72

Call me weird but drinking a tea that not only tastes good, but also has bang for the buck adds a certain satisfaction to the experience. Though I enjoy fancy high mountain oolongs, they can be expensive and I’m always on the look out for good value teas. I love being surprised every once in a while by a humble jin xuan or some other inexpensive low elevation tea. One such tea was BTTC’s Old Style Dong Ding from a few years ago.

I picked this up in the hopes of finding a good daily drinker and maybe something more but unfortunately this one did not pass muster. This has a very basic oolong taste. Actually its vegetal taste makes it more like a green tea and it suffers from a lack of aromatics. There’s a honeyed sweetness to it but no real depth, texture, or mouthfeel to speak of. The washed out taste reminds me of the last steeping of a higher quality oolong. It does cold steep well so that’s how I’ll drink the rest of it. The old adage ‘you get what you pay for’ certainly applies here.

Flavors: Honey, Vegetal

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 0 min, 45 sec 4 g 3 OZ / 80 ML
Bluegreen

Hi LuckyMe. What do you think about Taiwan Tea Crafts? I noticed that I reviewed quite a few teas from them and your ratings have been oscillating widely from low 60s to 100. I am considering ordering from them and I am curious if such a wide variation reflects your exacting personal preferences or if their teas offerings are really uneven.

LuckyMe

Bluegreen, TTC generally has good quality tea and I would recommend them for Taiwanese oolongs. That being said, single origin teas can vary wildly from one harvest to another and last year’s teas were generally not as good as the ones I’ve had in previous years. It was true not only of TTC, but Taiwanese teas from other vendors as well.

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Bluegreen

Hi LuckyMe. What do you think about Taiwan Tea Crafts? I noticed that I reviewed quite a few teas from them and your ratings have been oscillating widely from low 60s to 100. I am considering ordering from them and I am curious if such a wide variation reflects your exacting personal preferences or if their teas offerings are really uneven.

LuckyMe

Bluegreen, TTC generally has good quality tea and I would recommend them for Taiwanese oolongs. That being said, single origin teas can vary wildly from one harvest to another and last year’s teas were generally not as good as the ones I’ve had in previous years. It was true not only of TTC, but Taiwanese teas from other vendors as well.

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My Rating Criteria:

95 to 100: Top shelf stuff. Loved this tea and highly recommend it

90 to 94: Excellent. Enjoyed this tea and would likely repurchase

80 to 89: Good but not great. I liked it though it may be lacking in some aspects. I’ll finish it but probably won’t buy again

70 to 79: Average at best. Not terrible but wouldn’t willingly drink again

60 to 69: Sub-par. Low quality tea, barely palatable

59 and below: Bleh

Fell into tea many years ago and for a long time my experience was limited to Japanese greens and flavored Teavana teas. My tea epiphany happened when I discovered jade oolongs. That was my gateway drug to the world of high quality tea and teaware.

For the most part, I drink straight tea but do appreciate a good flavored tea on occasion. I love fresh green and floral flavors and as such, green tea and Taiwanese oolongs will always have a place in my cupboard. After avoiding black tea forever, Chinese blacks have started to grow on me. I’m less enthusiastic about puerh though. I also enjoy white tea and tisanes but reach for them less frequently.

Other non-tea interests include: cooking, reading, nature, philosophy, MMA, traveling when I can, and of course putzing around on the interwebs.

IG: https://www.instagram.com/melucky

Location

around Chicago

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