Silver Jasmine Green Tea (Mo Li Yin Hao)

There are those days when simplicity is what is just what the doctor ordered. I have mentioned it before but a good jasmine green is truly a delight. Warms the soul and calms the spirit. Especially since I’ve been battling getting rid of bronchitis. The lungs are purring like a kitty and not in a good way. I love this tea. Reminds me of Summer Breeze by Seals of Crofts. I can’t believe I have not reviewed this yet!

This is another sample from my recent batch, so thanks again to Angel Chen and Teavivre for the samples, which I have been enjoying very much. I love jasmine teas and I very much liked their dragon pearls, so I was excited to try this one as well. The dry leaf smells very pungently of jasmine, but it’s not quite as sweet or purely floral as pearls, as if it’s a little rough around the edges. The green tea comes through in the aroma and grounds the jasmine a bit.

The aroma of the steeped tea is jasminey but also intriguingly buttery at first, though the jasmine seems to overwhelm it a bit as the tea gets cooler. It’s very heavily floral jasmine, moreso than the pearls; this one isn’t holding back. I like this tea and I’m enjoying my cup, but I wonder if a steep at 1 minute wouldn’t result in a more balanced cup between the jasmine and the green tea. I guess that’s something to try out next time!

This is an amazing jasmine, there is such a remarkable balance between the flavors of green tea and jasmine. It doesn’t taste overly flowery or perfume-y at all. The flavor is light and sweet and delightful. I was about to write a full-length review of this for SororiTea Sisters (to be published next week), but, I think I shall hold off on the writing for just a little while, because I wish to just sit and enjoy this tea for a while. I think I will have it again tomorrow so that I can write then.

So lovely!

Another jasmine green to try out today from teavivire. Again, the jasmine is just too much for me to handle. I’m sure that this would be a really nice cup for anyone who likes a smooth floral cup of tea but it’s not for me.

We got this one to compare with the jasmine pearls which I love. It makes me giggle now. I used to have a serious hate on floral teas and for the most part still do. They need to be subtle for me to appreciate.

This is again super strong in the jasmine fu. It doesn’t seem soapy or perfume-y, just LOTS of jasmine. It’s heavy and sweet but has a funny sharpness as an after taste. I wouldn’t describe the sharpness as bitterness. I think the jasmine tea for me will remain the jasmine pearls. This one is a bit too strong in the jasmine force, young padawan.

Sample from Teavivre

Cold brewed this time. I just realized that I didn’t write my original tasting note in here…I’ll have to do that later. Anyways, Cold brewed I found this tea to be much more enjoyable. Before when I brewed it hot I found it to be very floral without much of the tea base coming out and it lacked a bit of the sweetness that I have found in other jasmine. It also had a bit astringency no matter how I brewed it.

This time when I threw it in the fridge over night I gave it a sip and threw some in my travel mug for class this morning and boy was it delicious!

The slight astringency was gone, the jasmine had a wonderful sweetness to it and I could taste some of the tea base. The tea base wasn’t very strong, it was there enough to taste it and help balance the jasmine. But the sweetness of the tea was what really impressed me since I wasn’t getting any of it hot.

I didn’t add much sweetener either, 1 Tbsp brown sugar (not packed) for a quart of water with 2 heaping tsp of tea. That’s how much sugar I always add to cold brews, but this had that natural nectar-like sweetness to it…delicious!

I only have a little bit of this left and it’s all going to be cold brewed!

Thank you Teavivre for this sample!

Another very flavorful, fragrant, jasmine tea from Teavivre… but this one is green!

Thanks again to Angel and the team! Or wait, did I buy this one? Hrmm. Ah well, thanks to them anyway!

Compared to the pearls, I think this one is just a little bit less awesome. The jasmine is much stronger in this than on the pearls, and the green tea seems a little less delicate, a little stronger.

Missy and I both prefer a tad more subtlety in our jasmine teas, so I believe we’re going to be sticking with the pearls. However, this is a very strong contender.

Man, a little jasmine tea is good for the soul. Nice and smooth with that fragrant and relaxing sweetness that only jasmine possesses. Not quite as sweet as other jasmines I’ve had, but it’s very good. The leaves are beautiful (albeit not quite as beautiful as pearls) and have little pieces of jasmine petals scattered throughout.

This isn’t sweet per say but it’s rather smooth…I didn’t really expect that…but I am glad that it IS. The floral tastes on the tongue are nice, gentle, and not perfumy-bitter floral flavors and I LOVE that!

As it cools a bit it is a little sweeter! I like this! It’s dandy!

I hate to keep going on about how much I love these Teavivre teas, but I can’t help it! Teavivre has completely eliminated my negative predispositions about flowery and white teas.

On the top of my most shunned list was Jasmine tea. When I tried some other (not to be named) brands, I felt like I was swilling cups of perfume. Not only is this Silver Jasmine Green tea a pleasant sipping blend, but it is also full-flavored and sweet.

The color is a semi-deep amber when steeped for two minutes at 195 degrees. I didn’t expect that hue from a green tea.

The manifestation of jasmine is strong in this tea, but when combined with the sweetness in the flavor and the subtle green tea taste, everything works together peacefully to produce a very palatable experience. Altogether, you are rewarded with a rich sweet jasmine tea without bitterness.

I only have one more Teavivre tea to sample. I am sad because I always look forward to the tasty surprises that these teas spring on me and I will miss them. But, the good news is, my shopping list is loaded and ready to order more of these great teas from China!

Jasmine is so relaxing. I love the aroma. When you pair it with a good tea the results can be heaven. This one is a bit strong but far from overwhelming. I probably was a bit heavy with the leaves so I had a steep of 2 minutes. It’s a golden hue with a dry in a pleasant way liquor. Once again I have a thumbs up from my non- tea drinking GF who hails from Anhui. I think she’s a fan of Jasmines. I am a fan of this. The second cup has lost much of the jasmine flavor but it has retained the character that this tea is all about. I am getting a slight numbing of the palate with cup 2. You will see in my profile that I am not a fan of flavored teas but I do enjoy a good jasmine. So very relaxing….

Mmmmmmm!!! This is an incredible jasmine!!! Just the right amount of floral with a green tea aftertaste. The green tea comes out more as it cools. This just might be the most perfect jasmine tea in the world!

The aroma of the dry leaves is awesome. The leaves are dark, wavy, and ultra skinny. This tastes a lot like what you get in good Chinese restaurants, except better.

The last time I had a tea like this, it was an unnamed Jasmine at a Thai restaurant. It was soooo good, but they left the tea leaves loose in the teapot. So 10-15 minutes in, my fantastic tea experience was sullied with overwhelming bitterness. This is that tea minus the bitter. Just plain deliciousness!

This is a lovely sample from Angel at Teavivre! I have a house full of teens again, Rock Lobster blasting, and the sounds of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 filling one end of the house.

I made an escape to my tea table sanctuary and turned on Pandora radio to Chinese Flute. As Jason recommended, I lifted my little cup with the words, “This cup is useful in that it is empty.”

The dry leaves smell strongly of jasmine and just as strongly of fresh green tea with a woodsy, lightly toasted aroma. The steeped tea has a light and natural tasting jasmine flavor, not a soapy perfume jasmine like the one I bought at Southern Season and can not drink. The green tea base has a nice touch of dryness with no bitterness. I tried two small cups of first steep and resteeped the leaves.

The second steep is lighter on the jasmine flavor and the green tea base comes out more. The tea base is a little nutty, reminding me of bok choy. Now that I have had two cups from each steep, I will mix the two pots together into my tetsubin, light the warmer, and sip on this throughout the afternoon with the music playing softly. I hope Sandy stops by so she can try it , too!

Ah, jasmine tea. No matter how many affairs I have with other flavors and kinds of tea, you will always be a constant in my heart. I took this sample with my to my sister’s last night and brewed everyone some tea after dinner. The fragrance of the leaves was lovely. The tea itself is very jasmine-y and very enjoyable. I found a flavor a tiny bit harsh though. It was in no way bad, but it didn’t have the smooth silkiness I’ve had in other jasmine teas. And I found myself wishing the tea flavor was a little more present. It was mostly flower, which is fine with me, but a little more green flavor would greatly enhance the experience.
The second steep was slightly less jasmine-y and more tea-y. The tea seems to be kind of roast-y. It didn’t taste all the green and maybe more like white tea.
I would have tried for a third steep, but it was late.

All in all, this is a great tea. It’s probably one of the better jasmine teas I’ve had. I can’t wait to try the jasmine pearls! :)

I guess even with 2 days off the person who delivers mail to my apartment complex felt the need to do as little work as possible on Tuesday. I had no idea this was delivered, along with a textbook. Thanks for your hard work, postal employee.

So now that I have my next round of samples from Teavivre, I can get to drinking them!

This is a bit too floral for my liking on the first steep. I was hoping it’d be better on the second, like maybe really subtle, but it’s not, although it’s vastly improved now. I can at least drink it this time without freaking out that it feels like I’m drinking a flower. I do like the dryness of the tea.

I’m going to try it again and maybe only steep it for a minute the first time and see how that goes. I am just not completely a fan of jasmine, so it’s easy for it to be too much for me. I like the dragon pearls a lot better.

Sample provided courtesy of Teavivre…

I think I’m going to hold off on rating this for now because I really don’t love jasmine tea for the most part, however I did like the jasmine pearls from Teavivre a lot. This pretty much tastes like the jasmine green tea I got from Adagio and I really feel like I don’t know what I’m talking about. It’s pretty much like any other decent loose leaf jasmine tea I’ve ever tried. It is pleasant enough but very floral and a bit drying.

This is a very pleasant, pale sort of jasmine. I think I could actually use more than a teaspoon of leaves per small cup with this one and not have it taste too strong or bitter. It’s funny, at this point I associate jasmine tea with the Chinatown neighborhood of Houston, as we tend to get served it by default every time we go to dim sum or out to any restaurant. Drinking it makes me think that I’m about to eat delicious vegetable bao. Mmmm…

Anyway, if you’re in the mood for jasmine, you cannot go wrong with this one. The aroma is really full, and the taste doesn’t disappoint. It’s a much better jasmine than I’ve had in a while. Definitely more pronounced than the average fare, without being cloyingly floral. Yum!

This cup is much, much more floral and lacks the offsetting sweetness that the pearls have.

Very high quality, pretty leaves, though.

Normally, I am a fan of black teas when I’m waking up for the day, but I got some samples from Teavivre last night and this smelled so incredible that it was all I could do to wait until morning. (Actually, it smells so incredible that I kept sniffing my teapot while waiting for my water to be ready. Seriously.)

Steeping mellows the scent a bit, of course, but it is still wonderful and jasminey. It brews to a beautiful golden color. The flavor is a bit mellower than I was expecting, but it’s very light and sweet and absolutely delicious. It kind of lingers, almost clinging to the tongue, in a really enjoyable way.

I was expecting to like this one since I’ve been on a massive jasmine kick (my flavors-to-seasons associations are a bit off, I think), but oh my gosh, I think I might be in love.

(Product provided gratis by Teavivre for review.)

In terms of what can be summarized as the better jasmine green from TeaVivre, I would say this is second to the Dragon Pearls. The jasmine in this loose blend is not as sweet and light as its rolled counterparts. Also, this tea is smooth, but it does get bitter quick, as in 2nd steep quick. Maybe it’s my water quality. shrugs Overall, this is quite tasty but lacks in flavour and re-steep quality. Far better than the last loose jasmine green in my cupboard.

sample provided by TeaVivre