Teavivre

This tea is so beautifully crafted! Each and every perfect little hand-rolled pearl :) Just amazing quality.

I did my first steep of this for 1 minute, by which point the tea had just barely uncurled. It was still very flavorful.

Second steep was for 3 minutes. Strong! This could easily have passed for a first steep.

Third steep, probably about five minutes. Wow, still punchy!

Because I’m so sensitive to jasmine, I think I actually prefer the milder jasmine silver needle white tea that Teavivre offers, but I still have to say I’m impressed. Between the show-stopping presentation and the remarkable staying power, it’s easy to see why this tea is so popular.

If you like Jasmine, then you’ll love this tea. I’ve experimented with a few different brands, and so far this has the best Jasmine flavor.

It took me 3 or 4 times to get it how I like it. I didn’t like it Gaiwan style. It just loses the flavor too soon and the base tea isn’t strong enough on its own.

The best way for me was to brew in pot, lower temp like 170ish, and go about 3.5-4 minutes. If you go a little more on the leaves, you can probably come down to 3 minutes, and then get a nice 2nd steep out of it.

Very nice tea, quality leaves, great price.

Yummmm.
This was today’s breakfast tea.

Malty and bready and so juicy and flavorful!

Similar to the Golden Monkey but not quite as delicious.

I know I keep talking about Golden Monkey. Don’t worry, I will buy some eventually! Then I won’t talk about it as much!

It’s just the standard up to which I will hold all other teas with the word “golden” in their title :)

I have been rather distracted lately, and not entirely well either. Too much going on in the medical department of my life and the knowledge that this crazy song and dance is just starting feels very overwhelming. To help with my woes I created something kinda neat, a nice spider terrarium for my desk, occupied by a tiny Jumping spider I found. Now if I can find some moss for my terrarium I will be especially happy, but it seems that the Midwest is sorely lacking in moss.

Today’s tea is Taiwan Osmanthus Oolong Tea by Teavivre, created with Osmanthus flowers from Yunnan Province and Qingxin Oolong from The Ali Mountain, Taiwan. This tea seems like the embodiment of summertime to me, flowers and oolong, perfect for this time of year. The aroma is extremely floral and sweet. If you have never sniffed an osmanthus flower, the aroma is like a mix of jasmine, honeysuckle, and orange blossoms, it is heady and heavenly, tiny flowers with a very strong aroma. Blend this flower’s aroma with a sweet, almost milky, aroma of the oolong. There are also faint notes of chestnut and honey, it is very rich and sweet.

Steeping the leaves is really a treat, little osmanthus flowers prettily float on the top of the water, it was hard to put the lid on. The brewed leaves have a deliciously milky sweet and chestnut aroma. The floral notes are very strong, though not as strong as the dry leaves. There is also a slight fresh vegetation aroma that reminds me of being in the mountains. The aroma of the liquid is gently floral and faintly creamy, with notes of chestnut and honeysuckle.

The first steeping starts out delicate with a very creamy mouthfeel. It begins with a delicate creamy sweetness that blooms into a strong floral presence that is a mix of honeysuckle and and osmanthus. There is a slightly nutty aftertaste. I had a great moment when I first sipped this tea, I felt like I was standing in a garden in full summer, warm and content surrounded by beauty. I found myself getting lost, and it is only the first steeping!

For the second steep I needed to turn my notebook sideways, I had one of those ‘my hand writing is listing off the page’ moments again. It happens sometimes when I drink an oolong, I go into a tea trance. The aroma is much more floral and very sweet, it is heady and intense. The taste, oh man, the taste is fantastic. First we have a nice buttery mouthfeel that stays smooth throughout the entire sipping experience. The start is vegetal and fresh like vegetation growing in the mountains (I have seen this referred to as alpine and I love it) and that blooms into an explosion of flowers and nectar. It is a sweet floral blend of jasmine, honeysuckle, and grapefruit blossoms. I have to say this steep was quite heavenly.

After a few moments of introspection as I appreciate the previous steep, I move onto steep three. The aroma is very sweet, a blend of flowers and sweet cream. There is a tiny hint of vegetation in the aroma as well, at the finish. The mouthfeel is very smooth, less buttery than previously, but still quite smooth. The taste is less sweet and floral and more alpine and green, very evocative of summer vegetation is fully unfurled glory. This fades to a mild chestnut taste and finishes with floral sweetness which lingers as a very pleasant aftertaste.

It is absolutely no surprise that I go for a fourth steep. The aroma is mellow and sweet with a hint of floral and a hint of alpine. It is not as intense as the previous steeps, but such is the way of many steeps, like pieces of music it builds, comes to a glorious crescendo, and then delicately fades to a finish. The taste is mildly sweet with a heady yet delicate floral taste. The floral sweetness lingers as an aftertaste for what seems like forever.

For the fifth and final of the steepings the aroma is delicate and floral, a ghost of its previous self, but not a haunting, more of a pleasant memory. The taste is also a pleasant memory, bits of floral sweetness and refreshing alpine with a finish of chestnut. Ah, this tea, the sample came at the perfect time for me. I have been a bit blue (too much medical stuff) and my usually pick-me-up of floral oolong was not in the cards (I have run out, tragic) so sipping this sample was the best thing for my sad self.

For blog and photo (Including a ridiculous cat selfie) http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/06/i-have-been-rather-distracted-lately.html

Spring 2016, 175F, 60 sec, light leaf

Vivid green leaf with vegetal scent that brews a pale straw color tea.
Tastes sweet with mineral and very light fresh greens. Very soft and mild with no bitterness or astringency.

Thank you for the sample Teavivre!

This came as a free sample from Angel and Teavivre.

It’s no secrets my favourite oolongs are high mountains. When I drink them, I feel like I’m transported to some luxuriant Chinese garden.

This tea is cultivated at an altitude of 1000 meters on Ali mountain, so naturally, I have high expectations for it ( pun intended!).

Yum, it smells like lilac and macadamia nuts.

It feels pure and clean just like fresh spring water. When I was a kid, there was this natural spring water source in the forest at my grand parent’s. The water came out of some rock and tasted really sweet and mineral, we couldn’t get enough of it. This tea is a little reminiscent of that. It’s fresh and clean.

The taste doesn’t disappoint, I get some floral and creamy notes, very smooth and buttery.

Round in the mouth, there’s a certain thickness to it, I call that the “pudding” phenomenon, as if the liquid gets suspended in your mouth for a few seconds, a little cloud of goodness. It leaves a very distinctive lingering taste behind.

A beautiful tea I am grateful I got the chance to try.

Thank you Angel for this opportunity.

The dry tea smells lightly roasty and floral. While brewing, I can pick up some fruity aromas, like grape.

The flavor of the brewed tea is smooth and roasty. It has a subtle spinach flavor. I don’t really taste any of the floral or fruity notes from the aroma, but that’s ok, because I still really like this one!

I brewed this for 2 minutes using 208 degree water, but I wonder if I might like it more if it was steeped a little longer. I have enough for one more cup, so I think I’ll try it to see.

Thank you, Angel & Teavivre for sharing a generous sample of this tea with me!
I sampled it this afternoon, using my test tube steeper & short steepings. The tiny long leaves opened up nicely & the resulting tea was wonderful, to my taste. The most noticeable quality was a light smokiness, a thick mouth, lush vibrant green taste, & awesome chaqi!
This tea is almost like drinking a raw puerh.

when i won the teavivre contest i gave one pack to my friend Duane. he did not get a chance to use it. so me and him had a campfire and we roasted hotdogs and used the pack of i think 6 grams and made a good amount of this tea :P since it tasted better with fire boiled water, I’m changing the score 80 —→ 85

tasty and nice :) although the dragon well tea from uptons is better and stronger :)

With such a long mouthful of a name, this tea sets some strong expectations, before the package is even opened. Knowing Teavivre, I feel as though these expectations will probably be well met. Boasting no less than three organic certifications, Teavivre’s Organic Superfine Dragon Well Long Jing green tea (to which I will just refer as “Dragon Well”) was harvested about a month and a half ago in mid-April of 2014. Much like my last review of one of Teavivre’s spring 2014 teas, the freshness is telling.

As I start to open the sample packet, I have to stop and chuckle. As with their Bi Luo Chun, their Brew Guide on the label states that the tea should be steeped for “1 to 6 minutes.” Already deciding to go with three minutes of steep time and see how it tastes, I finish opening the package and the aroma of Dragon Well hits me from at least a foot away. I must admit that Dragon Well is one of my favorite green teas, and the aroma embodies a sweet nuttiness of the leaves, pleasantly. Layered over the top is the scent of fresh, green, grassy aroma, but not nearly to the same extent as many green teas.

Leaves into the infuser basket. Basket into the mug. Water into both. And now I wait. The smell rising from the steeping tea has grown richer and deeper. The nuttiness still presents itself. The fresh, green scent has become more akin to roasted, loamy notes. Three minutes seem to be a long time in arriving, but the timer finally rings.

Much like the infusing leaves, the smell of the brewed tea gives of notes of richness and roasted aromas. My first sip swells across the tongue and departs, leaving reminders of the aroma, mid-tongue. Surprisingly brisk, the taste nonetheless imparts a sweetness that was originally present in the scent of the dried leaf. While some might think the briskness to be unpleasant, it gives this Dragon Well a good amount of character and body. In fact, without it, I think this green tea might very well be dull. The tongue picks up a number of flavor nuances. The roasted aspect moves along the sides of the tongue, while the sweet nuttiness cascades along the middle. For such a pale tea with an unassuming aroma, Teavivre’s Organic Superfine Dragon Well Long Jing presents itself well and maintains a surprisingly bold flavor profile.

I would definitely recommend this tea for those, who enjoy teas with roasted flavors. I have tried many Dragon Well teas, and this is one of the best. On my personal enjoyment scale, I would rate this green tea a 94/100.

Another green tea sipdown from this spring’s harvest. It feels nice to get through these in a reasonable amount of time!

Today I went back to my large gaiwan for this dragonwell and it certainly worked out well for me. Buttery, sweet, and fresh. A nice, re-hydrating cup of tea after a loooong day of teaching. Thanks Teavivre!

Next grade up in my samples from Teavivre! I would have assumed that I’ve had a previous harvest of this tea before but I can’t find prior tasting notes so I guess not!

At first when it was still very hot I found this tea surprisingly underwhelming. It was kind of flat and uninteresting in the first few sips, but luckily that changed as it started cooling. I find this tea “greener” and less nutty than the Premium grade. Perhaps even a faint hint of a floral. I think I might prefer the Premium! But they are so close that it is hard to really say. Maybe I will have to have a dragonwell-off one day. Regardless I am enjoying the fresh green teas!

I have not really gotten a grip on all of the various Long JIngs available chez Teavivre. This one, the Premium, I brewed up today and am now scratching my head at my last review. Maybe I was having a bad tea day? That happens, of course… It’s also possible that I underleafed or underheated.

Today’s batch was nutty and slightly sweet and very appealing and smooth. It’s time to increase my rating. In order to adjudicate all of these fine Long Jing offerings, I probably need to just break down and order a full bag of each, so that I can do some serious steep-offs chez sherapop.

N’est-ce pas??!!!!!

The first glass of this Premium Long Jing from Teavivre seemed not quite as good as yesterday’s Superfine—somehow a bit flatter. To be honest, however, I can never be sure in making noncontemporaneous comparisons. So many variables are completely uncontrolled! Is it the tea? Or my mood? Or the weather? Or my blood sugar (or caffeine!) content? The only way to know for sure will be to do a direct side-by-side steep-off chez sherapop, controlling as many variables as possible!

That said, this tea is good. The flat leaves are large—broad and long—and fairly light in color. The infused leaves are also relatively light in color. The flavor of this tea seems milder as well. The liquor brewed up quite light with just a touch of green. However, I may have used different parameters in brewing than I did for previous long jings…

(Blazing New Rating #31)

Tea provided by Teavivre for review

Smelling the dry leaf to get a sense of what to expect, I picked up on a sweet, grassy, fragrance with a hint of melon.

The Initial sip was nice but not too flavorful aside from a hint of musky (?) green tea flavor. Until the sweet and grassy notes appeared during the aftertaste. A nice vegetal buttery flavor lingers during the aftertaste as well. Finishing off my first steep, the initial steeps always seem nice; no bitterness, bad flavor, clear liquor. But much of the flavor I like takes time to develop in my mouth.

Second steep brought more flavor to my initial sips. The sweet, grassy, vegetal characteristics come together and their fragrance from the tea cup is enjoyable.

Third steep had a refined, well balanced blend of the previous flavours. Everything I excepted from the after taste was present during the initial sipping. It was a bit dry, but otherwise nothing negative stood out.

I haven’t tried Lu Shan Wu before but I like it. It’s fairly easy for me to steep (sometimes I have to experiment to get a good cup, and this wasn’t fussy), and the tea has a nice balance between being flavorful but not in an overly obnoxious way. It’s more relaxing than refreshing, and has a heavier body than what I might expect.

Tea steeps: rise, 25s, 45s, 55s

April, 2014 harvest
Searching for descriptors for this tea, a bit of serendipity played out: it tastes remarkably similar to the split pea/lentil/vegetable soup I made last night! So that ‘pairing’ before lunch today was fun, trying to deconstruct the flavors in the soup that gave rise to the similarity. The tea isn’t a straight-ahead pea/lentil soup flavor, definitely pulls in the added veggies… carrot, onion, celery, garlic(!) and kale… as well as the assorted herbs used.

In the end the winner was: kale and tarragon. Finding the tarragon note in the tea was the most fun, because I didn’t use much in the soup but the tea played it up!

One of the more novel tea tasting experiences I’ve had, highly recommend for anyone trying to ID the flavor notes in savory green teas :)

This was my second dragonwell of the day following Teavivre’s organic superfine version, aspiring here to advance my dragonwell appreciation. Both were subtle and had me searching for their nuances, probably due to my modest dragonwell experience. Adding to the description above, this one had a less astringent finish and more roasted flavor though still very vegetal.

Next time I’ll prep them using 2 tsp per cup.

Thanks to Angel at Teavivre for the spring green tasting flight :)

April, 2014 harvest
This tea brews up a pleasant, smooth, buttered artichoke cup. The flavor depth is lighter than its fragrance. Mild astringent aftertaste.

Brewed it twice to see if adding more leaf would boost the flavor depth: it helped a bit but it is still a little more subtle than what I would prefer. Looking forward to comparing it to the premium sample that Teavivre sent me.

Delightful! I really love jasmine tea, but at the same time, I’m a complete wimp about it — if it’s too strong and perfumey, it gives me a walloping headache. So I’m super happy to discover this sweet smooth tea. It’s just strong enough to be flavorful, not overwhelming or astringent at all. The floral flavor blends beautifully with the white tea; I’m not generally a white tea fan, so I’m surprised I like it as much as I do. Really excellent.

p.s. I feel that photo doesn’t really do justice to the fuzziness and just, well, leafiness, of the leaves. They’re a lot fuller and curlier in real life.

This tea provided a pleasant accompaniment to my afternoon.

The dry leaf smelled of a powdery chocolate smell with a hint of sugar and raisin as well as a hint of sweet aging straw. The tea never developed the sweetness apparent in the smell.

I brewed this tea 12 times after the rinse and used half a sample packet. ( 10, 20, 25, 30,35,40,45,50,60,80,120,180s). The broth was a brownish red tinged gold.

In middle steeps the leather and bitter greens slowly dissipated and the wood developed a charred aged cedar tone. Honey became apparent underneath the fruit. Tones of sultana and licorice appeared briefly among the cocoa, charred wood, fruit and cream.

The later steeps were dominated by plum charred cedar, cocoa, honey and hints of vanilla orchid.
The tea produced a bright tingling at the front of the mouth and a warmth in the throat.

Thanks Angel I enjoyed this tea very much and appreciate the opportunity to really begin my education in puerh teas!

Once again thanks to the ever generous TeaVivre for their generous samples.

Additional notes: I’m just now breaking into this one that I bought (after trying a sample – so there is another tasting note for this one!) Teavivre teas are so well packaged! I know packaged like this, the freshness will last for a while. I wanted to use less than the 2 1/2 teaspoons I used last time, so I went with 1 1/2 teaspoons. The leaves unravel very quickly after a minute steep! The aroma and flavor is divine – somehow the flavor is creamy, a little spicy and peachy all at once. It’s a very unique oolong – and it’s rare that I find this peachy flavor with oolongs. Last steep session I was tasting mostly pineapple in the first cup, but that is missing here (probably because I used so many leaves last time). The second steep is exactly the same. The third steep is the same as well, but there is a little more bite to it. After the first two steeps being so sweet and creamy, the bite isn’t really a problem though. I’m surprised this one doesn’t change with flavor more over the course of steeping it, but with such a tasty flavor, I’m glad it doesn’t change too much. It’s nice to know that I can’t really ruin oolong… it tastes great no matter which way I steep it!
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for 11 ounce mug // rinse // 5 minutes after boiling // 1 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 1 1/2 minute steep
Steep #3 // just boiled // 2 minutes
Harvest: May 10, 2014