Teavivre

Dark Oolong that is amber in color and has a malted steamed veggie aroma. The tea taste vegetal and fruity, with a subtle orange and strawberry flavor.

I am so happy to be back to drinking most teas. I still have a lot of heartburn now and then but sixteen years on proton pump inhibitors isn’t going to be easy to overcome. I am committed to making it work.

I made egg fu yung again tonight because chickens are ridiculous and they cracked three of the eggs they laid today. They insisted on getting in the only nest box that did NOT have straw in it to lay their eggs and sat on each other and acted like toddlers in general. As long as the crack is superficial and the inner membrane is intact, the egg is okay to eat as long as you do so quickly because it will lose moisture quickly.

Asian food means green tea usually, but I saw this sample first and since it was handy I tossed it to hubby to make. Wow, I am glad he made this one because it was FANTASTIC.

With the food, I couldn’t help but notice how powerful the floral taste of this tea was, but there was enough mineral taste to make it pair awesomely. This is not a dark oolong, or a roast-y oolong. It is light and green-ish and sweet and smooth. And milky! There is a creamy smoothness to this that gives it lots of body.

I am seriously loving this tea tonight.

We had a few people absent from our writers’ group tonight, and since several of the attendees have really been loving the tea, I offered to use the extra time to do a gong fu tasting of this tea.

The tea was passed around the circle in the display dish. One of the younger members has been to China a couple of times and she really loved the aroma of the dry leaf. These are tight, hard pellets. When I poured them in the pot, they barely covered the bottom of the little 8 ounce vessel. It was going to be fun to watch their reaction to the unfurling of the leaves.

I did a quick rinse and then a short steep. The liquor was a nice solid yellow and the taste was smooth and buttery with a light floral taste. The girl who had been to China said it was nice, and she liked it, but it wasn’t going to be a favorite. Knowing the flavor profile she has liked in the past, I made the next two steeps longer. Now the tea had that little bite with the sweet aftertaste that is found in some green teas like Chun Mee.

As I expected, she said those were her favorite steeps. We made about 35 ounces in all tonight and there are still some good steeps left in these leaves.

Thank you, Teavivre, for the wonderful samples!

It is rare that one finds a rose tea in which the rose isn’t overpowering, but distinctively there. Props to having an excellent rose flavor without even touching perfumeyness. The tea leaf (dry) smells like chocolate and roses! Lovely.

Light Oolong that is yellow in color and has a steamed vegetable aroma. The tea is light, it’s not too sweet, and it has a floral and steamed spinach taste. This tea is pretty good, but it does not stand out as anything special.

Thank you Teavivre for this sample tea!

At first, I underbrewed this tea. It was very pale and delicate…

I let the leaves steep longer in the gaiwan, observing the transformation…playing with the water, moving the lid back and forth in a figure eight then straining the liquor.

The color had changed only a half tone and the taste was as it should be. A delicate whisper.

The flavor was a thin coat of unsalted sweet butter brushed lightly across my tongue, tingling towards the back and a subtle floral finish.

I would never drink this tea in the morning. I’d roll over and go back to sleep if this was next to my bed.

It’s too…relaxing…it…floats in my mind…like sunbeams flickering through the trees.

I’m sipping this Ali Shan and I want to sit by a stream, lay in a hammock, watch the Fall leaves waving back and forth…back and forth out my window.

This is a soft, gentle, tranquil tea.

Lovely.

Dark Oolong that is light amber in color and has a nutty roasted aroma. It is light and sweet with a peach and cocoa taste.

I’ve had this for nearly a year and I still have 2 oz of it! :O I nearly forgot how tasty it is. It’s very malty with a bit of honey. It’s dark and rich and a nice start to my morning. I’m off work today and tomorrow to cover for J (he has to invigilate some exams/do office hours) so I’m just hanging out with my toddler, watching her run laps in her room around her train table!

I think today will be another Adagio sampler tasting day as I build a sampling box for Ozli and think she’ll enjoy some of those. Maybe I’ll send her some of this too…. It’s just so tasty and I’m pretty sure I bought it during the last spring sale so it was well priced. Teavivre is pretty great.

I haven’t had this in awhile, so I needed to remedy that. It’s nice to have a straight black tea, without all the crazy flavours and just get back to basics. This one is so dark and rich. I may have over-steeped it, but I am still enjoying it.

I think it’s been over a month since I had this one, which makes me want to yell at myself because this is really good. It’s dark and rich, without being overly malty. (which is what I was afraid of). I’m getting sweet honey, and caramel too!

I guess the secret for this one is to err on the side of understeeping!

Each sip is seriously like walking along the danger zone – it smells like it’s almost too strong and I don’t want to sip it, but when I do it’s just rich and perfect.

Mmmm. This is a nice rich start to my day. Not much caramel – more honeyed molasses, but it’s very good.

Comparison notes here for Organic vs. Non-Organic version: http://steepster.com/cavocorax/posts/194378

This is another sample I was a bit worried about trying because I only had enough for the one cup, and wanted to make sure I could give it a proper review.

Time to stop stalling! (Although, I wish I’d brewed up some of the non-organic version for comparison. Maybe I’ll do that right now? Done. Both are about ~7 grams at 85C for 2.5 minutes, because THAT’S SCIENTIFIC.)

I quickly smelled both of these and found that the organic version (OGV) smelled darker and a bit like chocolate, while the non-organic version (NOGV) smelled malty and rich.

The OGV tastes dark and rich but I can definitely taste the caramel notes in it. It’s very smooth and luxurious too and I still swear I’m getting cocoa. Once it’s cooled a little it actually tastes better too.

The NOGV has a very similar profile. Maybe slightly less caramel? But I might be getting honeyish notes in there.

Hmmm. I’m really have a tough time digging right in there and finding the difference. The OGV is a bit earthier than the NOGV, while the NOGV might be slightly sweeter. I guess that means that I’ll re-order the cheaper one? :P Both are fantastic teas and I’d recommend them.

Thank you Angel for this sample. I have 100g of the NOGV, so it was nice to have just a cup of the other so I could see what I was missing.

Now, what am I going to do with all these steeped tea? That’ll be a lot if I re-steep them both! Ha! But then I might be able to add more to this comparison.

Also, I don’t recommend drinking THIS MUCH tea (especially rich black tea) on an empty stomach! :P Whoops.

Light Oolong that is yellowish green in color and has a floral aroma. It tastes sweet and floral with a little fruitiness on the back end. Plus it can help prevent scurvy.

Backlog:

This is definitely a favorite tea of mine. For a long time, my favorite Chinese green tea has been Tai Ping Hou Kui, but, this one might be edging out that tea for me! This is just so good!

The leaves look so beautiful … like they’ve been meticulously rolled up like scrolls. Lovely.

The flavor is sweet … Juicy even! Soft, sweet, vegetative, with notes of spice. A really lovely tea!

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/05/07/liu-an-gua-pian-green-tea-from-teavivre/

Water: 8oz at 180 degrees

Leaves: very large flat leaves

Steep: 1m,2m

Aroma: light

Color: Light Green

Taste: I was interested in trying this tea because I haven’t seen anything like it before. First steep was for 1 minute, the first sip was bitter then it mellowed out to a lighter non bitter note. On the other hand the second steep was the complete opposite 2m I didn’t like it at all. This time around it was very bitter, I couldn’t finish my cup. I’m not sure if I used too many leaves or if my water was a bit hotter than expected but overall I didn’t enjoy this tea.

*Update!
I recently brewed this tea again this time following a different technique, it came out much better than the first time. Light smooth with no bitterness.

Sipdown (340)!

This was a cold brew.

I have to say that this wasn’t the best cold brew ever flavour wise; it was very aggressive and harsh with really blunt, choppy jasmine and hay notes. No delicateness, nuance and calming factor. However I know that’s because of the fact this brew was comprised of all the broke up buds and drugs at the bottom of this tin so I’m not upset about it at all. In fact, it was still a very hard sipdown for me because for the last two-three years this tea has been a serious staple in my cupboard. So, it’s heart breaking to be done with it for a while…

I’m sure at some point I’ll revisit this one or restock in general; but in the mean time I was to explore some of the other Mo Li Yin Zhen options from other companies since I’ve just been really fixated on this one for the last while. It’s totally possible to have too much of a good thing, and I don’t want to reach that point.

So, sad sipdown – but a needed one.

Iced.

I’m REALLY close to a sipdown of this now; in fact I’m so close that pretty well 90% of the tea leaf left is broken up stuff, and there’s so little of it I was able to move the remaining into the smallest size foil bag I own and clean out the tin for something else. Sipdown is coming soon, guys…

I’ve also decided that after stocking this Mo Li Yin Zhen for nearly three years I want to try some of the offerings from other companies. It’s not that I don’t love this one, because really I love it A LOT (hence why I’ve had it on hand for three years) but sometimes you just want a change, right?

Sadly, this cup was pretty well garbage but that was super my fault. I knew that this one was going to steep up really quickly/strongly already because of all the broken tea leaf so I had set the time for it at work for a lot less time than I’d normally give it to steep. I set the timer on top of the gravity steeper, and went back to cleaning counters until the time went off.

…It never went off.

In a stroke of idiocy, I forgot to click the timer to turn it on. So, just guessing, I think this beautiful, delicate jasmine silver needle probably got like a nine minute infusion time!? Suffice to say, it was bitter, and astringent, and harsh. No what I was hoping for.

Ugh!

Cold brewed, and then run through the soda stream.

I wasn’t exactly sure how this would work but what I ended up with was a very light and refreshingly floral fizzy jasmine drink with sweet undertones that just reminded me of a really good spritzer. In fact, it felt like the kind of thing one might be served at a fancy, high class salon while getting a mani pedi or at a spa while getting a cucumber foot scrub or whatever things one does when at the spa. Just, simple but also kind of elegant and extravagant in its simplicity.

It’s been a long time since I did a tea infused juice, so last night while I was at the grocery store I picked up some Lemonade and when I got home I prepped a glass of it with a whole bunch of this tea (like three tablespoons) to make myself some Jasmine Lemonade!

It turned out incredibly successfully – and were it not for the amount of leaf that it uses I’d immediately go prep another cup. It’s good, natural lemonade with all the slight tartness and tangyness it should have and without cloying, excessive sweetness. For anyone curious, the lemonade I’m using is Happy Planet’s Organic Lemonade. They also carry an Organic Raspberry Iced Tea that had me really interested, but it was sold out. The jasmine comes in as a sweet, floral and fresh background note that takes a little more of the stage in the finish after that sweet sourness from the lemons tapers a bit. The flavour is so well integrated into each sip though, and it’s such a refreshing pairing. My favourite tea infused juice I’ve made thus far, for sure.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cofswLqmfc

EDIT: Picked the song ‘cause it’s bright and lively, just like the juice.

Made a note for myself that I drank this, but can’t for the life of myself remember doing so. Not a clue if it was hot, or cold brewed? I’m sure it was delightful as always, I’d likely remember if it wasn’t….

Made in my timolino while spending the afternoon finishing Christmas shopping. I hate shopping; it just stresses me out. So, it was pretty nice to have a hot cup of tea with me on the slightly miserable, cold day – and on top of that not only was it a warm cup of tea but also a soothing jasmine one!

And I know I said I had done that a while ago but I wound up with some surprise things I needed to pick up: namely a Secret Santa gift for a coworker. I was at Cuppa’T which is in the Cathedral area of Regina. For everyone who isn’t Lala or tigress_al that’s basically the really cool aesthetic/hipster-y/artsy area of town. If I could afford it, that’s where I’d want to live in Regina out of all the different neighborhoods.

At Cuppa’T I picked up some tea for myself, of course. Hiatus be damned. I nabbed 50g of Pink Beauty because I wanted to restock that one and then I got 50g of two new teas: a white tea called Nights in Paris and a fruit blend called The Great Gatsby. I also looked for Ice Princess or Dragonfruit Cranberry to restock those blends but they weren’t in stock. For my Secret Santa gift I got this really cute small/personal sized blue bubble teapot and 50g of Chamomile. The woman I got for the exchange is pretty pregnant so I thought something caffeine free and soothing might be a nice gift for her.

Then, after Cuppa’T we stopped at Dessart, which is a super cool candy store. I didn’t actually buy much for me but I did get something like $40 of candy to make into these little stocking stuffer/gift bags for my coworkers. That was a gift I definitely didn’t expect to be grabbing but am really happy I did. I love giving gifts; I just wish I could afford to do so more often…

Final stop was a bust: we were gonna go look at this Chinese herbal store because a friend from work said she saw teaware there the other day. Sure enough, we got to the store and there were several gorgeous Gaiwans in the front window that had me practically salivating! However, turns out they were closed so I’ll need to sate my tea addiction some time in the future.

But overall, it was a good shopping trip as far as shopping trips go.

So, it rained yesterday…

Apologies Lala and tigress_al. It appears that the spider massacre that’s been taking place in my room all week finally caught up to me and I jinxed us.

This cold brew was lovely: such crisp, clean taste with a jasmine sweetness. The perfect tea for just sipping on throughout the work day and keeping hydrated with. Yummy yummy yummy.

Picked this one out specially in the morning to brew for my Mom and I; she absolutely loves just about anything jasmine and it was a really beautiful way to ease into the day! I drank mine pretty much piping hot, but she waited until hers was cold. I think she’d have enjoyed it hot but what can you do?

I feel like I got a lot done today though!

1. I did my blind cupping test/exam for Tea 103 with help from my mom, which I’m sure I’ll write about more in depth tomorrow. It was really hard to do, though – and I’m not confidant at all that I kicked ass at it…

2. Finished updating my resume, and applied to a couple places online.

3. I found our old printer and got it set up at home/installed the software on my laptop so I could actually print some resumes and bring them to places nearby. One of the place I want to apply is a British style tea house that’s not even two blocks away from where I’m living – I don’t think they’re specifically hiring but if my resume is solid, and I write a cover letter targeted specifically for them I’m hopeful I can convince them to hire me!

4. Painted my nails bubblegum pink, which probably seems small but it’s the first time I’ve done something that simple for myself in at least a month. Just taking the time to do a good job felt really indulgent.

5. I cleaned my mom’s fridge from top to bottom so not only does she no longer have any gross expired food in there but it’s practically sparkling – and even though it felt like it took ages (the amount of things I found GROWING in it is just disgusting) it feels really nice to have helped around the house and done something for her.

It was a productive day!