Teavivre

Oh goodness! I adore this tea. The dry leaves look like soft little pillows. Adorable. The infused tea is delicious. The taste is very slightly like steamed veggies. There is also a salty buttery note and a fruity finish. I feel like I am explaining this tea so poorly because the description sounds weird, but the taste is amazing. I’ve never tasted anything like it before, but I am loving it. It also resteeps incredibly well. With the second steep there was more fruit. With the third and fourth steeps there was a nice mix of salted butter and fruit. Good stuff!

Thank you Angel and Teavivre for the chance to sample this tea. Between this tea and the Dragonwell you have made a green tea lover out of me!

Today has been an awful day.

I woke up in the night and could not get back to sleep. I just didn’t feel right and that kept me up all night long. I did finally fall back asleep about 4-5 hours later, but this has left me feeling really out of it. I have a headache, too, that I don’t think is related to my lack of sleep, and these storms that are rolling through aren’t helping.

So I needed a tea that would be delicious and comforting, something that would envelop me in it.

This is the tea.

I love this jasmine tea. I used to drink a bunch of jasmine teas, but I haven’t too much recently. Most of them seem over done to me. This one does not. It is a perfect balance of jasmine and white tea. I love the mouth feel from the silver needle, almost effervescent. I love the jasmine, sweet and floral, delicately done.

I am finding this tea to be really comforting today. It’s not helping the headache, but it is helping me feel better in other ways.

I got this one as a sample in my Teavivre order. I wish I’d ordered a bunch of it.

I love white tea. I love jasmine tea. This is why I asked for a sample of it. It is even better than my expectations. I am in love.

I love the way silver needle white looks when it’s just dry leaves. So pretty. I love the color. I love the way the leaves look almost furry. They look so soft. I want to pet them, but I always resist the temptations. The dry leaves had such a strong jasmine scent that I was a little worried about what the tea would taste like.

I should not have worried. This is a perfect balance of the jasmine and white tea. Sweet, slightly floral, but not overwhelmingly so. The liquor caressed my tongue like the best whites do. I don’t know why, as that just sounds funny, but that’s how I feel about whites. They have a mouth feel that I have never gotten with other teas.

Resteeped, it was still really good.

I have tried all Teavivre’s Tie Guan Yin teas and a few from other stores, and this one is my favorite. I have had Tie Guan Yin tea with a stronger aroma than this one, but this tea is very well balanced for my taste. The aroma doesn’t overpower the teas other characteristics so you get more than just orchid flavor. The tea is sweet and compared to other Tie Guan Yin teas that I have tried, more subtle.

Tea of the afternoon……

I have had this one for a week or two. It is a generous gift from Angel at Teavivre. Normally, I am not a drinker of green teas, but lately I am trying to eat more healthy. One thing I remember about the short time I did try to learn to like green teas was that I did like them best without additions. I know I sound like a broken record when I mention that I am trying to cut back on sweetening, but I thought it was time to give green tea another go. For certain, Teavivre carries fantastic green teas. And after this one, I am intrigued once again.

Lightly steamed asparagus and clarified butter! Very brothy and full tasting. The leaves are a gorgeous bright green and so aromatic on their own before steeping. Yes, I need some Dragonwell in my life again. I may not choose this one, but Dragonwell is definitely going on my list.

Second tea of the morning. Enjoying with the LTF.

I love how reliably comforting and delicious this tea is. Sweet and malty and cuddly.

I am so very glad I got a shitload during the recent Teavivre sale. I never want to run out of this.

I love that this tea is so reliably awesome. It’s like a snuggly robe and fuzzy socks – pure comfort.

I haven’t had this in a while because I couldn’t get my tin open. I finally exerted the full force of my will and viola! The question I have for myself is why in the hell did I only rate this at 89? I LOVE this tea. Love love love it.

First tea of the morning since I got home from NYC yesterday afternoon. The trip home was HELLTRIP. I climbed into bed and stayed there.

I’m having a nice, comforting cup of this. It is making me very happy. It’s also a sipdown. I probably need more.

Breakfast tea this morning. Trying this one for the first time and it is good! I’m happy to love an affordable tea this much. The song I heard for this one is King Floyd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1Lf_1y7rYE&feature=kp

A more complete review is on my blog: http://mizzprissy.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/balin-gongfu-black-teavivre/

Jasmine teas of various sorts are staples in my cupboard, mainly because they work better than chamomile and Valerian as a sophoric for me, and when I can find a heady fruity one they instantly transport me to either the flower markets in India, or my landlords patio at dusk in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

This is a nice dragon pearl and is different enough from my existing one: http://steepster.com/yyz/posts/164356. Whereas my current one has the deep heady fruity jasmine of flowers laid out in the sun, this TeaVivre tea has a crisper cooler jasmine like that which has been just brought out of a cooler in a flower shop. It is not powdery or insency ( until the later steeps), nor overly perfumy, it is slightly fruity, and in the first steeps the tea is very sweet even stevia like. Roasted notes of amber, cream, plum Green peas, later on cooked greens, insence, and other savoury notes are also present.

The dry leaves were smaller and more tightly rolled than my other jasmine with about 25% silver buds visible, with the rest of the leaves being mostly olive green with some brown notes. There is a little astringency in the tea but it mostly has a creamy texture. It has a moderate level of intensity in the jasmine flavour, by the third steep the jasmine and the base tea fully balanced each other. It is by no means as intense a jasmine as my current favourite green jasmine http://steepster.com/teas/sichuan-emei-shan-zhuyeqing-tea-co-ltd/36227-emei-shan-flower-mao-feng-jasmine, but this one is of good quality and easily obtainable.

I would consider getting this tea when I run out of my existing pearls!

@1.25tsp pearls/200ml/85°C
45,60, 80, 130, 150, 180s

Thanks again to Angel at Teavivre for this sample. I will thoroughly enjoy the rest of it.

I had some extra time this afternoon to relax with tea, so I thought it would be a good time to try a tea I knew would be good for several steeps. I chose this one because I loved the idea of something lighter and spring-y.

The first steep had strong vegetal flavors and a buttery smoothness that was highly enjoyable. There was a little dryness on the back of my throat, but it was very mild. The second steep had fewer vegetal notes and many more buttery ones. No astringency at all. The third steep was very soft with a light sweetness and something almost floral but not. I enjoyed this steep a lot. The fourth steep brought back a bit of the buttery, smooth notes, but other than that it was fairly weak.

The second and third steeps were my favorites, but I thoroughly enjoyed this tea from start to finish. Thank you Angel and Teavivire for the chance to try this tea!

I got this one in the mail today. I couldn’t resist after reading so many positive reviews. And, I have to say, it’s pretty amazing. I brewed this in a small glass pitcher and started drinking it after just over two minutes of steeping. I’ve never seen dragon well leaves that were so green in color, and the dry leaf has an incredible fresh, savory aroma. When this was first brewed, it was a light green color, but it turned more yellow as it brewed for longer. I definitely liked this tea best when it was first brewed, but I will definitely enjoy adding more water to the leaves and seeing what they have to give as this session goes on. I’m beginning to see what others like so much about dragon well tea.

ETA: I’m still pretty devastated over my recent breakup. I’ve found that the best therapy for me has been doing nice things for other people. If anyone wants me to ship them a sample of this tea or anything else in my cupboard, I’d be more than happy to oblige.

I really like the idea of dragon pearls and I really want to love them so that when I travel I can just pack a few little balls of tea and call life good, but this tea just hits me a little wrong. I get the mellow bready goodness, but then the end of the sip is followed by something that I would describe as tar. This was an enjoyable cup today, but not something I would purchase for myself again. ( Sipdown )

Enjoying the last few perls of this tea from boychik. Thanks again for including this one. I am using the new gaiwan this time. I am enjoying this a bit more than the last time. Blame it on the gaiwan or my mood I am not sure. I do notice with the gaiwan I can control the steep a bit better and tweak the boldness of the brew based on the previous cup.

I am still getting a very dark, unsweetened chocolate flavor out of this one. This tea perplexes me and makes me wonder about the differences in everyone’s palates. This to me is not sweet at all. So it is interesting that folks mention getting sweet. I am curious to see how this compares to other Dragon Pearls as well.

I received a sample of this from boychik. Thank you!

The peals are so big! They are also very pretty with the dark brown and copper tones mixed in. This is my second time with this tea. The first time I felt the tea was very weak. This time around i tried to remedy that by steeping at just under boiling and for the full 2 mins. The tea turned out well this time around. I am getting a lot of cocoa and hay flavor. For me this tea is not very sweet like some have mentioned. This is a tasty cup.

EDIT: The 2nd steeping on this one might be better than the first for me. This is almost like the dark roast of black tea.

The dry leaf is amazing – twisted wirey ribbons on tea with the odd brown tip with strong scent of fruit! A very photogenic tea!

Taste wise very clean, fresh, smooth, fruity plums, honey, lots of dark woodsy, bit of earth and char notes. I enjoyed the sweet notes and the excellent quality freshness, but I wasn’t into the woodsyness in nonpareil dian hong as it had a similar vibe to me as a rooibos, but more of a dark wood, but I can see many others enjoying this tea!

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/nonpareil-yunnan-dian-hong-teavivre-oolong-owl-tea-review/

Today I brewed this with the Strawberry Oolong. It smells sweet, and creamy, with hints of berry. It tastes a little like those strawberry milk candies and oolong. I’d say that turned out pretty well. Hybrid brew- 94

This is from my oolong sampler. My first milk oolong.

Nose (brew)- sweet, slightly floral
Colour- pale gold, hints of green
Flavour- creamy, lightly vegetal

This was very good, glad I finally was able to try it.

I think I over-leafed this one, as it is a little bitter and sour, but still pretty mild. I measured on my bamboo spoon and seemed like a good amount, but that left less than half of the sample packet left. It is still pretty decent, aside from that, and I am surprised that such a short steep brought out as much flavour as I got. The dry leaf of this one smells so fresh and green, but the brewed tea seems to be a little heartier. Almost roasted? To me, at least. I dunno. It could be me, or maybe the over-leafing.

I’d say that this tea, given the faults in my brewing, is still pretty nice. I am grateful that Angel at Teavivre sent me this one. I hope my follow up steep with the rest of the package will give me a slightly more moderate flavour profile. So far, I think I like Dragonwell greens the best from China. Especially really butter ones.

I had a cup of this last night before bed. It was a great calming cup. I like that it is light, the jasmine isn’t over powering and that there is the slight hint of peach. It is very well blended. On a night like last night it was the perfect cup. This is one of teavivre’s teas that I wish was sold in a smaller package. It is a mood tea for me so 100g seems like way to large of an amount to buy and keep in my cupboard. Maybe when I go to place an order I can find someone to split this with.

I received a sample of this from Angel and the folks at TeaVivre. Thank you!

This is a light tea with hints of peach and just the slightest notion of jasmine. I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed this cup. This was very nice and refreshing. I am excited to drink this both warm and cold this summer. Another tea that I think will be great for the upcoming warm days!

EDIT: This cooled quite a bit while I got distracted doing chores. This is amazing cold. The flavors for me came out a bit more. I will be making the rest of this sample iced for sure. I have so much tea, but I have been visiting the Teavivre site daily contemplating an order:) I am sure it won’t be long before I cave.

I received a sample of this from Angel and the folks at TeaVivre. Thank you!

I need to get to the pool tonight since the weather didn’t pan out for a bike ride, but I am dragging my feet and getting stuff done at the computer. This seems like the perfect companion in my procrastination.

I am unsure what to make of green tea. I have had some cups that I love and others that I dump out as soon as I take the first sip. Half of the cups I have never even written tasting notes about because I never even make it that far. I played it safe with this one. I made the water to the low end of the suggested temperature and steeped on the low end of time. This is wonderful! I can see a nice summer tea in my future. This is a light, slightly sweet vegetal tea. I am so impressed! There is a buttery feel on the tongue that is very nice. There is also absolutely no bitterness! Yes, finally a green tea that I love!

The first time I tried this the jasmine was a bit overpowering, so I underleafed it a bit this morning – 1.5 tsp for 2 cups. It’s quite nice this way.

Gotta dash soon, but I’ll be bringing some tea with me where I go. :-)