Teavivre

Is this now my favorite mid-day green tea? So it would seem, as I keep reaching for it, despite the abundance of other candidates in my cupboard clamoring for attention!

This afternoon’s two-glass tetsubin of Lu Shan Yun Wu from Teavivre was the follow-up to a warm almond croissant. The liquor was pale green and perfect. That’s all.

I love this tea. That’s all.

It’s hard to believe, but only six months ago, I had never even heard of Lu Shan Yun Wu. Thanks to Teavivre, I made the happy acquaintance of this tea, and now we shall be together for an entire 100 gram bag. I was craving this tea yesterday, and again today! My epiphany of yesterday (it was not possible to write tasting notes because of server problems) was that if Long Jing and Mao Feng mated, their progeny would be adorable little Lu Shan Yun Wu coils!

Seriously, this tea offers the best of both worlds: buttery and silken and chestnutty, but also green and fresh. I let today’s two-glass tetsubin oversteep a bit and determined that a longer steep moves the liquor closer to Mao Feng, while a shorter steep yields a very faint and gentle brew. So glad that I gave this tea a second try a while back, when I had understeeped and underleafed.

The more high-quality, loose-leaf tea I drink, the more I become convinced that brewing parameters are key to the outcome! Provided, of course, that the product is good, which this one certainly is. The dried tea is not only fragrant and fresh but also beautiful to behold.

I just opened this fresh batch of Lu Shan Yun Wu from Teavivre, and I must say that it smells even better than I recall! The visual appearance is also stunning: all of the beautiful slate green corkscrews!

But the best part of all is of course the brew: a pale greenish yellow liquor with a delicious flavor and sumptuous texture. So happy that I now have a generous supply of this 2014 harvest in my cupboard.

I finally realized that I have been underleafing and perhaps also underheating Lu Shan Yun Wu. With the remains of my sample packet, nearly 4 grams, I decided to brew only one glass and at a higher temperature. The result is excellent!

The liquor is greenish gold and the flavor rich and succulent. It is less green tasting and closer to chestnuts and artichoke hearts. The flavor is slightly sweet, so perfect for nonsavory meals. I ate a pedestrian midday meal of shredded wheat drowned in almond-coconut milk, and this worked tea well as a follow-up. (I typically drink my green tea right after, not during, a meal.) I’ll probably be restocking this tea at the imminent Teavivre sale…

My first Teavivre Lu Shan Yun Wu experience ran into trouble as I had not properly prepared my new tetsubin, so while I was drinking the first glass, the second was turning charcoal-colored in the pot.

Today I brewed up a two-glass tetsubin and was very happy with the result. The dried leaves remind me of tiny corkscrews, such as a tiny doll would use to open up a bottle of wine. The scent seems more vegetal than I recall. Of course today is incredibly hot, so this no doubt amps up the volatile aromas.

The liquor is pale greenish-yellow—always a good sign—and the flavor reminded me (already downed the glasses…) of snapped green beans meet chestnuts. This ended up being a completely different encounter with this tea. Fortunately I have enough left to try Lu Shan Yun Wu again in less extreme weather conditions before deciding whether to restock, but so far it’s looking good!

I was looking forward to my first experience of the Teavivre Lu Shan Yun Wu, my second encounter with this particular China green tea. The crispy, wiry leaves are a beautiful tealish-dark slate color, and to my surprise, they smell like a fresh-baked pastry!

I brewed up a large pot, and the first glass was delicious. I drank it alongside toasted English muffins slathered with butter. A very harmonious pairing!

Unfortunately, I discovered upon pouring the next glass that I had not properly prepared my new tetsubin (just arrived today). I had run a bunch of hot water through it, followed by boiling water, but I did not follow the instructions and wipe it dry. As a result, after the first glass the tea still in the pot began leeching off the residual black enamel, turning the liquor a somewhat scary brownish gray color. Naturally I dumped the rest of this pot. However, since I used the deep infuser basket, this afternoon I am going to try a second infusion of the already infused leaves, which smell very fragrant and full of potential..

If that doesn’t work, I am relieved that Angel graced me with a second generous sample of this tea, so I’ll be able to brew up a large pot again in the not-too-distant future.

A propos of tetsubin: I have several, in various sizes. I realize that some people complain about the “made in China” variety, but I have not noticed a huge difference in quality between the Unity teapots (distributed by Old Dutch), and the ones made in Japan. The Unity tetsubin are FDA certified lead free, so I am assuming that even if I drank some of the black enamel coating today, it did not poison me. Well, let’s hope not!

No rating yet… but the first glass of this Lu Shan Yun Wu from Teavivre was excellent!

second infusion: This worked fine with a resultant brighter yellow liquor and full flavor. I poured all of the glasses out of the tetsubin just to make sure that the same problem would not occur. So now my new tetsubin appears finally to be clean and I’ll be able to enjoy the first infusion of this tea again in the not-too-distant future….

Received this as a sample.

I’m just not sure how I feel about oolongs despite how much I want to like them. First thought upon sipping is, meh flowery. Then there’s the milkiness in the back. It has a silky sweetness and I like the milk flavor, but I’m not huge into flowery teas and all oolongs thus far have tasted very flowery to me. It’s not bad, but I’m not craving more.

My sample was in the box went I went on my walk this afternoon. Oh my, this smells so good. A rose garden with hints of cocoa. There is a sweet floral flavour, and chocolate notes. I get a slight yam taste as well. Overall, fantastic.

Thanks Teavivre. :)

Last of my samples from Teavivre. So I saved this one. Had a cup with lunch and an episode of Once Upon a Time. (Which doesn’t have enough genies.)

Anyway… this has a great scent. I so enjoy the smell of roses. There is a really good floral black tea flavour as well. Would be a good tea for a tea event.

Round Two with TeaVivre offerings today. What? I had the day off, I can do what I want. Still haven’t left my pajamas, yet, either.

This was unlike any Dian Hong I’d ever come across. The earthen, sweet-like lean wasn’t there at all. If anything, this was more in line with a Ruby 18 or a Korean semi-oxidized tea than a Chinese one. Yunnan black characteristics didn’t show up until the aftertaste.

In a word: Gaaaaaaaaaaa….!

Okay, that wasn’t quite a word.

Well, hello Steepster, ol’ buddy ol’ pal,

How ya been?

In my effort to be more active with the various social media outlets at my disposal, I completely forgot about the one that is directly tea-related. Leave it to a day off to allow me to make steep-related reparations.

I actually received this sample a few months back, but with my major tea backlog, I didn’t get to it until – well – now. I hate that about myself.

This is…whoah.

As far as Keemuns go, it is perhaps the cleanest sipping experience. Floral, wood-sweet, but with a Keemun kick toward the end. It’s more medium-bodied than robust – unlike Mao Feng or Gong Fu…or even Hao Ya grades of Keemun that I’ve had. That said, still a mighty fine experience.

I am actually disappointed by this tea, mostly because I had such a great floral white from Teavivre yesterday (Jasmine Silver Needle White.)

This one is just a lot lot lot more rose than I was expecting it to be. I couldn’t taste the white at all. While I could see the chamomile, I didn’t taste it as much as I had hoped, either, but at least I could taste that. This wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t what I expected.

This is a free sample that was sent by Teavivre for review. Thank you!

I was a bad girl. I took this packet out with the intention of having it later with a student. The more I looked at it, the more I wanted it NOW! I told myself I would just make one steep and save the rest. You see where this going, right?

So…for the first steep I ignored the package directions. I gave the leaves a ten second rinse, then steeped for about two minutes with cooler water than they recommend, around 204F. I was having this with some cantaloupe after a light lunch of ciabatta bread, toasted, and smeared with goat cheese, then topped with seasoned, diced tomatoes and pesto. My first thought was how much I was tasting a melon flavor in the tea apart from the cantaloupe I was eating. I think it was more honeydew than cantaloupe, though.

I love Dong Ding teas and usually purchase moderately roasted ones, but this one was good enough to keep on the shelf.

I made two steeps at a low temperature and then for the third steep increased to boiling and two minutes. Now it has a little astringent kick at the end of the sip. There is a light nutty aroma as I lift the cup but mostly….flowers! I am really enjoying this. I thought it would probably go about three steeps, but I am thinking I will get a fourth and possibly fifth out of this. Poor student. Ah, well, perhaps I will offer him a different tea…

Another happy tea. Today this tea is much fruitier than what I remember from previous cups. The flavor is light and edging on sweet. At the end of the sip there is the buttery brothiness that I recall. Such a delicious cup.