Teavivre

Brewed 10 berries which came out to 2.5g in 200mL boiling water. Mild infusion, lightly sweet with a faint taste of goji berries which is reminiscent of raisins. The engorged berries are a sweet treat. Let them steep forever to extract the most flavor.

Edit: I think these were marked best by January 2020. The berries were still supple and pliable. It’s dried fruit hit with boiling water. I don’t think freshness is a concern.

2023 Ode To Tea – Part II – T

This was mostly hibiscus with a hint of other fruit — maybe papaya. I specifically finished this one because I read another excellent book that mentioned the book this tea is oddly named after. Reading my other tasting note… I guessed that additional flavor was melon last time but I was wrong. This time I got papaya correct!
2023 sipdowns: 73

Thank you AJRimmer!  Another fruity blend from Teavivre… they have had this one in particular in stock for quite a while.  The hibiscus looks like it should be overwhelming just looking at the amount of it in the dry blend, but the resulting mugs aren’t too overly hibiscus.  With the first steep the brew is fuchsia, the second steep a pale pink.  The flavor isn’t ONLY tartness… there is also a noted melon flavor and fragrance in both cups.  Though it’s an interesting addition to this blend, I don’t think it’s quite enough to make me want to stock up on this one. (And now that I’m looking at the ingredients list, the flavor I was noticing was probably papaya rather than melon.)
Steep #1  // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug // 10 minutes after boiling  // 2 minute steep
Steep #2  // 2 minutes after boiling //  6 minute steep

2021 sipdown no. 33

Yay for this sipdown! I sent loads of this to Cameron but still had about 10 cups to polish off myself.

This tea was hit or miss because of the smokiness. The key I found was a long steep time at a much lower temperature than recommended, but even that didn’t always work.

I figured the trick out for this one — the longer the steep, the better the tea. It’s still not really a special tea for me, but I will be able to enjoy the remaining amount I have. And I hope Cameron enjoys what I sent her way.

Also, Dammann Frères was waiting on the front porch this morning!

The steeping parameters on this tea seem high at 5-8 minutes, but I have always struggled with this tea and so decided to try different times. I sent as much as I could fit to Cameron, but still some remains in my cupboard.

I steeped for 6 minutes today and tried not to breathe through my nose while sipping to not catch any smoke scent. I don’t know that’s there’s anything overly special about this tea, but it has a nice full feeling in the mouth and subtle hints of maltiness in the background.

I brewed this one up as per the package, steep time of 5 minutes. It smells super smoky to me sadly. I asked A to smell it as she also got the smoke. Dumping this cup and starting fresh. Is anyone interested in this one for their cupboard?

Soo… my sister tested positive for covid yesterday. Now we are waiting to see if she passed it to our parents (or me) but they’ve had no symptoms for a week since seeing her, so far, but I know symptoms can’t always be present. She thinks she got it at a bar. Personally, not to harp, I have thought from day one that it is not the best idea to go to a bar/restaurant during a pandemic, but we have always had the most opposite of mindsets. All of my relatives on my dad’s side of the family went to a restaurant about a month ago (including 92 year old grandma) and I thought this was um, ridiculous that I had to worry about losing all my relatives at once. Please everyone stay safe and keep in mind that if there ARE uncaring people out there, who know they already have the virus, they could be being reckless and going out to bars/restaurants.

Thank you again, AJRimmer!  Again, another cup of hibiscus hibiscus hibiscus, or Teavivre calls it roselle.  I would hardly believe there is orange even present in this cup, in a blind taste test.  But I made sure to get a healthy, lovely looking orange wedge in the infuser.  The second steep was the same.   It’s just a missed opportunity drowning all of these herbal teas in roselle.  Too much is too much.  And maybe that is the key to so many disliking hibiscus.  It’s not a bad flavor, really, until it ruins too many blends that you’re expecting so much more from. 
Steep #1  // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug // 5 minutes after boiling  // 2 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2  // just boiled //  5 minute steep

This is a sipdown!

I’ll miss this ‘hay and cream’ tea.

Teavivre sent me a sample of this one with my last order. I really enjoy this tea. It’s smooth, not too thin and not too thick, and hay-like. Hay is a favourite of mine, plus it reminds me of our two bunnies who eat all the hay, all the time! It’s a very calming tea all round. I’d consider putting this one in my next order.

I’ve left the leaves in my infuser to do a second and possible third steep tomorrow!

Edit: I’ve just done the second steep (6.5 minutes) and the flavour has really held up.

This was another of my Adagio mini tin residents. I find those tiny tins useful for storing opened sample packets without worrying about taping them or something. It doesn’t say what year the harvest was, but the “best by” date is in late 2018, so I’m guessing it was a 2017 harvest? This was the end of the sample, so I only steeped it for 2 minutes because of the more broken leaves.

Such a yummy and comforting green tea! It has a very creamy, sweet, and smooth flavor with corn and edamame notes. There’s also a lovely grainy quality that makes me think of raw oats. At the end of the sip, a little apricot pokes its head out, and there’s a very slight astringency that accentuates it with a feeling of fuzzy skin on my tongue.

This is a great green tea to keep around, and I’m sure it was that much tastier when it was fresh. I’ll be sure to add it to my wishlist to be restocked at a later date! I’m being a bit conservative on the rating for now, since I’m just coming back to tea and this isn’t fresh.

While I’m not disappointed in this tea I will say that both the dry leaf and the brewed cup smell better than the actual taste of the tea. The first steep was stronger than the second, and I was quite generous with the leaf. I should probably try and gongfu or grandpa this next time and pay more attention to the flavors. It’s just a yummy chocolate caramel cup, without a whole lot of sweetness. A very good example of a golden monkey, but I think I prefer Happy Lucky’s for repurchase.

How have I not reviewed this yet haha I definitely have had it, as my sample pack is opened lol. Anyways, this is today’s #SeptemberSipdown tea, as we had to choose one to drink all day and this one fits the bill. Note that all day for me may end up only being 3-4 steeps since I’m so bad with caffeine haha, but shengs or shu are my go-to for all-day teas, and a sheng from Teavivre never disappoints!

This one is quite mellow and nice. I combined my first two gaiwan steeps (after a 15s rinse) into my little mug so I don’t have to get up to steep as much during the work day. Smells woodsy, has a nice woodsy flavor with some sweetness at the end. I always get apricot from Teavivre shengs it seems, my favorite note in a sheng I think. Getting a bit more bitter as it cools, but nothing unmanageable. Excited to get in at least a few more steeps this afternoon, but will not drink too late in the day or I’ll be up all night!

Overall an enjoyable sheng. Can’t believe this tea is already 7 years old!

This tea from ashmanra is one of the biggest dismals in orthodox loose leaf for me. Thank you anyway for chance trying it.

I have decided to brew it gongfu, according to vendor instructions below A-House tasting note.

SIPDOWN 8
Steeps were 20, 30, 40, 50, 70 and 100 seconds long. Quite long rinse (about 20 seconds maybe?), as I couldn’t dump the water faster. Water was around 90 °C, again as suggested.

The wet leaf was still quite okay, ordinary malty aroma, without flaws. Common.

First steeps were quite strong, strongly malty reminding me, as LuckyMe suggest, Lipton. Especially their best selling Yellow Label. But I wouldn’t expect, nor want that in my loose leaf tea!

First steeps were indeed malty as I wrote, but unfortunately, at least, it wasn’t somehow awful. Just generic and boring. That was up to 50 seconds steep mark. Then it was just weaker and weaker, with worse and worse tannic flavour and that was all. Nothing else, but tannic and hints of malt. The last, 100 seconds steep was like brewing already brewed tea bag for 5 minutes and that’s it. Weak, somehow reminding tea, flavour.

Shame. Keeping the 40, as I would expect way more from this tea. Yes, it’s mellow. Yes, it’s unoffensive. It’s boring. For example, even Guria Likhauri is more complex than this. What’s wrong with this tea?

A sample of 7 grams I received from ashmanra. Thank you!
Yesterday I was playing in my thoughts all the day with my travel to US. When I decided to go sleep, I was sad it won’t happen anytime soon because it goes quite pricey. I would love to see you all in real life; but studies first and then I don’t know. We want to visit Balcans with my friends; but who knows how situation will look like. I went so obsessed with it, I thouht even for a moment it will be possible somehow soon (flight tickets to US are quite cheap nowdays, which makes sense as, who the hell would fly there, nowdays).

The tea I prepared is though, dismal. For some reason I thought it will be some high end black tea (no hurt feelings, ashmanra!), it even looked so nice! But the tea is, ehm, quite basic. The brewed tea after four minutes steeps is quite astringent, way too malty and very drying! I don’t think I have overbrewed it (suggested was 3-5 minutes), or overleafed, but… It just was so strong and quite one-dimensional. LuckyMe said that it reminds Lipton and I have to agree. It is bit like coated with some tea essence making it strong and malty, but that’s all.

2023 An Ode to Tea – D

I didn’t rate this one very highly before, but if you’re actually LOOKING FOR an explosion of hibiscus, this is the tea for you. There is also a syrupy quality to it that I like. I guess the difference between the last steep and now was expecting that hibiscus explosion, when last time I wanted this blend to be more than that. Will raise the rating from 52.
2023 sipdowns: 22

Thanks so much for the try on this one, AJ Rimmer!  Can’t say I’m a fan though.. it might be the nightmare Hawaii tea rather than “dreamy” because there is SO MUCH HIBISCUS HERE.  And I can’t say I want coconut with my hibiscus?  Luckily there isn’t much coconut here.  It’s a couple pieces of other fruit with hibiscus, and the bright red cup just tastes like sour hibiscus. The description doesn’t even mention hibiscus, only roselle.  The photo shows much less roselle/hibiscus than my sample contained, so maybe it’s just my sample. I guess I don’t need to stock up on so many of these Teavivre herbals if so many of them are mostly hibiscus.   Without the roselle, I would have liked this blend. I did notice that Teavivre has a new hibiscus-less fruit blend though.
Steep #1  // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug // 15 minutes after boiling  // 2 minute steep
Steep #2  // just boiled //  3 minute steep
2020 sipdowns: 68 (What-cha – Anxi Tie Guan Yin)

Well I drank this yesterday, but I’ll try to remember and post today.
Ancient Tree seems like it should have a more complex taste structure, but I’m not sure I prefer this to the Premium Golden Monkey or the regular Dian Hong Yunnan. It was quite smooth, with dark chocolate and malty notes that one would expect, but I only got a sample of this and I don’t think I’d be tempted to get a whole bag. I did get two good western style steeps out of the 10g sample, but the third was rather weak.

Sipdown (260)

Thank you Sil for sharing this with me!!

I was completely surprised by the fact that upon my first sip this had such amazing vanilla flavor. Vanilla and a touch of smoke.

When I get past the vanilla, which I don’t even think is supposed to be there, I get some floral orchid notes. Maybe it’s the orchid that’s evoking vanilla in my mind since my familiarity with orchid is from DAVIDsTEA’s Vanilla Orchid, which has both flavours.

Aside from the vanilla and orchid, this has a whole bunch of stone fruit to it. Plum, especially. Plum and also raisins. This is really good. I am a fan and while I didn’t really know what to expect from this, I’d get it again for sure if I were placing a teavivre order.

More like a white tea than a green. Beans and corn and much better than I thought it would be as someone who is not a fan of green teas. Thank you for sharing, Angel from TeaVivre!

Check out my full review here: http://www.sororiteasisters.com/2019/04/25/organic-nonpareil-ming-qian-dragon-well-long-jing-green-tea-teavivre-2/

Samurai Travelling Tea Box – Tea #18

Gongfu!

Trying to try a selection of traditional teas from the TTB and not just flavoured tea. There’s nothing wrong with flavoured tea, but y’all know I like variety in my life and if I focus on TTB blends the next week or so and only drinking flavoured teas then there’s gonna be a Gongfu shape hole in my heart…

I’ve had so many teas from Teavivre over the year that it’s almost hard to believe I haven’t had this one!! This was a nice late morning session; the oolong was so smooth and forgiving with my sloppier brewing today and the jasmine leaned quite sweet and sticky on the palate! Aside from the fragrant florals, the tea also had notes of green grapes, fresh linens, and fresh cut summer grass! Six steeps total.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CCyds-1gE3s/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uEKJg1WHS0

Looks like no one else has written up this one yet on Steepster! I bought samples of this quite a while ago now, so please consider this is not a fresh harvest I’m reviewing.  It does taste the same as it did a while ago when I tried it though.  The jasmine is lovely, as almost always with Teavivre’s jasmine teas.  It’s also very hard to taste anything of the tea itself.  These are larger green pearls that are slow to unravel.  I’m really only tasting jasmine, but that is why I drink these types of tea anyway: JASMINE.  Jasmine is divine in summer.  If I had to choose one Teavivre jasmine tea, it probably wouldn’t be this one, as I notice more of the tea fuzzies in the cup.  I’d rather have a smooth jasmine tea, without that aspect.  But possibly others wouldn’t notice that as much.
Steep #1  // 1 1/2 teaspoons for full mug // 35 minutes after boiling  // 1 minute steep
Steep #2  // 28 minutes after boiling //  2 1/2 minute steep
Harvest: 2018
2020 Sipdowns: 56 (Shakespeare’s Corner Shoppe – Green Cucumber Melon + Lupicia’s Assam Calcutta Auction)

Aroma of dried dates and figs from the dry leaf.
Strong apricot flavour and sweetness in the brewed tea. Hint of spices.

Amazing floral bouquet on the lingering aftertaste on the second infusion at 4 minutes.