Teavivre

I received this as a lovely sample with my Teavivre order. The dry tea is a very small dark olive, producing a golden green cup. A silky, sweet, hay and honeyed cup, which is reminiscent of a sweeter, softer, less green dragonwell. Not bitter, not flowery, but vegetal and honeylike. Very much enjoyed.

Yum! Full details later.

EDIT: So it is quite some time later. I feel like rather than backlog and try to get in the mindset I was in this morning when I had this tea, I better just have another cuppa in the morning and write my tasting then, so it is more accurately described. But I can say I really enjoyed this one today.

Brought this one with me to make my brother try. This time I rinsed for ~10 seconds, then did a 30 second steep for my mug and a 45 second steep for his mug. His mug smelled so much fruitier than mine! So cool how the tea changes in later steeps.

I left him half of what I had left. I still have enough for 2 smaller mugs of several steeps.

Thanks so much, Heather! We both quite like this tea. I’m going to have to put it, or something similar, on my to buy list. :)

I tried to brew this strong today, to suit Older Sister’s tastes. A teaspoon of extra leaf, and 5 degrees hotter than usual, this is not as sweet and smooth. It’s more grainy and sharp, with a stronger bitter undertone from the cacao. There’s a hint of a straight coffee profile from that combination. The texture is thinner, harsher, and the barley notes lean more towards hay than smooth malt here.

This is still delicious when made strong like this, but that strength seems forced. It’s not the best choice to force this to act like a sharp, bold Western black tea. It’s much better as a smooth, sweet, mild Fujian black.

…Also, even if it might somewhat resemble a Western-style black tea like this, it’s definitely not going to provide that same caffeination. So, now I just feel like burrowing in some blankets, winter tea style, instead of studying for finals. Haha!

I’m gonna pull a shmiracles with this post, but first let me thank Angel at Teavivre for letting me try this tea.

First of all, as it has been said in other reviews, this tea comes in a vacuum sealed bag inside another vacuum sealed bag. Upon opening the inner bag, the tea immediately makes way into your senses. The smell is fresh, clean, buttery and floral, and the colour is an amazing vibrant green. Like all TGY teas, the leaves of this one are tightly rolled and they open up once they hit the hot water.

Is this not gorgeous?? Assuming it is visible outside the realms of Facebook.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/946045_10151409451372374_318358809_n.jpg

Drinking this tea, I thought of a song called “Shimmering, Warm, and Bright” by Bel Canto (a Norwegian band).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugnDTJXpSw0

I’m drinking this infusion plain, no sugar or anything. I do tend to drink my lighter oolongs plain, or with a very small amount of sweetener. I can pick up a smooth buttery feeling, slightly drying, and a light and somewhat sweet floral note. There is also a slight savoury taste, like roasted nuts or something. Whatever it is, it is all very good! I hope to get more steeps. Next time I think I may start with a shorter steep time, and build up as I re-steep.

Thanks again for letting me try this tea!

So I found a little rust in the inner edge of my electric tea kettle. I am so upset about that. What do I do about it? Should I toss it or is there a way to salvage it?

I finished this tea up. I used a pot to boil water and make this tea; however, this tea tasted strange after steeping it. This is a good tea overall though. I love the dry leaf that is furry and curly.

Water: I boiled 8oz water & let it cool slightly

Leaves: mini yellow-ish brown flower buds

Steep: 3 minutes

Aroma: floral

Color: pale yellow almost clear

Taste: I made this tea the same day as the blooming tea,I had no luck with this one either it was tasteless as well. Maybe I should have let it brew longer time I’m going to give it another go. I’ve been having difficulty writing reviews b/c I haven’t been getting much taste from my teas.

This is a nice, soft Keemun. It smells like the cocoa, malty scent that Keemuns possess. I brewed this for 2.5 minutes, which I think is long enough. It is a little bitter and astringent in my mouth. It was a honey brown colored brew. The taste is lighter Keemun, which is nice because sometimes Keemun can have an overbearing malty almost metallic taste in my mouth. This one doesn’t leave my mouth that way. This is a nice Keemun, but not my favorite.

Oh how I love green teas! This was my first straight Dragon Well. Thank you Angel and Teavivre for the sample :)

I’m really much more familiar with Japanese greens. This is a less grassy and buttery than a sencha, but it is still sweet and very vegetative. It reminds me of steamed broccoli, where a sencha would remind me of kale or spinach. It is rich without being buttery, but VERY smooth!

Extremely enjoyable, thanks very much Teavivre!

Today, it’s bright! It’s blue! It’s sunny! It’s mocking me and the storm clouds in my head, from finals week and some other… concerns.

So, no, I say!! Let’s bring winter and its comforts back. Let’s Western-brew a pot of Fujian black tea in the middle of the Mojave Desert in May, when there’s not a cloud in sight and it’s 97 degrees outside. Yes.

Ah, winter tea! Warm and comforting.
This starts off lighter when hot; barley and malt, with an incredibly smooth body, made interesting by tangy, grainy notes at the edges. It’s even better when it settles, developing a sweet cacao dimension, and more volume. The finish is creamy and very sweet, and lingers…

I did a quick rinse this time, and I think it hastened the development of that sweet cacao that I like best. I also let this steep a little longer than usual – true to the cacao, it was hinting at a bit of bitterness towards the end. It’s easy to follow the progress of the brew, since the flavors and textures are so clear, it’s easy to steep to taste.

And now, I’m just looking forward to brewing this (or something similar) at Christmas this year. I’ll be sure to!

I apparently lost this tea in the midst of my many small packages. For someone who has 95 teas, a lot of them sure are in small amounts. I should work at finishing some!

Anyways, I’ve only had a couple puerhs before. Golden Phoenix from Silk Road, which is… nothing like this, and Naked Pu-erh from Tealux, which I like in small doses and with a little sugar to counteract the puerh-ness of it. Yeah, IDK.

I didn’t know what this one would be like at all, but I’m trying to try more teas that I wouldn’t normally go for, which is why I asked Heather for this one at the swap/meetup. Thanks, Heather! This tea seems weird, but I’m glad I’m getting to try it. Now if only I could psych myself up to take the first sip! The smell is intimidating.

Ooh. That is good! It’s more like Silk Road’s Golden Phoenix without the cinnamon and citrus. There’s dirt, there’s tea, there’s a lot of deep complex flavours. This one doesn’t need sugar added for me to drink it. I’ll have to note I need to do a comparison of the Naked Pu-erh and this one, to see if I can pinpoint the differences.

I’m gonna pour this in my travel mug and bring it to work with me. This isn’t going to be an every day tea, but now I want to try more puerhs. Success!

(1.5 tsp in almost 16 oz water. IDK that I’d want to use as much tea as they suggest. This is plenty strong for me.)

I have no words that haven’t already been said about this tea. It’s just…. Wow.

This is the second of two Dragonwell samples I was sent by Teavivre.

This one was a little sweeter then the first one I tried and seemed to have a more balanced flavor profile. The only negative thing I can think to say about this is that I wasn’t able to get as many steeps out of the leaves as I did with the other one. Though the steeps I did get were very good.

This is my first Teavivre tea sample for review! (Thanks Angel!)

I am a huge fan of jasmine pearls, and these do not disappoint! Delicate, sweet, and smooth with a nice strong jasmine aroma. Just how I like it :)

Looking forward to trying my other Teavivre selections!

Sipdown, 167. Just was notified that my Verdant Reserve Club box is out for delivery today, which means 4 teas added to the cupboard. Even though I know my cupboard will definitely go above 170 later this month when I get my larger Verdant order in, I don’t want to go over today! So I decided to take the opportunity to finish off this dragonwell, especially since I have a few others in my stash.

I’m using a lot of leaf and brewing semi-gongfu, which is to say in a mug with an infuser, but with short steeps. This is, as usual, very nice, although there is a lingering perfumy raspberry stuck in my mouth or the infuser, or something. Hopefully the later steeps will clear it out. Quite a nice dragonwell it would certainly be a great one for an everyday green tea, if you were an everyday dragonwell kind of person. :)

This tea drinks like a meal—it feels chewy and full of grain, kind of the way stout makes me feel (not in taste necessarily, just, the heavy “sandwichiness” of both). And I get that toasted bakery rye or maybe even pumpernickel (there’s some molasses, especially on resteep) bread thing again! (Why am I the only one who smells and tastes that? Weird.) It almost feels savory to me somehow, not sweet. One serving’s worth of leaves could easily last me all day, because after a single cup you just want to lay back and pat your tummy, pacing your gut, aaaand it resteeps a buncha times. Very thick body, as thick as a heavy coffee.

Does this thing where upon resteep it gets sweeter AND slightly more bitter/toasty at the same time. Kind of impressive, that. The bittersweetness gives it a sort of chocolate-y effect. Also, second go-round it looks and feels like coffee in terms of opaqueness and body to the point of being nearly indistinguishable (not a bad thing).

Water: I boiled 12oz water

Leaves: one big tea ball

Steep: 3 minutes

Aroma: light floral

Color: almost clear when brewing but dark yellow in mug

Taste: Although very beautiful to watch is it blooms,I couldn’t help but to take a picture. Overall I found this tea to be tasteless.

I like that when you order samples from Teavivre they tend to give you two packets (separately sealed for freshness woot!), so you can brew gongfu and Western style, with significant time in between. Very cool. Going to try to hold off half of each type I ordered until my gaiwan from Verdant (! yippee) arrives at the end of the month.

This tea is so fragrant, smells like very sweet delicious sweet potato (cleanly so, like a steamed or boiled one, not a roasted, caramelized, or heavily spiced version) and just a little like bread/yeast , especially while brewing. This one’s also pretty in the cup, a very fine dark mahogany. There is a tinge of astringency, but the tea is sweet and “clean” enough tasting to make it bearable. This is yummy! I’m happy to find it’s not heavy or intensely rich like Laoshan Black; I don’t think I could devote myself to both, ha. It’s stronger, deep-darkier though than Honey Orchid or Mi Xian too (can you tell I’m trying to get my bearings with premium tea via plot point mapping dimensions?). I love that it’s not like any other tea I’ve tried so far, but at the same time very easy to drink.

Oooh, as it cools it deepens, and a slight, mysterious muskiness comes in. It also takes on a slightly bitter component, but somehow it’s not unpleasant. There’s some hay.

This may be the first tea I’ve had where the tannin and astringency build up doesn’t bother me somehow, because there’s also a velvetiness to go with it.

1st resteep per Teavivre’s instructions on the website yielded a darker, more opaque cup that is maltier, breadier, less sweet potato smelling than the first. Also a bit more bitter, but totally manageable.

Rolled, balled, with floral and vegetal scent, deep green leaves, unfurl in the cup. Give this fragrant tea time to steep. The scent in the cup is floral but deeper, more like a subtle incense with a vegetal green in the background. A good value

Opening the bag, little curly, fluffy,corkscrew leaves in lovely shades of green from pale to deep. When steeped, sweet vegetal taste with a hint of smokiness and honey. More subdued in flavor than a good dragonwell, tending more towards a white in its lightness. Very smooth with a silky, slightly smoky aftertaste that lingers. A good alternative to Dragonwell and a good added staple to a green tea lover’s larder. Inexpensive, for the quality. An excellent value for everyday drinking.

The rare desert spring rain is making the garden more beautiful than usual, this week. My visiting cousin and I were sitting outside in the garden, with this tea. This was her first time seeing flowering tea, which made me even happier to share.

The tea ball blooms very quickly, and is sturdy enough to withstand a few pours from within a glass tea pot, plus being transferred to a cold water vase for display. It’s beautiful; I especially like how bright the amaranth flowers are. They emerge like a growing light from the tight ball, a striking deep pink against pale white and green. The parts of this tea ball are angled nicely too. The twin blooms either curve slightly towards each other, or stand straight and tall.

The tea itself is best within the first 2-3 minutes or so, a pleasant, light jasmine-floral flavor on a thin texture. After that, it’s too rough and astringent, contrasting how beautiful the bloomed tea ball is. I find it’s best to serve just part of the initial brew for good drinking, then to leave the rest of the water for display preparation. Let the bloom steep for another 10-15 minutes or so before transferring to a display vase with fresh water; this helps the new water stay clearer for longer.

2 tsp in 12 oz

Okay, I definitely have to pick some of this up in my next order. It’s fabulous. Just like I said before, a sweetness characteristic of Dian Hongs from the many golden tips. Super smooth and rich.

I received this as a sample and was my first foray into the Oolongs.
The dark leaves steeped to a golden red liquor
Round and very floral, sweet, smooth with no bitterness and a velvety aftertaste.

I received this tea as a sample and I’m glad I did!
Small ebony leaf, smells like caramel, honey or candy in the bag without being cloying.
A light sweet smooth, plum-like, cocoa-caramel, very low in smokiness with no bitterness. No one scent overpowers, but a rich and mellow flavored Keemun. Priced economically, a good tea either hot or cold