Teavivre

Non-sipdown cupboard removal: 3

Another really old one out of the cupboard! It’s still good though – I shared a cup of it the other day. Quite sweet, and no offputting flavours like the other ginseng tea I had lately. Thanks to Teavivre for the sample!

Thanks to Teavivre for this generous free sample, and apologies for such a slow review!

I used about 2 tsp of tea in 2.5 cups of water for this tea, as I did with the DT version. This version definitely brewed up more quickly and strongly than the other, and even though it had less than half the time to brew, the flavour is quite similar. The biggest difference I’m noticing between them is in terms of sweetness; this tea is noticeably sweeter, and the sweetness emerges prior to swallowing, so is not just in the aftertaste. Other than that, both have a sweet, slightly seaweedy aroma, and the flavour of crispy fried seaweed, which is kind of toasty/seaweedy/delicious. Very interesting! After a bit of thought, the flavour could be described as quite “buttery”, which is how the fried seaweed comes off because of all the oil present. It’s tough to say which tea I’d prefer; I imagine that Teavivre’s has greater longevity, so if I was to purchase this again, that would probably be my choice, although I doubt I’ll pick this one up again of my own accord.

Been busy all weekend, so I have had no time to try any tea and it has been driving me crazy! So now that I finally have time I decided to make this up from the sample bag that Teavivre.

The dry smell is very pleasant, which was surprising to me for some reason. It’s probably because the last Pu-erh I had was very fishy. The wet smell is very interesting as it smells kind of spicy like chili peppers or cooked green peppers. The color of the liquid is interesting as well since it is kind of a copper color similar to Oolong tea or a light black tea. The taste is a little oily in the mouth with a nice plum flavor. I sort of like it, it’s interesting.

Lazy sunday afternoon….

Yes, so I am finally reading Fifty Shades of Grey… I resisted all summer long, being constantly hassled by friends: «Oh, you MUST read it, Oh Christian Grey this, Oh Christian Grey that!», I’m telling you, a bunch of puberty high school girls! (giggles)
To the point that I thought for sure this book was overrated, too much fuss and publicity surrounding it.

I was kind of suspicious of an author made famous instantly for writing a few hot and steamy sessions. But my curiosity got the best of me, and I caved in! I will admit that Mr.Grey has something on the collective fantasy world of women… Not highly intellectual literature, but hey, can a girl have some pure entertainment readings once in a while?

So I thought I’d pair this book with a «hot» tea, something sexy of course…

Mmm, some Ginseng love potion?

My first ginseng tea ever…I ordered 100g strictly based on *Roughage*’s review, he had mentioned he could taste Fisherman’s Friend cough drops. I adore them and thought it would be wonderful to find a similar taste in a beverage.

Dark bluish green little nuggets, how unusually shaped they are! I am so curious about them… I brewed the tea in my glass pot in order to watch the leaves doing their dance. 90 sec. They barely opened up, they are rolled very tightly. The infusion turned slightly green, darker than most oolong.

The aroma is definitely oolong, with a twist of…je ne sais quoi…

The taste:

Miaow…This is really fifty shades of flavour! How can I describe it?

It also reminds me of some vintage candy my grandma used to give us, in french, they were called «Boules Noires» (doesn’t translate so well in english, but if you want to know, there you have it: Black Balls)

That’s exactly what they were, little black balls, hard as a rock and as you’d let them melt in your mouth, they would change colours… Lots of fun and very tasty! As I remember, they had a sweet liquorice fresh menthol feel to them and this tea is very reminiscent of that. I am really enjoying this.

Second steep and the leaves are on their way to unfurl, but not completely yet. I know some of you mentioned that the ginseng powder was pretty much gone after first steep, but I still get quite a bit of that flavour. It is more subtle though, and the oolong is more present. This oolong is very buttery, in a baked cookie kind of way.

I don’t know how many infusions I will get out of it, but this is what I’m having for the rest of the day!

It was the perfect choice to pair with what I’m reading at the moment… just like the book, it made me blush a little :-)

My first normal tea in a while!

The smell is smokey, sweet, kind of like chocolate. I initially get a muskiness as I drink, but it turns into something mineral and juicy, then a pleasant sweet smokiness in the back of my throat. The astringency seems to hit kind of randomly for me – I think this may actually be my first tea that has it/that I’ve tasted it in. I had no idea it was more of a physical sensation than a taste, but I looked it up just now to account for the sourness I kept feeling. It goes pretty well with the flavors in this!

On the second steep, it’s started to get the floralness to it that I saw mentioned in other reviews, and has much less bite. Definitely smoothing out by the third and fourth cups.

I finally got around to sampling this from Teavivre. Sorry it took me so ling. :( this tea is just lovely to look at. It’s cute and furry. I almost felt like I was drowning little fuzzy animals in hot water as I brewed my cup. :( fortunately its just dried leaves I’m drowning! Delicious dried leaves!

The tea is light yellow smells softly floral and tender green grass. Like a perfect spring day. It’s good to remind oneself such days exist on miserable rainy cold days like this one. I’m also getting some summer squash. Second steep went a bit too long but there’s no bitterness. This tea is truly lovely. If teas belonged to a season, this would go with spring. Drinking this tea now is like having a perfect summer tomato in the middle of winter. This tea is out of its rightful time. To get the proper feel of fall, I’ll have to drink some darker oolongs later. :)

THE LAST OF MY TEAVIVRE SAMPLES AND UM. WOW. WOW THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING BLACK TEA. I don’t think I ever expected myself to rate an unflavored black tea this high, especially without adding more things to it as well. I usually always doctor up my black teas with sugar and/or milk because they’re just too strong and sometimes bitter but WOW NOT THIS ONE! I didn’t have to add anything!

It SMELLED sweet at first! And the leaves looked so cute and curly, I don’t have any other tea that looks quite like this. When I went to take my first sip I was PREPARED FOR HEAVY BITTER BLACK TEA TASTE but then it… SURPRISINGLY… WAS NOT! It was rich but not bitter at all, very sweet, kinda reminiscent of hazelnuts! I saw some people mention sweet potatoes as well and YES I think that describes it perfectly! A bit malty, ever so slightly butterscotch-y… what a great black tea, dang!

Many thanks again to Teavivre for these wonderful samples! I’m pretty much sold; most definitely want to buy some in the future!

I STILL have not figured out what this is so nostalgic! SOMEDAY… SOMEDAY IT WILL COME TO ME…

Another Teavivre sample yay! Thank you!

WOW THIS IS. SO GOOD. The smell is strangely nostalgic, I’m totally being brought back to when I was like 5 years old or something. EVEN THE TASTE IS SOMEWHAT NOSTALGIC. Wow this is probably the best tasting jasmine I have ever had. I’m not even a fan of super floral teas, but something about this is… beyond what one would think of when they think of FLORAL this is just really clean but kinda woodsy and DANG THE PEARLS! The pearls alone are gorgeous! This is my first pearl tea and even watching them unfurl was really neat! I can only imagine the work and care that was put into making each one of these. How cool, what a delightful tea, golly.

I wish I could figure out where this nostalgia feeling is coming from, maybe it will come to me. But for now I will just keep smelling and sipping this, I’m on my 3rd re-steep already HEH HEH!

Wow, I think I just bit into a chrysanthemum! Everyone talks about how they get a floral taste from oolongs and I usually get a strong butter flavor.
This though… wow serious flowers. And super interesting to me is that afterwards I do get a butter flavor but with a neat salt aftertaste. Surprising finish, really nice.
If I judged this by the initial flavor I would be kind of meh about it, but the twist, like the end of an Agatha Christie mystery is just too neat to ignore.
Thanks for the sample Teavivre! This one is a fun one :)

This was a free sample from Teavivre – thank you!
I brewed 4 “pearls” which, by the way, are adorable. I love the tactile way they rattle around in the tin.
I brewed this a little longer than I meant to, I was administering frozen pea first aid to my sister, but I caught it in time for it to be fine.
The liquor smells sweet and caramelly. The flavor of the tea black is a little sour for my taste, I think this is a tea I add milk too. I get malty flavors and a little bit of a nice… graham cracker taste? weird but good.
I want to try brewing this shorter again, but definitely fine how I brewed it!

THIS KEEPS GETTING BETTER EVERY TIME I DRINK IT! What a fab ooloong.

Another Teavivre sample! Packaged in a way I had never seen before, too!

DANG I LOVE OOLONG SO MUCH and this is no exception. I brewed it pretty long so the taste pretty strong! Quite flowery too, which I wasn’t quite expecting actually, I think I was prepared for a more earthy grassy taste WHICH IS DEFINITELY THERE but there are certainly some strong floral overtones too. Very good, nonetheless! Especially because I’m a fan of jasmine which this is a bit reminiscent of.

As with most oolongs in my experience, I was able to steep it twice easily and could probably get at least one more out of it, if not two. I do steep mine longer than suggested though so I’m not sure how much that’s sucking out all the flavor HAHA. ANYWAY yes, good oolong, very fresh!

Free sample fro Teavivre! Haven’t gotten around to reviewing many teas recently, have just been enjoying old favourites on the run.
This tea tasted very gingery to me, an interesting flavour but pleasing none the less. My first steep was very sweet, the leave barely unfurled. After that the colour got darker and the earthy flavour became more dominant over the sweet notes. A very yummy brew, definitely unique!

Really light and sweet. I think I’m going to steep a pitcher of this for my Creative Writing class to try tomorrow. I’ve got to bring some of them over to the Dark Side…

(In other news, we used this tea because of its color to stand in for the whiskey in the show I just did!)

Thanks to Teavivre for this sample!

I’ve heard so many good things about this tea, I was excited to get to try it. It’s beautiful and chocolatey and kind of bready. It’s sweet. There’s a tiny bit of smoke, but it’s sweet. Fantastic!

MY TEAVIVRE SAMPLES CAME IN! I’m so excited! This blooming tea was something I was really looking forward to, as I had never had one before and they always look so cool! Unfortunately I don’t have a nice fancy glass teapot but I do have a really large glass mug.

WOW THIS IS LIKE… THE COOLEST EVER!? The flower literally opens up into 3 full blooms its insane IT IS SO TALL WOW my mug is JUST TALL ENOUGH TO HOLD ITS FULL HEIGHT. DANG. It’s so pretty! I kinda had a fear that the bloom wouldn’t be as cool as it is in photos, you know? BUT IT’S SUPER COOL.

Okay I think I over-steeped slightly because I spent so much time just looking at it and taking pictures HAH but it still tastes great! Very light and flowery, smooth and slightly sweet. Giving the rating extra points for the EXPERIENCE though because that was AWESOME.

I’m feeling kind of wonky, so I think that may translate into a wonky review. But here goes anyway! I’m enjoying my first cup of tea in my new apartment! This place ROCKS! But there’s sooooo much work to be done. Unpacking, organizing, decorating, and lots of trips to Lowes and Goodwill are in my future. I am super tired just thinking about it, so I thought this tea might be a good one to start with. Isn’t ginseng for energy? Well, there’s A LOT of ginseng in this tea! So, if you’re a fan of the taste, you’ll love this tea.

While waiting for the cup to cool, I read the purported health benefits. Prevents the decaying of teeth…?! Okay! Well, I can’t dislike this tea now! I wonder if that’s really true…anyway, this is an interesting tea. It reminds me of Blue People, but heavier on the ginseng and minus the awesome cooling sensation in the aftertaste of Blue People (see that tea here: http://steepster.com/teas/vital-tea-leaf/1803-blue-people).

First steep was 1 minute. Second steep was 2 minutes. Second cup is actually too strong for me. I don’t think I’d drink this regularly. The oolong is overwhelmed by ginseng, and I much prefer a plain oolong flavor. Still, it’s not bad and it fits the high quality standard of all Teavivre teas. It’s just not the tea for me. Also I’m still feeling just as tired as when I started drinking this tea, so not sure how energizing it really is… By the way, broccoli soup is gross. And it definitely does not go with ginseng oolong tea. Eww. I think I’ll call it a night and go to sleep.