Taiwan Tea Crafts

This is the premium version and is sweeter, lighter, fruitier, and more buttery than the other. Can’t go wrong either way. This one seems like a cross between a Taiwanese Assam and Yuchi Wild Mountain Black. Really delicious.

I’ve had this tea and the premium one a few times now and decided to have them side by side today. What I’ve decided…. This one is definitely more bold and more “Assam” like. Still fruity and super delicious, but bolder and deeper in flavor than the premium one. That being said, I think I actually prefer the premium. I think. I’m not sure. The premium one is a bit sweeter and is really buttery. Tastes so similar to the Caramel Vanilla Assam. It’s also a bit fruitier. I love them both. The #147 is a good first morning tea. I think the other is a great second morning tea :-)

I have really enjoyed my order from TTC. All except this one. If you like raisins, and I mean the really sweet and juicy ones, then you probably would like this tea. But as I don’t like raisins at all, not even remotely, this tea had to be dumped. The second steep wasn’t as raisiny but it still lingered in the background and I couldn’t get past it. This is their most expensive tea, so my tea budget is happy I don’t like it.

I really love this tea. It’s like maple syrup covered peaches. Delicious.

Wow. This is the best peach and grape flavored tea I’ve ever had.

ETA Wait. This is an unflavored tea. Holy crap. I seriously can’t stand fruit flavored tea, but tea that has fruit flavor naturally in the leaf is pretty amazing. And delicious.

This is another sample from Sil. Thank you so much, you sending me these teas has saved me money. I would have ordered these, and from what I’ve learned today, that would have been a mistake. While I adore Taiwan oolongs, I don’t think I’m a fan of Taiwan blacks. I did order 3 last night using the Easy Tea 20.00 off deal. If they are anything like these, I will try them and then pass them along to others.
This is a miss for me too. I don’t get it. Bland boring, I’m not getting the fruity notes others are talking about. I think I’m a bold Chinese black kind of girl and these Taiwan ones are more subtle, too subtle for my tastes. I liked this better than the two Butaki ones I tried, but this too will not be my tea of choice.
Thanks Sil for the learning experience.

I have new neighbors! And they are perfect. She drinks tea and has 2 boys that are right around the same age as my little man and they love playing together. They came over yesterday for some playing and we were going to have some tea. She warned me ahead of time that she pretty much only drinks tea with milk and honey (which is totally fine, I do that with several of my teas, and used to do it with all of them!)

But I thought I’d give her something she’d enjoy straight. There is a sense of accomplishment (I know, weird) that comes with realizing you enjoy tea totally straight. At least there was for me. Given my luck with Butiki’s wild mountain black with my father in law, this seemed like another good one to give her.

I used my little orchid yixing pot that is just too adorable for words and dumped a ton of leaves in it. Then we just had cup after cup of it. She was totally blown away and was super excited that she found a tea she enjoys drinking straight. It was also cool to talk to her about yixing pots and the history behind them and explain leaf hoppers. We’ve decided to make a weekly playdate/tea party as she is curoius to learn more.

These taiwanese teas are great converter teas. They can convert anyone!

After trying a few new teas that weren’t hitting the mark, I made this. This is such a delicious fall afternoon tea. There is something about it that reminds me of pumpkin pie. I also need to grab one of those “I love leaf hopper” magnets, because I seriously do. Such good little hoppers.

My TTC order arrived!!! And just so there aren’t any secrets… I ordered samples of every black yea. Yes, ALL of them. I mean, if it’s free shipping for samples over $25, I might as well try them all!!! (The only one I didn’t get was the 30 year aged one as I tried a sample from Sil and it wasn’t for me.)

I tried this one first as it is described as the lightest. I like light tea in the afternoon. Super dark (Assam) in the AM with cream and honey, then a fujian or laoshan or rizhao in the late morning, then a nice light black tea in the afternoon. Just a pattern I’ve noticed about myself lately. Anyway…

The tea!! Sweet! Cinnamony, sweetpotato/pumpkiny! Actually, I’m not sure if I could tell the difference between this and Butiki’s Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black. I’ll taste them side by side at some point. Right now as Taiwanese teas are new to me, they all kind of taste the same, but i’m sure i’ll start picking up on some differences soon enough. But bottom line, i’m really enjoying this one. Glad I tried it first!

This is not my first tea of the day. First I had a cup of A & D’s Chinese New Year (aka Golden tips), then I had a pot of butiki’s Dinjoye Estate Assam. I should probably post about them, but I don’t really feel like backtracking today, so this is all you get. They are both delicious.

Now for this tea, which is the one I am currently drinking. Tasty Brew included it in the Grab Bag of our BBBBox. I sampled all of the others in the bag, & didn’t care for any of them, so they will be headed to Canada soon. I was gonna sample this one & probably do the same, but then I realized Sil has already tried it, I wasn’t a fan, so I’ll keep it.

I guess it has grown on me, because I kind of enjoyed the first cup & am working on the resteep now. It’s kind of earthy, woody, a little dried fruit, & an underlying taste of white willow bark (think salicylic acid, aspirin), which is interesting because I have a mild headache & was thinking, “I need to stop by Cheryl’s Herbs to get some more white willow bark, & then drink a cup”. So maybe I’m imagining that part.

I’ve been drinking this during my first practice session of the day, working on piece #5 of Benjamin Britten’s “Ceremony of Carols”.
I’ve concluded that I don’t care much for TTC’s aged black teas. There is an underlying fruitiness, which implies something, but in reality, the tea tasted kind of like an old root cellar. Their other aged tea I tried tasted strongly of beets. This one is fruitier, but just not to my liking today, which is disappointing because it was kind of pricey, even on sale, & they made it sound so good in their description. Oh well…we live, we learn. Maybe next month when I try it I’ll be in a better mood (yes, I’m still a grumpus) & will like it more.

I’ve had students all morning, & have to get ready to go play a wedding shortly. I wish I had more to say about this tea. I drank it during the morning, & I enjoyed it. The dry leaf smelled like dried fruit, at least I remember that, right?

This is the type of tea that makes me re-think my dislike of roasted oolongs. Pleasantly roasty-toasty throughout all infusions, but never bitter or over-powering. There is a underlying sweetness as well, along with hints of spice and a surprising peach finish.

First infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz water, 90 deg., 2:30 min.

Second infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz. water, 90 deg., 3:00 min.

Third infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz. water, 90 deg., 6:00 min.

Fourth infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz. water, 90 deg., 10:00+ min.

Sipdown, 146. Thanks once again to Sil for this sample. ANother Taiwan black tea!

The leaf of this one has much fewer whole leaves in it, but the are there if you go digging through. I guess that’s probably a result of mechanically picking. The aroma is honeyed and fruity like apricot. It also has that fruity-black scent that I’m not really a fan of, but that is hard for me to articulate.

Fortunately, I enjoy the tea itself quite a bit! Who knows, maybe fruity Taiwanese black teas are growing on me. This is nicely sweet, slightly fruity, with a texture that is at once tangy and juicy as well as smooth and creamy. Not a hint of bitterness or astringency. Whatever that note I don’t usually like, well, it’s not that prominent in this one. I don’t love this one as much as the Sun Moon Lake I had previously, but it is quite delicious and I’m really glad I got to try it.

Sipdown, 149 (new samples acquired last night). Thanks, Sil, for this sample!

This tea is totally blowing my mind. I’ve had a sample of Sun Moon Lake Black tea before, but this tea completely blows it out of the water. I guess this is also equivalent to Butiki’s PTA, and I can see some of the similarities, but this is definitely unique in my mind.

It didn’t seem that exceptional at first, and I kind of started drinking it without thinking about it too much. Then holy caramel! So sweet and soooooo much like caramel! I get it in the scent too now. Fruity, yes, and I agree with cooked fruit, like a jam. But this time the fruit isn’t accompanied by whatever notes usually are in a fruity black tea that I dislike (I have a hard time describing them, but I know them when I taste them). To me, this is almost like a caramel apple with the fruit and caramel together. Caramel apricot? Whatever, it is delicious. It is so smooth and silky. I know I will definitely be ordering from this company in November!

I sampled the Songboling Shui Xian Oolong, from TTC, and afterwards I went with this one, to see what happens when you age it. I’d like to preface this by saying that Sil & I have sampled some of the aged black teas from TTC, & they had earthy & musty qualities, that were interesting, but not necessarily desireable. One in particular tasted like beets that have spent the winter in the root cellar, if you know what I mean.

This tea however is not so. I think the aging & occasional re-roasting has done this tea justice, intensifying & deepening the jammy flavors a bit, bringing out a nutty hazelnut quality, & the overall feeling was incredibly smooth. No mustiness, no root veggies, just a lovely Oolong.

I have difficulties with comparing teas. I drank these 2 teas separately, enjoying the first one with resteeps while teaching, and then switching to this one. The problem with this method is I’m terrible about taking any kind of notes. While I’m drinking the cup, I’m loving it & thinking nice things, making note in my head of it’s wonders. Then I switch to a different tea, & all is forgotten, as I am now thinking of THIS cup. I have enough to drink this one more time, & I think that final comparison will be side by side, steep for steep.

Sil & I have been sampling teas from Taiwan Tea Crafts, & so far they have all been tasty & interesting, rather different from some of the other teas I usually drink. This one is no exception!
The dry leaf is small nuggets, similar in color & size to dry elderberries. The dry aroma is a yummy fruity jam, thick & sweet. I preheated the gaiwan, & then let the tea sit in there for a minute & the aroma was of a fruity pipe tobacco. After a quick rinse, it smelled like roasty fruit wood.
I started with 5 G + 4oz Gaiwan X 15sec, adding 15 sec to each steep.
The first 3 steeps were almond/hazelnut butter, sweet & creamy with a caramelized fruit jam, increasing in butteriness with each steep.
4 – 6 A heavenly elixer! Hazelnut crusted fruit torte, I can’t quite pinpoint the fruit, with a brown sugar crust.
I smelled the leaf at this point, & the aroma was of roasted honeyed apricots!
7-9 I feel like I could keep steeping these leaves forever. The brew is still dark, the taste is still sweet & nutty, with a creamy nut butter sensation after the sip is swallowed.

This is a delightful tea! Everything I had hoped it would be. If it was earlier in the day, I’d keep steeping, but since it’s not, I put the rest of the leaf in a jar of water in the frig, where it will hopefully become a tasty refreshment for tomorrow!

Sipdown, 149. Thanks to Sil for a sample of this tea!

I was interested to try this one because I’ve only had one other Mi Xian, from Butiki. I like that one, although it’s not quite my style of black tea as it is very inherantly fruity.

This one is fruity to the MAX. It’s amazing that a tea can be so fruity naturally. Definitely getting similar notes from this as from the Butiki version, which I described there as “cooked, honey-covered peaches”. I think that description applies to this one as well. There is a bit of a zing to this one; not bitterness/astringency, but a slight tartness or tanginess, like the slightly sour skin of a plum against the sweet flesh. Really, objectively I can see that this is a really fine tea. I just don’t crave this kind of fruity black tea. I am, however, enjoying this cup and I’m glad I tried this one!

Another sample from Sil. This is a pretty interesting aged tea. Much sweeter than I’m used to! Still very earthy, but not fish at all. I’ll make it through a few more steeps, but I still haven’t developed a love for the aged teas yet. Thanks Sil for letting me try it!

I really like this one. It tastes like a cross between a roasty taiwanese oolong and a taiwanese wild mountain black. It’s light and juicy, but with a nice roasty flavor to it. This is definitely going on the reorder list.

This was a bonus sample from the always generous Sil as I’ve been curious about the teas from TTC. From what I read from Sil’s and Terri’s notes, this was good but not their favorite of the bunch of samples. That makes me so happy. Because I love this one! And if it’s not even the best, then I’m in for a huge treat. I need to order more of these TTC teas immediately! This tea has some notes that remind of Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black. A similar juicy sweetness I think. I’m excited about these Taiwanese teas!

Goal #1 (start pot of stew) is complete! I’ll add things to it as the day passes, so that by evening it will culminate in a very large pot of stew that can be eaten for dinner & savored over the weekend as well. My next goal? Get outside & plant those 4 elderberry bushes! I’m still a little sketchy as to where I’m planting 2 of them, and I need to remember that from now on I should choose a place to plant something first, then decide what to plant there & get the plants. My previous method has been to buy a bunch of plants, usually on a whim, & then frantically scramble to figure out where they should go & get them in the ground. Experience is teaching me that is not the best way to do things, but I am admittedly a slow learner…sigh…

About a year ago Sil & I placed our first Taiwan Tea Crafts order together. We had a great time on FB together, drooling over the TTC website, discussing the teas we wanted, & I pretty much gave her free rein on whatever sounded good to her. When she got the order, she split everything up & sent me my half. It was glorious. The teas are delicious, and even though we got them in small quantities, I’m still polishing mine off.

This one is a rich infusion of honey, sweet woods, stone fruit jam, & coriander, with a lingering incense quality. I’m sorry to see it go. Sipdown – 395
Now out to the garden!

Starting the morning with this one, from a tea order Sil & I shared awhile back.
Such a wonderful sweet mouth thickening cup! I still haven’t tried this one gongfu.

I’m trying to get motivated, because one of my college students has her Senior Recital Hearing today at 12:30. She’ll play the recital for myself & 3 other faculty members. There are forms for their comments, & of course, they have to give the go ahead for the actual recital, which takes place next month. It’s mostly a formality, & I’m sure she’ll do great.
That’s the main thing on my agenda today :)

This is the final tea from the series of teas Sil & I sampled from TTC.
How to describe?
Delicious!
This is one of those ‘bug bite’ teas, so the honey sweetness is there, along with the stone fruit ‘jaminess’ of #154, & a hint of coriander (or at least what my tastebuds translate into coriander!). This also has a nice thickness to it. It’s really very tasty!