Taiwan No 18

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Black Tea Leaves
Flavors
Caramel, Strawberry
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
High
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Sannetea_Lulu
Average preparation
Not available

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4 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Thank you so much for the samples, Sanne Tea! I love the name. I know tea helps my sanity a great deal! Lulu of Sanne Tea was searching for authentic Taiwanese teas after moving to Michigan, so it...” Read full tasting note
    97
  • “You know you have too much tea when you find a Sun Moon Lake sample at the bottom of the stack boxes. I can understand losing a lesser tea but few teas hit all my buttons like Taiwan Sun Moon Lake...” Read full tasting note
  • “You know what is really gratifying? Blowing a professional chef’s mind with my baking creations. I am pretty much in charge of baking stuff in the house, but since I have to eat gluten free, my...” Read full tasting note
    99

From Sanne Tea

Sun Moon Lake is Taiwan’s main base for the cultivation of No.18, a black tea strain, also called Hong Yu (Ruby), only grown in Taiwan. In 1999, No.18 was created by hybridizing Taiwanese wild mountain tea trees with Burma Assam tea trees, and grown in the special climate of Yuchih Township, where Sun Moon Lake is located. The trial planting was so successful that No.18 became the signature tea of the lake area.

Similar to Assam tea and Ceylon tea, No. 18, when brewed, has a bright red color and strong, rich flavor with refreshing pungent notes. The tea also has a natural cinnamon and mint fragrance, a feature of the Taiwanese wild tea strain. This distinctive tea is the perfect combination of Indian and Taiwanese Black teas.

The roasting process is the key to make high-quality No. 18. Unlike other tea farmers, this farmer roasted the No. 18 with mild temperature. Lower temperature means that the farmer had to spend more time and labor on roasting. And, the longer roasting process increased the uncertainty of final quality. But the challenge, the farmer believed, was necessary for generating a delicate and round palate, which make our No. 18 plenty of character.

When ordering 75 grams of Taiwan No. 18, the tea will be shipped in its original package, sealed by the farmer.

Origin

Style of Tea: Taiwan No. 18 (Sun Moon Lake Black Tea)
Harvest Date: August, 2014
Oxidation Level: Heavy
Roasting Level: Medium
Location: Sun Moon Lake, Yuchi Township, Nantou County
Picking Style: Hand Picked
Cultivar: No.18 (Ruby)
Farm Elevation: 600-800 meters
Brewing Guidelines

Water Temperature: 203-212 F degrees / 95-100 C degrees
Steep Time: 1st/60 seconds, 2nd/90 seconds, 3rd/120 seconds, adding 30 seconds for subsequent infusions
Suggested Serving Size: 5 grams / 200 ml water
The same tea leaves can be steeped 5-6 times.

About Sanne Tea View company

Sanne Tea is the place where you can find high-quality and pesticide-free Taiwanese tea. The founder came from a Taiwanese family that loves and drinks tea for several generations. We want to share our enthusiasm and passion for Taiwanese tea and natural farming with the world. As our commitment, we source and sell 100% natural, zero pesticide teas. We are very excited about the teas that we have to offer, and are very much looking forward to meeting other tea lovers here.
 
 We worked hard to find the Taiwanese tea that is 100% grown in Taiwan and build the relationships with local farmers, not to mention that the tea has to be affordable. We, along with several tea farmers who we trust, would like to promote true Taiwanese tea to the global market. 
 
 Thank you for visiting us and please go to our website:www.sannetea.com

4 Tasting Notes

97
4169 tasting notes

Thank you so much for the samples, Sanne Tea! I love the name. I know tea helps my sanity a great deal! Lulu of Sanne Tea was searching for authentic Taiwanese teas after moving to Michigan, so it is Lulu’s goal to offer 100% Taiwanese teas with zero-pesticides (sometimes Taiwan’s organic rules are matching or more strict than US organic rules and the farmers prefer to go the pesticide-free route for their own and their families health on the tea farms anyway — not to mention higher quality of flavor in the tea). Lulu also gets to know the farmers and tries to share info about them with us tea drinkers! The farmer of this tea is Peng Mu Sheng with almost 40 years experience of growing and making natural teas! His tea farm is one of the oldest in the Sun Moon Lake area. I think he knows what he is doing because this tea is amazing! I really appreciate that information on the farmers is included on Sanne Tea’s site (sannetea.com). It really sets Sanne Tea apart from most tea shops. It makes me appreciate a tea a little bit more. :D

I had to try this one! A hint to Butiki’s Premium Taiwanese Assam fans: If you miss PTA, think Taiwan #18 or “Ruby”. I’m pretty sure this is the closet thing to PTA and the best harvests. The description says that #18 is created by hybridizing Taiwanese wild mountain tea trees with Burma Assam tea trees, so there you have it: Taiwanese Assam. The leaves look the same in both teas: long dusty black twisty tree branches. The longest leaves there can be. The description also says it tastes like Assam or Ceylon but I disagree. I think this tea has a unique flavor all its own. The Sanne Tea version and PTA both taste like caramelized candy strawberries to me! It’s a type of tea that I NEED to have in the cupboard at all times. Such a light, smooth, sweet, honey-like tea! The second and third steeps were very similar – maybe a little deeper in flavor. The parameters suggested using 5 grams for six ounces (almost all of the 6 gram sample which seems to be about 4 teaspoons) but I definitely didn’t follow the suggestions. I think my resulting delicious cups were as delicious as possible though!

Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons measured as well as possible for a full mug // 7 minutes after boiling // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // few minutes after boiling // 2 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 2-3 min

Flavors: Caramel, Strawberry

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1719 tasting notes

You know you have too much tea when you find a Sun Moon Lake sample at the bottom of the stack boxes. I can understand losing a lesser tea but few teas hit all my buttons like Taiwan Sun Moon Lake black tea. Dry it smells of cocoa, honey, kind sweet potato, with a Darjeeling like muscatel. The whole mix has a baked quality to the scent. Mmmmm.

Tasting is similar to the scent. It is an easy sip that builds to what I am going to call a presence. It isn’t a hefty bite. Its more refined than the raw bite of some teas.

The second cup had me mentally thinking cinnamon candy. It is so sweet and feels syrupy on the lips. The cinnamon image is welcome but weird, in that there is not so much a cinnamon taste, and certainly no cinnamon burn, but the image remained after several sips. I love when a tea does that kind of magic trick. Even in the second cup I still catch grape notes under the cinnamon, honey, sweet potato.

Complex and delicious.

Ysaurella

few teas are as good as Sun Moon Lake teas, fully agree KS

ashmanra

Yes, ditto here!

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99
921 tasting notes

You know what is really gratifying? Blowing a professional chef’s mind with my baking creations. I am pretty much in charge of baking stuff in the house, but since I have to eat gluten free, my stuff is always gluten free. Many years ago (what we with gluten problems call the Dark Times) it was nigh impossible to find decent breads and such (it was always weirdly textured or tasted really odd, and cost a small fortune) and baking was practically fancy alchemy left to the pros. Poor Fish had to spend a couple years living gluten free and has grown to hate it, so he understandably felt a great deal of trepidation when he found out my baking would lack the glory that is wheat. So far he has been really impressed by my creations, but what really took the cake was the dumplings in the soup the other night, I made them totally from scratch and they were some of the best I have ever had and he is still raging about it. I seem to have developed mad skills, who knew?

Sanne Tea sent me some more tea to review, yay! I am such a sucker for Taiwanese teas, and totally made a squee when I saw that one of the samples was Taiwan No. 18, you might know this glorious black tea as Sun Moon Lake Tea, Hong Yu, Red Jade, or Ruby Black…a tea of many names and many faces. I say many faces because this is one of the most unique aroma and flavor profiles I have run into in tea, and this is thanks to the strain of tea plant this tea is made from, a hybridization of wild mountain tea plants and Burma Assam tea plants, of course the terroir of region helps as well. The farmer of this particular tea roasted it on a lower temperature, meaning it takes longer to roast and there is a larger element of uncertainty. Well, as expected, I was floored by the aroma, I just love this stuff, blending strong notes of sassafras and menthol (but without the mint, it is weird, you need to sniff this one yourself to truly understand the menthol without mint) with an accompaniment of cocoa, malt, and sweet potatoes. It is very sweet and rich, probably sweeter than other versions of this tea I have sniffed.

Brewing the tea (I really want a special Yixing for this tea, it is so unique, I want to know how the clay would affect it) the leaves are very complex, there is just so much going on! Strong notes of sassafras and menthol with honey, dates, cocoa, malt, sweet potatoes, and even a touch of cinnamon and licorice at the finish. The liquid is very sweet with notes of sassafras, dates, and sweet potato, not so much on the menthol, but the sassafras is wonderful. If you ever get the chance to have a rootbeer with real sassafras in it, go for it!

Ok, I am sitting down, I know how Red Jade affects me, I get tea drunk from the first sip of this stuff! The cup comes to my lips, I sip…and omg that is delicious. There are a pile of exclamation points in my notes. The taste starts out with sweetness, notes of honey and dates as the first burst of flavor, this moves to sassafras and the cooling sensation of the menthol, really it is like the sensation and not the taste, it is very strange but so good. The finish is a blend of malt and cocoa with an aftertaste of dark (but not too dark, like 60%) chocolate that kinda curves up to sweet quite a while later.

Second steeping, the aroma is a sweet blend of honey, cocoa, sweet potatoes and of course the iconic (to me) sassafras notes. The taste is a bit more brisk this steep, with notes of woodiness, sweet potato and malt taking up the forefront, this pretty quickly switches to sassafras and menthol at the middle, the menthol lingering into the aftertaste with an accompaniment of honey and dates at the finish. This was a steep to wake up the mouth, similar to eating a mouthful of ginger without the burn.

Third steeping, like the previous one, notes of honey and cocoa blend with sassafras, though no sweet potato this time, but there was a bit of malt. This steep is a bit more mellow, more similar to the first steep, it lacks the briskness of the second but makes up for it in sweetness. Starting out with honey and dates, with a bit of chocolate, this moves to a burst of sassafras and finally finishing out with I swear it tastes just like candied yams! Another fine example of a tea that is a work of art, the more I drink of Red Jade (or whatever name you know it by) the more I love it and crave it.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/07/sanne-tea-taiwan-no18-tea-review.html

carol who

Wonderful review. Such nice detail. It really sounds delicious.

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