Naivetea

Toasty, ricey, little hints of vegetal flavors here and there and pretty smooth. Not silky or creamy, just smooth and soft. The leaves expand quite well, as expected for an oolong.

This is my first Dong Ding oolong. Not sure I am enough of a fan to keep it around, but it seems to be a very nice tea and I wouldn’t turn it down if it were offered. And I will not make it through 7 steeps. I will probably never get through 7 steeps of the same tea in a row. :) Too impatient, too many teas!!!

Again, thanks for sharing, Tamm!

So a few weeks ago I found a pouch of this randomly in a box without any other tea around it. Like I had found it and stuck it in their at the last minute while moving, or it had accidentally fallen in. Regardless, I was surprised and delighted. This is one of my favorite teas ever! I resisted the impulse to hoard it (there is one cup left) and decided to make a cup this afternoon.

Well this is delightful, and everything I expected it to be. Lovely passionfruit flavor, lovely oolong flavor. If you love green oolongs, and flavored oolongs, do yourself a favor and order a sample pack from Naivetea; you won’t regret it.

Thank you Dinosara for this sample. :) I have been saving my more floral teas for warmer weather and the UK has finally seen the start of things to come. Hopefully the snow is behind us.

I don’t recall trying anything from Naivetea before but have tried Butiki Teas version of rose violet calendula Oolong so there are some means for comparison.

In raw form this tea consists of dark brown/black oolong balls with a few yellow calendula petals mixed amongst them. If you look very closely there are a few very small pieces of violet petals but I can’t see any rose in this 7g sample.

Upon opening the packet I could note a very strong floral aroma with particular rose peaks and Turkish delight essence.

Once steeped the tea is yellow in colour with a very light floral scent. Not as strong as it’s raw form but still present with a little sweetness.

The first few sips reveal a very mellow floral taste that has a pinch of sweetness and grass like essence. Despite a dark appearance this Oolong does have a very green flavour but it’s so mild that it’s characteristics leave a lot to be desired. To add to the list of flavours there is a powdery, floral perfume after taste that dries the mouth a little.

This tea would be suitable for people that like subtle flavours but for me it’s just too subtle. I brewed 7g into a mesh teapot that holds 2 and a half cups of tea so ideally it should have been more potent in my opinion. I remember Butiki being fresher and much stronger than this.

Overall while this tea is delicate and light it is also rather tasty, I just wish it was stronger. For me this is a slightly above average blend that works well before or after a meal due to it’s light aura. A nice cleanser but not suitable for those that like to be taken away with a floral taste and aroma to their own flower field…like I do.

Oh and just a side note – This is my 499 tasting review. Almost at the big 500 :)

Thank you so much for the sample Dinosara! I wanted to try this one first because I’ve had a Bao Zhong before but never a plain one. I have had a coconut flavored one that I LOVED. This one is wonderful too! Might be my favorite oolong I’ve tried so far :D I can’t wait to get to my next steep, heh. It is light and buttery and floral YUM.

No notes yet.

Sipdown, 228. This is one that I have for some reason have had for a while but never got around to sipping down.

Oof, first sip was a little too hot… usually I am not so impatient but I wanted something to drink right away. I feel like there is something stuck in my esophagus low down and it won’t go away, but clearly there is not.

I enjoy this tea, even it if is on the roasty-toastier side of things. I don’t know why I am not a big fan of toastiness in tea, but it seems to be generally the case. Still, this one is toasty in such a way that it works for me, accompanied by a light sweetness. A pleasant afternoon tea.

Earlier in the evening I really wanted to make something in my gaiwan, but I ended up with a rich latte instead. But the gaiwan bug wasn’t leaving, so I decided to just go for it! At 2:30 in the morning. Maybe no the brightest idea, but my packet of this from TeaEqualsBliss was calling out to me.

Rinse: 10 seconds. Okay, I know you are technically not supposed to drink this, but to heck with it! I tea how I want to! Yes, I just used tea as a verb. I was amazed at how fast the leaves unfurled. After a mere ten seconds in hot water they were fully expanded! And so pretty, all of them fully intact like they just fell off the tree into my cup. I almost overestimated the capacity of my little gaiwan, they’re right up to the lid.

This “steep” was like a punch of floral nectar, rich and thick like honey. Orchid and jasmine! Also a wee bit vegetal.

1st Steep: 20 seconds. This smells like vegetables, fresh buttered spinach. It’s still floral, orchid but now with a hint of lychee. Sweet, fruity.

2nd Steep: 20 seconds. Buttery! This steep has a creamy mouthfeel, not sweet but quite savory. I’m smelling kale! It’s less floral but still with the orchid element. More honey.

At this point I stopped, for some reason green oolongs (and ONLY green oolongs) have the tendency to make me a bit nauseous. I still love them, but 2 steeps + a rinse is my limit.

There’s such an interesting mix of sweet/savory here: butter, honey, spinach, flowers. It’s so complex, I saved my leaves and can’t wait to see what the next steeps bring tomorrow!

Sipdown, 240. This is among the last of the Naivetea samples that I got ages ago… a few of them are on my definite reorder list.

Oof, I have no idea how long this has been steeping, because when I checked my phone timer I didn’t notice, twice, that the timer was actually set to 2 hours and 3 minutes, not just 3 minutes.

Well it worked out ok. Love the base they use for their flavored oolongs… it’s so buttery and floral at the start, and then subtley flavored in a very masterful way. Drank this cup down quickly and am sad to see it go.

What a wonderful tea! I had forgotten that I had this one. This has many roasted, bread like notes mixed with an almost herbaceous sweetness. There are also some underlying green notes that I really love. As an introduction to both dong ding oolongs and Naivetea in general, this is really wonderful.

The initial aroma is rather strong, especially if you’re not used to lavender. However, I find that once steeped, the lavender settles down and doesn’t overtake the oolong’s natural notes, which is both surprising and pleasant. Quite relaxing for a late-night tea, as anything with pure lavender usually is.

I drank this at work this morning. Normally I wouldn’t drink a green oolong in the morning, as I usually prefer a black tea then, but I just started unpacking my tea and all I could find immediately was an assortment of greens and oblongs.

I also couldn’t fine my perfect teaspoon to dish it out, so I guesstimated by pouring a little pile into my hand. Must have guesstimated kind of off, though, because this cup really lacked the yuzu flavor. I pretty decently buttery, slightly floral high mountain oolong, but yuzu, no. Oh well. I did find my teaspoon by the end of the day so at least I will have it for tomorrow!

Having a cup of this one before sending the rest to Liberteas, Azzrian, Alpakitty, and maybe the Replacement Traveling Box.

Totally LOVE this! Upping rating! See previous notes!

‘Tis the Season to GIVE :)
I’m really making a dent in my stash today! Woot!
Passing this one on to Alphakitty and Azzrian
One last cup to say Goodbye to this gem!

I’ve had this tea for just about a year now (ordered the sample packages from Naivetea’s black friday sale last year), and have sinced discovered that although I enjoy taiwanese high-mountain oolongs, they just don’t excite me that much. I decided today that I wanted to use up the rest of my sample, which probably had between 5 and 3 grams (a bit more than one tablespoon) left in it. It was more than I usually steep “western style” in my 12oz mug, but I decided to throw it in there and give it a 1 minute steep for the heck of it.

And I’m pretty pleased with the results! It smells lovely, all buttery and floral. I was feeling a bit meh about finishing up the rest of this tea, but it has reminded me that I do enjoy drinking these teas, even if they’re not among my faves.

Sipdown!
I am done with my tin of this, I have had it for about a year and it survived very well in the tin it came in. A delicious, buttery soft and floral oolong, one I would definitely purchase again. Naivetea has some great oolongs!

In other news I think I have mice, they were eating their way through some bags of dried barley and sprouting seeds I had. I wonder if mice like tea? I hope not!

Since I returned to Naivetea last week and had the passionfruit oolong and was reminded how amazing these teas are, I decided to pull out the lychee version this afternoon. I love love love lychees. I love how they’re a mix of rosey and fruity, and any time I find lychee-flavored anything I have to buy it (found lychee mochi ice cream at the grocery store the other day—amazing!).

This tea, like the passionfruit, is so amazing. The flavors are so real, like eating fresh lychees and drinking a fantastic high-mountain green oolong tea at the same time. Love it so much. These oolongs seem more like jasmine pearls than they do other flavored teas, in that they don’t seem flavored but infused by the flavors (and indeed, that’s what Naivetea calls them, infused), like they’ve been sitting around with lychees soaking up the aroma. Totally delicious.

My university is totally killing me lately. They have not been able to get my pay disbursement right, and even their attempts at fixing it have been royally f***ed up. Plus now my university email address is bouncing all mail sent to it. Joy! >:(

I needed some nice, relaxing tea. I haven’t had any of my Naivetea teas in a long time, even though there are some that I am head over heels with. This is one of those teas.

Oh my god why have I not drank this recently. This tea is so absolutely delicious its mind blowing. So incredibly naturally sweet, it’s as if I’m actually drinking passion fruit juice, but better because there is amazing green oolong flavor behind it. Gotta drink this more often, and get a whole tin of it from Naivetea at some point.

Well this is certainly making me feel a bit better. Can always rely on tea.

I haven’t had this tea in eons and I have no idea why – it’s wonderful!

I’ve been gong fu’ing oolongs mostly, but I have my copyediting homework to do soon, so I thought I’d just sit down and brew myself a small pot. This tea is very smooth, flowery, sweet and a hint of creaminess like coconut milk is present. I was worried this might be getting stale/old but it still tastes wonderful to me.

I re-steeped this also Western style for 4 minutes and it still has a lot of flavor.

Lately I’ve been wondering when Naivetea is getting their formosa oolong back in stock, it’s been ages from what I recall. Naivetea does some lovely oolongs…

I am revisiting this tonight and not enjoying it quite as much as I remember. I don’t know if there is something up with my steeping parameters or if I just have not been drinking this fast enough and it got somewhat stale. But then I checked my email and I got this last November so I have a feeling it may just be me. How long do oolongs stay fresh? This one is 25% roasted too…

I have done 3 steeps and my leaves are fully opened and unfurled but not feeling the love as much. I got the burnt caramel flavor but the nuttiness and sweetness have gone. I did lower the rating a bit but I will not lower it anymore because it might be partially my fault… might need to cold brew this one too just to see.

Speaking of love, I have written a blog post about two novels of Theodore Dreiser if you are up late and just want to read it, here it is. This is what I do with my free time when I’m not on Steepster. :)

http://sanfrantea.teatra.de/2012/05/17/jennie-gerhardt/

This is another tea that I won recently! This is the first tea that I am trying from Naivetea. I’m having this after some popcorn (plain-ish) so hopefully that doesn’t interfere. This smells lovely dry. There is something about it that I can’t quite put my finger on; woodsy maybe?
I’m having a hard time letting this cool! It smells lovely; roasted and sweet. Wonderful! It is very roasty without too many malt tones. It has a sweet edge at the back of the sip. There are green notes midpoint in this that remind me of deep spinach. I really enjoyed this one!

Gong fu oolong of the day. I am following Naivetea’s instructions exactly for this one, including amount of leaf for my 6oz pot since they are explicit on that point.

No rinse, first steep 50 seconds. It certainly smells nice, floral and buttery and a bit vegetal. Geez, apparently I can’t take a sip today without inhaling tea along with it! I just did it twice in a row. Bah. Ok, finally got a good sip. It’s fresh and green, like fresh sweet sugar snap peas. There are a little florals, but they’re not really very present. No sweetness, really just a pleasant green flavor.

Second steep, 40 seconds. Honestly, this steep is kind of meh. Very underwhelming. At once low on flavor but what is there is strongly vegetal. It’s tempting to give up on it right now, but I remember what happened with the last Naivetea oolong I gong fu’d (I got great steeps toward the end). I’m afraid the third steep, back to 50 seconds, is the same way. Fourth steep, 60 seconds, weaker but otherwise same. I’m afraid there doesn’t really seem to be anything more coming out of these leaves. Fifth steep, 70 seconds, same.

I’m not really dropping my score on this one because I did like the western style steep of it back when I first tried it. But following the instructions they sent exactly? A big ol’ meh. Even the first steep wasn’t really that impressive. Oh well.

Sample stashbusting! I am steeping the remainder of my sample of this oolong gong fu style, in my ru teapot. I am basically steeping by the included instructions for this tea, with the exception that I did a rinse to “wake up” the leaves and I only did my first steep for 30 seconds instead of 50.

The resulting tea smells pretty different than I remember my western-style steeping of it. It’s way more vegetal, and even a little salty, like the smell of the ocean. I was just at the beach yesterday so it smells very familiar to me. And more buttery as well, which I think goes with the saltiness a bit. There are pretty much no florals in the aroma of this first steep. The taste is strong and vegetal… perhaps 30 seconds was even still too long for the amount of leaf I used (a little more than their recommended amount at a bit more than a Tablespoon for my 6oz teapot, but it seemed like a good amount). But there’s also a touch of sweetness and even a tiny hint of the oolongy florals. This steep is also a bit astringent in that way that green oolongs get, but moreso because of the slight oversteep, I think.

Second steep, following their instructions, 40 seconds. This steep smells way more floral and buttery. Still very fresh, but with a hint of that honeyed sweetness. The taste of this one is weird… almost perfumy in it’s florals, and just about none of the sweetness its aroma promises. At this point I’m wondering if I just don’t know how to steep gong fu style properly. I mean, I’ve watched people do it plenty of times and know the routine, so I don’t know what the deal is now.

Third steep, 50 seconds. This steep smells a lot like the last steep. Pretty much tastes like it, too, though as it cools it is not quite as perfumy and a little sweeter. Still there is something a little unpleasant about it.

The fourth steep, at 60 seconds, brings out some melon flavors that are really interesting! This steep is possibly the sweetest, but sometimes I can’t tell if it’s more of a sweetness that has built up over all the steeps. I think the note that is both perfumy and vegetal from before must be inherant to this tea because it is not going away. It’s just not something I tasted when I brewed this western style, and not something others have noted, so I feel like it’s somehow a fault with my steeping.

Fifth steep, 70 seconds, and this oolong is really hitting its stride now. Sweet, a bit fruity, floral without being perfumy. This is by far my favorite steep so far. It’s amazing how much a tea can change over the steeps! Sixth steep, at 90 seconds, is almost identical to the fifth steep, as is the seventh steep, at 2 minutes, all sweet and floral and fruity. It’s not really buttery or creamy at all, but it is very nice. I’m glad I stuck with it to this point, because I wasn’t really feeling the earlier steeps at all. This was a good lesson in how a tea can change a lot over gong fu steeping, which I hadn’t experienced at all before this. I am interested to try all kinds of teas this way now!

I haven’t been drinking very much oolong recently, I’ve been so busy sampling other things. :)

This is the last of my sample of this and I am enjoying it. It does have a delicate flowery aroma and the flavor is a mild sort of buttery peas. I am finding it very relaxing this morning. See my previous tasting notes for this tea.

No notes yet.