Showing posts with label Beautiful Taiwan tea. Show all posts

Beautiful Taiwan Tea’s Formosa Assam (Highest Quality)

(Tea Provided for Review)
Origin: Sun-Moon Lake, Central Taiwan
Harvest: Fall 2014
Cultivar: Assam


As some of you may know I really enjoy Beautiful Taiwan Teas, but up to this point I’ve stuck mainly to their lighter oolongs; and after their successful Kickstarter I promised myself that I’d try some of their darker teas. Paul of Beautiful Taiwan Tea was nice enough to send me a couple samples to tide me over till the new teas come in. If you have been reading this blog for a while you may have notice I manly focus on green teas, greener oolongs, and the odd puerh here and there, but up to this point I have never looked at a tea that could be considered a black tea or at the very least a darker oolong. While I do try many teas that I never mention on this blog, I tend to avoid darker teas because I have a lot of trouble with them. As much I as I am ashamed to admit all darker oolongs tend to taste pretty similar to me, in fact I tend to think everything is roasted TGY and with black teas I am even worse. So I was a little nervous about writing this post while I stand by my tasting notes I am a little afraid if I am more suited to describing my experiences with lighter teas, so take everything I write with a grain of salt. Despite my qualms about writing about darker teas I rather enjoyed this and plan to buy some more. The description on Beautiful Taiwan Tea’s site is spot on:

Bold and very smooth! We're thrilled to have this delicious Black Tea from Mr. Lee and his wife, a wonderful and hospitable couple. Mr. Lee has been farming his land just above the pristine Alpine lake called Sun-Moon Lake for many years. In our opinion, he grows the best tea in the region. He grows without chemicals. This is a pure stock Assam Black Tea that has been growing in Taiwan since the Japanese imperial machine started to foster a tea industry in Taiwan for world-wide export.




Dry Leaves: Once again I had a bit of trouble with steam, I’ll try to fix this in the future, but this review is going to be a little light on images, although the liquor and used leaves were pretty much the same throughout. Regardless the leaves had a nice malty smell, not as pungent as most black teas I had, but this is my first tea of this kind so I am not sure what to expect. The leaves are slightly twisted, reminiscent of baozhong, although less regular. I was surprised to find a good portion of my sample had silvery/golden tips, probably one-eighth of my whole sample had tips, but I chose some of the darker strands for this review. (I did use up the remainder of my sample and their wasn't much difference)




First Steeping
Temperature: 200oF
Brewing Time: Three Minutes
Aroma: Malty
Flavor: Molasses and Fruity
Tasting Notes: I decided to start out on the lower end of the recommended brewing temperature and cut a minute off the recommended time; as I said before I was a little hesitant about brewing this. I don’t drink many Indian teas or black teas, but this had a nice boldness to it, perhaps not as much as typical Assam teas, but this was very smooth and lacked the bitterness and astringency I often find in Indian teas. It was one of the smoothest teas I had from Beautiful Taiwan Tea, although it is much simpler than many of the oolongs I tried from Beautiful Taiwan Tea so far, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. It feels very much like a breakfast tea, I am not necessarily referring to one of those various blends, but as the type of tea I’d imagine would be a nice addition to one’s morning meal. Unlike greens or puerhs (my typical morning tea) it does not clash with my typical breakfast.




Second Steeping
Temperature: 205oF
Brewing Time: Four Minutes
Aroma: Malty                     
Flavor: Molasses and Fruity
Tasting Notes: The liquor and the flavors are pretty similar to the last and next infusion; the intensity is pretty much the same as the last, although the fruity notes are becoming more distinct. Rich cherry notes are starting to come out as well as a tart raspberry. The molasses notes are a little darker this time, definitely richer, but not significantly different from the first. The only real difference I would say is the aroma, while it was malty the first time it is much more potent this time. I am not normally fond of malty aromas, I tend to find they tend to linger in the back of my throat; often they are stronger than the actual flavors of the tea, but not so much this time. Perhaps my inexperience with darker teas is showing, but I am not sure why the malty aroma didn’t muddy my ability to taste this tea nevertheless this was my favorite of the three infusions although there is not much difference between the three. The reason why this is my favorite is simple; the rich and tart fruity notes worked really well with the thick molasses notes.




Third Steeping
Temperature: Boiling
Brewing Time: Five Minutes
Aroma: Malty
Flavor: Molasses and Fruity
Tasting Notes: This is the point where the leaves are starting to feel thin and drained, I did get a fourth and fifth infusion out of these leaves, but when I used the remainder of my sample later I stopped after the third infusion. While this tea never had a thick mouthfeel, this third infusion felt thinner. Still the flavor is pretty much the same as the previous infusions, but it is starting to feel like the end which is kind of sad because I feel I finely found the ideal brewing temperature and time. I did squeeze out another two sessions out of the remainder of my sample and I did start brewing at a higher temperature (boiling) and steep for a longer period of time (five minutes starting), but there wasn’t significant difference in how it taste and how it smelled. In the past my caution had and tendency to brew at lower temperatures when I sample a tea has caused me to write off some great teas before, this time it didn’t have much of an effect. Although I do prefer using hotter water and brewing longer their isn’t much difference in the final product, it still is incredibly smooth with no astringency or bitterness, but it feels a little stronger.



I liked this tea. I am not one to try black teas, I’d probably have skipped this tea (and the other black tea I received from Beautiful Taiwan Tea) if I wasn’t so impressed by the teas I have tried from BTT before. While the majority of teas I look at for this blog have been purchased by me, I do get the occasional offer of samples, unfortunately for me many vendors who contact me intend for me to look at a type of tea I have a history of not liking (Indian Teas, Black Teas, Heavily Roasted Oolongs, CTC Teas, Indian Teas) I always have to turn them down. But I respect Paul of Beautiful Taiwan Tea and was willing to at least try this tea, a courtesy I do not give to many, and I am glad I did. While this is a lovely tea I’m not sure it is going to cause me to rethink my prejudices against those teas I listed before, but I certainly plan to buy more of this. As someone who has an extensive collection of greens, oolongs and shengs, this Formosa Assam was a nice distraction from the monotony of my daily teas. In fact the more I think about the stronger I feel, while I love astringency of Japanese greens, the sharpness of an immature sheng and Taiwanese Oolongs (the cotton candy of oolongs, a lovely treat that ruins my appetite for other oolongs), but this feels like a tea I can drink every day; the type of tea that I may not appreciate unless I am focusing entirely on the tea, but a tea I enjoy nonetheless. Currently Beautiful Taiwan Tea is offering a half ounce sample for $5.25 and while it may be a little more expensive than your typical breakfast tea I feel it is well worth the price. Even though up to now I tended to favor the greener oolongs from Beautiful Taiwan Tea I have to wonder have I been missing out on some truly great teas? I’ll have to keep watching BTT’s Black tea tab from now on, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious at what type of black teas they plan on souring this year. 
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Beautiful Taiwan Tea - 2014 LiShan Special Reserve vs LiShan Premium High Mountain Oolong

So I’ve been sitting on a lot of samples from Beautiful Taiwan Tea (okay not sitting so much, but drinking them faster than I can write about them) so I decided to do a comparison between two LiShan Teas from different harvests, unfortunately the first is no longer available. I had about 25g of Beautiful Taiwan Tea’s Lishan Special Reserve 2014 that I’ve been saving and roughly the same of their Lishan Winter Premium High Mountain Oolong 2014 and thought it would be interesting comparing to similar teas from different harvests to each other.




LiShan Special Reserve 2014

Origin: LiShan, Central Taiwan
Harvest: Spring
Elevation: 2000-2400m



Dry Leaves: The leaves are absolutely beautiful, while mostly green, there is tons of blues in there, as well as stems. I could tell instantly this was going to be a beautiful Taiwanese tea. There was a slight scent, but I had trouble describing it, my best description was oolong-y



Temperature: Boiling (then 190oF)
Brewing Time: One Minute
Aroma: Floral
Flavor: Lilac, Mineral and Cherry
Tasting Notes: This was surprisingly thin, not that I am disappointed, but I was expecting a thicker mouthfeel for a tea grown at such a high elevation. Regardless this was quite nice, it was pleasantly floral and it had some nice cherry notes that I don’t often see in oolongs, especially Taiwanese oolongs. The liquor was rather attractive, I used my favorite chawan and it almost looked like it had specs of gold in it, which I found was a nice contrast to the brown and white of the chawan, although I have made this tea in other cups and it doesn’t have that same effect.


If BTT still had any stock of this I could easily see myself buying again, I don’t remember it being that expensive, I think it was a little less than $10 an ounce. This used to be my favorite High Mountain Oolong from Beautiful Taiwan Tea, but then I tried the Misty Mountain and some of their newer teas causing me to rethink this, although I suppose the question is do I prefer this LiShan over the Winter LiShan. Unlike the Misty Mountain, this is hardly a daily drinker and compared to the Winter LiShan its leaves took much longer to unfurl. I got twelve infusions out of this tea.

LiShan Winter Premium High Mountain Oolong 2014
Origin: LiShan, Central Taiwan
Harvest: Winter
Elevation: 2200M
Varietal: Quingxin



Dry Leaves: The leaves are less uniform then the Special Reserve’s, but they have a much nicer blue and green color. They had a light minerally scent, compared to the Special Reserves I think this was a much prettier tea.




Temperature: Boiling (then 190oF)
Brewing Time: One Minute
Aroma: Floral and Citrus  
Flavor: Citrus, Floral, Cinnamon, Fruity and Vegetal
Tasting Notes: I used about 5g of tea in my 100ml JianShui whereas I used about 7g for the Special Reserve because I tend to find Winter Oolongs tend to have much more flavor. This was a much more subtle oolong then though Special Reserve, although I am not that surprised. A lot of winter oolongs I’ve tried have been blunter then their spring counterparts, whereas the teas BTT sources tend to be more nuanced and complex than the earlier harvests. This had a nice buttery mouthfeel, much nicer than the Special Reserve on par with similar winter oolongs grown at this elevation. I liked the cinnamon and vegetal notes in this tea, it was a nice contrast to the citrus and floral ones. In later infusions it became more vegetal than anything else.



The winter leaves are a little smaller, but considerably thicker. I almost want to say they are in not as good shape as the Special Reserve; they look like they have been rolled tighter and you can certainly see even after ten infusions the leaves are still somewhat furled although I did notice that this tea had a lot more leaves per stem, whereas the Special Reserve had two to three leaves per stem on average. This time I got seventeen infusions. I definitely am going to buy some more before it sells out, $19.99 for 2oz is an amazing deal for this.




Now for the difficult question, which do I like better? On one hand the Special Reserve is an easier tea to serve to guests since it doesn’t have any vegetal notes, which all the tea peons seem to complain about, but the LiShan Winter is much more refined. On the other hand I hate sharing my teas, especially with people who don’t appreciate them. The Winter LiShan comes out as the clear winner and it is more of a daily drinker then some of BTT’s other teas in this price range (DaYuLing). I don’t know if BTT is going to have any new teas before the spring harvest, but I am planning on doing more comparisons if BTT decides to source the same teas from the same farms. I still have a little 2014 Four Seasons and the 2013 that I’d like to compare to the 2015 harvest. 
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What-Cha's Fujian Milk Oolong Jin Xuan & Beautiful Taiwan Tea's Golden Lily Oolong

Today I am going to write a little something different then my thoughts on my first impressions of trying teas. Spoiler alert, I really enjoy the teas I’ve tried from both What-Cha and Beautiful Taiwan Tea, so I thought I’d compare two similar yet very different Jin Xuans. I love both of them, but for very different reasons.

What-Cha’s Fujian Milk Oolong




This is a very unique Milk Oolong, which isn’t much of a surprised as  I am always pleasantly surprised by What-Cha’s teas distinctiveness; this is a flavored Milk Oolong which is a little off putting to a lot of people. I’d probably have skipped this if it wasn’t from What-Cha, I’ll admit it I am a little prejudiced against flavored Jin Xuans, especially flavored ones from China, but I decided to take a risk and purchase it.


And I am glad that I took the risk. This is the best flavored Milk Oolong I have ever had, ok that bar isn’t set very high, but this along with the Golden Lily Oolong is my favorite Jin Xuan that I have tried this year. There are a lot of different tastes in this. If this was from that Tea Company that everyone knows it would probably be called something like “Majestic Tropical Milk Flowery Oolong”, ok probably something more ridiculous then that. The major flavors in this is Mango, Toasted Coconut, Butterscotch, and Orchid; while some of the minor notes are milk, pineapple and a little vegetal. While I don’t drink a lot of flavored teas, but from what I understand most flavored teas cannot be steeped more than once without a significance loss in flavor; I got four long (three minutes first steeping, four minutes second steeping, six minutes third steeping and seven minutes for my fourth) before the leaves started to feel completely used up.


Beautiful Taiwan Tea’s Golden Lily Oolong




Unlike What-Cha’s Jin Xuan this is unflavored. This was the first of BTT’s that I have tried and this is the tea that sold me on the company, while it isn’t as nuanced as the other GeoShanCha at BTT, it is wonderful, I almost want to say it is my favorite, but whenever I purchase this tea I always drink it all within a week and I won’t want to drink anything else besides this tea.


This feels like a more traditional Jin Xuan, and unlike the Fujian Milk oolong from What-cha, this has a very thick mouthfeel, almost syrupy. This is primarily milky (more a sweet creamy butter then milk though), but I can taste a little bit of nutty vegetables, and some strong floral notes. While I don’t have as much to say about this Jin Xuan, I’ll just say this leaves me breathless and when I am done I regret not having more.



While both are very different Jin Xuans, I have been comparing all Milk oolongs to these two, and most fall short.  I’ve bought 150g of What-Cha’s Fujian Milk Oolong within two weeks and I have no idea how much I’ve bought of Beautiful Taiwan Tea’s Golden Lily Oolong, I have at least four empty bags littering the bottom of my box of tea. I was actually surprised that Alistair had his Milk Oolong since starting his store and I hadn’t noticed it. If you like oolongs, you should definitely try both these teas, both are good introductions to the seller’s sites. 
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Midweek Milky Matcha - Beautiful Taiwan Tea Matcha Powdered Green Tea from NanTou




I was lucky enough to be one of the few who purchased Beautiful Taiwan Tea’s r/Tea exclusive super deal, where I paid $15 for:

1)      A 2 oz. bag of Twisted Green Tea from Sanxia.
2)      A 2 oz. bag of Misty Mountain High Mountain Oolong also from Shanlinxi.
3)      A 2 oz. bag of BaoZhong Green Oolong from Pinling.
4)      A small sample of Winter 2014 Shanlinxi Premium

The owner also included a small sample of his Matcha PowderedGreen Tea from NanTou, which is what I’ll be looking at today. I was a little off put by the yellowish green color, but this tastes very similar to a Japanese powdered Sencha and you can tell it wasn’t dyed like some powdered teas are. I am a little curious to know more of the cultivar that produced this tea, it tastes so similar to a Japanese tea that I can’t help, but think it is one of the Taiwanese-Japanese hybrids or a transplanted Japanese cultivar. Anyways, I did prepare this both with water and milk; honestly this could easily be a higher end Japanese powdered Sencha or a matcha in the $10-15 range. Regardless this was a very good powdered green tea, I was surprised at how finely ground this is and this is prone to slight clumping, but nowhere as bad most Chinese powdered green teas. It didn’t froth up as much I would like when I made it with milk and when I made it with water, but I can ignore that. Definitely worth checking out.  
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Beautiful Taiwan Tea - DaYuLing Premium High Mountain Oolong



I was so excited when the owner of Beautiful Taiwan Tea announced he secured a small batch of DaYuLing and immediately bought a small sample of it. The question is, “Was it worth it?” Yes!


This is the first tea that I have got tea drunk off of the first steeping. I imagine if I drank the water I used to rinse the tea leaves I’d probably have gotten tea drunk off of that as well. Generally I avoid teas that make me feel drunk off of, but I may have to make an exception for this one in the future.  I am only going to post my first four steepings, I got to twenty three and the tea felt like it still had more to give sadly I just had to much tea by then. I’ve had DaYuLings before, but none have tasted like this (I am starting to suspect those were not true DaYuLings) and the dry leaves looked fairly typical of a hand rolled oolong. The dry leaves had a slight floral scent.




After I rinsed the tea with boiling water, I steeped at 190 °F for one minute. Immediately I could smell a very strong orchid aroma. The liquor was a light yellow, but it was like syrup! The mouthfeel was so nice! I’ve had thick feeling tea before, but this was absolutely wonderful as it coated my throat. It was very buttery and it had a slight edamame taste, but it was very sweet. I got very tea drunk off this steeping.



For my second infusion I brewed at 190°F for one and half minutes. The aroma became more intensely floral (still mostly orchid, but there was some other flowery scents in there). The mouthfeel is slightly thicker and it is starting to become creamy. The taste is largely the same although it had honey notes this time rather than general sweetness.





Next I brewed at 195 °F for two minutes. The floral aroma started to become distinctly orchid and violet. The mouthfeel is still thick, but from here on it becomes slightly thinner with each infusion, although it was still creamy. This time I was getting a little roasted chestnut, there still was the edamame and honey notes to it and there was a mineral aftertaste.





For my fourth infusion I brewed at 200 °F. The aroma is starting to become more mellow, mostly violet by now, but there is a little spicyness now; still very creamy and has a pleasant feel. A new orchid flavor started to show here, the roasted chestnuts and honey from previous infusions are still there, but the edamame was gone completely.




In my subsequent infusions the chestnut started to wane and the floral and honey notes lingered on to the end. I loved this tea, it was very typical of the High Mountain Oolongs from beautiful Taiwan Tea, but there is something in it that I can’t quite put my finger on that makes it very different from BTT’s other teas. It might be my new favorite Taiwanese oolong. I can only imagine how the earlier harvests tasted. Definitly worth checking out; Taiwanese oolongs are always very easy to love and hard to hate, but this DaYuLing is simply amazing. My only advice is drink it slowly and savor it. 
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