Taiwan Tea Crafts

I’m still getting a fruity jam, with dark chocolate, & a hint of leafhoppers’ coriander. The mouthfeel is VERY thick with the chocolate sensation, & the tea is tasty & sweet!

A tasty fruity tea, almost like fruit dipped in chocolate.
I’m not as in love with it as I was originally, but I do love the flavor of it, which to me is not so much like an Assam.

I went with a little more leaf on this one, but then I forgot to set a timer, & got sidetracked a little & over-steeped it. Luckily, it doesn’t seem to have made a difference! It’s still delicious. I’m still thinking of a not too sweet dried fruit, dipped in chocolate.

I have to say that when I think of Assam, I’m thinking of something bold & malty, something that will wake me up, something from the Assam region of India. Transplanting assamica tea plants to other parts of the world, other soils, etc, makes for interesting & in this case tasty, variations in those teas.

First tea of the day, first tea of the month.
I think my tastebuds are a little off this morning, as I know I’ve enjoyed this tea before, but not really getting much today. It doesn’t taste bad, just not as nuanced as before.
Blame it on the Revelry of Pirates last night, see my facebook for photos https://www.facebook.com/terri.langerak
I ate some amazing (but too sweet) dark chocolate from a local chocolatier last night, as my treat, & within 15 minutes had terrible muscle cramps/kinks in my neck & shoulders on the left side. It’s the sugar, of course, does it to me every time, but like a mother who forgets just how intense childbirth is, I tend to downplay the consequences of poor choices in my mind, only to remember them when the suffering begins.
I’m better now, though somewhat groggy & unproductive.
More tea…breakfast…more tea…

Hey Sil, did your TTC order come yet? I think you’re gonna love the samples I’ll be sending you from mine, because I think I’m gonna love them! Since we love most of the same teas…well, except for that Jin Jun Mei thing…& the occasional floral…heh… ;)

So this was my first tea of the day, & I want to thank my tea sister Sil for turning me on to this company. It was fun going a little nuts during their recent sale, but I didn’t really go any more nuts than I usually do. I’m really looking forward to trying some of the sample sized I bought, & I got enough of this lovely black tea to enjoy for a little while. It’s a very sweet & fruity tea, perhaps not as bold as some of the teas I love, but unique & tasty in it’s own right.
I steeped 1 Tbls in my mug for 4 minutes, resteeped for 6. The resteep is, or course, not as exciting as the original cup, but still flavorful in it’s own way. To this tea I say, “Welcome to my collection!”

Sipdown.
I just reviewed this a few days ago. It’s very tasty!

I love #147, & I love #154. They are 2 different lots of the Sun Moon Lake Assams from Taiwan Tea Crafts. This one is a little ‘thicker’ than the other one, like a slice of candied fruit dipped in chocolate.
The ensemble here includes the same trio of Bassoon, Oboe, & clarinet, but I’d like to add one more instrument…I’m thinking a rich midrange bagpipe drone…
I need to start composing pieces as a reflection of teas I love…sigh…

Sil & I have split several tea orders over the last several months, & I think the order from Taiwan Tea Crafts might be one of my favorites.
First off, the website is beautifully designed! You can tell a lot of time & care went into it, & as a person who designs her own website…cough…ahem…currently a cobweb site, I appreciate that.
Second, I love the colorful packaging!
And finally, & of course most importantly, the teas are tasty! I haven’t had a chance to try all of them yet, but Ive enjoyed the ones I have tried, especially this one.
This tea has a much different profile than I initially expected. The leaves are very dark, & resemble Stacy’s premium Taiwanese Assam, only not as long & wild looking. Of course, the taste is completely different!
These leaves steep into a nice dark cup, very different from any of my other Assams. A very full & smooth mouth with a tongue tingle, a buttered slice of honey wheat toast aroma, which transforms halfway down the cup to malto meal drizzled with butter & honey. The flavor moves around a bit too. This cup started out a little grapey, then as it cooled a little it made me think of those candied fruit slices dipped in dark chocolate, & now at the end it’s a bowl of malto meal with a spoon of an unidentifiable jam & a sprinkle of dark chocolate powder. There is a lingering sensation of having had a bite of some really high quality dark chocolate.
This one’s a keeper!

The 2nd tea I’m sampling from my trade with Sil.
Did somebody say Jam & chocolate? :D
This one is kind of like #147 Plus. Initially, the dry leaf had a similar fruity aroma, but there is more to it, really hard for me to pinpoint exactly what, but on tasting the cup, it’s a little richer than the other one, and a little sweeter, & there is a little chocolate here, along with a hint of leaf-hopper-bite honey, which always translates to coriander to me, but just a hint, mind you.
Delicious & satisfying.

To celebrate Leif’s birthday, Drew & I took him to lunch @ Cheesecake Factory. Actually, I took him to lunch & Drew came along & paid for his own lunch, LOL.
Here’s a photo:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10201626598282167&set=a.1840459966648.2104718.1095023403&type=1&theater

Then I drank the last of this tea, in 2 steepings, 3 & 5min
It’s delicious.

First Tea of the day!
This morning Tony flew to Kalamazoo, Michigan. His company is hosting a trade show there, or participating in one, something like that. Either way, he is gone until Tuesday night. I’m not used to being at MY house on sundays, & I don’t have any students or gigs, so it’s a total free day!!
I plan to spend at least part of this day drinking samples of all of the teas Sil & I shared from Taiwan Tea Crafts, in part because I haven’t drank any of them for awhile, & also because TTC is having a SALE! So I need to decide if I want MOAR of any (or all) of these!

This one wins the prize for the most beautiful packaging, lol. The packaging of all of these samples is absolutely beautiful, very colorful, but this one especially. Flavor-wise, this is also one of my favorites. This one & #154 are very similar, with a sweet fruity taste, & I have enough to drink them each one more time after today.

My steeping parameter today is to use my little blue lotus porcelain teapot (roughly 4oz, same size as my yixings, & they all look so nice together on the shelf). This allows me to run 3 full length steepings, but only drink about 12 oz total. As for quantity, I’m treating these teas like I treat Butiki’s Premium Taiwanese Assam, simply because they similar (though the taste is different), with similar leaf size. So I added a slightly heaping tsp to the pot, steeped 3 min at boiling, & then ran 2 more steepings at 4 & then 5min, each into a different cup.

I’m pleased to say that all 3 cups were delicious! This is a refined tea, a lady of Assams if you will. There are no bold bass or high notes here, more like a sweet woodwinds trio: bassoon, oboe, & clarinet. The flavor is rich, gentle, & fruity. Thanks again, Sil, for including me on this order!

I’m starting the morning with a tea from Sil.
This is a gentle Assam, with long twisted leaves like an Oolong. The flavor & aroma is fruity & sweet, with an undertone of toast maybe? If the more robust Assams were bold & studly guys, with one would be more like a strong but somewhat refined Chic. It’s not as bold of a brew, but the flavor is rich & I really like these Sun Moon Lake teas.
By the way, the packaging on these teas is absolutely beautiful! If you want to see the pic of the box Sil sent me, here it is:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10201069287589748&set=pb.1095023403.-2207520000.1375451395.&type=3&theater
The tea I’m drinking now is in the wrapper with purple on it.

Sil & I did a cool thing, a really awesome thing. We each ordered teas, & then we split them. Double your pleasure, double your fun, right? Yeah!
Even cooler, we both got our boxes yesterday!
This is the first tea from the box.
Before I say anything else, you really should check out the Taiwan Tea Craft website. Their displays are SO beautiful!

Now the tea! Taiwanese Assams are nothing like Indian Assams. They aren’t crazy bold, they are a more fruity refined tea. This beautiful full leaf twisty tea reminds me in appearance of the premium Taiwanese assam from Butiki, but the fragrance is not the same, or at least not exactly the same. Butiki tends towards a chocolaty essence, with some fruitiness. This one is Fruity! Their website says it evokes stewed cherries & peach jam (or maybe it was apricot). That description alone made me want this tea. And it really smells like that!
I steeped it like I steep Premium Taiwanese Assam from Butiki:
1 TB + mug X 3 min
A tasty fruity cup! It’s nice, it’s sweet, has a super smooth mouthfeel. I just polished off the resteep (5min), & it’s not too exciting, but still drinkable. (next time I’ll try 4min I think & skip the re-steep)
Thank you Sil!

sipdown! I finished up the last of this today, as i’m still trying my best to get things drunk up before my second cupboard explosion of the year happens. I’ve got plenty of things that are a cup or two away from being finished so i just need to take the time to drink them! :) I still really enjoy this offering from TTC – juicy and fresh and sweet and just a good time in my cup!

one of my teas from earlier this morning. I have 3 large bags of teas from TTC that i need to drink up, so i’m trying to weave them in to the rotation during the week. This is still really tasty and juicy but i have to admit i love some of the others just a teeeeeeny bit more. still lovely though!

backlogging – a few days ago i had this…it was tasty and delicious and made me smile… 16 hour work days suck.

and my other tea from this morning. Still enjoying this but need to order from TTC in smaller quantities haha. Either that or have the BBB Box come around more often and split more teas that way heh

Another cup from yesterday – I realised that in my effort to sipdown a number of my teas, there are a bunch that i haven’t had in a while. So the past couple of days i’ve been trying to pull out some of my other favourites as a reward for getting my cupboard down. I’ll have a few sipdowns in the next few days but mostly, i’m drinking what i want for the first week of april just to explore and try a few of the teas i haven’t had before. I have had this one before – it’s the reason i ordered another bag of it. This is a juicy, sweet taiwanese assam. It’s not bold of malty or in your face. Similar to stacy’s taiwanese assam but different – there is room for both in my cupboard. :)

oh man… i love this tea. I think i need to sit down with all my deliciously juicy assams and figure out which one is best. this one reminds me of the tea that i am currently lusting after from butiki (it’s almost here!!!!) though slightly different. I really like this one….it’s an assam but it’s not your typical malty, rosty dark :)

So I’m indulging a bit…I took his out of the cupboard to try this morning. It’s one of 8 teas that Terri and I shared on my half of the world. This one was picked because it smelled the least like Stacy’s mountain black that is out of stock until August.

Colour me impressed with this one! It’s a little lighter feeling than I expected, but I think that’s because I was a bit light in both my tea and my steeping time. I’m playing these ones by ear so that’s to be expected. This is not your usual malty Assam. Instead there are chocolate notes and jam?? Something fruity like in any case. I can’t quite put my finger on it but it is delicious! I’m now looking forward to trying the rest of these from Taiwan tea crafts even more!

This is a lightly-roasted oolong whose roasting (surprisingly) does not overwhelm other elements: the tongue can easily discern sweetness, and the nose the scent of flowers.

First infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz water, 90 deg., 2:00 min.

Second infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz. water, 90 deg., 4:00 min.

Third infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz. water, 90 deg., 7:00 min.

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

Of all Oolongs, rolled, heavy roasted kind has been the least in my cup, but this one seems to have slightly baked (almost cacao) aroma instead of dry impression and it lacks that charcoal edge that I got familiar with so far.

The leaf brews into clear bronze liquor with notes of toasted nuts and flowery hints topped with slightly dry impression. In mouth it presents itself with medium body and pronounced roasted note at the sides of the tongue, followed with toasted (like rice in Genmaicha) and almost caramel finish. Roasted element is less pronounced in subsequent steeps (but it seems to be replaced with a dry-like bite on the tongue) and the liquor brings more smooth mouthfeel with pronounced lingering flowery component and sweetness at the end. Roasted component in this tea gives a slight hint to coffee, but altogether the cup can be more associated with Genmaicha and Houjicha.

Slightly shriveled wet leaf airs of toasted and flowery elements that seem to be more intense than what’s been released in the cup (could possibly hold one more steep). Among these dominant components there can be sensed some milky character in the background.

Side note: it may take more than one session with this tea to fully grasp and comprehend its offerings.

(Tasting setup: 4gr 180ml 95-100C 2,5m-1,5m-2m-3m)

This is a lovely green – the smell of the dry leaves alone is wonderful! The liquor initially tastes of fresh-cut garden vegetables, working to a more honeyed taste in the last infusion. Bright, crisp, clean & clear.

First infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz water, 75 deg., 1:30 min.

Second infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz. water, 80 deg., 5:00 min.

Third infusion – 3 g. per 6 oz. water, 85 deg., 10+ min.