Premium Taiwanese Assam

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Black Tea Leaves
Flavors
Chocolate, Raisins, Cream, Cocoa, Fruity, Malt, Brown Sugar, Burnt Sugar, Caramel, Dried Fruit, Molasses, Bread, Vanilla, Cinnamon, Honey, Cherry, Pastries, Sweet, Sweet Potatoes, Fig, Grain, Plum, Yams, Strawberry
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Butiki Teas
Average preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 15 sec 1 g 13 oz / 370 ml

From Our Community

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262 Want it Want it

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185 Own it Own it

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285 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Happy Thanksgiving (Gratitude Day) to everyone in the World!! I know Thanksgiving is an American holiday, but I hope everybody everywhere has things to be grateful for everyday. I think it’s...” Read full tasting note
    100
  • “Sometimes you just need an old favourite. This morning was one of those days. I had let the wonder of this tea become a mere shadow of its true deliciousness. I’m glad I dug this out...” Read full tasting note
    88
  • “Wowwwww, this is delicious! Definitely glad I ordered some (shoulda got my free ounce of this instead of Strawberry Oolong!) It reminds me quite a bit of Laoshan Black, in that it’s very malty and...” Read full tasting note
    100
  • “This week has been pretty busy for us. We just got back from vacation mid week which was really a work vacation and will start prepping for another office closure as we will probably be taking off...” Read full tasting note

From Butiki Teas

Our Premium Taiwanese Assam is sourced from Yuchih Township in Nantou County, Taiwan. Assam bushes were brought to Taiwan in the early twentieth century but have since been refined by the Taiwan Research and Extension Station. The long dark chocolate-colored leaves produce a sweet fruity aroma. This malty tea has rich chocolate notes with notes of cinnamon, clove, and raisins.

Ingredients: Taiwanese Black Tea

Recommended Brew Time: 3 minutes
Recommended Amount: 2 teaspoons of tea for 8oz of water
Recommended Temperature: 212 F (boiling)

For more information, please visit: http://www.butikiteas.com

About Butiki Teas View company

Company description not available.

285 Tasting Notes

96
1908 tasting notes

Is this tea the same as what I’ve heard called ‘Sun Moon Lake’ black tea? I know it’s produced from a Taiwanese Assam-variety tea plant like this tea is.

The brewed liquor is a lovely dark reddish shade, almost like a garnet and the aroma is rather fruity. The flavour is something unique – has the robustness of Assam and there is a bit of malt though I would describe the dominant flavour of the tea to be something more like cocoa with a bit of bakey-ness followed by a sweet, slightly fruity (citrus maybe?) note. It has an extremely smooth feel in the mouth and I don’t feel the need to add milk to tone down it down like I do with most Indian Assams.

Butiki Teas has a real winner here – I completely understand why this is one of the top teas on the entire site.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Butiki Teas

Sun Moon Lake black tea can refer to a few different types of black tea. If it is just an Assam then it is TRES #8.

Jillian

Cool, thanks for clearing that up.

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268 tasting notes

I was very excited to try this tea, given all I’ve heard about it from my dear Steepster friends :). This tea is a total spider-leg tea! (dark, twisty, looooong leaves). It smells very tannic and brews up a burnt sienna color. The main impression I get upon the first sip is that this tea is different- I’ve never tasted another tea like it! Points for that :). The flavors that pop up are honey and raisins, with a hint of cinnamon against a malty backdrop. This is actually the first tea I’ve gotten raisin notes from. The flavors all shine quite clearly- is this a classic assam flavor profile? I’m not sure as I’ve only had a spiced masala assam.

Flavors: Cinnamon, Honey, Malt, Raisins

TheTeaFairy

Lol, this tea has almost non of the traditional assam profile… But it’s yummy and that’s all I care about. Love me some spider leg tea!

mj

Haha, good to know! Now I must try more assams…. oh darn ;-)

El Monstro

I’ve been through about 1,000,000,000 teas and this is probably the best one I’ve had. Some tea snobs would probably call it blasphemy but it is reallllly good iced with sugar (I feel like a broken record every time I praise all the iced teas I like on here).

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987 tasting notes

Backlog from a few days ago:

Oh man, this is a very sad sipdown. I drank it to commemorate Butiki’s closing with the last of the swap I got from Ost a few months ago.

This has such rich fruity notes to it for me, like plum and prune. I really can’t wait to find another vendor who stocks this (once I sip down some more stuff in my cupboard).

Bye Bye, Butiki…. (sob)

TeaLady441

I hope we can (collectively) find something else that’s just as good because I’ll miss it too!

TeaLady441

And Butiki itself, of course!!! :P

Christina / BooksandTea

There are less than a dozen teas that pop up when I search for “taiwan assam” on Steepster. Should some of us give Taiwan Tea Crafts a try, perhaps?

OMGsrsly

I have a Sun Moon Lake from Teacentre in Courtenay, which is a taiwan assam. It’s ok. Not as good as this one though.

Dexter

I think Sil has tried quite a few from TTC. She might be able to help…

TeaLady441

I have too, actually. And I really enjoyed all of them, but they’re a little expensive. (Still, worth it)

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100
737 tasting notes

This will seriously always be one of the best black teas I’ve ever tasted. I have been trying to save it but the other day I was really craving it so I splurged a bit.
Ughh it’s just so good.
Way better in real life than even in my memory!
Love this one!
I’m going to be heartbroken when I run out D:

TeaNecromancer

Running out of a favorite tea that can’t be replaced is awful!! :(

Ost

I am seriously dreading running out of all my favorite Butiki Teas…Going to have 5 really really heartbreaking days D:

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90
84 tasting notes

Thank you Stacy for the sample of this!

This is my first “straight” tea from Butiki. I tend to gravitate towards their flavored teas because they really are the best flavored ones I’ve found. So I end up spending my whole tea budget on those. I asked Stacy to surprise me with an unflavored tea and she chose this one.

I should have written this right after drinking it in my sleepy stupor this morning. It helped me get out of bed but almost felt to good for half awake tea drinking.

It was strong without being astringent.

Oh and I was really good this time and didn’t under leaf! I used the whole sample. I feel stupidly proud of myself because I have a strong and stingy urge to save the precious. With my stash out of control I really shouldn’t be stingy. This was worth using the whole sample even if now I feel sad I can’t order any for a long time.

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92
237 tasting notes

(Backlog from this morning)
I chose this as my first-day-at-work-after-maternity-leave tea and I’m really glad I did, because it was a great comfort, and it gave me something to focus on, rather than obsess about how stressed out I was. The day went by very quickly, and it was much easier than I had anticipated. Now I’m e-x-h-a-u-s-t-e-d and although my WP order came in today, I’ll skip on caffeine tonight because I need a LOT of rest.

boychik

I read somewhere its good to start your job on Thursday, then Weekend is soon. It’s easier to adjust. Wishing you rest tonight!

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92
13 tasting notes

Perfect breakfast tea! I’ve steeped this about 5 times already and it’s still going strong.

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 3 min, 15 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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6444 tasting notes

Thank you Cavocorax for being so kind and giving me some unflavored Butiki blacks in support of my new journey into straight teas. This one is quite good, malty and sweet with delicious notes of caramel. It reminds me slightly of Yezi’s Jin Pin, which is great since that is the tea that inspired this exploration. However, of the two, I think I prefer Jin Pin, but this is delicious in its own right as well.

In other news, got my haircut today, after quite some time and it feels like I lost 10 pounds :P. Alas, my happiness is being spoiled by the fact that my friends birthday is tonight (that is not what is ruining my mood since birthdays are happy times) which means I have to get dressed up and mission downtown to spend a few hrs with drunk people I don’t know only to have to subway back at midnight. All I really want to do is stay home in pajamas and drink tea but oh well. Also, the dressing up part is annoying given we are going to a pub which, at least in Montreal, meant jeans and tshirts were acceptable

keychange

Oh god, knowing you have to get all dressed up and loiter around town with drunk people (all be it for a good reason) just so irritating? I mean, it isn’t always irritating—but when it is it really, really is.

VariaTEA

Yeah, I think it is only super annoying because (a) I know I won’t be drinking and everyone will be drunk, and (b) there is so much money and travel time (because I am in the suburbs) that it doesn’t seem worth it for only a few hrs. I am sure once I am there, I will have fun but the thought of it is not all that appealing.

Also, my friend said to be sorta dressy so I had a simple black dress that I was gonna wear with combat boots (to stay comfortable/dress it down), however she said it was dressier than what she was wearing so I threw on jean leggings (with the dress since luckily it’s short- I don’t plan on _only- wearing leggings :P) and decided that is fine.

Nxtdoor

You back?

Courtney

Unflavoured blacks FTW! Also, I hope you end up enjoying yourself. I understand that feeling all too well.

VariaTEA

Yep and I have been meaning to message you but things have been quite hectic as of late

TeaLady441

Yay for new hairs! Also, I hope things go ok for you tonight! I totally TOTALLY understand the chill evening at home instead of the uncomfortable night at the bar. I’d wear jeans/t-shirt regardless so it’s probably good that I don’t get invited out much. haha

keychange

Hope it isn’t too bad!

VariaTEA

Thanks guys. It would have been nice to stay home as the night wasn’t all that fun but my friend enjoyed her birthday which is all that counts really. Tomorrow (today) I can spend drinking tea and it will be great!

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94
58 tasting notes

This is one of the best black teas I’ve come across in my recent introduction to loose leaf teas, it’s bursting with flavor and so smooth I found myself at the bottom of my cup without knowing exactly how I got there! Whenever I see the word ‘premium’ in a product description I’m wary because more often than not it’s hyperbole, but not in this case. Excellent tea!

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93
184 tasting notes

So It’s 6:30am and by reaching deep into my tea cupboard I realized I’ve made a big mistake…..

I’ve been on Steepster for a little over a year. It was this website that helped me find the teas I’ve used to expand my tastes “beyond the teabag”. I ordered PTA from Butiki fairly on in my tea explorations. Being that my tastebuds were used to Indian assams, this threw my palate for a loop. I remember thinking that the leaves were like SPIDER LEGS and how in blazes could you measure 2 teaspoons of this when every time you pushed the leaves into the spoon to get a measurement, some would POIIIIIING out of the spoon…. I think it was just all a bit too much for me. So the tea was relegated to the back of the cupboard. Until today….

There’s a depth to the dry leaf fragrance that is similar to a Fujian black, but once water goes into the cup, the malty assam note comes forward to meet my nose. Unlike most assams, the malt note doesn’t take center stage in this cup….this one is a true chorus of notes: It is fruity, with notes of deep plum, raisin and fig. There is cocoa and yam skin, which bring an earthiness to this tea that assams don’t usually present. Then there is a toasted malt note. This is lovely. I have to say that this is probably my favorite cup of tea for where my palate is these days. At a 3 minute steep there is a touch of astringency, which is the only reason I can say I’m not sitting here crying in my mug over not drinking this before Butiki closed it’s doors. Astringency, you just might be my friend today for that reason alone…..

I try to live life with no regrets…it’s a mantra of mine. SO, I will look at the small tea tin as being a quarter full of bouncy spider leggy leaves as opposed to being 3/4 empty. And in the meantime, I’ll ask anyone if they’ve found anything close to this tea anywhere else besides Butiki….because dang, it’s goooooooood.

Flavors: Cocoa, Fig, Grain, Malt, Plum, Raisins, Yams

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML
Mike

It’s so good, and unlike any other Assam, just like you said! Count me in, if you hear of anything like it, let me know! :)

adagio breeze

There are other sites that sell Taiwanese assam, like Taiwan Tea Crafts, Beautiful Taiwan, and Eco-cha.

Mike

Awesome, I’ll check them out! Thanks!

donkeyteaarrrraugh

adagio breeze, thanks! I’m perusing their sites as I type this!

donkeyteaarrrraugh

Mike, I made my first purchase from Taiwan Tea Crafts…all 3 of their assams and a High Mountain….they probably won’t be here for ages, but all the same, I can’t wait! Did you order?

Mike

Nice! I haven’t yet, I’m trying to work through my current tea collection a bit first, but a Taiwanese Assam is high on the list for the next purchase! I hope you love them, I’m sure they’ll be great! :)

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