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I am really happy with all the teas I’ve ordered from Taiwan Tea Crafts. Unfortunately , I haven’t gotten around to leaving reviews on all them.

Having this one today and I finished the cup before I could get the review in. It’s that good. This tea is not artificially scented. Only scented with natural flowers. So the jasmine comes through but blends so good with the buttery, sweet, milky flavour of the Jin Xuan oolong

So good I am going for another infusion.

I have a sample that’s 2011 of this cake so I assume I am leaving the review on the right tea. I had this one today and it did not impress me. It brewed up a gold colour. I was having the tea while I was working so I wasn’t mentally making notes of each infusion. It is just that each infusion did not impress me. I would brew one up, have a few sips, say “nope, not right”, and then do another infusion. I didn’t hate it but I can’t say I loved this tea either. Nothing seemed to stand out about it.

I had this tea yesterday . Brewed it up with a bit less leaf than the sencha from the same company. I found the first brewing of the sencha had too much umami for me. This time with a bit less leaf and shorter brew time ( 30 sec instead of 1 min ) at 60C. It came out perfect. Grassy, good umami but not overpowering, very sweet.

Next brewing was at 80C for 15 sec. A little bitterness crept into that one with a bit of astringency. Umami was toned down but still good.

I did one more infusion after that and hit my caffeine level. I love Japanese teas but I hit my caffeine level much quicker than with Chinese greens.

All 3 teas I tried from this company were great. Thanks Allan for giving me a chance to try them out. If they offer smaller quantities and better shipping rates in the future, I may buy from them.

I did two infusions on this tea today and really enjoyed it. I never tried more infusions but I suspect it does not have quite the lasting power of the sencha I had yesterday from the same company. However, this is more of my type of tea. A good umami taste but not overly strong. A bit grassy and a slight astringency. There’s a lighter sweetness to it and a slight nuttiness that comes through. Overall, a pretty good one to brew casually with cup and infuser.

Yay! I get to try this sencha from a seller on Ebay.

It is pretty good quality , a bit more like a gyokuro than a sencha because the leaves were so tiny and dark green. I did the first infusion at a low temperature (60C). It was sweet and umami very very strong. Very soupy. At time it was too much umami for me.

2nd infusion was 80C for 15 sec. This one was much better balanced for me. Umami still strong but not dominating, sweet and a bit grassy. I got 3 or 4 more infusions from this before the flavour started to go. That’s pretty amazing for a sencha.

This is from a sample I bought from Yunomi. I followed their brewing instructions on the package.

1st brew – 60C at 60 sec. This was so sweet and grassy. A good umami taste to it with no astringency.

2nd brew – 80C at 15 sec – I messed this tea up a little bit. The tea leaves had swelled up in the tea pot and I had trouble pouring it quickly so it went way past the 15 sec. It was still sweet and grassy but had a good astringent bite on the tip of the tongue. That probably would not have been there if I could have poured the tea quickly

3rd brew – I changed up the teapot for a quick pouring gaiwan. I steeping it about 20 or 30 sec. Can’t remember now. The umami flavour of it was fading a bit in this one but it didn’t have that astringent bite the 2nd infusion had. Was still sweet and grassy but a little less.

I found this sencha to be a pretty good quality and would buy more of this.

I tried a vanilla mint pu-er quite a few years ago (made by Rishi tea I think). That was my first taste of a ripe pu-er and I liked it. Then I went on to try ripe pu-er on it’s own and was enjoying that until I tried sheng. After that, everything went backwards. I liked sheng so much, the ripe pu-er was no longer appealing to me. Now I hardly have any ripe pu-er in my cupboard at all.

So then I saw this sample when getting some teas from Tao Tea Leaf. I remembered how I liked it before (from Rishi) and thought I would give it a try.

I really did enjoy it. The rich vanilla and mint blend so good together and are balanced well with the earthy taste of the pu-er. This is one type of ripe pu-er I will always enjoy. It’s such a good blend. The cup was finished before I knew it.

I thought I had left a review on this tea. I had a small sample which I’ve enjoyed a few teas from and finished it off today. One of the best tie guan Yin’s I’ve ever had. Floral and buttery, smooth & sweet. It never stops through each infusion. This tea is worth every cent you have to pay for it.

This sample was from last year and was still amazing today. Glad I finished it off while it’s still good. Nothing worse than letting amazing tea go to waste.