Teavivre

I thought this oolong was ok, but not amazing. I’ve been drinking some outstanding oolongs lately. Maybe it’s becoming harder to impress me!

I was feeling very lazy this AM, so I made the mistake of brewing this grandpa style with about a tsp of leaves in my Dr. Who mug at 208 degrees. I didn’t get many pleasant flavors or aromas. It just tasted kind of weak. As it sat and cooled, it started leaving a kind of dry feeling in my mouth, but it didn’t really get stronger.

This afternoon, I decided I should brew this properly, so I used 5 g of leaves in my gong fu pot and did some shorter steeps, still at 208 degrees. The tea was better this way, but still seemed weak. It did smell and taste green with some light florals, but something just seemed to be missing.

I only did about 3 steeps before I stopped getting much of anything out of the leaves. I just don’t think this is the oolong for me.

After I wrote this up, I was reading some of the other reviews. I think I may be the only person who doesn’t think this was exceptional!

Um, I go back and forth on this one. Some days I don’t know what I like. Am I or am I not into smoky green tea? It’s become like a deep philosophical riddle for me. Also, I think I steeped this slightly too long, so that’s not helping me decide.

A smokey green tea. Who’d’ve thought? It actually reminded me of bacon at first sip. That probably doesn’t sound appealing, but I really like it. It’s surprising what can be good sometimes.

Oh yum this is really good black tea. I’ve had so many good black teas lately it would be really hard to pick a favorite! I love sweet honey malty teas :) :) :)

Happy Friday Steepster!

Polished off the rest of this sample from Cavocorax this morning. Realized it is much more flavorful when it is overleafed, I am still not getting any chocolate notes though.

Actually it struck me as a tiny bit smoky, but maybe that’s my untrained tastebuds misidentifying another flavor within.

Still enjoyable, just not as much as the Golden Monkey or the Superfine Tan Yang.

Thank you, Cavo!

Sample from Cavo!

Tried this once before, wasn’t quite sure what I made of it. I had it this morning for breakfast, two steeps.

I enjoyed it, a decent black, though I definitely still prefer Golden Monkey, which is almost magically delicious.

Right now I’m drinking Teavivre’s Yun Nan Dian Hong Golden Tip, which I think I prefer to this. Probably anything golden is fine by me!

Thanks for the sample, Cavo! I have some left to play around with, so that’s awesome.

I’m drinking this
It’s tasty…but I think I preferred the Golden Monkey one for some reason….slightly smoother, maltier, breadier, maybe a bit less fruity than this?

Though the review is for this tea, so just twist that sentence around so that the subject is reversed :)

Baby’s waking up and she sounds pissed…gotta go :)

I have 100g of this tea sitting right next to my Laoshan Black….and I haven’t touched them for months. It seems that I’ve relegated these teas to winter drinking without even knowing it….which is not good, because in southern california you’re lucky to wear out one sweater in your lifetime because you never need to wear one! So it’s time to pull out the winter sweaters of tea, albeit a little early in the season and start enjoying their warm fuzzies again.

As with other fujian blacks, my nose and palate always seem to pick up a cannabis note first. After that comes all the wonderful complex flavors that Chinese teas can bring…baked bread/grains, cocoa, malt, yam skin… and all balanced beautifully. Bailin gongfu has a lovely round mouthfeel and no astringency, which I adore. If you’re ordering from TeaVivre, ask for this to be your free sample….as you shouldn’t miss what this tea has to offer. It is refined, complex and just plain yummy.

My true tea ritual happens on the weekend. Deciding is always the hard part. I chose this Bailin Gongfu today as I reviewed it not long ago and wanted to see if it was as wonderful as I remembered it being. Yup. 2 heaping teaspoons in 16 oz of water, 3 minutes, water 185 degrees. Deep flavor profile filled with baked bread, cocoa, malt, yams, and a touch of caramel. the taste that lingers after the cup is finished is lovely…a floral note stays on the tongue like an unexpected gift to savor after you’ve left your teatime behind. Still recommended!

As an imperfect steeper, I know this won’t be the best review I do of this tea. For me steeping is trial and error. I tried to go through the reviews of this tea for the most recent that showed steep times and temperatures, but THAT was an exercise in frustration, as the reviews don’t come up in any logical sequence! So I just steeped. 2 tbsp. (as recommended on packaging) and off the boil water. 3 minutes. Ready? This tea is NOM!!!!! Smooth, bakery tasting, quiet cocoa notes, Tinge of yam skin….I’m not getting much caramel, but for me that’s good….and it may come up as the tea cools more. I thought I’d crossed a new “tea lover” line by ordering directly from China (it felt…different, somehow) and perhaps I have. But with great results. It’s seriously hard for me not to gulp this down in mouthful after yummy mouthful..but then it would be all gone and I’d be sad. That’s the kind of tea this is. It MAKES you savor it…. very recommended.

The third and last of my Teavivre spring preorders, and this one is less vegetal, even with a touch of toast. A bit less flavorful than the other two (Hou Kui and Long Jing), but as my cup cooled, I started to taste some creamy florals with almond, so that’s an automatic home run in my book.

The very last of the sample :( Sorry to see it go — fuzzy teas are the cutest! I left this tea to cool quite a bit by accident, but at the slightly-above-lukewarm temperature I was able to taste some of the fruity notes I hadn’t previously detected in it. A lovely green tea.

This tea tastes different every time, possibly because I can’t get my steep times under control. It seems less biting and more vegetal this time around. Very good. Plus the fuzzy tea leaves are adorable.

I read in a few reviews that this was a spicy tea, and I wondered how that was meant since this is a plain green. Now that I’ve tried it, I think it’s spicy in the way that parsley is spicy — vegetal with bite. It’s very interesting (and the little curled tea leaves are adorable) but I think it might take me a few tries to warm to this tea. It’s definitely a bit out of my comfort zone.

This tea is wonderful! It’s very green and vegetal tasting, yet very light, with an almost clear liquor. It is also incredibly sweet for a green tea, and has a creamy, velvety mouthfeel. There’s a very light aftertaste of orange if you smack your tongue.

By the second steeping there is a more distinct vegetal flavor, taking on the flavor of green beans. The sweetness is still very rich. There is absolutely no astringency or dryness to this tea. It is ever so slightly nutty. The third steeping is similar to the second, but with less sweetness and more nutty and vegetal flavor.

Cool stuff, definitely on par for one of China’s 10 famous teas.

I’ve been drinking this at work lately, but I haven’t yet reached the amazing mindblowing cup that I had the first time I made this tea and rated it 94. I may need to experiment a bit more, good thing I bought a whole tin.

I feel like in my mind I preferred the Harney and Sons version, but sadly that one isn’t as easy or cheap for me to get in Canada.

Sooooooo I went with this one.

I think the first time I had it, I used the entire sample pouch for one cup, which made it extra potent and delicious. I made it yesterday at work in my gravity steeper, the whole sample pouch (i had a couple left), and did 2 steeps. They were delicious, but not quite as amazing as the first time.

Of course, being at work, the tea got cold as I wasn’t able to drink it all at once, and I did notice it went through phases… hot tea obviously not as easy to pick out flavours. Then it cooled a bit and I got a weird hint of cinnamon. Then at the end when it was pretty much cold it was different again.

I will be playing with this in the future when I can sit down and pay attention!
For now I am lowering my rating just a tad, even though it’s still a yummy tea.

Yup, yummy. My professional opinion.

Oh my.

Old sample from Teavivre…though you wouldn’t know the age based on the taste…..this tea is OUTSTANDING. I LOVE it.

It smelled great dry, and steeped it’s malty and bready and slightly chocolatey, but completely amazing.

And the taste, oh the taste. So much flavour. Allllll the flavours. I’m seriously getting bread and maybe some fruit (raisins? Whaaaa?), cocoa, but whatever, who cares…. It’s just awesome.

Yup, I will buy this one. Once I do some more sipdowns…a lovely reward this will be.

Try it, now!
It’s just what I wanted. Actually I can see me wanting this regularly.

Nommmmmmmmmmm

(90 degrees, and only 1 min so I’m excited for more steeps!!)

You know…..I might even prefer this to LB (ducks)

I SERIOUSLY CAN’T STOP SNIFFING MY CUP

Creamy, slightly sweet, floral goodness. It’s so good. Ugh. Just. I love it. So much. Drink it.

My second cup of tea since the Great Detox of 2014. It has a much stronger, greener, buttered-vegetables flavor than yesterday’s exquisitely delicate Hou Kui – both part of my Teavivre preorder. I have never really appreciated Long Jing. I’m just not much of a sensitive soul and require stronger flavors. I don’t know if it’s the recent detox or the fact that this is the year’s fresh batch, but I could drink this every day. There is no shortage of flavor here, and it leaves a delicious aftertaste too.

The Leaf: Very dark leaves compressed together with fairly light brown leaves spotted throughout. The scent is typical of a pu-erh, earthy, soil, and slightly woody. However, I detect a slight musty or moldy tone; it’s very faint, but still there.

The Brew: The liquor is a golden brown. The aroma is faint but has tones of wood and walnut. The taste is also very earthy, woody, but quite nutty as well. I get a very distinct walnut essence from this tea. The mouthfeel is nice and light with very little aftertaste, mostly nutty as well, and no dryness really.

The Spent Leaf: The spent leaf was the most interesting of this tea. Just after brewing the leaves present a very strong undeniable scent of walnuts. Walnut was the overtone, while there were undertones of wood, and earth.

I drink all of my teas cold. *my comments are from the first brewing

The Leaf: Each curled leaf ranges from a deep dark green to a much lighter, almost pale green color. Only found one lose stem in the pile, but otherwise all leaf. The scent is light, sweet, and fruity.

The Brew: The aroma is clean, sweet, fresh, slightly grassy, and fruity. The liquor is extremely light green; almost clear or white looking. The taste is medium-light in intensity. There is a slight astringency, possible due to the high temperature water. The mouthfeel is somewhat thick while drinking, and there is a slight dryness left on the tongue. I taste fresh grass, mineral, and grape skin.

I drink all of my teas cold.

A light but beautifully balanced green, the flavor is equal parts vegetal and floral – the sort of honeysuckle floral you typically find in oolong teas. There’s no strong aroma, but the steeped leaves smell ever so slightly of peas. A very fresh-feeling tea, good anytime.

This another type of black tea I haven’t tried yet. It smells nice, like honey wheat bread. That is also what I get in the flavour. The sweetness is nice and subtle. I think this should really be a breakfast tea.

First there were the two weeks of work craziness when tea consisted gallons of Awake from Starbucks. Then there were two weeks of zero caffeine detox. Now I feel prepared to resume appreciating teas for their flavor rather than solely based on caffeine content. This was my first cup and a beautiful way to drink tea. I had forgotten a cup of tea could calm and not just fuel me. It’s delicate. Deliciously delicate. Savory and sweet – maybe a bit of carrot? Or even carrot tops. Bi luo lovers might like to give this a try.