Taiwan Tea Crafts

My sample remnant of this is actually from Lot 712, but there is no entry for that and I don’t want to make one just for my pitiful note, and I’m not going to rate this anyway. Steeped this Western-style in a big mug.

I’m going to agree with what derk said about this a few days ago, the roast is too strong and it overpowers any other flavors. I remember Gui Fei I’ve had in the past being much more complex, with honey, fruit, and floral notes. This one is mostly just the roast.

That’s not to say that it’s not pleasant to drink. It has a comforting houjicha-like flavor of autumn leaves and roasted grain. I catch a bit of clear sweetness and perhaps a suggestion of honey coming out at the end of the sip, but otherwise it’s rather one-dimensional.

Sipdown (278)

This was the oldest tea in my stash. It’s from Sil from back in September 2017. Thanks for sharing Sil! but no commenting on how old my teas are!

This one was so good and so fruity. Unfortunately I don’t remember specifics because I had it while steepster was once again acting up. I just know it was so delicious!

Tried the last of this brewed at 1g:30mL instead of the usual 1g:20mL and at 195F to attempt to mitigate the overwhelming roast.

I did enjoy it more, even though it wasn’t as complex and had a thinner body and very mild aftertaste. It was still very nutty with supplemental notes of thin wildflower honey, vanilla, sandalwood, ginger, orange zest and orange blossom. The roasted taste was much lighter. The taste-texture devolved pretty quickly into this very particular astringency and bitterness, neither of which sits right with me.

Revoking the “Not Reccomended” status. It’s not a bad tea for the price (of the newest lot), just the nuttiness is too much for my tastes. Also, maybe I’m spoiled but I do expect more longevity before encountering the impassable astringency and bitterness.

And yet another tea courtesy of White Antlers. Thank you :)

The session starts with a thin, brown sugar sweetness and a hint of vanilla. Really strong roast, so much that most of the time I taste mostly roasted nuts, roasted barley and brown toast. Past that I can taste apricot, peach, orange blossom honey, and orange zest. Strong mineral taste and tingles, light apricot and orange blossom aftertaste. In subsequent infusions, the fruitiness and sweetness are overtaken by malt, wood, straw, astringency and bitterness tasting much like a washed-out black tea.

Unlike LuckyMe, I didn’t find this oolong to be easy-drinking. The roast easily dominated the session for me. The leaf seems temperamental, unforgiving. Then again, I don’t have a finessed hand. I thought with the level of roast aroma in the dry leaf that I would brew this with water off the boil; based on the unfavorable results, the next session I will try with lower temperature.

Not recommended… for now.

**I had mistakenly added this tasting note for the wrong tea, so I’m correcting now.

Backlog.

This is one of the teas from the great Steepster freeze of 2020 that I’m getting around to logging now. My memory is a little hazy because I only had a couple of sessions with it, but I remember it being a solid SLX with the usual alpine florals and tropical notes. A little lighter and lacking the full mouthfeel of previous harvests. Good for 6-7 steeps.

Though I don’t often opt for Jin Xuan teas, this one was recommended to me as fruity so I gave it a try. It’s from spring 2019. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of milky sweetness, grass, honeysuckle, and other flowers. The first steep has that note I interpret as cream corn, plus honeysuckle, orchid, other florals, spinach, condensed milk, and grass. The next steep introduces heady gardenia and coconut, and is great! However, this tea is almost too sweet. The next couple steeps are more balanced, with corn, coconut, cream, custard, spinach, arugula, herbs, and those heady flowers. The next two steeps are similar, though with more spinach and sweetness and sadly less coconut. The trend toward spinach, grass, and other veggies continues in the next few steeps, though the condensed milk sweetness persists.

This is a rather nice Jin Xuan whose coconut and floral notes I appreciate. The sweetness, however, is slightly overwhelming. Given its price, I’d consider buying this tea again.

I absolutely love this tea. It’s sweet, floral, and full of incredible honey flavor. If I could only drink one straight tea for the rest of my life, this would probably be it. My brother and his friend came over for vegan Thai the other night, and I made this for them post-dinner. It was such a treat. Having it again this morning, because I couldn’t resist. It’s also extremely cost efficient, which I appreciate.

Thanks so much, derk!  I kind of ruined this one though.  I don’t know what happened.  Maybe the water needs a filter change.  Possibly used too many leaves, not realizing how much a white cake would expand.  But the flavor was bitter all the way through.   Hints of lemon in the second cup, but then bitter again.  I was VERY tame with my steeps, so I don’t know how this was so bitter. Then there were some strong chemicals being used in the house that smelled very strongly, so I didn’t want to risk ingesting these weird chemicals that may have floated onto the damp tea leaves for a third steep, so I sadly had to discard the leaves.  I wouldn’t have bothered to even write a note for this, but now it’s gone, so I had to write something to acknowledge the sad ruining of this tea.  Both by user error and possibly chemicals.  mrgh. I won’t rate this one because it doesn’t seem fair. Derk’s tasting note said ashmanra had more success with this one, but I say derk had more success than I did. AND I’m even more sad about it because ashmanra’s note says this is the white counterpart to Ruby 18… I love Ruby 18 so I would have really loved not to ruin this one.
Steep #1   // 47 minutes after boiling  // rinse // 1 minute steep
Steep #2  // 47  minutes after boiling //  1 minute steep
2020 Sipdowns: 77

I’ve always meant to order some of TTC’s Gui Fei, but demurred due to mixed reviews. Thanks, Derk, for the generous sample. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain teapot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of honey, baked cinnamon bread, and fruit leather. The first steep has notes of honey, baked bread, grass, and stewed fruit. The next adds autumn leaf pile, apricot, raisins, and slight astringency, though the honey is still the star. In steep three, sandalwood, cinnamon, and a bit of roast emerge, and the autumn leaf pile flavour is stronger. The fourth steep is a lott less sweet, with roast, wood, pine, autumn leaf pile, grain, and honey. By the sixth steep, the roast is really asserting itself, accompanied by black tea-like minerals and malt. The session ends with nuts, honey, minerals, and roast.

While this Gui Fei is quirky and enjoyable, as LuckyMe pointed out, it’s more like a Dong Ding than a honey oolong. I might still pick this up, however, because it’s so affordable, but the strong roast detracts from it being truly amazing.

finished this one off today. a good cup but i’ll stick with the yuchi wild from now on i think.

still loving this and glad i have lots to eventually share with VariaTEA

looks like steepster is back to not being a shitty time to update things. sadly since i’ts been several days, i’ve forgotten anything i wanted to say about most of the teas i dranks. lol

still in love with this one

yes. yes and did i mention yes? Loving this one from TTC and so glad i have 250g of it haha