Found their offerings interesting. Never ordered from them. Before I do, whats the consensus?
https://www.taiwanteacrafts.com
Taiwan Tea Crafts?
Taiwan Tea Crafts is a top notch supplier of Taiwanese teas. Chen Yuwen is a very good tea producer.
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hopeofdawn
- Posts: 75
- Joined: Tue Feb 06, 2018 4:56 pm
They've become my go-to vendor for Taiwanese teas--their quality is very good, they always send the tea in small 25 gram vacuum packed bags (the ones that won't get crushed that way, anyway), and their prices are very reasonable. I definitely recommend them.
Same here. Good experience and service. Like their baked gaba tea a lot
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jason19870313
- Posts: 157
- Joined: Tue Jun 25, 2019 11:14 am
- Location: Singapore
Fast delivery
Good quality tea
They provide free delivery if you purchase Taiwan oolong tea usd 75 dollars and above.
Good quality tea
They provide free delivery if you purchase Taiwan oolong tea usd 75 dollars and above.
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Been ordering from them for quite a few years now. They are my go-to for Taiwanese oolongs. Massive selection and good quality overall.
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Randy the Intern
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2022 2:58 am
- Location: USA
Hello tea friends. I'm back for another massive vendor specific tea review. My last review was for Mei Leaf. Last time I wasn't happy with the way I posted the review. I made several posts that were scattered throughout the thread, and it ended up being an unorganized mess. This time I wanted to wait until the end so that I could collect my thoughts and fairly evaluate my opinion of each tea against the rest of the lot + my experience with other tea. I wanted to accomplish this in one big post.
Just to give some background on why I chose this vendor in particular: I've been doing a lot of searching early this year on what vendor I wanted to get fresh spring tea from. I bounced between Chinese and Japanese vendors trying to decide which one was really going to offer me the best experience for my money. I also wanted to look for the territory that I seemed to have touched the least so that I could get a broader perspective for different types of tea in general. That's when it dawned on me that I haven't really explored Taiwanese tea much at all. Like most, I've had a few different oolongs like Jin Xuan and the more common things you see, but not a very wide variety of what they have to offer. It also occurred to me that I had never had any tea for Taiwan that wasn't an oolong, so that made me even more interested to see what black, white, and green were like in a place like this in comparison to the Chinese teas I've had.
After copious amounts of research on different vendors, I decided that TTC was the best choice I could make. I'm honestly surprised this thread doesn't get more traction in here. I'll be happy to be the first post in here since 2020 to bring them back into the light.
You'll notice in my review I like to base things on a score of 1-10. 1 being the worst, and 10 being the best. This might be a simplistic way to approach it, but it makes sense in my mind to evaluate things this way because it gives me a good reference point to figure out what I do and don't like personally. Just because I score something low doesn't mean that the tea itself won't be better to someone else. I have my own taste that isn't identical to everyone else. And to be clear 5-6 isn't a bad score. That's actually a good score. 5 is pretty bog-standard, which means I enjoy it but it's not great or anything. 6 means that I'm having an above average experience. I just want to make that clear because I give a lot of things that score, because naturally I feel most teas I try should probably fit into that category. The score is based on how good the tea is to me personally compared to all other tea experiences I've had.
Also, these scores are based on my first impressions. I may later on update scores if my experience changes when I try these teas again, but for now this is based on a single tasting. It's almost impossible to properly evaluate a tea with one taste so take it with a grain of salt.
So...here we go
------review starts here------
Gui Fei Oolong Tea, Lot 1166 - Dry leaf had almost no scent. Wet leaf and gaiwan lid smelled divine while brewing. Overall the taste is plesant, but all the flavors seem faint, muted and far in the background. It has a very honey-like, sweet and inoffensive flavor profile. Thin and watery mouthfeel. Nothing in the finish to speak of. Eh it's okay. I expected a lot better. 5/10
Organic Pre-Qingming Sanxia Bi Luo Chun Green Tea 2023 - Dry leaf got me excited quick. It wasn't super potent, but I could tell the fragrance was new to me. It was very vegetable-like, but also had a spiciness to it. I would describe the taste the same way. The thing it reminds me of most is arugula. The mouthfeel is oily and lubricating. Every time I swallow I get this complex freshness that envelops my nose and quickly dissipates. The only thing I can say is that the taste is very subtle and the finish is very short. I wish I could have a more potent version of this same tea. 6/10
Oriental Beauty “House Blend” Premium Grade Tea, Lot 1147 - Dry leaf smelled very nice. First experience with OB. Tastes like a lot of white tea that I'm familiar with. Very warm and cozy bread and honey flavors. Mouth feels good, but it's a little thin. There's a very faint floweriness in the finish. It's got all the character of a Gong Mei white and some hints of something that reminds me of a Twinings English breakfast (which is something I'm not upset about). Leaves my mouth a little dry afterwards, but not in a bad or harsh way. For my taste, it's something I'd never be opposed to drinking, but I'd also prefer something maybe a little more interesting. 6/10
Alishan Jin Xuan High Mountain Winter Oolong Tea, Lot 1171 - It was what I expected from a jin xuan, but very subtle. Creamy, milky, sweet. Gong fu was just too light for me. I decided to grandpa this and got much better results (much more sweetness coming forward). Overall it's not a bad representation of this tea, but not the best either. 6/10
High Mountain Heritage Dong Ding Oolong Tea, Lot 1181 - This tea has interesting complexity that seems to transform over the session. The first infusion was very creamy and milky like a jin xuan. The second infusion was very floral. As I keep brewing it I'm getting more wood-like flavors. There's also a nuttiness to it that lingers in the background to add a little depth. Liquor is medium thickness and leaves my mouth dry. I do wish the mouthfeel was more pleasant. Glad to see this tea is showing a good range of flavors that are very enjoyable. 7/10
Deep Baked Organic GABA Oolong Tea, Lot 1054 - I just want to preface this by saying I have a good relationship with GABA oolongs up to this point. I've had light and darker roasts that have produced wildly different teas. I think my favorite was the Mei Leaf GABA because it felt like eating a salty bag a chips or something. This tea was so different from the others I've had. The dry and wet aroma was very strange to me. If I was blind folded I think I would have told you it smelled like ripe puer and marijuana. And that’s…pretty much what it tastes like. Like a very light ripe with no wet pile taste and overwhelmingly akin to marijuana. It's not what I want in a tea at all. I'm not going to completely trash it because I can see how someone might like it if they liked those flavors. While I don't enjoy it, it's not gross either. Idk…I guess 3/10
Organic Pre-Qingming Sanxia Qing Xin Black Tea, Spring 2023 - My god….what a tea. The minute I cut open the bag and smelled the dry leaf I knew I was in for a real treat. I halfway blame my American blood for having such an affinity for black teas, but I have never had anything like this before. The smell and flavors are so complex it's hard to describe. Very akin to some notes of the Sanxia Bi Luo Chun, but with more complexity and depth layered on into deeper black characteristics. It's like a spice cabinet with fruity notes. Liquor is light-medium thickness and it's silky smooth. Each sip is a gift from god. It hits all the notes of being a great tea for me. I didn't want to give this rating out so easily, but I have no choice but to say 10/10
Sun Moon Lake T-8 assamica Black Tea, Lot 1122 - The smell of this tea is very sweet and subtle. The taste itself was very bold. This isn't complex by any means. It's a very refined and strong brew that would do well with western style brewing. Seems like a little goes a long way with these leaves. It's extremely mouth drying, and perhaps that due to how strong the brew was, but it's also the case that many other English style blacks have this effect on me as well. Personally I either prefer to do gong fu or grandpa style and I don't think this tea is suitable for either. I can see its potential with other methods though. 6/10
Baguashan Four Seasons Oolong Tea, Lot 1100 - When I opened the bag I'm immediately hit with the very familiar floral, perfume like oolong smell that you'd expect from a Chinese Anxi Tie Guan Yin. I'm usually not a fan of perfume-like oolong that have nothing to offer outside of the nose, but this is different. There's a smooth, rounded and lubricating mouth feel combined with a hint of creaminess. Kind of like a Tie Guan Yin and Jin Xuan hybrid, with the former being the dominating traits. There's also a hint of spices that's very subtle and adds some depth to the flavor. Something I can't ignore with this tea is that it was ridiculously cheap and that is going to affect my score for this tea. For the stupid low price of $0.07/g you're getting an exemplary tea for the money that's hard to beat. Easily recommend at a rating of 7/10
Organic Fragrant Jade Pre-Qingming GABA Green Tea - Personally I've never heard of a GABA green tea. So consider me curious when I find one and it's a fresh 2023 tea that's going to scratch my need to try the freshest greens of the year. The smell is absolutely intoxicating. I'm not even sure what to call it. But it's deep and rich, almost pastry like. Kinda like walking into a donut shop in the morning. The taste is so exotic. This isn't just any donut, it's a cream filled donut of some kind. The mouthfeel takes lubricating to a whole new level. It's like silk in the mouth. I'm so impressed with this tea because it's so unique. I can't even compare it to anything else I've ever had and that's really exciting. I have the constant urge to get my nose back into the gaiwan and huff the smell of these wet leaves. Part of me feels like my score might be high because this flavor is novel to me in tea, but it's also extremely enjoyable and I think it's fair to say this is a 9/10
High-Mountain Charcoal Pit-Fired Oolong Tea, Lot 1165 - This tea is super mellow and sweet. It doesn't do anything crazy, but it's doing everything right. The charcoal roast is perfect. Very easy drinker. Not sure it's worth the price, but I like it nonetheless. 6/10
Organic Pre-Qingming Red Jade T-18 Curled White Tea, Spring 2023 - I don't think this is the right tea. When I look at the pictures on the website I'm fairly confident that they packaged the wrong tea. I also ordered the: Organic Pre-Qingming T-23 Qi Yun White Tea. I think this is the T-23. These leaves look much more like white tea. The T-18 are supposed to look black and these aren't. I hope my sample of T-18 is in the T-23 bag, but I'm afraid I'm just going to get two orders of this same tea. Whatever this is, it's pretty interesting. It's spicy and reminds me of Vicks vapor rub. Strange thing to compare it too, but I actually like it a lot. The dry leaf smell was wonderful and potent. The taste is extremely mellow, but has enough going on to stay interesting. 7/10
*Edit: After searching through my package, I can't find the T-23 white. Seems like they left that out of my order. Going to do a full audit later and make sure I'm not slandering them for my mistake.
**Edit #2: After talking to Philip, he assured me that what I have is the T-18 white. I still have my doubts because it doesn't seem right to me, but I'll leave it up to the reader to decide. I also did confirm that the bag for the T-23 was missing, but Philip promptly refunded me for this and I have no complaints. Honest mistake. And to be fair I ordered like 18 different samples so it's easy to miss something.
Organic T-23 Qi Yun Black Tea, Lot 1180 - If we're assuming that the last tea was actually the Qi Yun White, then these leaves should have come from the same garden. Sort of like it's black brother from the same mother. This tastes very similar, but what I find interesting is that the qualities that made the taste very unique in the white version are more muted in this tea. And of course you're getting some extra black-like qualities that wouldn't have been noted in the white, which to some people might be their preference. I usually enjoy black versions of leaves more, but in this case I'm certain the white was better. This isn't a very fair comparison though. The white was a Pre-Qingming 2023 harvest and this black was picked in September of 2022. I think it would be obvious to anyone that the picking for the white would produce better tea. But if they were harvested at the same time, would this tea have been better than the white? This is the question that I'm now haunted with and won't have an answer to. As it stands I'll call this one a 6/10
*Edit: As mentioned in the edit of the last tea, I'm even more convinced that these teas are siblings due to how similar they tasted, but I can't say for sure. Maybe I'm just a tea drunk psychopath.
Organic High Mountain Wuyi Heritage Oolong Tea, Lot 1163 - I'm not sure if oolong just isn't my thing, or if the tea is just weak in general compared to green, black, white, etc. There's nothing really standing out with this tea. Smell was faint, taste is faint. I can tell that I'm drinking an oolong tea, and if I had no expectations I would just assume it's a bog-standard Taiwanese oolong. That being said, it's not bad either. Slightly more boring than the Gui Fei. 4/10
Organic Heritage Wuyi Black Tea, Lot 1167 - The dry leaf smell was very nice. Nothing mind blowing at first, but I could tell it was going to have an interesting flavor. This tea has a complex set of flavors that come at you all at once. First there's a spiciness to it that I'm noticing in a few of these teas that I really like, almost like a cinnamon. There's a cereal, bread-like taste. I'm also picking up mineral flavors. Sweet and silky smooth. After trying the wuyi oolong and not liking it very much, I have to imagine that I just don't appreciate or enjoy oolong the same way I do black. The tea really delivers in all departments. Excellent, but I'm not as blown away with it as I have been with some of the others. 8/10
Yuchi Wild Mountain Black Tea, Lot 1153 - This tea was pleasant all the way around. The smell were nice, from dry to wet and smelled very bread-like. The flavor reminded me of oats. Not very bold, but that wasn't an issue. The mouthfeel was exquisite and also carried that cinnamon spice note as well. I've had wild blacks in the past that were quite exotic and I was expecting something similar here. However I feel this experience isn't really bizarre at all and is actually a pretty refined drink. It's doing everything right. 7/10
Songboling Shui Xian Tea, Lot 1124 - Last sample and last chance for oolong to impress me. Chances aren't high with a tea this cheap, but I've also rated a tea in this price range higher than the rest. There wasn't much to say with the smell of this one. However drinking this tea is very easy. Really smooth with a sweet mineral taste. It's not going to demand a high score out of me, but I think for the money you'd find it hard to complain about this one. Pretty nice. 6/10
------final thoughts------
I came into this experiment really wanting to try a variety of Taiwanese oolongs, but I found that overall I just wasn't impressed by them. However I'm discovering that making the assumption that oolong is the only good tea in Taiwan would be a grave mistake. The blacks, greens, and whites that I had were some of my fondest experiences with tea. Maybe I'm just not an oolong person, and that's okay. Given the quality of everything else, I'm sure these were probably a good representation of oolongs too.
Highly recommend TTC. I will be ordering again. And yes....it was better than the Mei Leaf order
Just to give some background on why I chose this vendor in particular: I've been doing a lot of searching early this year on what vendor I wanted to get fresh spring tea from. I bounced between Chinese and Japanese vendors trying to decide which one was really going to offer me the best experience for my money. I also wanted to look for the territory that I seemed to have touched the least so that I could get a broader perspective for different types of tea in general. That's when it dawned on me that I haven't really explored Taiwanese tea much at all. Like most, I've had a few different oolongs like Jin Xuan and the more common things you see, but not a very wide variety of what they have to offer. It also occurred to me that I had never had any tea for Taiwan that wasn't an oolong, so that made me even more interested to see what black, white, and green were like in a place like this in comparison to the Chinese teas I've had.
After copious amounts of research on different vendors, I decided that TTC was the best choice I could make. I'm honestly surprised this thread doesn't get more traction in here. I'll be happy to be the first post in here since 2020 to bring them back into the light.
You'll notice in my review I like to base things on a score of 1-10. 1 being the worst, and 10 being the best. This might be a simplistic way to approach it, but it makes sense in my mind to evaluate things this way because it gives me a good reference point to figure out what I do and don't like personally. Just because I score something low doesn't mean that the tea itself won't be better to someone else. I have my own taste that isn't identical to everyone else. And to be clear 5-6 isn't a bad score. That's actually a good score. 5 is pretty bog-standard, which means I enjoy it but it's not great or anything. 6 means that I'm having an above average experience. I just want to make that clear because I give a lot of things that score, because naturally I feel most teas I try should probably fit into that category. The score is based on how good the tea is to me personally compared to all other tea experiences I've had.
Also, these scores are based on my first impressions. I may later on update scores if my experience changes when I try these teas again, but for now this is based on a single tasting. It's almost impossible to properly evaluate a tea with one taste so take it with a grain of salt.
So...here we go
------review starts here------
Gui Fei Oolong Tea, Lot 1166 - Dry leaf had almost no scent. Wet leaf and gaiwan lid smelled divine while brewing. Overall the taste is plesant, but all the flavors seem faint, muted and far in the background. It has a very honey-like, sweet and inoffensive flavor profile. Thin and watery mouthfeel. Nothing in the finish to speak of. Eh it's okay. I expected a lot better. 5/10
Organic Pre-Qingming Sanxia Bi Luo Chun Green Tea 2023 - Dry leaf got me excited quick. It wasn't super potent, but I could tell the fragrance was new to me. It was very vegetable-like, but also had a spiciness to it. I would describe the taste the same way. The thing it reminds me of most is arugula. The mouthfeel is oily and lubricating. Every time I swallow I get this complex freshness that envelops my nose and quickly dissipates. The only thing I can say is that the taste is very subtle and the finish is very short. I wish I could have a more potent version of this same tea. 6/10
Oriental Beauty “House Blend” Premium Grade Tea, Lot 1147 - Dry leaf smelled very nice. First experience with OB. Tastes like a lot of white tea that I'm familiar with. Very warm and cozy bread and honey flavors. Mouth feels good, but it's a little thin. There's a very faint floweriness in the finish. It's got all the character of a Gong Mei white and some hints of something that reminds me of a Twinings English breakfast (which is something I'm not upset about). Leaves my mouth a little dry afterwards, but not in a bad or harsh way. For my taste, it's something I'd never be opposed to drinking, but I'd also prefer something maybe a little more interesting. 6/10
Alishan Jin Xuan High Mountain Winter Oolong Tea, Lot 1171 - It was what I expected from a jin xuan, but very subtle. Creamy, milky, sweet. Gong fu was just too light for me. I decided to grandpa this and got much better results (much more sweetness coming forward). Overall it's not a bad representation of this tea, but not the best either. 6/10
High Mountain Heritage Dong Ding Oolong Tea, Lot 1181 - This tea has interesting complexity that seems to transform over the session. The first infusion was very creamy and milky like a jin xuan. The second infusion was very floral. As I keep brewing it I'm getting more wood-like flavors. There's also a nuttiness to it that lingers in the background to add a little depth. Liquor is medium thickness and leaves my mouth dry. I do wish the mouthfeel was more pleasant. Glad to see this tea is showing a good range of flavors that are very enjoyable. 7/10
Deep Baked Organic GABA Oolong Tea, Lot 1054 - I just want to preface this by saying I have a good relationship with GABA oolongs up to this point. I've had light and darker roasts that have produced wildly different teas. I think my favorite was the Mei Leaf GABA because it felt like eating a salty bag a chips or something. This tea was so different from the others I've had. The dry and wet aroma was very strange to me. If I was blind folded I think I would have told you it smelled like ripe puer and marijuana. And that’s…pretty much what it tastes like. Like a very light ripe with no wet pile taste and overwhelmingly akin to marijuana. It's not what I want in a tea at all. I'm not going to completely trash it because I can see how someone might like it if they liked those flavors. While I don't enjoy it, it's not gross either. Idk…I guess 3/10
Organic Pre-Qingming Sanxia Qing Xin Black Tea, Spring 2023 - My god….what a tea. The minute I cut open the bag and smelled the dry leaf I knew I was in for a real treat. I halfway blame my American blood for having such an affinity for black teas, but I have never had anything like this before. The smell and flavors are so complex it's hard to describe. Very akin to some notes of the Sanxia Bi Luo Chun, but with more complexity and depth layered on into deeper black characteristics. It's like a spice cabinet with fruity notes. Liquor is light-medium thickness and it's silky smooth. Each sip is a gift from god. It hits all the notes of being a great tea for me. I didn't want to give this rating out so easily, but I have no choice but to say 10/10
Sun Moon Lake T-8 assamica Black Tea, Lot 1122 - The smell of this tea is very sweet and subtle. The taste itself was very bold. This isn't complex by any means. It's a very refined and strong brew that would do well with western style brewing. Seems like a little goes a long way with these leaves. It's extremely mouth drying, and perhaps that due to how strong the brew was, but it's also the case that many other English style blacks have this effect on me as well. Personally I either prefer to do gong fu or grandpa style and I don't think this tea is suitable for either. I can see its potential with other methods though. 6/10
Baguashan Four Seasons Oolong Tea, Lot 1100 - When I opened the bag I'm immediately hit with the very familiar floral, perfume like oolong smell that you'd expect from a Chinese Anxi Tie Guan Yin. I'm usually not a fan of perfume-like oolong that have nothing to offer outside of the nose, but this is different. There's a smooth, rounded and lubricating mouth feel combined with a hint of creaminess. Kind of like a Tie Guan Yin and Jin Xuan hybrid, with the former being the dominating traits. There's also a hint of spices that's very subtle and adds some depth to the flavor. Something I can't ignore with this tea is that it was ridiculously cheap and that is going to affect my score for this tea. For the stupid low price of $0.07/g you're getting an exemplary tea for the money that's hard to beat. Easily recommend at a rating of 7/10
Organic Fragrant Jade Pre-Qingming GABA Green Tea - Personally I've never heard of a GABA green tea. So consider me curious when I find one and it's a fresh 2023 tea that's going to scratch my need to try the freshest greens of the year. The smell is absolutely intoxicating. I'm not even sure what to call it. But it's deep and rich, almost pastry like. Kinda like walking into a donut shop in the morning. The taste is so exotic. This isn't just any donut, it's a cream filled donut of some kind. The mouthfeel takes lubricating to a whole new level. It's like silk in the mouth. I'm so impressed with this tea because it's so unique. I can't even compare it to anything else I've ever had and that's really exciting. I have the constant urge to get my nose back into the gaiwan and huff the smell of these wet leaves. Part of me feels like my score might be high because this flavor is novel to me in tea, but it's also extremely enjoyable and I think it's fair to say this is a 9/10
High-Mountain Charcoal Pit-Fired Oolong Tea, Lot 1165 - This tea is super mellow and sweet. It doesn't do anything crazy, but it's doing everything right. The charcoal roast is perfect. Very easy drinker. Not sure it's worth the price, but I like it nonetheless. 6/10
Organic Pre-Qingming Red Jade T-18 Curled White Tea, Spring 2023 - I don't think this is the right tea. When I look at the pictures on the website I'm fairly confident that they packaged the wrong tea. I also ordered the: Organic Pre-Qingming T-23 Qi Yun White Tea. I think this is the T-23. These leaves look much more like white tea. The T-18 are supposed to look black and these aren't. I hope my sample of T-18 is in the T-23 bag, but I'm afraid I'm just going to get two orders of this same tea. Whatever this is, it's pretty interesting. It's spicy and reminds me of Vicks vapor rub. Strange thing to compare it too, but I actually like it a lot. The dry leaf smell was wonderful and potent. The taste is extremely mellow, but has enough going on to stay interesting. 7/10
*Edit: After searching through my package, I can't find the T-23 white. Seems like they left that out of my order. Going to do a full audit later and make sure I'm not slandering them for my mistake.
**Edit #2: After talking to Philip, he assured me that what I have is the T-18 white. I still have my doubts because it doesn't seem right to me, but I'll leave it up to the reader to decide. I also did confirm that the bag for the T-23 was missing, but Philip promptly refunded me for this and I have no complaints. Honest mistake. And to be fair I ordered like 18 different samples so it's easy to miss something.
Organic T-23 Qi Yun Black Tea, Lot 1180 - If we're assuming that the last tea was actually the Qi Yun White, then these leaves should have come from the same garden. Sort of like it's black brother from the same mother. This tastes very similar, but what I find interesting is that the qualities that made the taste very unique in the white version are more muted in this tea. And of course you're getting some extra black-like qualities that wouldn't have been noted in the white, which to some people might be their preference. I usually enjoy black versions of leaves more, but in this case I'm certain the white was better. This isn't a very fair comparison though. The white was a Pre-Qingming 2023 harvest and this black was picked in September of 2022. I think it would be obvious to anyone that the picking for the white would produce better tea. But if they were harvested at the same time, would this tea have been better than the white? This is the question that I'm now haunted with and won't have an answer to. As it stands I'll call this one a 6/10
*Edit: As mentioned in the edit of the last tea, I'm even more convinced that these teas are siblings due to how similar they tasted, but I can't say for sure. Maybe I'm just a tea drunk psychopath.
Organic High Mountain Wuyi Heritage Oolong Tea, Lot 1163 - I'm not sure if oolong just isn't my thing, or if the tea is just weak in general compared to green, black, white, etc. There's nothing really standing out with this tea. Smell was faint, taste is faint. I can tell that I'm drinking an oolong tea, and if I had no expectations I would just assume it's a bog-standard Taiwanese oolong. That being said, it's not bad either. Slightly more boring than the Gui Fei. 4/10
Organic Heritage Wuyi Black Tea, Lot 1167 - The dry leaf smell was very nice. Nothing mind blowing at first, but I could tell it was going to have an interesting flavor. This tea has a complex set of flavors that come at you all at once. First there's a spiciness to it that I'm noticing in a few of these teas that I really like, almost like a cinnamon. There's a cereal, bread-like taste. I'm also picking up mineral flavors. Sweet and silky smooth. After trying the wuyi oolong and not liking it very much, I have to imagine that I just don't appreciate or enjoy oolong the same way I do black. The tea really delivers in all departments. Excellent, but I'm not as blown away with it as I have been with some of the others. 8/10
Yuchi Wild Mountain Black Tea, Lot 1153 - This tea was pleasant all the way around. The smell were nice, from dry to wet and smelled very bread-like. The flavor reminded me of oats. Not very bold, but that wasn't an issue. The mouthfeel was exquisite and also carried that cinnamon spice note as well. I've had wild blacks in the past that were quite exotic and I was expecting something similar here. However I feel this experience isn't really bizarre at all and is actually a pretty refined drink. It's doing everything right. 7/10
Songboling Shui Xian Tea, Lot 1124 - Last sample and last chance for oolong to impress me. Chances aren't high with a tea this cheap, but I've also rated a tea in this price range higher than the rest. There wasn't much to say with the smell of this one. However drinking this tea is very easy. Really smooth with a sweet mineral taste. It's not going to demand a high score out of me, but I think for the money you'd find it hard to complain about this one. Pretty nice. 6/10
------final thoughts------
I came into this experiment really wanting to try a variety of Taiwanese oolongs, but I found that overall I just wasn't impressed by them. However I'm discovering that making the assumption that oolong is the only good tea in Taiwan would be a grave mistake. The blacks, greens, and whites that I had were some of my fondest experiences with tea. Maybe I'm just not an oolong person, and that's okay. Given the quality of everything else, I'm sure these were probably a good representation of oolongs too.
Highly recommend TTC. I will be ordering again. And yes....it was better than the Mei Leaf order
Interesting and extensive review, thanks for the effort! I am thinking the reason the Guifei and the Oriental beauty where so especially underwhelming might be that the very nice ones of these are very very expensive in Taiwan and so it would make sense that they need to offer something on the lower scale of it to make it economically viable/acceptable for export/mass offering.
Or if they are Northern Taiwan based, that in general they have better connections to get the green/white tea stuff. Tea business in Taiwan is, as it is in many places highly dependent on good and long connections, often bound by being from the same places. Not as extreme as in China, but it helps.
Or if they are Northern Taiwan based, that in general they have better connections to get the green/white tea stuff. Tea business in Taiwan is, as it is in many places highly dependent on good and long connections, often bound by being from the same places. Not as extreme as in China, but it helps.
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Thundercleese
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2023 2:20 pm
Thanks for the review!
What made you order from TTC instead of other Taiwanese vendors like Mountain Stream or Taiwanleaftea?
What made you order from TTC instead of other Taiwanese vendors like Mountain Stream or Taiwanleaftea?
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Randy the Intern
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2022 2:58 am
- Location: USA
I've never heard of Taiwanleaftea. I've spent a lot of time looking at Mountain Stream and I just don't like people who seem to be serial entertainers. He doesn't seem like he's really in it for the tea. More like a financial opportunist. I've also seen a reasonable amount of testimony saying their tea was lackluster. This is just my personal opinion of course. After watching his video about how he got into tea I think it turned me off completely.Thundercleese wrote: ↑Sun Apr 23, 2023 9:39 pmThanks for the review!
What made you order from TTC instead of other Taiwanese vendors like Mountain Stream or Taiwanleaftea?
This is the video:
Basically says he got a useless degree in Canada so he moved to China as an ambitious business venture. Quickly failed at trying to do business in China. He was sitting on a bus and someone told him about Taiwan and he said "I've never heard of Taiwan before, I guess I'll try to go there instead." That doesn't breed confidence lol.
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Thundercleese
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Wed Apr 12, 2023 2:20 pm
Hah! Fair enough. That totally makes sense. Canada's not exactly known for its advanced tea culture, it's much more of a coffee country.Randy the Intern wrote: ↑Mon Apr 24, 2023 12:16 amI've never heard of Taiwanleaftea. I've spent a lot of time looking at Mountain Stream and I just don't like people who seem to be serial entertainers. He doesn't seem like he's really in it for the tea. More like a financial opportunist. I've also seen a reasonable amount of testimony saying their tea was lackluster. This is just my personal opinion of course. After watching his video about how he got into tea I think it turned me off completely.Thundercleese wrote: ↑Sun Apr 23, 2023 9:39 pmThanks for the review!
What made you order from TTC instead of other Taiwanese vendors like Mountain Stream or Taiwanleaftea?
This is the video:
Basically says he got a useless degree in Canada so he moved to China as an ambitious business venture. Quickly failed at trying to do business in China. He was sitting on a bus and someone told him about Taiwan and he said "I've never heard of Taiwan before, I guess I'll try to go there instead." That doesn't breed confidence lol.
Though Westholme on Vancouver Island is pretty cool.Yeah, starting off as trying to fill a perceived market niche makes sense, but like you said without the requisite expertise the quality of the end products will vary much more than someone opening a store out of passion or the desire to share great tea.
Sourcing tea is really interesting. A surprisingly large part of getting into tea is finding out who to get what kinds from and why, and trying to support the people that do it out of passion instead of those trying to maximize profits.