some more for the move. Really great way to start the day. This tea smells awesome, and tastes even better!

Brought this one in my ceramic travel mug to work this morning. Why I still choose to work Saturdays is beyond me, but alas, at least I had delicious tea to enjoy.

I was quite sure my tea would freeze in the -25 degrees before I even made it to work, but it didn’t. Yay!

This tea was really tasty this morning. A hint of a sweetness and lots of depth. I much prefer the tippy to the Golden Dragon Black that I had the other day. So much so I may be exploring the TTC website. Oh dear.

I opened this one this morning and the scent again reminded me of Bailin Gongfu from Teavivre. I really enjoy that scent.

Perhaps I oversteeped this at 3 minutes, but I wasn’t a huge fan of this for my morning commute (granted in a ceramic mug). It came off surprisingly floral. Floral! I’ll try my lot 241 of the tippy to see how they differ; and of course give this one another shot at a slightly shorter steep time.

Happy New Year everyone!

We decided to each make a different cup to do a comparison of sorts. I put this one in my cup, and Alexa has Golden Dragon Black, Lot 241.

This one reminds me quite a bit of Bailin. It’s light, yet not, with a malty, nearly light syrupy flavour. The syrupy-ness could almost be a light honey flavour, though I am so picky about my honey flavours. It is definitely tasty though.

I originally enjoyed Mi Xian from Stacy, but quickly realized it wasn’t my favourite straight black, as far as straight blacks go. I ordered this one anyway, and it is tasty, but again, it isn’t going to become a favourite anytime soon.

It has a crisper flavour profile than the Wild Mountain Black I’m finding. Maybe clearer? That’s difficult to put into words. It doesn’t have the same intensity of honey-like sweetness that I so love. It’s far more subtle, with oats taking a more prominent position.

It is tasty, and I will more than enjoy the wee 25g sample we ordered. I’ll see if, by the end of the sample, I feel the need for more. Perhaps Alexa will love our sample, and it will become what will eventually be an amalgamated cupboard of our teas.

I went off the Steepster steeping parameters for this and the Yuchi WMB last night. I do wish TTC would include steeping parameters on their website.

I think it is only appropriate that my first tea note, ever, be dedicated to the person who introduced me to this highly addictive, relaxing and welcoming world of tea – Courtney.

One of the most memorable tea adventures that we’ve shared was when she first made me a cup of Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black. I patiently watched as Courtney picked up the bag of tea from the shelf, peeled open the gold flaps of the bag, shook it and took a big whiff. She looked at me and told me that – after months of trying real teas – that I could finally have a cup of TWMB.

I am not sure if it was the sweetness of the initial first breath that I took as I held the mug close to my mouth for the first sip, or the way she stared me down to make sure that I would lick the mug clean, but I instantaneously knew that this was a very special tea. She informed me that this particular occasion was very significant because this would be the last cup of this tea – one of her favourites! I felt honoured and made sure to savour in every last drop. Needless to say, it was a phenomenally smooth and pleasantly sweet cup of tea that satisfied every expectation that one could have.

While still attempting to recover from the loss of the original TWMB, Courtney stumbled upon this tea, which we ordered immediately and retrieved from the post only hours after its delivery. We made our first cup of this tea tonite and the verdict is in, folks – we love it! It is the reincarnated version of TWMB! I foresee this being a permanent staple tea in our cupboards and on our shelves!

I want to thank you for reading my lengthly first tea note.
I hope your tea was warm and your chair was comfortable.

In this moment, this tastes like hot buttered raisin toast. Brilliant.

That is all.

whatshesaid wrote such an enticing note for TTC that I decided to order a few black tea samples for Alexa and I. We rescued the teas from the post yesterday and had all intentions of drinking this one last night, but ended up having it tonight instead.

I so wish I still had a wee bit of TWMB to compare, because I think this is it. This is as close as she’s going to get. I must order more. This one has that awesome natural sweetness I so love in my straight black teas. I am thoroughly enjoying this cuppa.

I may now have the TTC website open…

Somehow I already took this tea out of my cupboard so I am not sure if it is this lot that Sil shared with me a while back but I do believe it is so I am writing my note here as I sip on the tea. It’s a pleasant enough cup, though I certainly prefer TTC’s Sun Moon Lake Assam. There is something light about this tea, as if it is missing a flavor. That could be to human error though having to do with the way I steeped the tea. However, what I am getting is a strong carby flavor. Usually that is accompanied by some other element like fruits or spice, and at times I get a hint of spice, but mostly just carbs. Not that that is necessarily a bad thing but I have had better. Still, I am always grateful for the opportunity to try something new so thank you Sil for the share.

This is like a cup of liquid honey. It’s pretty nice so thank you Sil for the opportunity to give it a try.

This is the second tea I brought to work today to drink on my birthday.

It’s so good. I can barely even describe it. Every sip is just YUMMMM. Even inhaling the dry leaves. How can something natural be so flavourful on its own!?

Every sip is juicy, malty, amazing. So good. SOOOOOO good.

I wonder if i would get sick of this if I drank it 3 times a day? Doubtful. I will absolutely have to buy more. It may actually be my most favourite tea of all time.

FLAVOUR COUNTRY – POPULATION: ME

You know, it’s times like this when I am so SO glad that Steepster exists and that I found it. Without Steepster, and all of you tea lovers posting your awesome reviews encouraging me to try and buy more more more (and also, thanks in general to the internet, for feeding this habit by bringing everything that much closer to me)… I never would have discovered this tea.
Or TTC.

Because honestly.

Last night I decided to make a mug of this, I had purchased 5 samples from TTC and recently got them. I am practically on a tea hiatus at this point, i mean i certainly SHOULD be. But I’d had a TTC sample once upon a time and knew that down the road more would be mine, all mine.

So when I cut open my adorably patterned sample bag, I stuck my nose in and inhaled like breathing was going to go out of style and OMG. The scent. INTOXICATING. I don’t even know. So good. I can’t describe.

And then I brewed it up, took my first sip, and it was like happiness exploded all over my tongue. It’s fruity and malty and bready and fresh and bright and SO FLAVOURFUL.

I don’t ever want to live without this tea.

I really need to start drinking down everything I have to reach a point where I only stock my absolute loves. This would be one of them.

I wanted to shout it from the rooftops last night, but there was no one around who would care. There never is, I’m alone in my world of tea love. Except for you guys.

Everyone who hasn’t tried this tea must wishlist it immediately :)
You’re welcome. Trust me.

(PS – I spent like 2 hours just slowly and enjoyably organizing my tea stash yesterday. Of course my online cupboard isn’t really up to date yet, but physically arranging and mentally taking stock of all of my teas (ALL OF THE TEAS) was incredibly calming and satisfying.)

TASTING NOTE # 600!

I wanted to drink a worthwhile tea for my 600th. So I brought this to work today for round 2.

I am wondering if maybe my gravity steeper still had a bit of the taste of yesterday’s (not my fave) tea in it, even though I rinsed it… because I seemed to enjoy this more when I made it at home.

This time it had a bit of a metallic zing to it. Strange.

I suspect though, in my mind I’m comparing it to the Yuchi Mountain Black, also from TTC, even though they’re two different teas. And let’s get real – nothing compares to that.

This had a bit of a honey note in it, but not as fruity as I recall.

I didn’t pay attention whatsoever to steeping time, and I also used the kettle at work and made it with what I can assume is whatever “boiling point” a cheapo kettle reaches.

I will try again at home.

Not quite the exciting 600th tasting note I was hoping for! Ah well :)

Yum. I had this for the first time the other night and really liked it.

It’s the kind of black tea I want to keep stocked.

More later!

So… I got my Taiwan Tea Crafts order yesterday. I was planning on waiting to try any of these teas until I had sipped down a few more teas from my cupboard, but I figured trying just one would be a lovely way to start the day, and Steepster chat agreed. I chose this one to try first because miss Ysaurella’s note makes it sound delicious, and I love strong honey notes. The leaves definitely have that creepy tree branch look – they’re very large and long and twisty in a way that looks gnarled. Their color is a deep brown that’s almost black with a hint of red. Dry scent is heavenly sweet and creamy honey with bread.

Mm, the steeped tea smells of sweet and rich honey with a touch of warm cinnamon. Yummy! This tea has a lovely thick and silky mouthfeel that makes it feel even more decadent. The sip opens with bread and a touch of hay, but almost immediately it transitions to tasting of sweet waffles with honey slathered over the top and just a sprinkle of cinnamon. The amazing honey flavor just lingers and lingers on the tongue, and the cinnamon stays as well. The two together are such a sweet, warm, and comforting combination. This is making me want stroopwafel! Curse you, Marzipan! :P

Drinking it again … Cannot add anything. I am not worthy of this tea. But I drink it anyway!