Teavivre

I haven’t had this one in awhile and thought it would be the perfect wake-up tea this morning. I only had a little over two servings left, so I decided to add the one extra pearl to my cup this morning for an extra kick in the pants. Bad idea. My cup was very burnt tasting. I had to add extra sugar because I sure as heck wasn’t going to waste the brew! In the end I got through it and it was a kick in the pants. At least I have one more perfect serving to do this tea a proper positive sipdown at another time. It would have been tragic for the last cup of this tea to go down like that!

Yes, I’m drinking this again, even though I have a whole bunch of flavored black teas at my disposal. I guess I’m just in an unflavored black tea phase! I have about 2 cups worth of this one left. I’m getting a lot of dark chocolate from it today. Yum!

Gotta get my rear in gear, stop stalking my orders from Butiki and Teavivre, and go running before it gets too hot! Has anyone gotten a shipping note from Stacy yet from her big sale? I suppose the 6 business days aren’t over yet, but I’m so anxious to enjoy the teas I ordered!

Anxiously anticipating Teavivre’s upcoming 3rd Anniversary sale and so, enjoying some of these pearls in their honor! I really need a kick in the pants this morning too, and this tea does not disappoint! Strong, earthy, and dark chocolate-y, they are really hitting the spot! I still have a few left, so probably won’t restock in my upcoming order, but will keep them in mind for next time. Gotta make room for new teas, right?!

Enjoyed 2 steeps of this tea. Soooo delicious! I love the dark chocolate flavor and the thick mouthfeel. It’s almost got a bit of puerh earthiness, but in a good way. Yum!! This one will be a permanent resident in my cupboard!!

Note to self: Even though you want to enjoy this tea at the office, never ever ever EVER try it again until there is a hot water spout available. Microwaved water will turn this amazing tea into a wimpy sorry mess. So sad! Guess this is a work from home day tea. Until Thursday!!!

3.5 oz. all for me! Woo!! As you can see, I received my first Teavivre order yesterday, and I’m so freaking happy! I’m enjoying a cup of these pearls right now. I think I’ve figured out the optimum parameters for me to get as much chocolate-y goodness as possible – 7 pearls in 12 oz. water, steeped for 9 minutes. I’ve found that a bigger cup, (16 oz.) doesn’t result in a better cup, even when I add a couple more pearls. Weird, but true.

Mmmm, great ending to our mini stay-cation. We took Wed-Fri off for our anniversary, and enjoyed day trips to Carmel and Monterey (where we hiked at Point Lobos, shopped, and ate delicious Italian food), and SF (where we visited the Academy of Sciences and enjoyed sushi with genmaicha, of course!) I really don’t want to go back to work tomorrow! We need more vacations like this!!

Just finished off the sample that Angel sent me. I must have more of this tea, so I just placed my first official Teavivre order! Woohoo! Can’t wait!!

O. M. G. YUM!!! This is absolutely fabulous! This tea was one of the samples Angel sent me and I can see now why it’s such a popular tea. Thank you so much, Angel!!

When I first tried a cup of this, I wasn’t really sure how many pearls to use, but it turns out I estimated correctly for western brewing based on their website. I also couldn’t believe the recommended steep time ranged from 5-10 minutes. I mean, 10 minutes for a black tea? Are you crazy? So, I went with 5 minutes. That turned out to be a mistake, because, although the flavor was good, I could tell it was weak. I guess I should just follow directions!

So, today, I put 9 pearls in a 16 oz. mug (my whale color-changing mug ;) ) and steeped it for 9 minutes. That’s the way to do it! Those little pearls are so cute, but once the water hits them they totally unfurl. Have you ever had a tea with a pearl-like shape that didn’t want to fully unfurl? I’ve had that happen and it’s kind of annoying, especially with those flowering teas. Anyhoo, this tea is amazing! It has a rich black tea and unsweetened cocoa taste. It’s like those dark chocolate bars that are 60-80% cocoa. Amazing! Teavivre’s teas are so good and of such high quality, it’s sad that I’m just now discovering them. I do have to admit though, that the timing is right, since I seem to have developed a much stronger taste for unflavored teas lately. This is going on the order list. :)

Brewed in the “Chinese Gongfu Way” described on the tea’s website (rinse & discard water, 20s, etc.), as brewing the “Western Method” resulted in an intensity of leather flavor that I couldn’t take.

1st pot: Somewhat bitter, dark orange liquor. Brewed in the “Chinese Gongfu Way” described on the tea’s website (rinse & discard water, 10s, 20s) in a porcelain teapot.

2nd pot: Brewed in the same way, but it came out tasting like chocolate, more than leather. Maybe the water was a few degrees cooler? This second pot completely changed my mind about this tea’s potential, if you are willing to experiment with brewing.

It is so warm! The high temperature today was almost eighty degrees, it has gone from early spring to early summer. Hopefully it was just a nice warm spell and we get back to nice spring weather, or this is Midwest spring weather and I am still clinging to my days in the Northeast. One good thing about this warmth is the promise of storms tonight, I have been stalking the radar and have seen some massive Supercells out in the plains. Also, it seems overnight all the plants have exploded into full green and bloom. Spring is such an exciting season.

Today’s Teavivre tea is Fengqing Paddy Flavor Raw Pu-erh Cake Tea 2006, a Pu-erh who is coming up on its tenth birthday! Produced in Fengqing, Yunnan from 30-40 year old Arbor Trees, made from Spring (Ming Qian or Chun Jian) harvested leaves and Autumn (Gu Hua or Paddy Flower) Leaves. Each season’s leaves bringing its own unique aroma to the mix. And what an aroma it is! The aroma is strong, like old hay and a slight smoky aroma that fades to old flowers. It has an aroma that reminds me of late summer heat and the sweetness of decaying vegetation.

After the initial rinse and short steep time, the aroma of the wet leaves retains their old flowers and old hay aroma with a hint of barnyard. The liquid, however, smells very sweet and floral, to the point of being heady. There is a finish of smokiness. It seems like the leaves are autumn and the liquid is spring time, a very fascinating transition.

Teavivre says this tea can hold out for fourteen steeps, and I decided to make a day of it. The first steep starts off a bit smoky and a bit metallic, a bit of old hay and a bit of flowers. There are certainly flavors presents but they are faint with a promise of future strength. The mouthfeel is sharp and certainly the most distinct thing about the first steep.

The aroma of the second steep has one of the most complex blend of notes I have ever encountered in a tea. There are notes of anise, faint smoke, spicebush, copper, and crepe myrtle…and all of the notes work really well together. So, this is fascinating, the initial taste is at first metallic and faintly floral, this fades to a sharply bitter taste similar to when you swallow a pill poorly and get that residue in your mouth. This immediately causes a salivary response causing my mouth to flood with sweetness, just like a mouthful of honeysuckle nectar. As the tea cools (like really cools, I left the room and came back to a tiny cup of cold tea) the bitterness has vanished completely and replaced by a pine resin taste. It is really a fascinating experience.

For the third steeping the aroma is very faint pine smoke with anise and Sweet Annie and spicebush. The aroma of this tea keeps transitioning between different flowers and I love it! The taste starts out sweet, like sucking on a piece straw, like the previous steep there is (this time much subdued) bitterness then an explosion of sweetness that lingers for quite a while.

The fourth steep does not have much of a story, the aroma is identical to the previous steep. The taste is all flowers and sweetness, starting with spring time flowers and flowing into honey with a finish of hay. The mouthfeel is not at all sharp anymore, just smoothness.

Steep number six had a pungent surprise for me, the barnyard aroma from the wet leaves has finally showed up in the aroma of the liquid. The taste is a touch bitter with the barnyard aspect, think old hay and the faintest hint of manure. It is like mouth-breathing in farm country, not the most unpleasant experience but certainly not a favorite one.

For steep number seven and eight, I noticed no difference so they are getting lumped together. The aroma has only a barest hint of the pungent at the finish, the rest is all hay and flowers, specifically crepe myrtles, it is quite sweet. The taste is very sweet, blending flower nectar and honey with strong floral qualities. The finish has a bit of a fermented taste, similar to Grecian Honeyed Wine (basically white wine mixed with honey and left to sit for a week) leaving a honey aftertaste.

Steeps nine through fourteen are a fascinating journey of dwindling tea presence. The aroma starts off much like the previous steep, but slowly fades in intensity until there is none left. The taste is much the same, starting out with honey, hay, and flowers and slowly fading to honey and finally a ghost of flowers. This tea was really fascinating, I will not say it is my favorite ever (I am still pretty new to Raw Pu-erh in general) but I loved the journey I went on with this tea, especially with the aroma of some of my favorite flowers. It was like spring flowers and autumn hay and pastoral things.

For LOTS of photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/04/teavivre-fengqing-paddy-flavor-raw-pu.html

This is a sample I picked up from Nicole_Martin at a meet-up a few months back. It’s okay, but a little too green for me—that floral oolong note is just a little too strong, and there’s not as much roastiness as I’d like. It’s a little bit sweet, more so than most oolongs I’ve had. This is a perfectly good tea; it’s just that the flavor profile doesn’t really match up with my oolong preferences.

Last night i got a very thoughtful gift – scale. Now I’m not going to guess how much tea should I put. it will make my tea journey a little easier. ( i want to be a tea nerd, haha)
This tea i had several times and i dont know why i never logged it.
5g 150ml 185F
rinse 10/15/30/30/45/1min etc
this tea is so complex. every steep doesnt look like previous one.
Started with faint fresh peach or apricot, some nuts. the following steeps were more intense introducing muscatel flavors. yes at some point it was like Darjeeling. By fifth steep some citrus notes emerged maybe like lemon myrtle(?)
During my session i never noticed any bitterness, i think its because of short steeps (my fave method of brewing Chinese and Taiwanese teas)
This is not an everyday tea , its a special treat.

MMMMMMM this tea! Apparently my love for golden tips is deep and meaningful. I STILL haven’t gotten around to doing a proper review of Golden Fleece (although the song for it played in my head immediately), possibly because I just can’t find words for it. But this one is delightful. It’s far too early in the morning for me to be awake and normally I would be pouty about being awake at this ridiculous time on a Saturday morning. Instead I’m purring and mmmmm-ing and happily indulging myself in the smooooth, caramely, buttery, malty deliciousness that is this tea. The song that came to me for this one surprises me just a little – because while Smokey Robinson is ALWAYS appropriate – I would have thought this tea would make me hear a baritone. But nope, I hear this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlzY6cWpoMQ&feature=kp

I immediately heard “we’re gonna fly away, glad you’re goin’ my way…”

Oh man, I have such terrible spring fever. I can barely sit still, I just want to go frolicking in the flowers and dance in rain of pollen. This happens to me every year, unless I am sick, since I am not I get to revel in the beauties of spring-time. Also the excellent surprise of my new Yixing arriving much sooner than I was expecting. I still have not decided which tea to season it for, I need to stare at it to get a good feel for it.

Today’s Teavivre tea is one of Fujian’s famous Gong Fu black teas, specifically Superfine Tan Yang Gong Fu Black Tea is considered to be the best. Grown in the Tanyang Village in Fu’an, Fujian, this delightfully fuzzy gold tea was plucked in March of 2013. The aroma is very fruity, strong notes of juicy plums with a side of roasted peanuts and a faint malt at the finish. I really want to make sure everyone knows this tea is very fruity, almost surprisingly so! It does not smell at all like a flavored tea, but like someone placed a plate of sliced plums right next to the leaves.

Once the leaves have been rinsed and steeped for their quick bath (a whopping five seconds!) the aroma pf the wet leaves is more predominantly roasted peanuts and malt with a finish of stewed plums. They have gone from fresh plums to cooked and rich plums. I am perfectly ok with that. The poured off liquid is surprisingly floral, a blend of sweet roses and honeysuckle with strong plums and peanuts. Very delicious smelling, I admit that I cannot wait to taste it.

The first thing I notice is the smooth mouthfeel, very smooth and a tiny bit fuzzy from the tricomes on the leaves. The initial steep is very mild, almost a bit too mild for my liking (it was only a five second steep, I guess I am not that refined yet) there was plum sweetness and roasted peanuts, but they seemed delicate preludes to the future.

For the second steep the aroma of the liquid is less floral and more stewed plums. It is very rich and sweet. Hello sweetness! The taste is much bolder than the previous steep, the roasted peanut is more prominent in the middle which fades to a sweet aftertaste.

The third steep’s aroma is very sweet still, but with the floral notes no longer present and a strong roasted nut presence. It starts out with very sweet juicy stewed plums and roasted peanuts, this fades to a slightly peppery finish and has a fruity aftertaste that lingers for a while. The tea still has a very smooth mouthfeel.

For the fourth steep’s aroma is still of stewed plums and roasted peanuts, but there is a peppery note and I notice it is not as sweet as the previous steep’s aromas. The taste is just as sweet as before, but instead of being just stewed plums there is also a rich honey taste. This fades to malt and sweet potatoes and finishes with a peppery aftertaste. I really feel like the tea really shined this steeping.

The fifth steep, I really have nothing to add, it was almost identical in aroma and taste to the fourth steep. I savored every drop. I did notice the malt taste was a little weaker and the honey a little stronger, but the amount was minuscule.

And with the sixth steep I call it quits, the tea is fading and I am tea drunk. The aroma is fruity and sweet, blending stewed plums and bit of honey. The taste is pretty much the same as the aroma, plums and honey with a delicate peppery finish.

For photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/04/teavivre-superfine-tan-yang-gong-fu.html

Thank you as always for the samples, Teavivre! I’m excited to try this one! The fragrance of the leaves are intoxicating but tough to describe – they smell like a Spring garden! A dozen types of flowers. Teavivre suggests 8 grams of leaves for 17 ounces of water at boiling with 1,2,3,4 minute steep times. (Not sure if I should have rinsed the leaves.) I used 1 1/3 or 1 1/2 teaspoons for a 10-11 ounce mug.

Steep #1 // 10 minutes after boiling // 2 min steep
The flavor is close to the fragrance – it doesn’t really have a distinctive oolong flavor that presents itself. To me, oolong is usually milk/butter, peach, floral, or grassy. This one seems to have hints of all of these things. I think I like it better when the oolong chooses to be one of those things, but this is tasty anyway. The flowers are first, tiny hint of peach, then there is a butteriness that lingers. One thing this cup isn’t is grassy. It does have a tanginess to the flavor I don’t like, but I’m sure it will get better with the second cup.

Steep #2 // 10 mins after boiling // 3 min steep
The flavor of this cup is very close to the first cup. There seems to be more butteriness but there is also more of the tanginess. I wish this tea were smoother, but it dries the mouth. There is another fruit flavor to this cup – I’m not sure what it is, but it isn’t exactly peach, maybe pineapple.

Steep #3 // just boiled // 3 min
Surprisingly, even with a hotter temp and time, the tanginess of the leaves is completely gone. That makes me think these leaves are just now getting even better than before, which means there are probably many more delicious cups possible with the same leaves. This cup is pure sweet orchids. By the third cup, this is the perfect oolong. I just wish there wasn’t as much tanginess to get there. (The rating on this one is lowered a bit because of that.) So maybe a rinse would have helped with the first cup.

Green oolongs are my home tea. From here I go out and explore other teas, but I always come back to green oolongs, my first and true love. :)
I love to floral green aroma. Just like spring! That luscious hydrating liquid. Better than water for thirst. :) This tea makes me happy. It is not remarkable, but it is excellent.

Backlog. Had this one after dinner even though I knew that it was probably going to be too much caffeine (and now I’m awake in the middle of the night). But you know what, it was worth it because that lovely creamy, roasty goodness really hit the spot on this rainy, dreary evening.

Backlog. After having this in my cupboard for a while, I finally tried it out a few days ago and haven’t been able to keep it out of my head ever since. So as a motivation to tackle STATA (stats software) for class, I steeped this beauty. So roasty in flavor but creamy in texture. Plus, it resteeps so darn well! This is definitely in my top 2 dark oolongs, the other being Wuyi Mountain Big Red Robe from Verdant.

I decided to break open this sample of Da Hong Pao from Teavivre, and I’m so glad that I did! It has that nicely roasty taste that I love from dark oolongs. What surprised me was the thick, creamy mouthfeel that I got from this tea. It was perfect for this cloudy morning. I also resteeped a few times, and the flavors and texture are holding pretty strong! I’m really impressed by this tea, and will definitely savor the rest of what I have!

I found a nice new paradise today. Located downtown-ish is a lovely walled in garden with a conservatory and loads of beautiful flowers. The Kauffman Memorial Gardens is going to be my new haven when I am desperately seeking an environment that is more nature filled, hopefully come summer there will be the occasional mushroom peaking out from amid the flowers.

Speaking of flowers, today’s tea from Teavivre is one! Organic Dehydrated Camellia from the Lin’an Tea Garden in Zhejiang, is the dried flower of a member of the Camellia family, the same family that the beloved Camellia Sinensis comes from. I am not sure if this is the flower from the tea plant or one of the other Camellia variants, regardless, drinking tea (or tisane if you are fancy) made from flowers is one of my great passions. The aroma is a bit surprising, instead of smelling like flowers it smells like a blend of baking bread, cooked squash, and dried persimmons. It is really quite a fascinating aroma, very warm and almost autumnal in its quality.

The now quite soggy flowers are sweet and toasty, quite similar to actual toast with a hint of burnt marshmallow and a finish of cooked fruit. The liquid without the flowers smells exactly the same as the wet flowers, the aroma is very warm and welcoming. One of those times it feels like the aroma is reaching out and giving me a nice warm hug.

My first word of advice, don’t treat these like a normal herbal tea, in other words, boiling is a no go. I am sure that Teavivre has steeping instructions on the website, but for all my staring at it I just could not find it. I attempted boiling water and four minutes for my first attempt and, well, I won’t go into too much details about how it tasted. Long story short, it was not too pleasant. After browsing around the interwebs I discovered the best option is between 180-190 degrees for two minutes. That result was significantly better!

The taste is honey sweet, specifically it reminds me of the richness of clover honey and the sweetness of straw. If you have ever chewed on a piece of straw you know it has that distinctly warm sweetness, and this tea shares it. It fades to ripe persimmon fruit and the idea of flowers. A strange description, but it does not taste like flowers, it is very much so a sensation that is more aroma than taste, and very faint at that. The aftertaste is that of corn silk. A perfectly floral end to a floral day.

For blog and photos (including a link to photos of the gardens) : http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/04/teavivre-organic-dehydrated-camellia.html

This is my first sampling from the extremely generous sample package I received from Angel at Teavivre. If you’ve read enough of my tasting notes, you’ve probably picked up on the fact that I tend not to be a huge fan of Chinese blacks. I know they tend to be the favorites here on Steepster, but they just tend to be too heavy on the chocolate and the sweetness and things of that nature that most people love but I, perhaps weirdly, just don’t enjoy very much and lacking in the astringency that I, perhaps even more weirdly, really enjoy in black teas. All that said, I was prepared to pass this tea off as more of the same. I’m pleased to say I was wrong! The smooth, sweet, non-astringent qualities are all present, but it’s delightfully light on the chocolate. There’s a nice full flavor with a sort of fruity undertone, although I couldn’t tell you what kind of fruit—if pressed, I might hazard a guess that it’s some kind of stone fruit? Or maybe not. I can’t say I’m really getting the sweet potato mentioned in other notes. The individual notes aren’t incredibly distinctive, but they certainly come together to make a pleasant cup of tea. It strikes me as uncomplicated and easy to drink, in the best way possible.

A nice green oolong with a creamy and slightly floral flavour. I am not a huge fan of super grassy green oolongs so this is the perfect type for me. It’s the creamy that has me hooked on milk oolongs.
I brewed this “western style” and love it.
Also “mandatory” for any oolong tea to stay permanently in my cupboard, it must be able to be brewed an extended period of time in my Libre tea glass without getting bitter (if I brew this way it is usually at work and I use far less leave than normal because of the extended brew time). This certainly passes the test. Mmmm.