Taiwan Tea Crafts Middle Autumn Festival Sale

[Muadeeb]

i went ahead and placed a larger order tonight, after 24 hours of marathon tasting. The Lishan Cui Fong 217 is my favorite of the 4 I tasted, with a really long, sweet bubblegum finish.

I was not incredibly impressed with the 1999 Mingha TGY, though. There were some good aged flavors there, but I never got them to pop. Maybe the tea needs to air out a bit from the vacuum pack, and maybe next time I'll up the leaf too.

Overall I'm very impressed with this vendor from my limited experience. My shipment arrived exactly a week after I placed the order, as I expected. I'm looking forward to learning these teas more, and tasting some new ones next week!

[etorix]

guess i'll have to miss this opportunity this time, i cant make an order atm

TTC are also not the only Taiwan dealers doing specials at this time

and actually i still havent tried all the samples from my last order with TTC

[NPE]

[quote="sherubtse"]
Glad to hear those favourable comments about the Longjing, as I have ordered some as well.
[/quote="sherubtse"]
I am very curious how you like the tea. Please let me know what you think.

[茶藝-TeaArt08]

Tea fiends...er..tea friends ,

After seeing the positive reviews on the Longjing I added it to my late night, last minute order. I already received from TTC an order of the Spring 2013 Baozhong, Long Feng Xia, Lishan Spirit tea, and Lightly Baked Jin Xuan. I've made my way through two of those samples and will add a review on the Jin Xuan.

Last night, I ordered the Longjing (lot 210), Dong Ding (lot 213), Lishan Cui Feng (lot 217), Long Feng Xia (Lot 207), and the Alishan Jin Xuan (lot 207). I am excited to sit with these teas, specifically now that the weather and ambiance of Autumn have begun create even richer moments for tea.

I did see on Taiwan Tea Crafts Facebook page that the sale will extend through today (Monday 9/30, California, U.S.A., Midnight Pacific time) if anyone didn't get their order in.

Seeing as how there is no official TeaChat page yet for Taiwan Tea Crafts I am wondering if everyone here wouldn't mind reporting back on their orders here in this thread. We could turn this thread into our impromptu TTC Autumn OTTI. I personally am interested in hearing everyone's feedback and brewing methods on their recent TTC orders and reaping the benefits of everyone's combined knowledge, approaches, and reports on their experience.

Blessings All!!

[sherubtse]

Tea fiends...er..tea friends ,
I did see on Taiwan Tea Crafts Facebook page that the sale will extend through today (Monday 9/30, California, U.S.A., Midnight Pacific time) if anyone didn't get their order in.

Or, if someone wishes to place an additional, last-minute order!

(No names mentioned to protect the guilty. )

Best wishes,
sherubtse

[amaranto]

TTC has excellent Assams and a very tasty range of tea in general. I missed this sale, but I'll be ordering from them a lot in the future.

[kikula]

My first big sample order from TTC arrived very quickly - 6 days. Everything's vacuum packed in pastel foil, very pretty. I've been sipping the first I've opened so far, the Gui Fei (lot 160), since yesterday. This is a delicious tea to me, med. roast, soft and sweet, baked peach, honey tones and just toasty enough. I tend to be very stubborn about brief infusions but this one wants at least a 50 secs (just off boil) for the first infusion to be right for me. Five/six grams in 120ml Petr Novak pot.
Seems the perfect autumn tea. If the rest of this order is as nice as this one I'll be delighted.

Really am appreciating the 25 gram samples. Ten's not enough to allow for fooling with brewing parameters, 50's too much outlay for an unknown tea.

I generally shy away from reviews now - I'm only about 200 serious tea tastings into this adventure and my first efforts were gushy, followed by stilted ones, agh - but as I have 20 samples here and reviews are requested I'll try to add my somewhat inexperienced impressions as I go.

[sherubtse]

Really am appreciating the 25 gram samples. Ten's not enough to allow for fooling with brewing parameters, 50's too much outlay for an unknown tea.

I agree completely.

And TTC, unlike many others, prorate the price of their sample bags.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

[茶藝-TeaArt08]

Really am appreciating the 25 gram samples. Ten's not enough to allow for fooling with brewing parameters, 50's too much outlay for an unknown tea.

I agree completely.

And TTC, unlike many others, prorate the price of their sample bags.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

+1...25g samples allow for ample experimentation before a larger commitment.

If the rest of this order is as nice as this one I'll be delighted.

Thanks for the review. I look forward to hearing more. I hope the rest of the teas are as enjoyable or more so.

I recently poured the Long Feng Xia from TTC and really enjoyed the tea. I ordered more from TTC and it arrived yesterday. Here's the experience from the previous pour:

The outer mood fills the tea room, the coming Autumn, this subtle way the world changes, shifts and fills in, or empties...like the tea cup before me as I drink. The candle on the table is still while the world outside is active with motion. Still and active, I hold both in my mind as I sip TTC's 2013 Long Feng Xia wulong: it's golden liquor, the buttery, fruit, flower, herb scent of the steeped leaves poured for 8 rounds (with 93deg.C water to compensate for the thicker walls of the stone pot) from my 150ml stone xishi pot into Petr Novak glazed cups. Many thoughts come, blowing through with the gusts. Friends, tasks, sensations, awarenesses, images....all pass through.

Blessings!

[kikula]

I've sipped my way through many of the teas I ordered from TTC and just wanted to say that this will most certainly be a favorite vendor. The little descriptions on the site are accurate. This is as much fun as I've ever had with a large and varied order - a real delight.

[Mureke]

The sale is on again: -15% until Sept 28. I'd like to hear any recommendations for this spring's greenish offerings. How is the Longfengxia, for example? Has anyone tried the spring Competition Wenshan Bao Zhong this year?

[miig]

I haven't tried it, but another tea fan wrote very nice things about the sancenping oolong.

[Mureke]

I haven't tried it, but another tea fan wrote very nice things about the sancenping oolong.

Thanks! I ended up ordering a large amount of Sancengping. I had been enjoying the winter harvests of the previous years, but last spring's lot was the best Sancengping yet. It's smooth and holds up really well in high temperatures. I really recommend the Gui Fei and Mi Xian as well.

I haven't tried any of this winter's harvests so far, but the sale is on again. All prices seem to have been raised by about 6.25 %, although this can be offset with the 5% discount when ordering with >$100.

[hopeofdawn]

I am contemplating ordering some of their top-tier Oriental Beauty--I'm almost out, and it would be nice to take advantage of the sale. Has anyone had any of their private reserve or tippy premium? How does it compare next to other vendors' Oriental Beauty?

[hopeofdawn]

So I took the leap and ordered a bunch of tea--only to have customs hold my tea hostage for over a week now. This is the first time something like this has happened to me, even during the holiday season. Is anyone else having issues getting orders past customs?