Taiwan Tea Crafts

This tea is a little different than some of the Taiwanese blacks I’ve had before as it is neither dominated by fruit, or the mint spicy tones you often find. Instead it actually does reference oatmeal, not in the aged tea/ exhausted steeping type of oatmeal flavour you get but actual oatmeal with grain, malt and a little hint of nut in it, contributing to a savoury comforting, rich flavour. As secondary notes it has fairly strong malt tones, sharp fruit ranging from long an to red currant, and honey tinged cocoa.

I brewed it 5 times (20, 30,55,120, &240s). It seemed to have a nice bit of resiliency, with malt retaining prominent notes and the cocoa honey note increasing in the first few steepings and the fruit changing from longan to a currant note in later steeps.

Maybe not my favourite Assam but still a warm, comforting and pleasant cup. Thanks to TastyBrew for allowing me the opportunity to try another of TTC’s black teas!

Wow! This is a great one for coffee lovers!! It is a deep espresso flavor with accents of prunes and raisin, and essences of sweet pipe tobacco.
Thank u to Terri Harplady for this sample!!

Sipdown!! (118)

Thank you Sil!! This is certainly a delicious black tea. It is one I would even consider stocking as it is fruity and smooth and really quite tasty. I definitely was not expecting to enjoy this as much as I did and now it is gone and I am sad.

Thank you Sil for sharing this with me. I am actually quite surprised as I anticipated a straight black but this is smooth and fruity. It is very good so I am glad you sent it to me and forced me to try something new.

Along with the usual floral and honeyed notes (albeit subtle), there are other tastes that are hard for me to pin down. Perhaps fresh tomato? The leaves, both dry and infused, are stunning. A rather complex tea, which may not be worth the steep price.

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

Second infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz. water, 90 deg., 5:00 min.

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

First sipdown of the day, no. 90 overall, I think, sent to me from Sil.
This is lovely, simply lovely. I’m not really sure how to describe it, so I won’t even try.

Nice subtle roast. Like coffee with lots of cream and a hint of sugar. Has a creamy mouthfeel too which is really delicious.

I prepared this Gong Fu style in my Yixing that is dedicated to roasted type Oolongs. I am having fun with this as I just got this pot. I am getting another one to dedicate to an individual tea as well but am searching for the perfect tea to go for that one.
I am a total tea addict now because the Yixings are very very fun. I love the idea of all the years of lovely tea seasoning the pots with all that character and flavor. And this tea added to that!!!
Thank u to Terri Harplady for this sample!!

Dear Sil-

I regret to inform you that it appears as though I’m starting to enjoy pretty much every roasted oolong thrown my way. I don’t know if it’s because of their roasty deliciousness or because I can drink them at night without worrying about the caffeine. Or if it’s simply because they are new to me and unlike greens or whites, still have a strong flavor. I don’t know what’s happening, but I do promise to always love my straight black teas best.

Cheers-
Amy

p.s. you can blame your tea sister for this. She included this delicious tea a while back and my previous ambivalence towards oolongs kept me from trying it until now.

p.p.s Thanks Terri Harplady!

This was a very strange tea. I did two steepings Western-style. After the first steeping, the first smell that hit me was of candied sweet potatoes. Usually when I smell this in a tea there is also an associated potato skin smell that is similar to dirt, but this tea was lacking that smell. This tea was smoother and very much lighter-bodied than what I was expecting from the initial aroma. The rest of the smells and flavors were difficult to make sense of because I hadn’t experienced a tea like this before. There was a flaky pastry scent, cotton candy-like sweet smell and the faintest aroma of mint chocolate chip ice cream. I also detected a fruity aroma that was closest to bing cherries, but Casey said it was more plum-like to him. There was a very mild minty sensation at the end of the sip.

In the second steeping I could taste some cinnamon candy spiciness and then suddenly tomato paste was there and became dominant note in the cup for me. There was even maybe a bit of an herbaceous smell. I wish I was joking about the tomato paste, but Casey smelled this too. It was pretty off-putting, although it didn’t taste at all like tomato paste, but this tea still gets high ratings from the first steeping about because of its uniqueness.

quite enjoyable…I get cotton candy too…very tasty…180ml Ru ware pot,8g tea…

I love this tea so, so much. Nice honey aroma, and the texture is like whipped cream or something, just so, so soft and creamy. I wish I had more of this.

So, after finishing this tea, I examined the leaves and what I saw at the bottom of my cup was probably the most inner part of a tea bud and not a leafhopper. I don’t own a microscope, so it was pretty difficult to see. I also was unfazed, so I just cleared out the debris with my finger and let it fall on the grass. I’d like to think that leafhoppers do exist, though!

Anyhow, this tea blew me away. The rinse was a lot like flan to me. It had the same super-silky texture and caramelized sugar aroma. The second steeping smelled more like dark chocolate and honey. This tea is truly unlike anything I’ve had before. There is a little bit of malt and hay in the cup and fruit that tastes like apricot preserves. Something about the aroma also reminds me of being near the coast and breathing in the humid, salty air. The third steeping has a very strong caramelized sugar aroma.

OMG.

So.

Good.

Thanks, Sil!

Rich dark honey. Carby. Spicy. Mmm…

I’m back, I’ve missed you dear Steepster friends this week :-)

I’d like to thank Sil for incuding such a good one for me…This is right up my alley, beloved Taiwanese blacks!

I did many infusions this morning, using the new glass yixing pot I got on boxing day for peanuts…

The tea is gorgeous, it rendered a relatively light colour compared to other taiwanese black. It feels round in the mouth, like most teas with hints of honey do.

It has a very distinct smell and taste, if I can pin point properly that very faint sourness I get, I’d compare it to rye bread to give you an idea, that’s very pronounced when you smell the wet leaf and easier to identify. That’s what I do when I’m trying to get notes in the tea, smelling the wet leaf gives me a much better idea and helps me define the taste. But it is so relative and personal, what feels like rye bread to me, might feel like almond to someone else. That’s why I find reading about tea somewhat poetic…

All in all, this tea is superb and gave me great joy this morning,

Thank you so much Sil for knowing I would aporeciate this!

Still loving this tea. <3

Drinking this one today in the spirit of drinking more of my favorite teas instead of hoarding them until they are stale. I tried a longer and stronger brew of this, and it worked out pretty well. Here are things I didn’t notice the first time I drank this: There is definitely what I can only describe as an umami smell (my dumb palate keeps equating it with tomato paste) and a minty sensation in my mouth after I swallow. These two things made me double-check that I hadn’t accidentally brewed the Red Jade Black lot #268. I am really actually thrown off by how different this one tastes to me today…As this cools the sweet cotton candy notes I remember are becoming more prominent again.

This tea was so good that I decided to brew a second pot of it because I was excited for my boyfriend to try it…

I don’t even know how to describe what I am smelling and tasting here. This tea is incredibly smooth. This is one of those teas almost tastes like it’s had creamer added when you’re drinking it plain. This full-bodied assam is incredibly sweet. Pureleaf said this tea reminded them of cotton candy, and I would agree 100%. This is definitely one I am going to reorder.

I just received a massive amount of tea! Happy Birthday to me! Actually my birthday is next week on monday, so Happy Early Birthday!
I got my trade with Lala, my Steepster Select Box, & my Yunnan Sourcing order form last month! Just in time to celebrate!

This tea: I got a sample of this from TTC awhile back. I love their sample sizes because it’s enough tea to really try it out, but not so much that you end up with too much if you don’t like it.
This one is not something I’ll probably re-order, but something I wanted to try, more for the novelty of it, & also because I wanted to try several of TTC’s teas in general & I do like roasty Oolongs.

I used the same gongfu parameters that I used with my other 2 teas today, more or less:
5G + 4oz tiny teapot (Rinse) X 15/30/45sec/1min/2min/3min
The pre-warmed leaf gave off a light sweet incense aroma. After a couple of steeps, the wet leaf really smelled of charcoal & incense!
I shared the first 4 steeps with a student, & her main comment was that she felt like we were drinking incense, but in a good way, LOL.
There is a light sweetness to this cup, like a hint of dried peaches, & definitely an incense quality, which is something I enjoy in roasted oolongs. With successive steepings the cup becomes more savory, lightly salty & umami-like, & the charcoal becomes more apparent in the taste. I think I can probably get another 4 steeps out of this, but I’m actually wanting something sweet now, so I’ll let these leaves rest for awhile. I can always give them a quick rinse later, & then steep some more.

I’m no «math-magician», but here’s some full proof equation:

Assam + Taiwan
_________________
Sil (swap) = Love

Thank you so much Sil for this one, whoa! Fruity, raisiny, bready, almost boozy assam, perfection in a cup! It does resemble Taiwanese Assam from Butiki a lot, though I find Butiki’s a bit fruitier.

It’s a homerun, thank you Sil for giving me the chance to try this amazing tea:-)

Ironically when I grabbed this tea I thought it was someting else so I wasn’t really influenced by the product description when tasting this tea.

The dry leaf ranges in colour from dark brown, to a reddish orange medium brown with some olive green and is tightly rolled. The dry tea smells bright and fruity with some green notes.

I steeped the tea 10 times after a rinse ( 35, 25, 30, 40, 45, 50, 60, 75, 90, 120s)

Antiqued green gold colour brew.

35s first brew after a rinse. Mineral note, sour plum note, vegetal note,
Flavour, very sweet honey note with sour plum, slight woody note, really faint note of charcoal,, hint of sweet cooked greens, cinnamon, mineral note. creamy and slightly syrupy, tingling in the front and top of mouth, warmth at back of throat.

25s amber coloured sweet,sour scent, with a touch of honey, spice, and cocoa.
Flavour honey ranging into caramel, with cinnamon and a cardamon hint, faint of cocoa in the base with stone fruit, cherry and plum on top. faint herbaceous floral orchid note. Reminds me a little of the flavour of dammann’s Noel in Prague. Still thick creamy body.

30s caramel, cocoa,cinnamon, stone fruit and orchid.
Flavour stone fruit, orchid, cocoa, caramel,cinnamon.

40s scent more cocoa and caramel with sharp fruit fading.
Flavour caramel, fruit, cinnamon, cocoa/orchid. still thick textured and creamy.

45s. Cocoa dominant over other scents
Flavour cocoa, fruit opening to caramel then chocolate orchid.

50 s fruit, cocoa,vegetal note.
Flavour sweet stone fruit compote ,Some cocoa,almost flaxseed note, still thick bodied.

60s. Scent is mineral
Flavour is flax and cocoa, with a hint of fruit and mineral tones.still full bodied as it cools fruit moves into prominence and caramel makes a reappearance with a touch of spice.
Leaves burgundy chocolate brown colour.

75s. Minerals scent with hits of fruit, flax and cocoa
Flavour sweet fruit, cocoa, a peppery note, caramel, flax, very sweet aftertaste, slight hint of orchid.

90s. Fruit,cocoa,mineral note,flax
Flavour slightly thinner an impression of sweetness followed by cocoa, fruit and mineral notes, with a sweetness developing after that with peppery notes and tart fruit. Thinner body, but not thin.

120s mineral vegetal
Flavour fruit cocoa flax, mineral, pepper, sweet undertone. Still significant body to the tea. Flavour is weakening. Aftertaste is sweet and pepper.

The spent leaves range from solid chocolate brown to 50% Olive green tipped browny red. The majority of the leaves were chocolate. The leaves were quite large with @55% attached to stems.

The tea itself was very enjoyable. I found it to be a very sweet tea, with good tart fruity notes with a caramel sweetness and cocoa toasted notes with a thick creamy body. Quite enjoyable.

This sample came to me from Sil in a surprise Christmas card! Unfortunately the postal service did a good job of completely grinding this one to nearly matcha. Did someone stomp on it??

I kept it cool and a quick steep. It kinda looks like matcha with all that powder floating around in there! It does smell amazing, however. So floral (I’m amazed you liked this one, Sil! ;)). It’s a familiar floral but I can’t quite place it right now. Lilacs isn’t quite right, but I’ve definitely smelled it in a garden before. The flavor definitely has a bit of a fresh apricot, and I can see where TTC describes an almond-like note. It’s fresh and green and lovely. This is quite amazing, even stomped to bits. I may have to order some bao zhong from them when I do get around to making an order.

ETA: Yeah, I’m going to go ahead and rate this one pretty highly. It’s really that good, the broken leaf doesn’t even matter that much!