Taiwan Tea Crafts

Lot 1312, Spring 2024

Rich and sweet winter squash flavor with nuances of honeydew, sweet corn and burnt sugar. A distinctive cooling sensation, sweet like the best peppermint, coats the throat, while the body is flooded with warmth. I find myself drinking each pour quickly and with ease. A perfect match for a day that feels like fall.

This tea, like other GABAs, does very well with boiling water and long steeps. Adding more leaf creates a richer, thicker brew with nutty and buttery overtones; however, only 3g:100mL was used for this satisying final session.

Lot 1319, Spring 2024

Excited to have made tea for somebody for the first time in our new house! The friend who I shared the gaiwan with said this was really light and sweet. My boyfriend who doesn’t drink tea and prefers strongly flavored fruity beverages said it was subtle and very sweet, different from the other teas he’s been taking sips of recently but “It’s still tea.” Another friend who is also not a tea drinker, I think I heard him say, “That really sweet.”

Silky soft buttery spring water in the mouth. It’s a bold tea in terms of immediate impact of sugarcane sweetness which is layered heavily throughout the sparkling “green” balsam/fir taste that’s not at all vegetal or grassy. The florality is complex; it permeates through multiple layers of taste. It feels heavy, warm, and fleshy rather than piercing and perfumey, a nice balance to the green quality. Aftertaste is a mingling of banana (which I also smell in the wet leaf) and peach, both thick and ripe. Strong sugarcane returning sweetness from far back of tongue. Later, there’s a pleasant tartness on the back sides of the tongue akin to lemon. Pushing the leaf to the very end gives a rare thick and oily brew and absolutely no sign of bitterness or astringency.

The experience almost reminds me of butter mints.

Overall, the tea is very warming in the body in comparison to the taste. It really had me sweating during the peak heat of the evening.

5g in a 150mL glass gaiwan was plenty of leaf for a 4-brew session that has continued the following morning. Enough caffeine to keep my perked up for only 1 but not 2 full games of Star Munchkin after dinner.

I think this was a good pick for sharing but maybe better for a quiet sitdown than an evening filled with card games and video games.

Sipdown 48 – 2024

Sadly can’t remember a thing about this, but I finished it.

Winter 2023, Lot 1289

I still don’t have internet at my new place, so tapping and swiping tea notes has been a chore on a phone. This will be pretty short.

5g, short steeps in 100mL porcelain pot: Delicious and fragrant, though fragrance not as pronounced as a spring tea. Balanced sweetness with tannins (used very hot water). Floral sweet pea overtone, fruity and nutty mid, and gently cooked spinach/fresh pea undertone. I wanna say the umami that ties in with the green notes is soybean and egg yolk (in the dry leaf it’s lamb fat) and the colloidal nature is like water spinach. Rather strong cooling/warming sensation in chest .

This morning’s 3g:300mL bowl tea with 190F water is a soothing and nutritive broth. The green undertone is more pronounced and like stewed green beans. None of the tannins found with short steeps and very hot water. Still a bouquet of sweet pea flowers. Fruity-nutty mid has turned more nutty but it’s more of a suggestion than day the nutty notes of a song ding. I do get some peach and mineral notes in a clean finish.

If this is truly organic, I am very surprised as many organic teas don’t have this kind of complexity or umami.

I said this would be short but the tea seems to have coerced me into writing more than intended. I hope to come back with another note before the sample is gone.

Finished off a 15g bag. Glad I’m not out, as this is a really tasty, unfussy oolong. I’ve been enjoying it at work mid-afternoon and it’s quite a moment of zen.

Lot: 1153

A really rich and tasty Taiwanese black tea. This one unfortunately went out of stock in a day it took me to write this out. Hopefully it will return again at some point. This tea is my goto for making iced tea. It’s a bit pricey, but the flavors are right on point. The smell is really rich, of chocolate, cherries, and oats. The brewed tea is tangy and sweet, like oatmeal made from toasted oats. Cold brewing this tea with a bit of lemon is absolutely divine.

Sipdown 38 – 2024

Sad this is already gone. So tasty and milky. Like a creamy lilac stew. Will probably purchase again at some point.

Finished off a 15g bag over the last few mornings. It’s lovely and bright, and has been a really nice tea to wake up with. It’s very forgiving for the first 5 steeps or so, but starts to get bitter quickly after that.

This is from MiepSteep, thanks very much!  This flavor type was calling to me today, so here we are.  The leaves are absolutely lovely, a rainbow of colors.  Huge and twisted.  The flavor is what you might expect.  Sadly I have already had this sitting for another year since MiepSteep has sent it over, so the flavor notes will not be as distinct as they could be.   I bet it was real flavorful back in the day.   I wish I could be more specific!  I will just have to appreciate its greatness from a distance of time….
Steep #1 //  1 1/2 teaspoons for a mug // 21 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // 10 minutes after boiling // 2-3 min

Sipdown 33 -2024
I would absolutely repurchase this. So tasty and very forgiving/easy to steep.

This is so tasty. Lots of dried fruit, raisins. A touch of starchiness- like taro. Also some spices- cinnamon, clove. It’s reminding me of a mince pie or plum pudding. I did find this was quite mild unless I used quite a lot of dry leaf and brewed at 205degrees.

Sipdown 31 – 2024

This wasn’t a favorite OB from Taiwan Tea Crafts. It was missing the honey qualities that I love in an OB. Not bad though, just a lot of fruitiness.

Sipdown 50 – 2024

This was generally pretty underwhelming and lacked flavor.

I’ve had a really consistent track record with Taiwan Tea Crafts, but this is one of my least favorites. The flavor is a bit too muted and verges more in green tea territory, rather than a greener oolong.

Sipdown 30 – 2024

Wow, this tea is incredible. I think I got this as a sample in a TTC order a year or so ago and kind of tossed it into my work stash and forgot about it. Found it today and decided to brew it gongfu style and I was so pleasantly surprised.

It tastes a lot like Thai iced tea- that same caramelly sugary sweetness. Maybe like roasted candy-coated pecans? So tasty.

Another impressive oolong from TTC. Love their packaging too. If you buy 250 g, for instance, they send it in 5 50 g packs to keep the tea as fresh as possible. This is the third of three samples I got from them and my favorite of the bunch.

Medium finish. No astringency or bitterness. Mild-medium sweetness. A bit acidic in smell and flavor. Longevity is 8-10 infusions. Super clean flavor.

I’ve determined that Taiwanese oolongs are the most consistently clean, balanced, drinkable teas for the price. Doesn’t seem I’m alone in this realization either. Hope they keep putting out amazing oolongs for many years to come :).

Harvest: May 2023
Location: Shibi shan, Yunlin County (elevation 1300 m)
Cultivar: Qing Xin

Dry Leaves: Vegetal, butter
Wet Leaves: Vegetal, herbal, barley, acidic
Flavor: Vegetal, buttery, herbal, thick, lemon, sweet

A super unique tea! Quite lovely. Don’t think I’d buy more of this, but would love to sample some of the other cultivars commonly used in Sun Moon Lake teas.

First Sun Moon Lake black tea for me, and I’m impressed. No bitterness or astringency. Aftertaste is quite long and minty. Longevity is 8+ infusions. Don’t really get any of the fruity notes mentioned by reviewers on TTC’s website. I have also read that Red Jade is often compared to the taste of cognac or brandy. Not a hard liquor person myself, but I do see the hard liquor qualities of this tea, minus the alcohol taste of course. However, the smell of the wet leaves is incredibly specific for me. Brings back childhood memories of those root beer barrel candies. Not root beer itself, but the candies specifically. Moments like these are why I love tea: the resurfacing of memories long forgotten through a simple leaf soup.

Harvest: May, 2023
Location: Sun Moon Lake, Nantou County (700 m elevation)
Cultivar: Hong Yu/TTES No. 18

Dry Leaves: Cinnamon
Wet Leaves: Cloves, root beer candy, mint
Flavor: Burnt sugar, sweet, spices, mint, cinnamon

And Just like that… it’s a Sipdown! Got treated to some Levain Bakery cookies today, and this tea was the perfect compliment :) I guess I like Bai Hao oolongs again hehehe. Thankfully this tea type is traditionally a summer harvest tea, so i can chug down some more of my teas before going ham at Taiwan Tea Crafts again :P

Been keeping this one in the back of my cupboard for a minute. I remember the last two times i had this tea that the flavors were unexciting. Decided to give this one a final try before adding it to the Everything Jar, where all my meh tea goes to mingle. Can’t wait to try it once there’s a few more tea crumbs in there hehehe.

Was very pleased to find that this tea had some great flavors hidden in it still. I must have not brewed it well the last time, because I’m getting some lovely mingling of cinnamon and pastry on the forefront, with a floral touch in the back of the palate. It’s reminiscent of a cinnamon babka, complete with the raisins. Babka, for those who have never had it, is like if a croissant and a shortbread cookie had a child. It’s typically rolled in layered swirls with chocolate (my favorite) or cinnamon with dried fruits (also amazing).

This tea is sweetly dessert like, and I’ve got about enough tea to make a sipdown the next time i visit it. Can’t wait to bring it with me to work to finish it off!

Sipdown 32

Lilac and wilted spinach. This takes quite a lot of dry leaf to make a substantial/flavorful cup, but I still enjoyed it.

Working on sipping through a 25g packet. I actually have lot 925, but I didn’t want to make an entirely new listing.

This tea is interesting. When it’s still piping hot, it’s delicious. As soon as it cools, it tastes like nothing. Because of the weird flavor phenomenon, it does better steeped gongfu rather than western style.

Very nice Jin Xuan! I got the Spring 2022 harvest of this tea from my TTC order. This tea made me fall in love with the Jin Xuan cultivar, super creamy and rich, both in aroma and taste. I just felt that it could’ve offered more in terms of texture, complexity, and finish. All in all, a really decent tea.

A mediocre green tea. I got the Spring 2022 harvest of this tea as a free sample from my TTC order. It didn’t really speak out to me in any way, with it wholly being mediocre as a whole. It was nice enough to not be disappointed, but lacked a bit in many areas.