Teavivre

This tea is SO GOOD. Is it possible for Teavivre to make a bad tea?? I mean, is it possible? I’m sure that there is someone out there that has drunk certain teas and hated them, but…………they are weird, so I don’t care about that.

I opened the bag and was greeted with a lovely whiff of strawberry. The Oolong was also present, but not overpowering—very, very light.

Steeping I made enough for two large cups (always) and the strawberry scent decreased only slightly, and was tantalising.

I was expecting a darker liquor on this one, but the colour was a golden colour, as are most, if not all, of the Teavivire Oolongs I’ve drank. That is no problem, of course—I do prefer lighter coloured teas, since they usually taste lighter, and are often flavoured. It’s just interesting since a friend of mine who likes Oolong, has only ever had “dark, deep” Oolong tea. I don’t know if I’ve ever had that, so I wonder what the difference is. It’s probably amazing, either way.

The taste is loaded with strawberry. It’s a full, very obvious strawberry flavour, with a sweet aftertaste, and an almost fuzzy mouthfeel. It’s smooth, and the flavour is just incredible. I didn’t take this one with cream, but I am wondering if it’ll do well. I’ll try it and see, for sure.

Now off to make another cup, unless someone got to it before me…

P.S: Got any other good strawberry teas that you love? Or how about Strawberries and Cream? Comment, I need some recommendations! :)

P.S.S: Teavivire also has great service—I get emails every so often asking if my packages have arrived, to check if they are in good condition and if I am satisfied. I like that they want to know, and take care to make sure I get what I want. It’s a great way to keep customers coming back. Thanks, Teavivire!

I think I still prefer Teavivre’s white jasmine tea, but this is definitely growing on me. It’s a bit fuller tasting (again, I can’t help but think of butter somehow); the jasmine is strong, but you still definitely get the green base. The color (steeped) is a rich golden-brown.

There is a nice balance between the jasmine and green tea flavors in this, but there is also something else going on. Not exactly a buttery undertone – but something along those lines? I can’t quite put my finger on it. Anyway, this is fine, but I think I still prefer Teavivre’s white jasmine tea to this.

Hooray! Celebration! Happy Dance! Ok, not so much of the happy dance, it might cause my headache to come back. Yes, I am celebrating the headache I have had…for weeks…taking a break for a bit. I can still feel it poking around, it will be back in a few hours, but a break is always a reason to celebrate. It is a thing that I have dealt with all my life, stupid week to month long splitting headaches that at times make thinking rather hard, I was so worried I was not going to be able to write this evening. So, I am glad, my pain is eased and I can do the thing I look forward to most each day…rambling about tea!

First I have to admit that I made a derp. Remember my epic road trip with my mom where we had tea in a hotel room, right about a month ago? Well, that night Teavivre contacted me to do an Oolong series on my blog, perhaps answering them after hours on the road was not the best idea…since I readily agreed…to review one of the teas I have already reviewed. So what does one do when they need to review a tea they have already reviewed (and recently so it is not even reviewing a new harvest) the review it with a different brewing style! Previously I reviewed Teavivre’s Da Hong Pao (Big Red Robe) Wuyi Rock Oolong Tea Fujian the Chinese Gong Fu Method using my Gaiwan, and I will be honest, it has been over a year I think since I brewed an Oolong Western Style, as soon as I got my Gaiwans and Yixing teapots, I never went back. So, let’s have a little fun and break out the bone china teacup, shall we? The aroma of the leaves is pretty much the same as last time, a blend of sweetness, char, and richness. It starts with cocoa, tobacco, woodiness, and sweet molasses, this fades into baking bread, honey, char, and a finish of distant flowers.

Since the leaves are so big and I did not want to crush them, I tossed them into my funky thrift store find, yeah, it is part of a glass double boiler, but works really well as a small teapot, cha hai, and steeping vessel, I like using non-tea intended things as tea things. The aroma of the brewed leaves is pretty intense after that long (ok 2 minutes is not that long) of a steep, there are notes of charcoal, molasses, tobacco, wet autumn leaves, cocoa, and honey. It is thick and heavy, reminding me of a wet autumn day where the smoke hangs low in the valley. The liquid, wow, that is also pretty intense, blending the tobacco and char with the molasses and cocoa, with a tiny finish of honey.

So, this tea might have been what killed my headache, kinda like smelling salts on a fainting Victorian lady, it could not survive the potency that is Western Brewed Da Hong Pao. The taste starts off rich and stays rich till the end, with a beginning of molasses, cocoa, and spicebush. This transitions to sharp charcoal and tobacco, and oak wood with the tobacco taste lingering, giving the finish a bit of a bitter bite. Not an unpleasant bitterness, mind you, well if you are a fan of bitter things (yes, I eat kale and like my chocolate super duper dark, I love the bitter side of things) you will find this very pleasant. It is not a dry, tannic, mouth-puckering bitterness, the mouth feel is actually quite smooth.

Round two, I doubled my time and even with the longer steep noticed the aroma is milder. Not so much sweetness and richness, more woodsy with a touch of cocoa and wet leaf pile. The taste is super mild, like the aroma it is very woodsy. All the bitterness, tobacco notes, and cocoa notes are gone from this steep, I am left with oak wood, peanuts, and a touch of sweet baking bread. So the first steep was intense, I really enjoyed it, the second steep left me bored, I still prefer the journey of Gong Fu for Oolong teas, but might go Western with a Yancha next time my headache starts to rear its stupid…um…head.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/11/teavivire-da-hong-pao-big-red-robe-wuyi.html

On a whim I decided to try something daring! Ben was using the Xbox and I wanted to play Minecraft, so I borrowed his much superior computer to play the demo. It was the most fun I have had in ages, I died so much because I was not used to the controls (also using a laptop mouse instead of a real mouse) but it was a thing of beauty. I might have happy cried a little. The good news is Ben said if I buy myself a new mouse and a PC copy of Minecraft I can borrow his computer while he is at work!

Today’s tea is the famous Da Hong Pao Wuyi Rock Oolong from Teavivre. Hailing from the Wuyi Mountains in Fujian, China, this Rock Oolong (or Yancha) has an interesting legend about it. During the Ming Dynasty, the Emperor’s mother took ill, luckily a tea she sipped cured her and in thanks the Emperor sent great red robes to clothe the original bushes that grew the tea, hint the name Big Red Robe. The aroma of this tea is a blend of sweetness and smoke. There are notes of baking bread, honey, tobacco, coal, and a finishing hint of cocoa. It is quite a fascinating aroma that is well balanced.

Into the gaiwan the curly leaves go! After a fairly short steep, the aroma of the wet leaves is as complex as the dry leaves with notes of charcoal, baking bread, honey, and touch of floral. I should note that the floral is like orchids near the end of their life, heady sweet with just the faintest touch of decay. It is not an unpleasant smell, it is just very distinct to flowers which are about to fall off the stem. The poured off liquid is a blend of sweet honey, charcoal, and a finish of tobacco.

The first steep starts out sharply sweet, like honey coated tobacco with a strong note of coal. There is a great blend of pine wood and smoke at the middle of the sip, the titular midtaste, after the initial sharpness fades I realized that the mouthfeel was quite smooth. The finish is sweet with an aftertaste of cherry and the faintest hint of smoke.

For the second steep, the first thing I notice about the aroma is that it is only barely smoky, like a distant fire and not a piece of charcoal, it is more floral and much sweeter, like honey and flower nectar. The taste starts out very sweet and smooth, with strong notes of raw honey and flowers, specifically orchids and a touch of honeysuckle. There is a finish of cherries and smoke, just like the first steep.

Th aroma of the third steep has taken a different route from its previous forms, this time it is faintly fruity sweet with a distinct mineral and spring water aroma. The taste also has a strong mineral presence, it tastes like drinking straight from a spring (having done this many times, I highly recommend it) very clean and very mineraly. This fades to a gentle floral taste and a honey sweetness that lingers.

For photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/06/teavivre-da-hong-pao-big-red-robe-wuyi.html

I’ve decided this an oolong weekend. This one smells floral, and a little green. It has a smooth, sweet flavour, more towards the floral side.

Continue to enjoy this tea and while I get different notions of flavors based upon temperature and steep time, the smoothness of this tea continue to impress.

Shelf life being what it is, time to reorder so the tin is full.

Having now had numerous efforts with this tea, I confirm my rating and find this black tea simply delicious. I have experimented with temperature and steep time and while there is a difference in flavor produced, I experienced no difference in enjoyment.

This tea will be in my cupboard for as long as I can obtain it.

A fantastic cup of black tea that for me hits all the right notes.

Not as strong with cocoa as Black Pearl but the taste, quality and smoothness of this tea sets it apart.

This smells pretty nice, it’s sweet and mildly fruity. I get honey and some grape in the flavour, and some light floral notes. (The leaves are really pretty too.)

This is my first shot at little balls of tea! What happy things they appear to be…like gum balls but all black! I am charmed. Since my western brewing tea ware of choice is 16 oz, I just unceremoniously dumped all the balls in the wee sample packet into the pot and steeped for 8 minutes….half way between the 5-10 minute recommendation. Well! Those wee tea balls sure opened into some larger leaves! Unexpected! (Kind of reminds me of those little gelatin capsules that had the sponges shaped like animals smooshed inside them and you let them float in the bathtub til they became sponges…) The dry smell of the leaf was chocolatey and tea-y. Wet….well, they just kind of smelled like wet leaves to me! Not quite sure why, but wet hot leaves and a touch of hot wet earth. Once in the cup, I found that the tea’s aroma had that chocolate note I detected in the dry leaf/balls, a bit of hot wet earth and just a smidgen of malt. Less malt than I was expecting by looking at the reviews, actually! The flavor profile has the chocolate and warm wet earth notes and adds a bit of a raisin middle note to it. There’s not much of a top note to this tea, so I would say that this is a deep-flavored tea for days when you need “grounding”…. something that helps you settle into the middle of your problems and start to relax to truly come up with solutions… It’s that kind of tea…oh, it’s also something they would probably enjoy in the Shire. Take your pick of the mental pictures provided above and have a cup! (I know which one you will probably choose, my precious!)

I went to Charlottesville. I am back. But I left a piece of my heart behind, because it is a gorgeous place.

There is happiness here, though, because I’m reviewing #3 on my list of Teavivre Green teas, yay!

I was worried that I overheated this one, but so far the taste turned out well. The leaves are very fluffy and curly looking, and they had a floral smell when dry, mixed with the classic vegetal scent.

The taste is hard to pinpoint. It has a nutty, grassy taste to it, more of a sweet grass than anything. But there is this floral, sweet aftertaste. Green teas all have a similar taste to me, so it can be hard to pick out the exact differences, though they are there. I think I definitely pick up on the floral and sweet notes in this tea more than the first two, and it’s a little stronger tasting overall.

I’ve been trying to read over other tasting notes for teas, to see what the common consensus is on how a tea tastes, or just common flavours that everyone seems to pick up. Teavivire also gives a great listing of tastes that are common, so that’s nice and that helps.

This tea is really nice, and maybe I’ll even try it iced at some point. It’s fullbodied, strong, with a sweet, floral flavour and it is really well-balanced. :) Now off to finish drinking it!

P.S: For my fellow teapot users—when you make tea in a teapot, I highly recommend writing a note to your loved ones inviting them to make a cuppa, or making one for them. I’ve started always making enough tea for my mother to share with me, and it’s a nice feeling to make tea for someone other than yourself. I know it can be hard to share some of our favourite teas, but I think these little actions are the things that build onto bigger actions, and lead to more love and light in the world. <3 Share some of the tea love!

I’m pretty sure Teavivre is the company that made me love green tea for the first time in my life. I used to think I hated it, because I was buying terrible dusty bagged tea and oversteeping it with boiling water.

Then I was introduced to Teavivre, including their fresh Springy green teas which still to this day embody everything I think a green tea should be. So when co-workers Ares having a discussion about how gross green tea is, I go dig in my stash and bring out a random Teavivre green for them to try, to see how good it can be.

I still wouldn’t say my tastes are refined enough to notice a huge difference between all the different varieties of green tea. That being said, when I received my samples that Angel/Teavivre recently generously sent me, this was the first one I went for.

Nothing in the world is as fresh as these teas are when you crack open a bag for the first time, the smell is so appealing to me, there’s something slightly bready about the smell of this one, and the taste. Umami is a good word. Whatever it is that my tastebuds want, this tea has that quality for me. I really enjoyed drinking all of one sample bag over the last two days and I’m glad I have another one. I think I will try to do a comparison with the greens later. I slightly oversteeped this morning because my three year old was distracting me, but it was still delicious. I think 4-5 minutes is the magic steeping time.

Bright green leaves, yellow when brewed. Fresh, nutty, vegetal, very green taste but also sweet.

So happy to receive these samples, looking forward to trying the others!!

Another refreshing sample from Angel at Teavivre!

This one was very enjoyable, fresh, green and buttery – a nice vegetal cup.

I didn’t find it overly spinachy like some, and it did have quite a noticeable butter taste, which I certainly always appreciate.

Just a nice bright, new tea to drink in the summer!

Thank you for the sample, Angel!
I will enjoy the rest of what I have of this light refreshing tea!

Today’s mail was awesome, I knew that my Meteorology book was supposed to arrive today (because yes I obsessively track packages whenever I have a tracking code), but I also got my Geology textbook today! Now if only I could find a Mycology textbook for less than $100 I would be happy, turns out those more obscure subjects have pricier textbooks. I also received a Calligraphy book to review thanks to Goodread’s First Read program, so I have a reason to break out my ink and nibs.

Today’s tea is Liu An Gua Pian from Teavivre, a green tea from Liu An, Anhui, China, specifically on Qiyun Mountain. The name Gua Pian translates to Melon Seed, for the way the leaves look once they have been steeped. I do want to take a moment to point out how beautifully verdant the leaves are, their color is a deeper green than a lot of famous Chinese green teas. When I was sniffing the dry leaves, I had one of those mouthwatering moments, there are certain smells that I just love in tea, and this one certainly has it. The aroma is quite vegetal and also quite nutty, with note of green beans, spinach, chestnut, sweet sesame seed paste (Halva for those who enjoy Middle Eastern desserts) and a very delicate finish of toast. It manages to be sweet and vegetal without the clashing, in fact sniffing this tea makes me a bit hungry.

Once the tea has been given a nice soaking in the gaiwan, the leaves become an even richer green, I would go as far as to say they look like fine Nephrite Jade. The aroma is rather complex, the wet leaves have notes of toasted sesame seeds, green beans, asparagus, lychee, and spicebush. Again these notes do not clash, but compliment each other. The liquid in my cup is a lovely shade of green, again reminding me of jade (why yes, I have been brushing up on my Mineralogy, why do you ask?) The aroma is delicate, with notes of honeysuckle, lychee, sesame seeds, and chestnut. It is more nutty and floral than vegetal, and is quite sweet.

The first steep, well on the first steep all I can think is ‘oh my that is sweet’ I even wrote that in my tasting notebook. There are notes of lychee and honeysuckle at the front, the mid taste is nicely vegetal with notes of asparagus and green bean. The Finish is a blend of apricots and sesame sesame seeds, it is very complex and light. If the rest of the steeps are this tasty I could become addicted to this tea.

And onto the second steep we go! The aroma is a blend of asparagus, sweet lychee, and a nice sesame finish. The taste is still light, but has more of a vegetal and herbaceous tone than sweet this time around. The taste starts out with a bit of asparagus and green beans, this fades to a hint of sage and cooked spinach. The aftertaste is sweet, like lychees and a hint of cherries.

The third steep’s aroma is fairly faint, there are notes of spinach and lychee and the faintest hint of sesame at the end, but mostly it is vegetal and discreet. The taste is not faint, however. It is a perfect blend of spinach, lychee, green beans, and sesame seeds. They all seem to dance in perfect tandem, like a very strange waltz (I say strange because usually spinach is a terrible dancer). The tea has a slightly dry finish, but it is still refreshing, especially with the lychee aftertaste that lingers.

For the fourth steep, well, before we get into aromas and taste, I have a confession. I had to nibble on a leaf, they looked so pretty, turns out they were really tasty! Sometimes you get lucky and used tea leaves are sweet and vegetal, sometimes they are really bitter. The aroma is sweet, with strong notes of sesame seeds and a touch of honey, no real vegetal or fruity notes this time. This is a nice finish to a delicious tea, the fourth steep is light, with delicate notes of sesame seeds, a touch of lychee, and touch of green bean. I really enjoyed this tea, though I really wish I would have gotten more than a sample, at least I know what will be in my next Teavivre order!

The first thing I notice about this tea is how pretty it is! Gold and chocolate-colored tea leaves rolled into narrow strips, decorated with bright pink rose petals. My sample even included a perfect, whole rose bud. I admit, I plucked it out and sniffed it. Dried roses smell a lot like fresh ones, only a tad more peppery. It had also absorbed some of the decadent Fujian black tea flavor. Mmm.

The tea itself is a little more mellow than I expected, but I like it. Unlike some rose teas I’ve tried in the past, this one isn’t too peppery with the rose flavor. It’s mild and comforting. In the black tea I taste notes of sweet potato and dinner rolls. I know dinner rolls is sort of a weird descriptor, but it’s good! I love the fact that Teavivre never skimps on the quality of the black teas they use for flavored teas. It’s always something that would be fantastic on its own.

There’s something very relaxing about it. I would love to try this again during the winter, to enjoy the summery rose contrasted against the cold.

Angel sent this one my way and i’m afraid it’s lost on me. I found this was my least favourite of the greens because there wasn’t much of a taste that i could discern and i wasn’t blown away like i was with the dragonwell. Now, that being said, take my review with a grain of salt as i’m really much more of a black tea lover. I’m glad that i got the chance to try it though since you never know what you’ll love. :) thanks so much for sharing angel!

Very fresh green tea leaves largely intact – one bud with two leaves – with the slightest hint of malt in the scent. Steeping the dry leaf produces a very pale clear yellow tea soup. First sip is very much vegetal and a bit buttery but quickly becomes a light creamy tea with a little nuttiness in the background. Resteeped nicely another two times. This is a very nice mild, gentle cup of tea which I very much enjoyed!
Many thanks to Angel at Teavivre for providing the opportunity to try this tea.

Received in a swap so long ago I can’t even remember who sent it. ): Whoever it was, thank you! This is a sipdown.

This tea is beautifully smooth with notes of fruit, malt, smoke, leather, and chocolate. It makes a very bold and brassy cup of tea. There is a little astringency but not enough for me to complain. Feels very thick and syrupy on the tongue. There is a sweetness that lingers after sipping. It’s similar to caramel, but not quite there. Probably not something I should be drinking this late at night but I’m feeling dangerous! :D

Nice tea with a light taste. I happened to find this in my tea cupboard. I am not sure how old this is _. Most of my teas are newer these days except for a few samples hiding away. Nice basic tea. The longer the steep the better the taste for this.