Teavivre

This is one of those teas I thought I’d tried, but I don’t see a note. (When I pasted this review into Steepster, it turns out I did write a note for it, but I can’t see what it says! I gave it a pretty high rating, which is ominous.) I steeped 3 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 185F for 20, 40, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds. I also bowl steeped 2 g of tea in 200 ml of water at 185 starting at 3 minutes, adding water as needed.

The dry aroma is of smoke, meat, green beans, grass, and florals. The first steep has notes of smoke, meat, green beans, asparagus, butter, and grass, with a floral and smoky aftertaste. The next steep has even more smoke, and adds spinach and hints of apricot. Already, this tea is quite vegetal. The next couple steeps have hints of florals, apricot, and grass, but the smoke and spinach/asparagus/bitter veggies predominate. The final few steeps are very smoky and vegetal, and I understand why Teavivre doesn’t include them in their instructions.

When I bowl steep this tea, the bitterness and smoke are much less apparent. I get more florals, asparagus, and grass, and even a bit more apricot. The tea fades out rather than getting extraordinarily bitter.

I don’t think this is the green tea for me. I’m not a fan of smoke, and I can really taste it in this Mao Jian. There aren’t enough other flavours to make it interesting for me. Well, you can’t like them all!

Since I started getting into loose leaf, I’ve wanted to try all ten of China’s famous teas. After this one, I should only have two more to go (Du Yun Mao Jian and Jun Shan Yin Zhen), although I’d like to revisit a few more. I steeped about 3.5 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain teapot at 185F for 20, 40, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

This Mao Jian is a bit more assertive than other greens I’ve tried, with notes of snow peas, kale, bok choy, and other bitter greens on the first steep. In subsequent steeps, I get a stronger vegetal and umami flavour and a hint of smokiness. The liquor is somewhat astringent and has an oily mouthfeel on the later steeps, combined with a long, vegetal aftertaste. The two last steeps are more astringent than the others, but are still enjoyable.

This was a pleasant green tea that I imagine would be very refreshing cold brewed. It would be fun to compare it with its Du Yun counterpart.

This tea is very old. I’ve been a bit busy of late. I have two kids now, a 3 year-old girl and an 11-month-old boy. I work full-time too. So between that and daily life, chores, cleaning, laundry, etc., there’s not any time left for tea or blogging. The date on this tea was June 2016 and it’s March 2018. A rating really wouldn’t be fair since it has barely any flavor left. It’s safe to say that this tea is past its prime. But with my kids giggling together in the next room, I feel the trade was worth it.

Good discovery for this Rougui oolong roasting light see average, can allow the discovery of tea wuyi, even if that if not classified in ‘grand cru’, but your even detours. the liquor evokes fruit wall, tobacco, taste of sweet, all in voluptuousness that marries well with a moderate but not heavy burping present.

GongFu cha: 6 infu 15/15/30/35/45/60 Secondes

Flavors :
fruit wall, Tobacco, sweet, light floral, medium roasting see light

A good base to enter the family of rock tea, not very pronounced with a slight torefaction, tea that on the whole and quite round in the mouth.

roast, light bitterness, mellow, round, tobacco, toast, something that evokes heat, plus a flowering touch as a last infusion.

Gongfucha 100°c 8 infu 5/10/15/20/30 Secondes, 1/2/4 min

It seems like it has been forever since I have reviewed a Chinese gunpowder green tea. I used to love teas like this when I was a little younger and still have something of a soft spot for them. When I want a green tea to just throw back and not think all that much about, gunpowder green tea is normally one of the first teas I seek out. This one, however, did not do all that much for me. In looking over the other reviews for this tea, you’ll notice that my opinion of this tea most definitely marks me as an outlier. I just do not get the high ratings for this one.

Though I normally brew gunpowder green teas in the Western style, I opted to gongfu this one. After a brief rinse, I steeped 7 grams of loose tea pellets in 5 ounces of 180 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was followed by 14 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 10 seconds, 13 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 3 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea pellets emitted vague aromas of grass, hay, lemon, and roasted vegetables. After the rinse, I found emerging scents of cooked spinach and seaweed. The first infusion then brought out hints of smoke and straw on the nose. In the mouth, I picked up notes of smoke, hay, grass, cooked spinach, roasted Brussels sprouts, grilled lemon, and seaweed. Subsequent infusions brought out notes of charcoal, roasted carrot, wood, minerals, earth, broccoli, and cooked cabbage. The later infusions mostly offered notes of minerals, charcoal, earth, smoke, and hay with fleeting hints of seaweed and cooked cabbage occasionally noticeable in the background.

I know that Teavivre lists this as their basic, introductory gunpowder green tea, and it may seem that I am being more than a bit hard on it, but here’s the deal: despite offering a lot of flavor, I did not find this to be all that good of a gunpowder green tea. Once the leaf pellets unfurled, it was obvious that this tea was mostly grit and chop. Each infusion was murky and chalky, leaving a persistently dusty, musty feeling in my mouth. The tea was surprisingly astringent too, though it thankfully never turned bitter. While gunpowder green teas are almost certainly never going to be super high end, this one was decidedly lower in quality than I was expecting. A number of other reviewers clearly liked this tea, so feel free to take this review with a grain of salt, but I do maintain that there are better gunpowder green teas out there.

I thought that Teavivre is a place to find just inexpensive passable puerh (with their core competency rather being green and red teas) but I was certainly wrong with this one. These little cubes are solid. The first steeps deliver a good balance of earthiness, mushrooms and sweetness. In later steeps sweetness becomes a dominant flavor. No hint of astringency, funkiness or any fishy flavor.

It comes out good with short light infusions and with longer deeper ones. The taste is not the most original or overly complex but there is enough going on to keep you interested. It also looks and smells right and generally presents itself as a quintessential solid ripe puerh. That combines with the ability to give you many quality resteeps and very affordable price.

I really liked this shou and, inspired by it, will certainly get samples of several more puerhs from Teavivre hoping to find more hidden gems there. Because their puer prices are certainly one of the cheapest I encountered so far.

I used 4 balls…so good. I am on a roll today and wish I was home having a cozy/lazy day sipping down delicious teas. I get notes of chocolate, mineral, autumn leaves, leather, and sweet potatoes. Definitely a good buy. Thank you Teavivre!

Sipdown (378)

This tea sample is best before 06/25/2017. Oops. As it is, it is not for me. A little smokey and a lot floral. Not to my tastes but I am grateful to Angel from Teavivre for the chance to try it. Thank you :)

Purchased a sample for myself. Brewed with a porcelain gaiwan. No rinse. Steeping times: 20, 10, 20, 40; 1 minute, 5.

NOTE: The website’s recommended temperature is 195. I suggest 190 if your kettle doesn’t have 195. 200 burns the leaf and produces bitterness.

The dry leaf has an unexpected aroma of smoke and what I identify as pine wood and sap. The familiar minghong aroma arises when the leaf has warmed in the pre-heated gaiwan. Individually, the heated aroma has notes of chocolate, baked bread, and salt. Altogether, I thought I was smelling chocolate-covered pretzels. Finally, the wet leaf smells like a keemun: honey and molasses. It’s worthy to note that the liquor, too, is fragrant. A molasses/chocolate fragrance sticks to the gaiwan lid and the cup.

The liquor has a fiery yet deep orange color, a full body, and a smooth and thick texture. The first infusion mostly tastes of molasses, a lovely sweetness. Infusions two through four – the most enjoyable – also have the molasses note, but wood and something like myrrh and patchouli also make their way in. Wonderful complex cups. There is also a brief chocolate aftertaste during this part of the session, but it disappears towards the tail-end. The fifth and sixth infusions – long steeps – are a bit of a long shot trying to keep this keemun going and to eek out last flavors. They mostly taste of pine wood, with just some honey sweetness.

Not truly for me, but I did enjoy certain aspects of the aroma and taste. A good quality keemun.

So at long last, I finally got my hands on some duck shit oolong. I have long been intrigued by this funny sounding tea, but couldn’t bring myself to commit to a 50g bag. Thankfully I was able to get a sampler recently from Teavivre. The ability to sample any tea is another reason why I love this tea shop.

This tea has a honey-gardenia flavor profile. It’s on the greener end of the oolong spectrum but has an ever so subtle roast that brings out hints of warm spice, honey, and almond. I enjoyed the crispness and mellow florals of this tea. Mouthfeel is rich and buttery. However around the 4th steep, it began shifting to a more savory flavor. It develops a bit of pungency and leaves behind a leathery aftertaste.

I had mixed feelings about this tea. It starts off great, but eventually turns soup-like with some odd flavors. Nevertheless, as a green oolong lover the roast on this tea is on point. It retains the delicate flowery notes and has a caramel edge without ever tasting roasty. I’ll likely revisit this tea somewhere down the road, this time with a fresher batch and/or a higher grade of duck shit.

This sample is from the 2017 harvest and is a tea I’ve never tried before. Following Teavivre’s instructions, I steeped around 4 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain teapot at 185F for 30, 50, 70, and 90 seconds.

The first steep has notes of green beans and florals, with a touch of astringency. The second tastes like buttered green beans. I can smell a peach aroma in the teapot, but it doesn’t make it into the tea. Although I wouldn’t describe it as nutty, I get what others are saying about it being reminiscent of dragonwell. The next couple steeps have notes of beans, peas, lettuce, and other veggies.

This was fresh and enjoyable, but it doesn’t make me a green tea convert. I’ll have to try it Western style to see if I can pick up on some other flavours.

I’ve had this sample in my tea drawer for a while now. Mild and sweet flavor, not as grassy as some green teas. Could have probably steeped it longer, but I won’t purchase it again.

Cold Brew!

Everytime I make this tisane I forget exactly how intensely sour it’s going to brew up. Even this time, I made it because I wanted sour and then when it came time to strain the cold brew I was taken aback by how much it just tasted like malic acid or like I’d gotten some kind of fruity Slush Puppy type of drink with like five or six pumps of “sour shocker” added into it…

Cold Brew! Basically, this tastes like water with malic acid mixed into it. Not really much, if any, berry – just sour water. Which is strange; but kind of ok I guess. If you’re in the mood for sour.

Tossed a handful of these into a large mug and drank them Grandpa Style before bed a few nights ago – not a bad brew but very sharp, acidic flavour. Tasted a lot like watered down apple cider mixed with tartaric acid, which is the stuff that’s added to Sour Skilled/Warheads/etc to make them sour…

Cold Brew!

So I grabbed this one around Black Friday using some of my points because I thought it’d make a very nice iced tea. I’ve been really fond of the inclusion of Hawthorn in other teas/tisanes I’ve tried it with so I wanted to give it a shot on its own.

Steeped up, this actually ends up being a very, very faintly pink tinted liquor. It was so light in fact that are first glance I was worried it hadn’t really infused well/I’d possibly under leafed it and it wouldn’t taste right. Definitely not the case though; I stained this one and was pleasantly surprised at the punch the flavour had!

I mean, it’s very very sour! Like, the first moments you pop a sour candy like Sour Patch Kids or even possibly a Warhead into your mouth. I like it though because that kind of sourness is so drastically different than the sourness/tartness of hibiscus. And it’s hard to explain how they’re different, but suffice to say if you have a cup of either steeped up and were doing a blindfolded taste test you would DEFINITELY know which is which. It’s like a hibiscus infusion has more body/is thicker, but while this is VERY sour it’s a lighter, thinner sourness? I’m into it though.

I mean, I totally could NOT just drink it whenever – I’d definitely need to be in the mood for something with this kind of punch, but it’s a nice, unique flavour.

One of the first loose leaf teas I bought was a jasmine black. It was…hard to drink. I felt like I was having a cup of hot bubble bath. Then about four or five years ago, Teavivre sent me some samples of their jasmine teas and I shuddered, afraid to try them…but when I tried them I fell in love.

Jasmine is like an antidote for stress for me. A nice, hot cup and a few moments alone rejuvenate me and wash away tension.

I was curious and excited to see what the new Golden Buds Jasmine would be like. It is nothing like that black jasmine of long ago! This is soft, smooth, and sweet. The leaves themselves are long, oh so soft buds that are a golden tan color. The steeped tea is a soft, medium orange/tan.

The tea has a light creamy body. There is not a trace of briskness or astringency, no cocoa or smoke. This is so smooth. The jasmine is ample but not overpowering.

My husband prefers not to drink black tea since he always wants milk and sugar with it, so he sticks with oolongs, greens, whites, and puerh most of the time. Tonight I just told him we were having jasmine tea, and he drank four cups. He went outside to do a bit of work and then came back for more. I still haven’t told him it was black tea, and he is loving it without additions. That’s how smooth it is.

We have made two steeps Western style and I am going to try for a third.

The liquid has a pale, light yellow-green color. The aroma has scents of fresh grass, sweet corn, wild flowers, peas, and a touch of brown sugar. The body is medium, with a silky, refreshing texture. There is a medium level of astringency, and no bitterness. The taste has notes of fresh grass, sweet corn, wild flowers, peas, and a touch of lemon. The aftertaste starts off grassy, and evolves into an impressive, lasting flowery essence. This flowery essence is truly remarkable.

10-second rinse before infusion.

Wilted autumn leaves with a stone fruit note. Slight astringency with a surprising creamy note reminding me of a milk oolong.

Sample purchased by self. I used my own parameters for the evaluation. Brewed in a porcelain gaiwan, drank from a white porcelain cup. Steeping times: 20 seconds, 10, 20, 30; 1 minute, 2, 6.

I pretty much only pick out a tannic aroma from the dry leaf, which consists of small and short leaves, many broken. The dry leaf aroma changes and becomes more complex after I let the leaf rest in the heated gaiwan, which brings out a light chocolate note and strong purple raisins note. The wet leaf aroma returns to tannins but also equally smells of molasses.

The liquor is dark orange and clear. Overall, this is a brisk, strong-bodied keemun. It doesn’t undergo evolution during the session. Although I read that this keemum would better suit Western-style brewing, I wanted to see how it would brew in the a gongfu session. The first four infusions not only taste brisk, but have the typical keemun thick sweetness of molasses and honey. The tannins rest on the tongue, while the sweetness sticks to the back of the throat. The aftertaste is also sweet but short.

One can easily finish the session with the fourth infusion. Beginning with the fifth, the strength of the tannins declines, although the sweetness remains. This keemun is done by the sixth and seventh infusions, in which a smokiness replaces everything.

Keemun Grade 2 makes an easy-going breakfast tea. Good quality for the grade.

Sample purchased by self. I used my own parameters for the evaluation, treating this as I treated Keemun Grade 2. Brewed in a porcelain gaiwan, drank from a white porcelain cup. Steeping times: 20 seconds, 10, 20, 30; 1 minute, 2, 6.

The aromas are quite different from those of Grade 2. Again, I only smell tannins from the dry leaf, but the heated and wet leaf aromas are what shine. The former is very sweet, with notes of dark chocolate and berries, reminding me of those chocolate-covered blueberries and pomegranate. The latter initially smells typically of molasses and honey, but more exposure to air morphs these notes into tart berries. Lovely. I took my time breathing in the aromas.

The liquor is a fiery deep orange (classic keemun color). Overall, Grade 1 is sweeter than Grade 2, though much lighter tasting. The body is more in the middle on the scale, having a medium body, strong though not brisk, not filling the mouth with flavor. Infusions one through three taste of molasses and honey; tannic but leaning more towards sweetness as opposed to the balance that Grade 2 has. Furthermore, I noticed this grade has a nicely smooth and thick texture.

Surprisingly, this grade has considerably less gongfucha stamina. I could have finished with cup #3, but wanted to learn what how much farther it could really go. In truth, four through seven aren’t worth it. In spite of the color remaining strong, it became too light in flavor, only a remnant of what it tasted like in the first couple infusions. I used a 1:20 ratio. I may have to use 1:15 for this to suit my fancy more. But it seems I would enjoy this more in a mug than in a gaiwan. Comparing the two keemuns, Grade 2 suited my fancy more because it was stronger and more flavorful.

I then brewed this in a typically sized mug twice, using 2g each time, similar temperature. The flavor and intensity is very much same: light, sweet, and slightly tannic. The less water the better since a full mug tastes diluted. Again, too light for my taste.

Water: 12oz

Leaves: 2 slices

Measuring Spoon: no

Steep: 8m

Aroma: lemony

Color: very pale yellow

Clarity: great

Taste: I’ve always wanted to try dried lemon slices & this was my first time using them so i was excited! Taking the slices out of they bag they were perfectly cut so I added 2 pieces to my cup as recommend. Since I wanted a strong flavor I stepped for 8 minutes. As for the taste it wasn’t as sour as I thought it was going to be, actually quite nice and it didn’t need any sweetener. Overall a very mild sourness a great drink for the afternoon or anytime of day. I was going to try it with the stevia I steeped earlier but I made it to weak to add any sweetness.