Après un trop long silence, il fallait faire un retour remarqué… Nous marquons donc le coup en français, pardi! et pour une bonne raison!: Nous annonçons notre venue en sol européen au cours des 2 premières semaines de juin, et plus particulièrement celui de la francophonie européenne où nous comptons un nombre toujours grandissant d’amis du thé de Taïwan.

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Father and son walking through Bagua tea garden

You must have heard it by now, spring teas are now upon us. Many of you, I am sure, are experiencing physical and emotional waves of anticipation for the festive pleasure in tasting the freshness of spring in your cup. The new tea arrivals listing you can find on our welcome page and individual product catalog pages is growing day by day as soon as new lots are confirmed. Another sure sign that spring is in the air is the flow of emails/messages coming in asking when such and such a tea is expected to be in. As much as we like to give a personalised answer to all of you, we felt this gave us an opportunity to explain some of the guiding principles that explains the scattered arrival of teas from different areas of the island. Based on these and with fresh reports coming from the gardens themselves, we’ve prepared a graphic chart giving you a schedule of expected arrival dates for the spring of 2014. Read more

After our blog entry about how Chinese made Yixing clay tea pots can find a justified place on a website dedicated to Taiwan’s teas and it’s uniquely rich tea culture, today, we are again exploring a cross-straight dilemma as we follow the same path to argue the case of allowing the intrusion of a Chinese tea in our selection. Right away we wish to mention that this is an exceptional measure and also circumstantial. Yet again, “how can we justify this?” – you will ask. Well, our case is supported by one sole argument: Whenever we find unquestionably unique teas that are made from the harmonious balance of tradition, a respectful use of the landscape and the environment, and are true authentic treasures of world tea culture, one must share this find with others in the true spirit of tea appreciation. And, when this find calls for an equally authentic and interesting story, we can only be compelled to share it even more! Follow us as we explore in many pictures and a few words the remote high mountain regions of Anhui and Zhejiang where the purest and cleanest Longjing teas come from. Is this authentic Longjing tea we’re talking about ? Read-on and you’ll be able to decide for yourself as we also lift the veil on some myths and dogmas in the world of tea by telling the story as it is.

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One of our most popular product categories at Taiwan Tea Crafts is our Vintage Yixing teapot selection. We’ve received many inquiries about them and have answered all of them individually. Every time, our response begins with apologies about the incomplete information our pages show about each individual pot we propose as well as our intention to take care of that matter very soon. I will not divulge how many times we wrote these lines to individual inquirers but would like to reassure you that we are not chronic procrastinators. We are simply very busy procrastinators, as our preceding post will attest. Odly enough, I’ve never had a longer list of things to do than today and here I am writing this long overdue post.

To get to the point: the reason we find Vintage Yixing teapots on a website dedicated to Taiwanese Teas and Tea Crafts has a story that starts in a classic fairy tell way: Not far away from us, in a neighbouring village lives an old man

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An unusual surprise awaited the father-in-law when he woke up and drew open the curtains of his tea garden bungalow on this morning of January 4, 2013. A thick coat of snow brought a different light to the usual duller green scenery of dormant tea bushes in his organic tea garden in the mythical tea terroir of the Huang Shan mountains of Anhui in China. Read more

 

It’s a grey foggy Sunday over the tea fields surrounding us at Taiwan Tea Crafts. What to do, what to do?… Well baking of course!… of tea, that is! Mmmm, the buttery caramelized aroma of roasted oolongs. To taste what comes out of our ovens try our Organic Dong Ding Oolong, Lot 134. Divine!

 

We’ve unlocked the front door… Welcome to Taiwan Tea Crafts! We are very excited to finally be up and running. We hope you will enjoy our new home and that you will visit often! We wish you find your experience as welcoming as being invited to a friend’s place for a good tea and hope our space on the web will convey a bit of the Taiwanese hospitality that has made the reputation of this island and its people. Since you are already treated as a friend, we hope you will excuse as a good friend would, with the fact that we have to tidy a few things still, add a bit of decoration here and there and a bit more content in our resources library. Needless to say, this is a work in progress and you’re welcome to drop by anytime to check out the progress. Thanks and hope to see you often!