Teavivre

I drank a 2-minute first steep before my four mile run this morning. I really liked it! Full-bodied, malty, and definitely chocolate-y. Also a little earthy and when I first started sipping I thought I tasted mushrooms but that gradually faded.

When I came back I had a second 2 and a half minute steep (got distracted) and it was pretty astringent, but still enjoyable. The chocolate maltiness is still there. It’s not as earthy, but a little more sweet.

EDIT: 3rd steep for 1 and half minutes. Just the slightest astringency. Still chocolate-y. When it cooled to room temperature I got the mushroom taste back.

This is the second of five samples from Teavivre for review. I tend to like keemun so I was excited, but when I came to start my note Steepster informed me I have had this tea before…and ranked it a 49! For me, a 49 is pretty bad. So I am being extra cautious with my steeping parameters, to help confirm my impressions one way or another. My previous note indicated that I found it to be very standard and boring. Let’s see what I get today!

Once again I had the dilemma – I could split the sample in two but it wasn’t quite enough for that (likely because the leaves are a bit smaller than I am used to at this stage in my tea drinking). I decided to use the whole thing, and steeped it for one minute. I am looking at Teavivres site and thinking I need to use another of these samples in my gaiwan at home at some point. I think it will be a totally different tea in that manner, they usually are.

The steeped aroma is….pretty bland. No words come to mind. Taste is better but still I have a heard time distinguishing notes or pulling out any intricacies. I get more after the sip with some honeyed notes. No bitterness or astringency, but not a lot else either. I could make a big list of the things I don’t find here but I have a hard time finding things I DO recognize. I think I am going to have to agree with my earlier assessment. It’s perfectly fine, but not remarkable or even all that different from standard tea. I think I would get more from it if the leaves were larger. As it cools I get more cocoa/chocolate notes which I appreciate. Usually I prefer my tea piping hot but this has been sitting for half an hour and now is becoming more interesting. Bizarre!

Rating increased to reflect that it isn’t a bad tea, it just isn’t impressing me. I do find it interesting that I am so out of sync with the rest of the tasters on this one!

I got a sample of this one on my Teavivre order a month or two back and am finally taking a moment to enjoy it. I am using the whole packet which is a bit much for my tastes but not nearly enough to split into two cups at work. Ho hum.

The dry aroma is light and sweet, seems floral and with some fruity notes but once steeped it comes across as astringent and bitter in aroma. Very reminiscent of standard bagged black tea. Darn you slightly too large sample!! I even decreased the temp and time to account for it. We’ll see how it tastes.

Luckily I don’t get any astringency in the sip, but neither am I getting a whole lot else. It’s black tea. Maybe some light floral behind it all, but nothing impressive. I am getting a lot of Red Rose associations here. It is drying my mouth a bit so I guess it is astringent, but at least it isn’t bitter.

I was hoping this might be a replacement for Keemun Mao Feng from Harneys which I loved but this didn’t do it for me at all. Oh well!

EDIT to add: Wow, am I the lone dissenter or what? I love black tea but this was a disappointment. I wonder if it was mislabelled or maybe a weird batch as there was no cocoa and nothing I typically associate with keemun. Weird. I know the sample wasn’t very old either.

Water: 8oz Boiling

Leaves: Various mixture of petals & fruit

Steep: 9m

Aroma: Sweet Apple

Color: Deep Red

Taste: This tea is good reminded me of when I had Teavivre’s blueberry tea.It’s a bit on the tart side but I didn’t want to add any sugar to it.I think I might also want to try it cold, since I normally drink my teas hot.Roselle being one of the ingredients is really good for you so that is another plus with this tea. I tried one of the dried apple pieces it had a nice sweetness to it as well.

This is so delicious.

I put four pearls in my tiny glass gongfu and have re-steeped them about six times today. The first cups were chocolate and malt but the last cup was quite peppery!

It took over two months for Teavivre’s package to reach me but I’m already down for two teas I need more of. It was worth the wait.

Such a beautiful tea! I love opening the tin I have this in and taking a deep breath. It is bright smells of lychee, melon, and somehow, something akin to springwater.
Flavor wise, it is also excellent with lots of melon notes. I normally steep this 3 times. I really have enjoyed this tea.

Many thanks for this sample! To be honest, I’ve been in a total funk lately; so not a lot of tea drinking.
This tea smells amazing, sweet melon, lychee, greens. The leaves are beautiful: white, greens, downy fuzz.
At a 1min steep this has a very light liquor. It is very soft yellow/champagne colored. This is so amazing. The flavor is very creamy, sweet, and really highlights the fruit notes. It mainly reminds me of lychee fruit, a favorite of mine, so this tea is perfect for me. There are also light notes of spring peas at the end of the sip. This is a really great green tea!
1min30sec: Slightly darker liquor this time. More green notes this time with light floral accents.

Sipdown, 122. I have multiple reasons for drinking all of these Teavivre green teas in fairly quick succession. First because they offer a bunch of easy sipdowns, and second because I am trying to get a good sense of the types of green teas that I really enjoy. Yesterday was Bi Luo Chun, today is Liu An Gua Pian.

This one is light and almost sparkly. There is a certain feel to it that is extra bright and fresh. The flavor is vegetal with very light nutty and buttery notes, but they don’t add a thickness to it like in some other greens. It’s not savory like the Bi Luo Chun but it’s not really sweet either. Just fresh. Overall I enjoy this tea but I can’t see craving it. Glad I got a chance to try it!

I really should get around to reviewing the rest of my samples of Teavivre’s spring harvest in a timely fashion. Thanks so much again to Angel and Teavivre for sending me a sample of this new 2013 spring harvest.

The dry leaf on this one reminds me almost of dragonwell in that it is long, flattened and kind of broad. The leaves are quite dark as well, a very rich green. The freshness is really evident in the strong aroma, which is leafy and buttery. Steeped, it smells of butter-sauteed snap peas, spinach, and slightly of chestnuts. Overall the flavor is very mild and as others have mentioned, it doesn’t linger much. It is as ephemeral as a beautiful spring day.

This is a very pleasant green tea, although I have to say it doesn’t leave too much of an impression on me. It’s mildness is nice and welcome, but it means that I don’t really think about this much as I drink it. It’s a tea that I probably wouldn’t ever crave, but I’d still happily drink it every day if it was served to me. I’m glad I got a chance to try it!

Pretty standard jasmine green tea.

This tea is fantastic! It finally came in the mail last night and I put it right into a teapot as fast as I could because I’ve been waiting a week for it to arrive :D

What’s funny about this tea is that it’s $18 for 3.5oz, and it tastes exactly the same as Teavana’s Gyokuro which is $20 for 2oz. Even better? It lasts for 3 steepings and it doesn’t have a bitter aftertaste! The only thing is that I have finally come to the realization that I’m more of an oolong guy than a green guy (greens aren’t strong enough for me, and blacks are too strong haha) so this isn’t going to stay in my cabinet after I finish it unfortunately. But if you are a fan of green teas, then this is perfect for you!

Smells very fresh, nutty, a little sweet and somewhat floral. When steeped the leaves become so green!

This is the best green tea I have had the pleasure of sampling thus far. It was lighter than other Mao Feng’s that I’ve had in the past, but it tasted so excellent and fresh! I found it quite chestnutty, with mineral notes and a little buttery.

Thoroughly enjoyed, definitely one that will be stocked in my cupboard. Many thanks to Angel and Teavivre for the sample!

Wow, this is a dark-leaved oolong. I literally went “Ooh” when I opened the packet. The leaves are long and almost black. They’re flat, and smell very sweet. I haven’t had an oolong in a good while, so that distinct and familiar scent is very welcome.

I went with the pack’s instructions, using boiling water and a short time in the water. As it steeped, the scent became stronger and more pungent. I’m reminded of fruit, but at the same time, the forest. Something makes me think of honey and of trees. It’s hard to describe, and intriguing. It brews up to a light shade of brown.

When I taste it, something instantly reminds me of tree bark, sap, and grapefruit. It’s toasty, smooth, and calming… Yet strangely, I feel like I’m tasting… hops? It reminds me of a mild IPA! Is that weird? To think of beer when I’m tasting tea? Anyway, I’m really liking this. I think I’m going to put the rest of my sample on and spend my evening enjoying this unique oolong.

First tea from the teabox!

Best dragonwell that I’ve had. Very mild with apricot, chestnut, and slight artichoke flavors. Most of the leaves appeared very young, and there where a few silvery buds as well. This is a sweet, gentle dragonwell nice for tea drinkers like myself who don’t like very vegetal greens.

So the last time I had this, it was brewed in a gaiwan. I think I prefer this western style and gong fu made it a bit too intense. It’s deliciously fruity. I still get honeyed prunes with just a hint of cocoa. A wonderful black tea.

Got husband to have gaiwan session with me this morning. :) That means I didn’t have to imbibe all that caffeine by myself. Which means I can have more other teas. :D so we followed the directions on teavivre’s website. Worked well! He even poured a few steepings. :)

The tea developed beautifully. Husband’s comments were great. He said they were like burnt flowers. Which I translated to understand as smokey and floral. Haha. I thought it was smoked prunes. Tasty. But a bit savory. Like a balanced meal.

Sipdown, 130. Thanks again to Angel and Teavivre for this sample, which was getting up there in age.

I had this tea this afternoon while I was working. I had a particularly early morning today, so I was quite tired and I wanted a white tea to perk me up and make me focused. This worked really well. Forget about white tea relaxing you, for me it definitely perks me up, especially a really nice white tea like this. Not sure if an unflavored white has a place in my cupboard, but it’s something to consider (once it decreases a bit more).

This will be a sipdown when I return from Europe, as I have one sample pack left. At first I thought I wasn’t really going to be into this tea this afternoon. By smell it was very hayish and a bit earthy, reminding me of all the parts of white teas that I usually don’t care for all that much. But then when I started drinking it I really enjoyed it! It was sweet and honeyed, and even a bit floral. Quite a nice afternoon tea, and something to keep me going at my work today.

I may have mistakenly reviewed this tea under it’s organic version before, oh well. Thanks again to Angel and Teavivre for these samples.

Having drank the silver needle white tea yesterday, I decided to go ahead and try the bai mu dan today in comparison. I don’t know that I’ve ever really compared the flavor of two different white tea varietals, so this should be interesting. Right away the dry leaf still smells like hay, but I think greener hay. Perhaps even somewhat like dried grass clippings.

The real difference came the moment the water hit the leaf; the silver needle still smelled like hay, whereas this tea became greener smelling and more vegetal. After one minute this tea was already dark enough so I pulled the brew basket. It smells hay-ish, but also a bit like buttered vegetables and a bit of honey. The flavor is definitely more vegetal, with some cucumber notes along with the hay. A hint of florals, though I wouldn’t be able to pin down what type. Perhaps something odd like clover flowers. Slightly like salted butter, as well.

I would say that I much preferred the silver needles to the bai mu dan. This one was grassier and more vegetal, and reminded me more of some green teas. It’s also very lightly astringent at 1 minute, but that could be slight overleafing. Still, this is quite enjoyable and I do want to try this one also gongfu style eventually.

Sipdown, 150. (I would love to sipdown to 146 before my Verdant reserve club order gets here, but I don’t know if that is possible! Based on past history it could get here as soon as the 8th, but I might have until the 10th).

I decided I needed the energy of a white tea this morning. I think it worked reasonably well; I managed to get a fair amount done this morning even through my relative exhaustion. Let see if I can keep it up this afternoon.

The first steep of this tea was quite nice, and I definitely got that bready, squashy flavor again. I went for a resteep for 3 minutes, but I didn’t enjoy it as much. I think it was a tad more hayish and green vegetal, as well as just being less flavorful. Still this is perhaps my favorite white tea that I’ve tried so far, and the only one (that’s not jasmine flavored) that I would consider reordering at this point.

Hmm, have I never reviewed this? It seems unlikely, but there are no reviews to be found by me so I guess not. In that case I apologize to Teavivre for taking so long to get around to reviewing this sample. As always, you are so generous!

I’ve never been really drawn to white tea. Partly I think because it reminds me strongly of hay, and while that is a pleasant olfactory memory, it is not necessarily one I want to drink (I feel this way about many puerhs as well). I usually enjoy a white tea fairly well but I never crave one.

This tea is so pretty, all downy and soft. Dry, it smells like fresh cut hay. Steeped it retains those hay notes, but also gains a sweet creamy smell. A bit of honey on whole-grain bread, perhaps. That seems to be the predominant flavor for me, and this tea is unexpectedly “chewy;” the texture is thick and the whole thing really reminds me of really good bread. Which is totally not what most others are getting, but there you go! I don’t really taste florals or melon, but I could be convince of roasted summer squash. It’s darker tasting than I expect a white tea to be, and richer. I’d be interested in brewing my other package in a gaiwan (if I had one, not sure if my little gongfu pot would be appropriate) just to see how the flavors differ. Even so, this is quite a lovely, toothsome white tea and I very much enjoyed this cup.

Oolong Week!

Gosh, this tea is soo pretty! I feel pretty just drinking it! The leaves start out silver tipped, then bloom through fall colours and finally into a reddy tinge. The tea itsself is a lovely reddy orange brown!

Taste? Very balanced between honeysuckle floral and maple earthy. It’s not too floral or earthy, so this would be a good starter oolong. I’d love to serve this to guests!

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/taiwan-oriental-beauty-from-teavivre-tea-review/

Thank you Angel for this sample.

The raw leaves are beautifully green and thinly rolled. For the most part they are still intact with little to no damage and no stems/sticks are present.

They have a beautiful spinach and perfume floral scent that is quite thick yet sweet.

Once steeped this tea is yellow in colour and has a sweet, vegetal aroma.

First Steep
Flavour is thick and vegetal (broccoli, spinach) and also rather grassy. There is also a sweetness like peony.

Second Steep
Still very thick and vegetal but the sweetness has toned down. It has a buttery tone that makes it easy to drink and it defines the spinach flavour beautifully.

Third Steep
Gentle now and refreshing. Less vegetal and more floral. Toned down from the first steep but still left with enough flavour to be pleasing.

Overall it’s a very nice thick, vegetal green tea. Very similar to the Organic Hangzhou Tian Mu Qing Ding Green Tea – Teavivre.