#21 vs #21 - Hong Yun (Taiwan Tea Crafts & Taiwan Sourcing)

Despite all the nice black teas that the White2Tea club sent this year from Fujian and Yunnan China, I still think my favorite black teas are those from the Sun Moon Lake area of Taiwan.  I have been meaning for a while to round up a bunch of samples from Taiwan Sourcing and Taiwan Tea Crafts, and thanks to some recent sales on both sites, I finally have done that.

Taiwan Sourcing and Taiwan Tea Crafts sample haul.

Although both of these vendors offer an interesting selection of Taiwanese black tea, there is definitely some overlap in their offerings.  For example, they both offer Ruby #18, which is one of the most popular Taiwanese black teas, and they each have at least one "wild" variety of Taiwanese black tea.    For this write up I am focusing on the "#21" variety that both vendors offer.

Similar to some Taiwanese black teas I have reviewed in the past, this is another one of the tea varieties developed by the Taiwanese "Tea Research and Extension Station" (TRES), and thus calling the variety "TRES #21" is an acceptable name for it.  Another official name for it is "Hong Yun" or 紅韻.  The best translation I can find of this is "Red Rhyme."  Interestingly though, Taiwan Sourcing is calling this tea "Rhythm 21."  The tea on Taiwan Tea Crafts is simply labeled "Hong Yun T-21."  TRES #21 was developed in 2008 as a cross between Keemun and a Napalese assamica from Kyang.  Many vendors that sell Hong Yun mention that it is a premium/rare/precious tea due to a growing cycle that makes planning the harvest more time sensitive than other varieties, and other challenges exist during processing which is critical to bringing out the best flavor that #21 can offer.

Today I am drinking side-by-side the Spring 2016 "Rhythm 21" from Taiwan Sourcing (TS) (a.k.a. taiwanoolongs.com) and from Taiwan Tea Crafts (TTC) the "Sun Moon Lake Premium Hong Yun T-21," specifically Lot 435 which is a summer (June) 2015 harvest.

Taiwan Tea Crafts #21 (left) and Taiwan Sourcing #21 (right)

Both versions show a similar leaf size and shape, with the TS version being slightly lighter in color.  The dry leaf of both versions smells very sweet, with the TTC reminding me of fruity red wine and the TS like that of grapefruit.

Upon hydration, the leaf aroma profile of the two teas completely flipped.   Now the grapefruit note came through more on the TTC version along with a wonderful aroma of fresh baked blueberry muffins.  The TS version had a darker aroma like that of molasses, blackberry cream soda, purple raisins, and raspberry chocolate chip ice cream.  Needless to say, the aroma of both was very very sweet.

The taste of both of these teas remained consistent with the wet leaf aroma.  Both have a very impressive natural sweetness, and the TTC version has those citrus high notes supported by a blueberry bread base and blackberry jam.  The TS hong yun has plenty of fruit berry flavors, though creamier, and has less high notes; instead a hint of spices comes through such as cinnamon, and the base notes are darker, slightly earthy and toasty.  Someone new to tea would probably have a hard time believing that these flavor notes and sweetness are naturally occurring and that no additional flavors have been added.

These flavor/aroma trends continue into the aftertaste.  The TTC aftertaste has the notable sweet grapefruit citrus note, but it also has a good heavy "black tea" base that gives it some depth and keeps the citrus characteristic from being too prominent.  It's important to note here that the "grapefruit" flavor is very sweet, not a sour grapefruit.   I found the TTC #21 aftertaste so strong and lingering that I had to wait several minutes and drink some water before I felt ready to move on to the next infusion of the TS #21.  With a clean palate, the TS #21 aftertaste again had less high notes and seemed more toasty.  Baked berry confections such as blackberry cobbler and blueberry muffins dominate but kept in balance with a hint of port-wine.

Taiwan Tea Crafts #21 (left) and Taiwan Sourcing #21 (right)

Seeing the brewed leaf and liquor side-by-side shows a few differences.  The TTC leaf is slightly more red than the TS leaf which has a hint of green to it.  The TS product page does mention that the leaf is "85% oxidized."  TTC does not try to quantitate the oxidation level, but simply says that it is "high," as you would expect for a black tea.  The liquor of both teas is crystal clear, with the TTC version being what I call "deep orange" and the TS version "medium orange."  As far as liquor mouthfeel, they are similar, with TTC feeling thick and very soft, and TS feeling creamy and coating.

This is another side-by-side comparison tasting where I am not going to try to declare one of these teas a winner or loser.  The similarities of dessert-like berry sweetness in these teas indicate why I love certain Taiwanese black teas so much, and the differences I found in these teas indicate that even the same cultivar can produce slightly different teas depending on variations in, presumably, processing, harvest date/season, exact farm location, farming methods, etc.

One final difference between these two teas is the price.  Both are sold out at the time of writing this, but I will mention it anyway.  The Taiwan Tea Crafts version comes out to be 52 cents per gram up to 50g (with bulk discounts at 150g and above), and the the Taiwan Sourcing version is 30-36 cents per gram depending on the quantity up to 150g.  If buying 25g, the TTC version would be $13 and the TS version would be $9.  Depending on what flavor notes you prefer or if you have no preference, this price difference could be significant.  Unfortunately though it is hard to know for sure if the same flavor notes will be consistent season to season, and a vendor's description can only tell us so much since much of taste perception is subjective.  Both of these vendors occasionally have sales and coupon codes, but these types of teas sell out fast so if you catch them in stock, it might be a risky bet to wait for a sale to come along if you aren't lucky to catch one.  Hopefully the vendors will have these in stock again in the future.


Link to Taiwan Sourcing:  http://taiwanoolongs.com/
Link to Taiwan Tea Crafts: https://www.taiwanteacrafts.com

Taiwan Tea Crafts - Red Jade Black

I recently did a tea trade with fellow tea drinker and received a generous 25g packet of Red Jade black tea sold by Taiwan Tea Crafts.  My friend also sent a 25g packet of Taiwan Tea Craft's GABA oolong, but I am trying the Red Jade first.  I have never actually ordered any teas from this vendor, but am thankful for the opportunity to give a couple of their teas a try.

This particular packet of Red Jade that I have is lot #346 and is the 2014 version of the current 2015 Sun Moon Lake Red Jade, which is a TRES #18 style black tea.  As I briefly mentioned in my Formosa Assam entry in August, Taiwan's Tea Research Extension Station (TRES) in the Sun Moon Lake/Yuchi area of Nantou County has done extensive research to develop various Camellia sinensis tea hybrids, and TRES #18 is one of the most popular Taiwanese black teas.  The 2014 and the 2015 versions of this tea are from the the same farmer/producer, and the foil package contained an oxygen scavenger packet which has likely helped keep this tea extremely fresh.

This offering from Taiwan Tea Crafts is a near perfect Taiwanese black tea.  The dry leaf is very fragrant with a nice fruity aroma and the leaves are very long and mostly whole.  The wet leaf has a yummy fruity sweet candy-like aroma which also comes across in the flavor.  Like my other favorite Taiwanese black tea, this one has lots of berry flavors and a nice creaminess to it.  The sweet berry flavors are held up by a solid foundation that I simply call "black tea" flavor-- it's the part of the flavor that gives the tea some boldness.  The mouthfeel is also very bold, thick, yet soft, and a hint of astringency.  Like many good teas, Red Jade provides a strong pleasant aftertaste similar to the main taste, and the leave have wonderful resteepability.  I used 5g in a 120ml gaiwan and almost ran my 1.7L kettle dry while brewing this tea today.  I imagine the leaves could have gone even further.

Again, I have not tried any other teas from Taiwan Tea Crafts yet, but Red Jade was an excellent introduction for me.  (I will try the GABA oolong soon.)  If the quality of Red Jade is representative of their other teas, then I look forward to shopping with them quite a bit in the future to try more of their large selection of oolong and black teas!

Beautiful Taiwan Tea Co. - Formossa Assam (Farmer Lee's Black Tea from Sun-Moon Lake)

Many tea lovers can relate to or have at least heard about someone's eye opening experience of trying good quality loose leaf tea for the first time.  It's very exciting to have a new tea that is so dramatically different or better than what you've had before that it changes what you thought you knew about tea.

I probably haven't given Assam black tea a fair chance and gave up on them too quickly years ago after having a few underwhelming experiences with some.  I remember them being very bold and trading complexity in favor of in-your-face strength.  (Though some of that may have been my brewing methods which were not as controlled then as I try to be now.)  In general though I associate Assam black tea with Breakfast blends, and I typically tend to gravitate toward more fruity and lighter tasting teas.  I have avoided Assam for a while now.

If you missed it, a few months ago Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company (based out of Indiana, USA) had a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a sourcing trip to Taiwan and other parts of Asia.  They have already been sourcing tea from Taiwan for a few years and they try to negotiate with the farmers directly as much as possible when buying tea.  The Kickstarter project funds would allow them to expand their travels and selection, and they offered various quantities and types of tea to anyone who backed the project.  I had already tried some of their high mountain oolongs a couple months before and am very happy with the quality.  Based on the amount of tea they were promising and their past experience with sourcing good tea, it was an easy decision to back their project.

Beautiful Taiwan Tea had a successful Kickstarter project and after their travels I had two boxes with almost 10 total ounces of fresh oolong, green, puerh, white, and black teas.

Among Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company's offerings is Farmer Lee's Black Tea from Sun Moon Lake.  On the website they list this tea as "Formosa Assam."  Although Assam tea is traditionally from Assam, India, the Sun Moon Lake area of Taiwan is well known for their versions of Assam too and have been growing it there since importing the plant from India in the mid 1920's.  Even today the Tea Research and Extension Station near Sun Moon Lake still actively studies new hybrid varieties of Assam tea.¹

How does Farmer Lee's Formosa Assam compare to my memory of bold and overpowering Assam from years ago?

Upon opening the bag I am first amazed by the aroma coming from the dry leaves.  Is this really black tea?!  At first I thought I may have opened a bag of oolong or maybe Darjeeling.  I mention Darjeeling because in addition to blackberry and blueberry this tea also has a nice muscat grape and raisin aroma that you can find in Darjeelings.  One of my favorite Darjeelings also has a similar blueberry aroma.

It's clear from the dry leaves that this tea was carefully produced and handled to avoid breaking the leaves too much.  They are twisted/horizontally rolled to maintain the length of the leaf.  The unpleasant Assam I had years ago looked like small broken pieces and had a generic "black tea" aroma without any memorable characteristics.

I have brewed this tea both western style and gongfu style, and this is a black tea that definitely does well gongfu style.  Using 3g in an 80ml gaiwan with near boiling water for 30s to start works well, but even with varying those parameters a little I have never managed to get any bitterness or unpleasant astringency from this tea.

The deep reddish orange liquor has a thick mouthfeel and sweet aroma, and the wet leaves maintain the fruity aroma which seemed to deepen into black cherry and chocolate.  Before even taking a sip I knew that this tea was in a completely different class than the Assams of my past.

Tasting this Assam for the first time was my exciting Assam eye-opening moment.  This Assam is NOT bold and in-your-face strong, yet it does provide a full flavor and full body.  This Assam does not have a flat generic flavor that lacks complexity but has a variety of interesting flavors that work very well together.  The flavor maintains some of the blueberry from the leaf aroma, and the grape notes come through as a sweet red wine flavor.  The taste has some of the malty creaminess that you might want from a black tea, yet is extremely well balanced with the fruit flavors and sweetness.  I never add cream or sugar to my tea, but this Assam has a natural creaminess and dark honey/molasses sweetness already, and I urge anyone to who usually does additions to give this one a try without any extras first.

Unlike the Breakfast blends that I usually think of when I think of Assam, I think this Formasa Assam would be perfect as a dessert tea.  The berry flavors, creaminess, and sweetness combined is really not much different from eating a nice slice of cheesecake with blueberry topping.  And interestingly, every time I finish a session with this Formosa Assam the sweet fruity aftertaste lingers for at least 10-15 minutes, and I feel a satisfactory fullness and warmth in my belly that I might get from eating the actual cheesecake, minus the calories!

I have measured leaves from this tea as long as 9+cm!

Beautiful Taiwan Tea Company's Formosa Assam from Farmer Lee in Sun-Moon Lake has definitely changed the way I think of Assam black tea.  In fairness to Assam teas in general, I believe my experiences in the past may have been a combination of low quality tea and poor brewing parameters, but Farmer Lee has definitely set the bar high now and I'm definitely going to give more Assam teas a try to see if any can come close to how much I have enjoyed this one.

Link to Beautiful Taiwan Tea Formosa Assam.

¹(Sun Moon Lake reference: http://www.sunmoonlake.gov.tw/English/TouristGuideEng/ShoppingEng/Local.htm)