Teavivre

Eh, not super strong. Maybe it’s because it’s a bit too hot right now, but even smell wise it’s not strong. I think I like Teavana’s Peach Jasmine better…it’s definitely a lot stronger.
It tastes faintly of jasmine, but nothing really strong. Oh well. Least it was just a sample. xD
Thank you for the sample, darby! (:

171/365

I have another cold. In all honesty, it doesn’t feel like five minutes since I last had one. Fortunately, I can still taste things – at least today. Small mercies.

This tea is one of my historic favourites, but one that hasn’t been in my cupboard in what feels like forever. It’s the best. Liquid awesome absolute deliciousness. The scent of the dry leaf is chocolate and malt, and it has me from that point on. The flavour holds up remarkably well – I get chocolate initially (sweet, milk chocolate), followed by a bready, grainy, slightly savoury mid-sip with the tiniest hint of smoke. The sweetness returns towards the end of the sip, when the full hit of malt makes itself known. It’s an excellent combination.

I’m pleased I still like this one, given that I’m returning to it after such a long time. I probably appreciate it more, if anything, since I’ve more breadth of experience to compare it to. I have a few sample pouches of this in my cupboard, but I’ll have to make more of an effort not to leave it so long in future. This is one I could keep around full-time, now that my cupboard is a little more under control, and I might well do that, once my 365 days of tea challenge is complete.

Premium Golden Monkey is love. Tea love.

In my opinion, Golden Monkey is a Teavivre classic – one that all tea lovers (and particularly black tea lovers) should try at some point. It’s a cupboard staple for me, perfect in any season, and at any time of the day or night. It’s a real comfort tea, for me. Reliable, versatile, and tasty to boot! I used 1 tsp of leaf for my current cup, and gave it approximately 2.5 minutes in boiling water. The resulting liquor is lightly golden, the scent sweet and malty with an underlying hint of grain. I’m drinking it without additions today, hence the reasonably low steep time on this occasion, but it also works well with a 4 minute brew and a splash of milk.

One of the reasons I like this one so much is its almost intensely chocolatey initial flavour. It’s like a square of high quality dark chocolate; bittersweet, with an edge of dark, dry cacao. The malty notes emerge in the mid-sip, and make this a much sweeter prospect, which becomes a little reminiscent of molasses. It’s by no means overpowering, though – there’s just a hint of something treacley lurking in the background. Notes of baked bread, grain and a light nuttiness develop towards the end of the sip, along with a smooth caramel richness.

See my full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/05/22/golden-monkey-black-tea-teavivre/

A sample from Angel at Teavivre. I’m making up for lost time with these samples today! I have tried this one before as part of a swap, and I remember really enjoying it. This cup is a little different from my recollection, with a slightly different flavour profile, but if anything it’s even better than I remembered! I used 1 tsp of leaf, and gave it 3.5 minutes in boiling water. The resulting liquor is a deep golden brown. The leaf smells strongly wine-like as it infuses, and reminds me more of a darjeeling than anything else.

To taste, the wine notes are still fairly prominent. There’s something almost muscatel and grapey about the initial sip that’s actually very appealing. Given that I rather like darjeeling, that’s probably no surprise. I can also detect a sweet maltiness, and then a hint of leather in the mid-sip. It’s an interesting pairing with the initial wine notes – this cup is rather putting me in mind of a gentleman’s club! There’s the tiniest hint of smoke in the aftertaste, and then a light yeastiness rounds off the sip.

I really enjoyed this one, and it’s definitely a tea I’ll look to keep around once my current stash is a little more under control. It’s a very satisfying, flavoursome black tea, and another winner from Teavivre!

Weekend Sipdown #1

I decided to round off my week’s holiday with a few sipdowns, to make way for new incoming teas. Yes, I was baaaaad again! Also because there are many in my sipdown box that I’ve enjoyed a lot, and I want my final acquaintance with them to be a memorable one.

So, this morning’s obvious choice was this. It’s as lovely as I recall from previous cups — slightly sweet, malty, with a sweet potato note and a mild hint of cocoa. There’s a twist of smoke lurking around in the background, too, but it’s never overpowering. I’m just beginning my exploration of plain black teas, so it’s hard to say where this will eventually come in my ratings. For the moment, though, I love it. It tastes wonderful, and it’s the perfect comfort cup. Most definitely a tea I can see myself coming back to!

A sample from ashleyelizabeth. I’ve heard a lot about this one, and I’ve recently had some very positive experiences with Chinese black teas, so I was pretty excited as I brought this one out to try. The dry leaves are simply beautiful — slightly curly, golden brown with cocoa tips, darkening to almost-black. I used 1 tsp of leaf, and gave it approximately 3 minutes in boiling water. The resulting liquor is a medium golden-brown, and the scent is sweetly malty with a hint of smoke.

The initial flavour is similar to the scent — sweetly malty with a very slight edge of bitterness. The flavour of sweet potato develops mid-sip, and I get a hint of milk chocolate. A vague smokiness swirls around in the background, adding a mildly bitter, savoury overtone to perfectly augment the sweetness of the malt. I like this as a middle of the road kind of tea. It hasn’t got the chocolate and bread of Teavivre’s Yunnan Dian Hong Golden Tip, nor the deeper, darker, leathery notes of their Balian Gongfu. Instead, it treads a line somewhere in the middle — the best of both worlds! It’s wonderfully delicious! I would purchase this one as a breakfast/morning tea, simply because it’s strong and tasty, and has many of the flavours I enjoy in a black tea. Truly lovely stuff! Thanks again to ashleyelizabeth for sharing this one with me.

SSTTB: Pick #22

So, when I said earlier this evening that the Hot Apple Ginger Toddy was the last one from The Box I guess I lied, inadvertently though; I totally forgot that I had this one too last minute while packing it up and that I’d yet to log it.

However, going through my notes just now reminded me of it!

Here’s what I jotted down while drinking it:

- WTF? It’s roasty like a Hojicha?
- Some serious malt/bread notes
- Floral Endsip/aftertaste
- Very weird as an oolong; pleasant enough

Obviously it was maybe a little forgettable overall given that I’d totally forgotten I even had it; but now that I’m thinking back on it now I am doing so fondly. It was really good in the moment and while I was really thrown by the flavours in it I thought it was very comforting.

Not something I’d need to drink again, though, I think.

Sample sipdown!

I decided to brew it gongfu style because I have a teensy Japanese soy sauce dispenser that holds 3 oz.

As per their website for the paddy flavoured tea (because this one is no longer)…
Dry, the tea smells really sweet and carby.
2 rinses – A bit smoky, as well as sweet and carby (like cooked potatoes or pasta or something).
20s – Umm. Huh. I don’t like this at all. It smells sweet and carby with a tinge of smoke, but it tastes extremely astringent and bitter, a bit fishy, and just. No. Like a green darjeeling that’s been boiled and oversteeped.
30s – Even stronger and more astringent and bitter.
40s 5s – Nope.

Ok, I’m calling it quits. This is not a tea for me, the flavours are not good. I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong (entirely possible!), but I do not like. It was my first raw puerh, too. I have a couple others that I’ll eventually get to. :)

Thank you Stephanie for generously sending me this sample!

It’s a little late for me to be drinking caffeine, but I just woke up from a nap. I was kept awake last night by a snoring boyfriend and a mosquito bite that had me itching. Hopefully the caffeine in this won’t keep me awake later…

This tea is so interesting looking. I love the long slender leaves that are bright green and look pressed flat, almost as though someone had ironed them. I decided to steep this at 170 F for around 3 minutes.

The tea liquor is a light yellowish-green. I definitely get the green bean flavor here but what’s amazing about this green is how sweet it is. The sweetness lingers in your mouth long after you’re done sipping it. It seems really fresh and light which is also good. Teavivre has so many good green teas and I was really glad I got to try this one. I wonder if anyone’s tried cold brewing it? It’s tasty.

I had a hard time figuring out why I still had Sil’s sample, but it’s because I ordered a black tea sample pack and gave my brother the unopened ones and kept this one. Go me?

I added 1/4 tsp maple sugar to this, because it smelled like a tea that would be good with a touch of maple.

While this tea is nice, I still prefer the keemun. Which keemun specifically? IDK, since I still have 3 or 4 varieties waiting for me to sample. This tea is a little sharp for me, which is interesting. This smells sweet, like honey and sweet potato and hard caramel candies, but it doesn’t taste that way due to the sharpness. I think I’m expecting a sweeter, more mellow flavour.

Thank you for sharing, Sil. :)

This tea was intruiging from the moment I opened the foil packet. It seemed there was just as much dried tangerine rind as there was tea leaf inside! Now, this is my second flavored puerh. Before, I had tried a chocolate one by The Tea Spot, but I didn’t care for it much.

The scent is very interesting. The fruit is in the forefront, but it isn’t so much a fresh fruit aroma. It smells more like the tangerine tree itself. Sure, there are notes of citrus in it, but I also smell wood, dried leaves, and something very sweet.

As the tea steeps, it comes to a dark shade of brown, almost like coffee. The tangerine peels float to the top and rest there. The flavor of the tea is “cooked” for lack of a better word. The fruit tastes the way it would in a cobbler, sort of. There’s also a hint of something that reminds me of cereal. While this is very new and interesting, I can’t say I’m a huge fan. Maybe I still need to grow into puerhs.

Fruit teas are hard for me to review. They aren’t bad, but they often all have a very similar tart taste, as most use hibiscus or some other tart ingredient like that. This tea has that tart taste, but it also has a blueberry taste in it, and there is a touch of vanilla in it.

However, this tea doesn’t have as much of the flavours in it that I would like. The tartness is a little overpowering, and I don’t taste enough vanilla to consider it a vanilla tea in any way. It wasn’t bad at all, of course, it just wasn’t as flavourful as I’d like it, and it wasn’t my favourite tea.

I do think it may taste different cold though, so I am going to let it cool and then keep it in the fridge for a while. I’ll report back when I drink it cold.

I keep wanting to call this Black Pearls. It has a nice chocolate scent (that could also be my kitchen, as I just made cakes). The flavour is a bit towards the mildly sweet hot cocoa side. Not overly strong, just delicious.

This tea is amazing.

First of all, the leaves are perfectly whole, just dried and flattened out. They are so HUGE. It almost felt sacrilegious to put them into a cup and pour boiling water over them.

The dry tea smells slightly vegetal, similar to cabbage or spinach but not quite. The smell is familiar to a vegetable soup base.

The brewed tea brews up fairly strong. There is definitely a vegetal flavour but it is very light and mild. It is not floral, but it is not strong cabbage, it is just somewhere in between. It is smooth and creamy. Just slight butter notes.

This tea is delicious. Thank you Angel from Teavivre for this free sample. I appreciate being able to try such awesome and high grade green teas.

Very light both in color and in flavor, but not lacking. A subtle delight and excercise in sensory awareness.

Silky smooth with flavors of water chestnut, a light vegetal taste (I’m inclined to compare it to a nice mild cabbage flavor), with some notes of coconut and a natural sugar cane sweetness. This is a wonderful tea. It is delicate and requires your attention and focus in order to be fully appreciated. I feel very calm and centered after appreciating this beauty. Definitely recommended.

I was surprised and, to be honest, a bit skeptical about this flavored milk oolong from Teavivre. Not that I knew anything about milk oolong anyway, but it struck me as strange that an excellent pure tea purveyor such as Teavivre would be trading in those disreputable “flavors” added by so many companies to mask mediocre base teas.

My worries were for naught, as this Jin Xuan tastes very good. However, I am a bit confused, as it tastes, looks, and smells very similar to the Republic of Tea Milk Oolong, which boasts only natural milkiness. Both dried teas take the form of gnarled green knots with a huge amount of very enticing aroma. This Jin Xuan exhibits less variation in the coloring, with a more uniform dark green sheen, and the knots are also smaller in size. The Republic of Tea Milk Oolong came from China, not Taiwan, so I suppose that it should not be taken as “classic”, whereas this milk oolong from Teavivre appears to have come from Taiwan.

The most important question of all is this: how did I go my whole life until yesterday in a state of complete and utter milk oolong ignorance and (now I see) deficiency? This is a wonderful genre of tea, which I definitely intend to explore further, beginning with the unflavored milk oolong from Teavivre!

This keemun tastes like it has a history. An ancient history filled with with time, patience and old places. It is a deep tasting tea with a nice balance of earthy dark chocolate, a touch of smoke and a wee bit of malt. It is not overwhelming with it’s keemun flavors, but it is delicate, honest and true in what it represents. I am getting fewer top notes in this keemun that in TeaVivre’s Organic Superfine Keemun, but this isn’t a matter of quality in the difference between the teas… more than likely it’s my allergies. This is the top of the line for TeaVivre’s keemuns, so if you love the earthy goodness of keemun but don’t know where to begin in TeaVivre’s offerings, begin here.

I tend to forget I have this in the cupboard…well I just drank the last 7g of it so now it’s gone…

This is the roasted type, bolder in flavour with so many different notes and nuances, it’s not possible to identify them all in one session.

I don’t drink it often enough, too bad cause it is worth the attention. It smells like roasted chestnut and coffee, but strangely, the first thing I get in the first steep is a strong floral mouthfeel.

Then, it’s a party in the mouth. I mean fourth of july with fireworks kind of party. Baked goods, spicy nutmeg, peach, apricot, charcoal. It’s complex but so easy to drink.

Someone else suggested coconut to me from another Big Red Robe tea. As much as I want to get coconut, it’s just missing in action in this one. Too bad, I do love me some coconut!

On the fifth steep I just let it cool.

It’s juicy and very refreshing on this very hot summer night. It gets winey, like a bright citrusy and oaky white wine.

I really like this and would definitely consider replenish my cupboard with some Da Hong Pao soon.

Another great tea from Teavivre!

I got this as part of my Giveaway Sampler. The golden tipped leaves are rather pretty. And I get a lovely aroma of sweet potatoes both from the dry leaves and the brew. There seems to be more honey in the flavour, but I do get the potato as well. It seems to have hints of nuts too. Thanks Teavivre for being so good at picking my teas.

From my first actual Teavivre order. I like osmanthus, but I’ve not had it as an oolong yet. The scent is nicely floral, a bit of honeysuckle perhaps. As for flavour, creamy, and sweet. I do taste the osmanthus, as well as the grassy oolong.

BLACK TEA, YES.

I have not had a good, truly deep, dark, black tea in a loooooooooooong time. I have definitely had black tea recently (not logged since it was all bagged and out of town away from computer access) but not what I really consider black tea, and not THIS good.

The smell steeping was a grainy, malty smell.

The taste?

I am drinking a cup of chocolate, caramel, wheat….goodness. That’s exactly what I taste. Sugar and milk definitely brought the chocolate to the forefront, that’s the first taste that hits you right away. The wheat taste is a sweet, middle tone, that develops in the middle. The caramel is an underlying flavour, tasted throughout, and strongest at the end of the sip.

Usually, I do not taste three flavours as distinctly and powerfully in teas as I do in this tea, and they usually don’t taste as delicious. I mean, I have had flavoured teas recently that taste delicious—just look at my reviews—but that’s usually ONE flavour, not three. Teas with more than one flavour can be hard to pin down. I think that is why I love this tea so much—it is SO complex and so rich and dark and I LOVE it.

Man, and this was only a free sample from Angel at Teavivre that came with a purchase. :( IT’S GONE, NOOO.

I miss having a great black tea in my cupboard. I urge you all to go drink this—sweetened to taste and with milk or cream. It’s divine!