Teavivre

I decided to do something risky and do some gaiwan brewing right next to my laptop. No mishaps yet, although I’ve certainly jinxed myself now by writing about it.

Angel sent me a few samples of this to try after my past disappointment with the unflavoured silver needle I sampled in my order with them. I decided to do some gaiwan brewing with this, and dumped an entire sample packet into my gaiwan.

Oh wow, this is jasminy. The effect is similar to, but not the same as, the Premium Jasmine Dragon Pearls I’ve tried from Teavivre. The pearls were just a wall of unnuanced jasmine, but this silver needle variety is lighter and slightly sweeter.

Nice, thick mouthfeel, too. The liquor is a lovely pale yellow, and the leaves expand beautifully. I probably overleafed this by putting the entire sample in, but it’s not a huge problem.

Thanks, Angel!

The dark, twisted leaves smell fruity and roasted. I’m looking forward to trying this tea!

The flavor is different than I was expecting. It is fruity, but not sweet. The roasted quality is more like a roasted asparagus taste than a roasty bread taste. None of t these things are bad, just different. I also notice quite a bit of astringentcy, which so far hasn’t bothered me.
For this first steep I used boiling water and steeped 2 tsp for 1 minute.

Second steep is sweeter and less roasty, with the same astringency. This is a mild steep.

This isn’t a favorite for me, but I’m happy I ordered this sample.

Bailin Gongfu take two. My first steep was weird. Not sure if it was what I was eating or if I did the steep process wrong but it was very meh. But now I’ve pulled out my water kettle and a new basket. Before I start this let me just say I’ve got high expectation because of all the high ratings here.

So let’s start this off with the leaves. Wet they have an impressive earthy, somewhat chocolatly smell. The wet leaves smell kinda smokey. Kinda bitter. The tea kettle makes the water way too hot for me to drink so I am letting it cool a little bit. I’m taking sips here and there hoping to not burn my tongue. Think I’ll just wait..

Still kinda hot but not a tongue burning temp. So far I’m not tasting anything amazing like I smelled.

Ok now its at a drinkable temp. But honestly I still don’t find it to be anything special. It is very earthy. Slight bitter after tones. Honestly I’m just not that impressed. For fairness I won’t rate this one.

Thank you so much Nicole for having sent this gorgeous tea.
It is not a yunnan wrote Nicole on the sample but it has a similar taste profile.
Interesting thing first is the leaf itself, sooooo thin, 2 colours golden and chocolate. Lovely.

I don’t drink gongfu style but even western style it is really delicious, it has an incredible lightness and mellowness in the same time.
Medium bodied, malt and sweet patatoe make this tea a real winner.
Yummy.

More backlog!

Another free sample from Angel at Teavivre. Thank you.

This had an aroma of malt in the dry leaf which was golden and gorgeous looking. I love the colour of this one. The liquor tasted smooth, sweet and malty with a hint of grain. Everyone says ‘sweet potatoes’ of this tea. I’m really going to have to get a load of sweet potatoes and see if they are right, because, judging by how much I enjoyed this tea, I should really enjoy sweet potatoes. I mean, it was rich, sweet, and very moreish. I think this may be my favourite tea from Teavivre’s winter tasting pack.

Thank you to Teavivre for this sample.

It does not take much guessing to realise that this is a Yunnan tea. It immediately reminds me of the Fengqing Dragon Pearl and Golden Monkey teas. The dry twisty leaves are a lovely mix of dark chocolate brown and gold. They give off a malty, chocolate aroma when dry. Upon steeping the aroma changes to floral, cocoa and honey aromas. The tea itself is sweet with caramel and honey notes, and the chocolate carries through from the liquor into the aftertaste. Underneath it all is the promised sweet potato, beefing the flavour up and giving the tea body and a creamy mouthfeel. The aftertaste endures nicely, with the aforementioned chocolate notes and more sweet potato as the tea cools. It has good depth to it and brings on a pleasing though light cooling sensation to the body. Overall, this is yet another great tea from Teavivre. Actually, I don’t think they have sent me a dud tea yet. May that record long continue.

Backlog:

A very faint dry leaf aroma, almost to the point of being non-existent. Normally I smell something with a pu-erh, but this is very, very faint. The wet leaves, on the other hand, have a very strong vegetal note, like peas.

This very young Pu-erh is more vegetal than earthy, so those who tend to shy away from Pu-erh because it’s overly earthy … this would be one for you to try. It’s much more like a green tea than a Shu Pu-erh.

Sweet, vegetal, buttery, notes of mushroom and steamed veggies with hints of nut. The analogy that I made on my full-length review (see it here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/04/06/fengqing-wild-tree-yesheng-raw-pu-erh-tea-cake-2013-teavivre/ ) is a plate of extra-mild, freshly steamed, sweet spinach topped with lightly sauteed mushrooms (sauteed in butter, of course!) and then topped with thinly sliced almonds – raw almonds.

Quite a lovely pu-erh experience!

This was a fond sipdown. I shall restock!

Thank you, Teavivre, for introducing me to another great tea!

Just looking at the dried leaves of this Premium Tai Ping Hou Kui from Teavivre puts a smile on my face!

Today’s two-glass tetsubin was the follow-up to a meal of red swiss chard quittata (cross between a crust-less quiche and a frittata) made with parmesan and mixed herbs and served with a hunk of toasted ciabatta.

Hou Kui proved to be the perfect green tea choice!

By far the most visually stunning tea I’ve seen! Also great to drink…

Today was my second experience of Hou Kui, thanks to our friends at Teavivre. This Premium Tai Ping Hou Kui leaves a lasting impression—both for its appearance and for its taste!

The dried leaves are truly spectacular to behold. They also take up a huge amount of space and weigh very little, being extremely thin. They are large in size but smashed to paper thin. Actually, they might be even thinner than paper! And the color is bright green veering chartreuse!

The taste strikes me as somewhere between Long Jing and Mao Feng, with a chestnutty facet but also a hint of vegetal flavor. It’s closer to Long Jing than Mao Feng, but Hou Kui does not taste exactly like Long Jing. Now that I’ve depleted my samples, I am adding this unique tea to my wish list!

Another first for me from the vast and resplendent world of China green tea—courtesy once again of Angel from Teavivre.

I cannot comment on whether Premium Tai Ping Hou Kui is better than non-premium, since this is my very first experience of any form of Tai Ping Hou Kui. What I can say is that it’s delicious. I was very excited upon opening the silver envelope to discover the remarkable leaf form of this tea: extremely long and flat, and fairly wide, vibrant green sheaths! They look a bit like the green tops of scallions sliced lengthwise—only brighter! The leaves in my sample are much greener and less yellow than the ones pictured above.

Once infused, the liquor is pale greenish yellow and bears some similarities to Long Jing. Well, let’s just say that it’s a lot closer to Long Jing than it is to Sencha or Mao Feng or just about any other green familiar to me.

I like this tea quite a lot and am happy to have discovered another fine China green. My sample appears to be fresh from the April 2014 harvest, so it will be interesting to see whether the leaves fade somewhat with age. I see that the pictures of Tai Ping Hou Kui Green from other producers are quite a bit browner than these, so perhaps color is indicative of the age.

I just received another lovely package of samples from Teavivre, and decided to try this one first. I do not think I’ve ever had this varietal before, so I’m looking forward to it!

First thoughts on opening the package – it’s super fresh smelling, and leaves are small and curly.
First sip- this tastes like Laoshan green! Very soy beany and buttery. This tea has a favorite note for me- sesame seed oil. This tea is delicious! I followed Teavivre’s recommendation of 3 minutes, and I think that may be too long. It was a little bitter towards the end.
The second steep of 4 minutes is very different from the first. Not nearly a s sweet, with a great deal of nuttiness. I prefer the first steep. I will try it with a shorter steep next time.