Teavivre

Light oolong with an amazing orchid aroma. It is light, sweet, creamy, and floral. This tea is creamy floral goodness in a cup.

Very dark leaves with and obvious roasted aroma. Brews a deep red orange. The dark roast dominates the flavor profile, reminding me a bit of French roast coffee, but there is also a light fruitiness to it that reminds me of strawberries and lemon zest. Not bitter, but it is slightly tart. I get just a hint of something floral in the aroma.

This tea is decent, but the roast is too dark in my opinion.

Here’s a surprise: I opened the package of Big Dark Leaf and it appears to be filled with big dark leaves! They’re big, twisty, and deep green-brown. Dry aroma reminds me of green beans. Brews a medium yellow, a bit lighter than the Ya Shi Xiang.

Smooth taste with a strong mineral note, green wood, and a bit of half-ripe tangerine rind. Excellent aroma of honeysuckle, citrus, and warm candle. Whereas the Ya Shi Xiang had definite buttery mouthfeel, this tea is more light and clean; maybe watered down milk. There’s a bit of astringency, but practically zero bitterness.

While I prefer roasty-er oolongs, this is a very nice lighter roast and I prefer it to the Ya Shi Xiang.

This tea has a subtle malty aroma and I can see why it is called pine needle by the way the dry leaves are hard, thin, and pointy. It is malty and earthy but I am not getting much flavor out of this tea. It is bland with an astringent aftertaste. I wish I did not power through it and just made another cup of tea.

Wow, this stuff packs a serious lychee wallop. If someone took the essence of lychee and distilled it into tea, I imagine this is what it would taste like. The aroma out of the bag is intoxicating and very powerful. I had a feeling the flavor would be similarly powerful and I was right. This is a very, very sweet tea. It tastes like drinking fruit juice. As it continues steeping, it develops a very perfumey quality that reminds me of rose water and oddly enough, Indian paan masala (a concoction of betel leaf and areca).

I grandpa steeped this in a 10oz glass teapot with just 1.3g of leaf. But this tea is so potent that even this small amount of leaf gave a ton of flavor. As much as I enjoyed the lychee flavoring, I felt it dominated the tea. Next time, I’ll blend this with straight black to balance out the lychee.

Apologies in advance: this note contains references to decay and cremation (TW). If you’re not into that or are currently enjoying delicious food, please skip on over.

Nope. Roasted oolong is not for me. Something about burning the florals and char reminds me of one of more bittersweet aromas of Varanasi (not really into thinking of pyres while drinking oolong).

This is actually a nice tea when I can get past my own personal hold-ups. It’s a lot less potent in the burnt department than one would think, and there is a pleasant sour tang of grapefruit for an aftertaste. Lingering notes of sea-salt create a compelling portrait.

Unfortunately, my mind is going back to Varanasi again, and that cow floating down the river. It was very green (but not really), just like this oolong! There’s a part of me that finds it poetic and moving that this tea is like a burnt offering; it’s a shame that aromas, colours, and memories are so strongly linked.

Oh happy day, my Teavivre order came in! This was one of the samples. I think I might be getting a bag next time. It’s really good, but how to describe? I’ve gotten some really unusual tasting teas from Teavivre, but this is not one of them. This has got a really classic profile. Rich, smooth, dark. I wouldn’t have thought ‘sweet potato’ on my own, but when I read it in some of the other notes, I could kind of see how that fits. No astringency at all, which is nice. I want to say this reminds me slightly of Golden Fleece, but I drank that so long ago I’m not sure that’s an accurate memory.

This tea has a nice bready aroma. It is rich and sweet with flavors of raisin bran cereal, molasses, and maple syrup. I really enjoy the flavor of this tea. It has a nice balance to it and a pleasing aftertaste.

Grandpa style w/ a little bit of added in honey.

On a mini dragon ball kick right now, it would seem. They’re just super convenient for office brewing – toss one in a mug, and you’re good for basically the entire day! Been a long time since I last had this one, and I feel like I don’t love it as much any more as when I first had it – but it’s still very good. Smooth and creamy, with notes like chestnut/almond, honeysuckle, hot hay and autumnal leaves, and fresh cream. So easy to sip on…

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/CAsviblgSav/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GepC3g1dSxw

I’ve been grandpa-ing this one all afternoon while I work, and while there’s nothing exceptional about this tea in terms of taste there is something that, in this moment, is really appealing to me about it in terms of mouthfeel. The liquor is just very thick, and creamy and I’m enjoying immensely how it’s coating my mouth in between slurps.

Made a pot of this one earlier last week. A big ’ol Western one, for clarifications sake.

I think I should have definitely let this one steep longer; I didn’t really give the dragon ball time to completely unfurl because I was more focused on not over steeping the tea rather than aesthetics with this pot, and in turn I think I played too cautiously. I mean, the taste wasn’t bad but it was just incredibly mild/light. Very, very soft and subtle notes of hay/straw and almond. I just found myself deeply craving more body overall from the cups I was pouring. It wasn’t a bad experience, but a slight let down.

Plenty more balls left though; so I know I’ll get it right next time.

Sipdown (419)!

This is only a temporary sipdown; I actually ordered 100g of this on Black Friday. I’m somewhat frustrated with myself though because I ordered it because I thought it’d be really interesting to try, and then immediately after placing my order I went downstairs to find a tea to drink and I saw that I did in fact have a sample ball of this one. D’oh! So lets hope I like it, since I have more coming in…

I’m gonna Gong Fu this one today; but if I’m being honest it’s still very early in the day and I’m still quite tired so I already know this is likely gonna be a sloppy Gong Fu session without a lot of precision. With that said, lets get into it!

Starting with a double rinse; ten seconds x2! Mostly I just want to give the ball its best chance to open up before really digging into this one. After the rinses, we take a rest and we’re ready to really begin!

Steep One – Ten Seconds
Very sweet and mild, with some floral/honeysuckle notes. Not much actually going on yet in terms of flavour, though.

Steep Two – Twelve Seconds
Stronger flavour from this steep; floral undertones and some malt/cream in the body; I still get honeysuckle but it’s also a bit headier than honeysuckle would be. Straw/hay as well.

Steep Three – Twenty Seconds
Kind of the same as steep number two, but a little sweeter and I feel as if I’m getting traces of almond in the finish?

Steep Four – Twenty-five Seconds
Ooh, yes – this is VERY good! Top notes are hay and fresh cream and the body is very sweet honey, almond, and jammy preserves. I want to say more of like a light cherry thing, but I think that’s just ‘cause almond always make me think of cherry (it’s the almond/cherry/marzipan connection). Very soft, jammy red fruits anyway! Really smooth and pleasant!

Steep Five – Thirty(ish) Seconds
Possibly best infusion yet; very, very sweet with strong notes of fresh cream, hay, malt, almond, and honey throughout. Overall I find myself thinking of marzipan or almond infused sugar cookies? Which is a delightful tea session experience. Hints of fruitier undertones here but focus point is definitely on the former notes.

Steep Six – Forty-five Seconds
Same notes are represented as the previous steep but with less overall sweetness. However, there’s also a sharpness to the top of the sip here that makes me think more of a grassy/cucumber skin sort of thing. It feels a little out of left field, in terms of everything else that’s been experienced thus far.

Steep Seven – One Minute
This one will be my last infusion, I think – the flavour is actually still VERY good but I’m getting very bored with the session and I’m ready to move onto something else. It’s still got a fair bit of sweetness and strong notes of malt, hay/straw, almond, honey, and cucumber skins with some really, really light floral things (honeysuckle) going on in the undertones. I know I could very easily continue to push the session and still get several good steeps for this but I’m happy with the experience I’ve had.

So, overall I actually kind of really love this!? The almond was such a pleasant surprise but a really delicious note in this session and I’m very happy that it was so consistent throughout all of the infusions. I can very safely say that grabbing that 100g of Moonlight Dragon Balls on BF wasn’t a mistake at all! This will be a delightful thing to have in my cupboard!

I got this sample because I didn’t notice that I could get black tea samples. I’m really glad I did. I keep thinking I don’t like green tea much, but some of the samples I’ve tried (this especially included) are changing my mind.

The dry leaf was colorful, ranging from deep green to the soft white down of its name. It smelled kind of vegetable, like sugarsnap peas maybe. I steeped it on the lighter end of the recommended time, 3 minutes.

The tea has the same veggie taste I smelled, but only lightly. It’s mostly sweet, and mild. Nothing too sharp or grassy, but definitely flavorful. I think I taste something floral, too, but I’m not sure. I’ll have to steep it again and see. This is one I’d be curious to try gongfu, because I think it’d be fun to explore all the flavors.

I still prefer a rich and comforting cup of black tea, but this is lovely for the evening. I appreciate the chance to try it.

This is a very nicely done tea, I just don’t personally care for it. However, I do think it is high quality – so I won’t leave a numerical rating since it doesn’t seem fair to rate an objectively good tea low. To me, it had too much of the vegetal flavor, almost like (I imagine) toasted spinach tastes like. It was very smooth and somewhat sweet and toasty. Again, high quality, just not my…cup of tea.

Very buttery taste and a strong floral aroma that lingers in the mouth. Slightly “green” taste due to the light roast, and a mild fruity sweetness. I’m having a hard time picking out any specific notes on this tea, but it’s quite nice.

Moderately sized, dark green twisty leaves that look more like a Baozhong than a regular green tea. Sweet, slightly vegetal aroma. The taste is very clean and predominantly vegetal. Somewhere between kale and edamame. Somewhat buttery and also reminds me of sugarcane and (oddly) pumpernickle bread.

This is a nice green tea, very mellow and refreshing.

My five free samples from Teavivre came in the mail yesterday, and I was really craving a roasted oolong so I brewed this one up. The flavor is fairly nice. Mineral, red clay, roasted barley, and ripe plum flavors with an unripe plum tang and astringency. Slightly burnt tasting though. The aroma however is awesome! My cha hai smells of osmanthus and daffodil flowers, burning candle warmth, and something being baked with lots of butter and brown sugar.

This is a nicely aromatic and economical Wuyi oolong with very “warm” tastes and aromas.

I do wish the roast was a little more subtle. I’ve read that a little aging can help heavily roasted oolongs to “calm down” a bit; perhaps this one would benefit from that.

OK – yellow tea. Has to be a gimmick, right? So elusive and mysterious…hidden long-lost recipes and all that…

Well, I was still excited to see what the hype was all about.

First, it is not a gimmick. This thing is crazy good. Imagine a vegetal and sweet, nutty bi luo chun crossed with sweet floral Anxi green oolong. Oh, and some sweet grass and fruit flavors of Xinyang Mao Jian. There was incredible complexity to the tea – from the dry leaf scent all the way through the experience in-mouth.

The flavors are strong, but complementary – switching from nutty to sweet, vegetal to floral. Incredibly dynamic. The mouthfeel is thick and unctuous. The aftertaste is expansive and long-lasting.

This is an excellent tea, and the price is great for the quality of the tea. Highly recommended for green tea lovers especially.
*
Dry leaf – sweet corn (like Bi Luo Chun), creamy fragrant floral (like Anxi oolong), popcorn, speculoos, orange flower. In preheated vessel – candied pecans, praline, sweetcorn, tomato vine, sweet grass

Smell – sweet corn, sweet grass, tomato vine

Taste – arrival of sweet vegetal – sweet corn, green oolong leafiness, sweet grass. Development of complex but muted sweetness (marshmallow, graham cracker) and fragrant floral. Finish of sweet floral – orchid, orange flower, rose. Aftertaste of sweet floral, candied pecan, coconut, with hints of orange soda and red fruit/raspberry.

In my kitchen cupboard reserved for tea, I have an artificially created black tea shortage. I store my black and green teas on the top shelf and my oolongs and whites on the bottom. However, I rarely drink my green teas, and many of my black teas are either Darjeelings (which dwindle slowly because I Western steep them) or too expensive for regular consumption (SLX Black, that Lapsang from TheTea). I therefore go through my oolongs much faster, relegating many of my black teas to the “tea museum” in my closet. In an effort to change that, I’m trying to sip down some of my old green teas, notably this one from 2016.

Using Teavivre’s instructions, I steeped around 4.5 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 185F for 15, 25, 40, 60, and 90 seconds, plus a few uncounted rounds at the end of the session.

I always get a kick out of these flat, fuzzy leaves. The dry aroma is of chestnuts, green beans, and umami. The first steep has notes of chestnut, butter, beans, spinach, grass, and asparagus. The second steep is even more vegetal, with lots of cruciferous (a.k.a. bitter) veggies like bok choy and broccoli, but a sweet aftertaste. The next couple steeps are sweeter, with lots of chestnut balanced by beans and cruciferous vegetables. The nuttiness fades around the sixth steep, which is when Teavivre tells me to stop, but I got another couple vegetal steeps because I’m a cheapskate.

I Western steeped my remaining 2.5 g at 185F for 3, 4, and 6 minutes. The sweet, buttery chestnut is a lot more prominent in the first steep, with beans and asparagus in the background. However, subsequent steeps are milder, with spinach, green bean, and mineral notes and a faint sweetness.

For something I’ve been avoiding for so long, this is an inoffensive, surprisingly drinkable tea with pronounced chestnut notes. I’d say gongfu is the way to go, since I got more out of the leaves this way.

Also, apparently I’ve reviewed this tea before, but have no memory of it.

I picked up some green teas from Teavivre this spring, and am only getting to them now. Maybe I’ve just been grumpy lately, but this dragonwell doesn’t seem as sweet as the one from 2016. I steeped it both gongfu per the website’s recommendations (4 g, 120 ml, 20, 30, 40, and 60 seconds at 185F) and Western style (3 g, 12 oz., 1:00, 2:30, 4:00, and 6:00 at 185F). Like last year’s, this year’s leaf is well formed and has lots of downy fuzz.

Gongfu, this was almost completely vegetal. I remember notes of broccoli, bok choy, and maybe asparagus, with some astringency in the background. It almost tasted like a sencha.

Western brewing produced a sweeter chestnut profile that was more in line with the dragonwells I’ve had in the past. The vegetal elements were still present, but they were more balanced. The tea never got bitter.

I found this dragonwell to be a much tougher customer than its 2016 counterpart. I’ll try steeping it at lower temperatures and using fewer leaves to bring out the sweetness.

First taste score: 80

Second taste score: 83
Added milk to this and it tastes phenomenal as a milk tea! Has that beautiful orange-brown colour similar to Thai Iced Tea.

This is simply a bouquet of buttery lilacs. It feels like such a luxury to have rich flowers like this on the verge of winter. I particularly enjoy the sweet, rich scent that the leaves and broth give off.

It’s too bad I put off drinking this one for so long. For whatever reason, I thought it was roasted. Good job for reading comprehension, Crowkettle!

I’ll add more insight to this note if anything interesting pops up in later steeps.

Steep Count: 2

While I was steeping (and sniffing) this baby, I thought I was going to have to go over how Roasted Oolongs don’t seem to work for me again. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised when that overdone roasted aroma turned into a creamy cup of nuts and barley, with fruity and floral accents.

At first, I feared that the cream and nut notes were residue flavours from the cup’s previous resident (Coconut Carrot Cashew- It’s Operation Sipdown and I’m running this ship like a dirty fastfood joint). It appears these flavours are this tea’s own, however!

I still vastly prefer green oolongs, but this makes me less hesitant to try the roasted fellows. Teavivre Dong Ding Oolongs appear to be a win for me too!

Steep Count: 2

Now that I’m over my cold, I can review again!

Award winning superfine jasmine downy dragon pearls green tea by teavivre.

Review:

Gongfucha

Dry leaf: floral, jasmine, spices, green.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb7WrKXAANg/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988

Wet leaf: floral, jasmine, spices, green, pepper, roses.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb7YwfhAHjT/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb7Z03TAfvY/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988

Light steep; I smell/taste
(Smell) light —> green, roses, floral, jasmine, spices.
(Taste) light -→ spices, pepper, green. medium —→ clay(?), roses, floral, jasmine.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb7XNfFAbz_/?taken-by=kirkoneill1988

Medium steep; I smell/taste
(Smell) light —> green, roses, floral, jasmine, spices.
(Taste) light -→ spices, pepper, green medium —→ roses, clay, floral. Strong jasmine.

Heavy steep; I smell/taste
(Smell) light —> green, roses, floral, jasmine, spices.
(Taste) slight -→ clay(?), spices, pepper. light —→ jasmine, roses, floral, green.

All in all: what a yummy tea! Nice flavours/aromas, cha qi, and warm fuzzy feeling. Best jasmine tea I’ve ever had so far. Thanks Angel Teavivre, for this amazing tea.

I rate a 100/100

Where to buy: http://www.teavivre.com/superfine-jasmine-dragon-pearl/