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A good cup of tea is like a hug on a crappy day. I needed three cups today. One of my favorite teas. I sometimes drink nothing but this for days.

This is a lightly oxidized full leaf oolong. The dry leaf is rolled into typical nuggets with a faint grassy smell. I used almost a 3g scoop of leaf. First steep, 3 minutes at about 175F. The wet leaf is dark and looks like broccoli leaves and is mildly grassy smelling. The brew was a very pale yellow almost clear. It has a sweet floral aroma. The taste is sweet and floral with a bit of a grassy aftertaste. A bit weak my fault (keep reading).

On the second steep, 2m, the leaves are now open and covering the entire bottom of my press rising up almost to the plunger screen. Slightly darker brew with more pronounced flavor that is a lot closer to what I was expecting. Still a bit green. I am detecting melon(?) in the aftertaste that lingers. Just noticed Teavivre recommends 212F water! Oops!

Third steep, 2m. Got the temp right this time. Well, hello flavor. Feels a little milky to me now. No bitterness.

Fourth steep, 3m. The TGY flavor is a lot milder. Longer steep would have helped. Still tasty.

Fifth and final steep, 4m. The flavor changed to darker and earthier with almost raw puerh qualities. The aftertaste is a mix of floral, grass, and fruity. It no longer tastes like a TGY but I like where it is going. Wish I had time to try one more steep.

Pretty sure this is what they are serving at Red Lobster when I order iced tea. I get it unsweetened without lemon. I am reviewing this because when a restaurant prepares tea well it should get noticed. The tea at our nearby RL is always fresh, and always has enough bite to be interesting. Maybe it is their water, or the temp, or the timing – maybe it is all of them. I have had so many sour or instant tasting bad teas at restaurants that this one stands out.

Don’t judge me. The rating is based on my happiness level compared with other restaraunts teas.

The most beautiful flowering tea I have seen to date. Silver needle green tea cradling a white bouquet with twin white spires rising up topped with red globes. The flowers look like they were just picked. The picture does not do it justice.

Poured boiling water through a strainer so as not to damage the pod. It began expanding immediately. Not a single leaf or petal came loose in the pot. Poured into cup through the strainer. Clarity is excellent. Color is from pale amber to deep golden depending on steep time. The jasmine flavor is way in the background. One of the other two flowers – the globe amaranth I think – dominates and it is not a flavor I particularly like. Letting this steep longer and letting the cup cool brings out the jasmine a little more.

Visually this rates a 100.

Day two same leaves, and I am ready to commit that I do like this tea. Those of you who crave the sharp green flavor, stick to the first day’s steeps. The second day this takes on a mild earthiness but still maintains the slightly sweet aftertaste.

I love pushing a new tea to see how far it will go. Using same leaf as yesterday. I know that grosses some of you out. Sorry. Today, the tea is still smooth, but now add really creamy. It is also lighter and sweeter. I don’t know if that is the nature of the fifth cup and beyond or because the leaf sat over night. Whatever the reason, it is delicious. Bumping up my rating.

Attempted 2 tsp for 90s. The dry leaf looks just like the picture. The brew is light green. I swear the brew smells like beef stew and broccoli. Sniffed the wet leaf after pouring, yep, still beef & broccoli. The leaf is tiny new leaves and buds.

I have no idea if this is a good example of Dragon Well as I have never had it before and have yet to develop an understanding or taste for the grassy greens. Believe it or not puerh was much easier for me to learn to appreciate.

The first cup I got the water a little too hot. Tastes very green. It feels slick on the roof of my mouth. Not oily, just slick. This didn’t seem to have a lot of natural sweetness hot, but as the cup cools I get notes of slightly sweet hay in the sip and the aftertaste. I don’t detect the floral notes but again I don’t really grasp this type green tea. Second cup I got the water temp right. Tastes is more to my liking. More tealike and less grass. No bitterness. I can see this going well with Chinese take out when we order tomorrow. Chicken with pea pods, mmmmmm.

My rating is based on my experience with the previous Teavivre teas I tried. They nailed what they were aiming at with them so I imagine this does likewise.

Still loving this. I went another 3 cups today with yesterday’s leaf. Even after 8 cups it could have gone more. The last six months are destroying decades of my ideas about tea. I was perfectly happy buying cardboard boxes of tea. That is changing. Bagged tea = 1 ok steep. Grocery store loose leaf, probably 2 slightly more interesting steeps. A better quality loose I can drink off the same leaves all day, or like this tea for two days and each cup is different. Woo Hoo!

Leaf and Brew
The dry leaf is beautiful with orange and gold throughout. The aroma images a barn filled with sweet hay. The wet leaf is a cool chocolate brown and the aroma is still hay but slightly rooibus. So glad Teavivre includes instructions on the package because I would have totally messed this up by overheating and over steeping. 85C for 2 minutes. The liquor is caramel chocolate in my cup.

The Sip
Tasted with and without sweetener. Not a hint of bitterness or astringency. Very smooth. Still getting that sweet hay with a hint of rooibus but the main flavor I am getting from this is malted milk balls. Having read SimpliciTea’s malty thread I can now claim to know what that means. It lingers long and pleasant in the aftertaste. This is such a good example of it that I now realize I have experienced it before buried in lesser teas. This is nice. For fun I added a tiny bit of French vanilla creamer to it. It was good but totally unnecessary. Only had time for four cups this afternoon it will go further.

Conclusion
I have never had a black tea that would steep more than twice. This can be steeped many times, so I am impressed. It is familiar enough to serve to those whose experience is limited to the grocery store isle, yet is complex enough to delight the more discerning.

Online Info:
Teavivre’s website is easy to navigate, full of information and, to me, is frustration free. There is a good range of teas without being overwhelming. Each tea has pictures of leaf and brew. There is a summary tab and a more info tab that includes a map of where the tea is grown. The prices seem about right and there is free shipping with a $30 purchase.

Packaging:
Delivery from China took about 2 weeks. Shipment well protected. Inside the box the outermost pouches were bubble wrapped! Each tea came in a heavy resealable pouch. Nice. The pouch label includes ingredients, origin, production date, shelf life, brewing instructions, plus manufacturer and distributor info. The information is specific to the tea inside – not a, one size fits all, label. Inside the pouch each sample was individually wrapped. I am impressed with the attention to detail. It speaks volumes of the quality and care level at Teavivre.

Leaf And Brew:
The dry leaf is a mix of white and green colors and yes I can see the white fuzz. It smells like tobacco, maybe a light cigar wrapper – a really good smell. The wet leaf is more of a sweet dried grass. I followed the instructions and steeped the first cup for 90 seconds – longer on later cups. The brew is a light yellow. More amber in the cup.

The Sip:
I did not use sweetener on the first cup. I tasted cucumber. I have never caught that in a tea before and it tastes way better than it sounds. This is followed by the slightest peppery note. At the back of the sip is a mild grassiness that lingers in the aftertaste with a natural touch of sweetness. An interesting mix of flavors. Next cup, because I am a barbarian, I added a bit of sweetener. This brought the sweet grassiness up a notch and dropped the cucumber down a bit but all the flavors were present and were experienced in the same order as before. The third, fourth, and fifth cups the cucumber is gone the drink is more inline with what my preconceived idea of a white tea tastes like, but better. I did not know white tea could steep this many times. It was still going strong when I quit.

Conclusion / Rating:
This is my first loose white. This tea is pleasant and interesting. Each cup is full of different flavors. As my previous experience is with bagged versions, I am basing my score on my own enjoyment level and not on any comparisons.