Teavivre

Guys, I finally think I need to break down and buy a scale. See, I have a project coming up that will require very exact tea measurements, and I do not think my vintage kitchen scale will cut it. I am a very ‘free flow’ in my tea preparation with eyeballing tea amounts and water amounts, count time out in my head (unless it is more than a minute) the only thing I am strict to is water temperature. So, this is going to be different for me, though not unpleasant, though it will interrupt the flow of my tea ritual, but not in a huge way. Maybe my vintage scale will work, clearly I will need to calibrate it and find out!

Today on the Green Tea Week from Teavivre, we take a look at one of my favorite spring greens (I am going to keep saying that everyday I think) Huang Shan Mao Feng Green Tea! Good old Yellow Mountain Fur Peak, as it translates of course referencing where it is grown and the appearance of the leaves, this particular harvesting was…harvested…on April 6th, putting it the day after Qing Ming. The aroma of these very pretty leaves is very fresh, very fresh and green indeed, and nutty. So, it starts out with a blend of chestnuts, water chestnuts, and edamame. After that the aroma fades to sweet peas, fresh spinach, and a tiny bit of smoke, like just a very very tiny whiff of smoke.

I decided to bowl steep this tea, it is one of those green teas that take to bowl steeping really well, it like never gets bitter! The aroma of the leaves floating around happily in the water is a nutty blend of sweet peas, edamame, and chestnuts. Subtle with a gentle edge of sweetness. The taste is pretty fantastic, it starts with a nectar sweetness of distant spring flowers (do I detect a hint of tulip?) and moves right along into green with notes of sweet pea, edamame, lima bean, and lettuce. Finishing up with a smooth chestnut and sesame and a lingering honey aftertaste. My bowl was refilled a few times before the flavor faded away to delicate sweetness and no more, not the most lasting of teas, but certainly very delicious.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/04/teavivre-huang-shan-mao-feng-green-tea.html

I expected to spend the day doing my usual blend of crafting, minecrafting, blogging, and tea guzzling, but I was given a surprise! Ben decided to take me on an old fashion dinner and a movie (or matinee and dinner) date. We saw Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and of course I loved it. Don’t worry I won’t give any spoilers other than it was more intense than I was expecting, which I liked. Afterwards we went for customary post-Marvel movie Shawarma (certainly one of Tony Stark’s better ideas) to discuss the movie. Good times, good food, and now time for tea!

Today I am starting off another Teavivre week with Huang Shan Mao Feng from Mt Huang Shan in Anhui Province. The name of this tea translates to Yellow Mountain Fur Peak (or fur tip, peak shaped fur covered tea, there are various permutations) combining the name of the mountain it was plucked from and the shape of the leaves resembling little fuzzy mountain peaks. Huang Shan Mao Feng is one of China’s Ten Famous Teas, this particular batch was plucked April 4th, 2013, high (1,200-1,400 ft) on the mountain blanketed in clouds. The aroma is very strong, much stronger than I was expecting for such a delicate tea. A mix of strong vegetal (I would say green bean and a hint of spinach) and sesame seeds. There is a finish of yeasty bread and cherries. If I had to use one word to describe this tea it would be complex, the aroma is very much so that.

After a nice soaking (by soaking I mean rinse and 30s steep in my gaiwan, uncovered for those who care about those kinda things) the aroma of the wet leaves is still very vegetal, with notes of green bean and fresh vegetation being the strongest. There are also notes of sage and sesame with a very gentle finish of fruit. The liquid is faint yet intense, does that make sense? There are no overpowering notes, but the ones that are there are very clear and delightful. It is a blend of green beans, sesame, and fresh bread.

The first steeping is smooth, oh my is the mouthfeel smooth. I would even go so far as to say silky! It manages to fill the mouth completely, though not in a buttery way like oolong. The beginning of the taste is sweet, gently sweet like honeysuckle nectar and sesame seeds. It reminds me a of the aftertaste you get when eating sesame Halva but with a vegetal quality. After the initial sweetness it changes to green bean and lastly finishes with honey.

The aroma from the liquid is much sweeter and has a stronger vegetal quality. As with the first steep the mouthfeel is the first thing I noticed, just as smooth and silky as before, but with more of an oily quality, the mouthfeel reminds me very strongly of Long Jing. The taste is sweet and floral at first, and quite delicate. It evolves into strong sesame and green bean notes and finishes with the taste of cherry. The cherry taste lingers for quite a while.

For the third and final steeping I notice the aroma of the tea is much more subdued, but still quite sweet and vegetal. The mouthfeel remains very smooth and silky, truly it might be my favorite part about this tea. The taste, like the aroma, is more subdued, but there is still a strong sesame and green bean quality that fades to a mixture of floral and fruity sweetness. It is a nice finish to a wonderful tea. I really enjoyed this tea and can certainly see why it is one of China’s Famous Ten, it maintains the delicate aspects you expect from a Green tea while having a bold presence. Also, Ben, who historically is not a fan of green teas, really enjoyed trying it, I can think of no better praise than that!

For photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/04/teavivre-huang-shan-mao-feng-green-tea.html

I had a fabulous gongfu session with this tea today after working really hard all day. It tasted amazing! I also used one of my really pretty fractal glaze teacups and it was the perfect reward. I think the long day (with no tea since breakfast) made the tea taste even better. So deliciously milky and smooth. Yum!

I gong fu brewed this and I am still enjoying infusions. This tea is another everlasting gobstopper tea. Woot! Will have to remember that. Western is good, but gong fu is better! Sweet, creamy, and a bit vegetal. Still love this oolong. :)

I’ve kinda been neglecting this one lately. Too much tea! I wanted a comforting, silky, creamy cup, and that’s what I got. Still amazing!

Let me just start by saying I love milky oolongs! I have had natural ones and those with added flavoring and I loved the flavored ones until I tasted the natural ones. Ha! This one has been on my wish list. I’ve actually thought about ordering the oolong sampler from Teavivre because I really liked the idea of trying a whole array of oolongs.

This is one of the samples Angel sent me. Thanks, Angel!! I was very excited to try this one! The recommended steeping temperature threw me off a bit, because they recommend 212 degrees, and I normally steep oolongs at a much cooler temperature…especially greener oolongs. I went ahead and steeped it at almost the recommended temperature (205 degrees) and it was great! I guess they know what they’re talking about!

They also have a huge range of steep times…3 to 8 minutes. I did 3 minutes, but plan on trying 8 next time! The leaves expand a lot when you steep them, going from small little rolled up balls to full leaves. Pretty awesome!

This milky oolong is probably my favorite. It’s sweet, but not unnaturally sweet. It has a creamy soft mouthfeel, is smooth to drink, and isn’t overly vegetal. I love it! Makes me think of the song from the Lego Movie: “Everything is Awesome!” :) I think the oolong sampler is in my future.

My breakfast cup was gone in half a second. Yes, I still love this sweet potato, malty, delicious tea! Golden Tippies are the best!

Still one of my favorite teas ever. I started two of my mornings last week with this fabulous tea and now there’s maybe 1 small cup left! Uh oh! Time to restock! Definitely on the list for my next order. I really like these golden tips and noticed that YS also has a lot of golden black teas…hmmm, maybe I should take the plunge and order my first teas from there too! Man, I really need a tea budget!

Golden tippies!!! Yes, drinking this one again. I just LOVE it! It always freaks me out too, because when I grab the bag, it’s so light, it feels like I’m almost out of it, but there’s still plenty left! All I have to say is Mmmmmm!!!

That moment when you reach for what you think will be the last couple of sips in your cup, only to be greeted by one drop…

That’s what always happens with this tea. Gone too soon! I reach for this one so often! It sneaks into being your favorite…you don’t even realize it is until you find yourself reaching for it over and over again!! Gotta have that sweet potato goodness! :)

Steeped up a cup of this and threw it in my timolino for our drive this morning. Seems terrible to put such a quality tea in a travel mug, but it was still delicious! Sweet yammy goodness! :)

A very sad, almost mournful sipdown. I adored this tea! I finally decided to drink the last cupful this morning, after breakfast, so I could really enjoy the flavor one last time. If I have tea first thing in the morning, i don’t taste all the goodness because my taste buds aren’t quite awake yet. This tea became a “go to” tea for me. I totally didn’t expect that, but it did. I love that smooth caramel sweet potato goodness! It is now added to my wish list again, for a future order!!

I’ve been drinking a lot of tea lately, but haven’t been logging much because they’re the same old teas I’ve already logged and I don’t have anything new to say. I can say that I’ve been enjoying many white, green and oolongs though, and a few are excellent iced.

So, this tea…I fell in love with it when I had a sample from Angel, and so ordered a bunch, but since then I’ve had a little trouble getting it to be just as good. I think it has to do with the steeping temperature. The bag recommends 176 degrees, but I swear the sample bag said something higher, like 186 degrees….of course, I don’t have the sample bag anymore. Poo! So, I tried it at 186 degrees today, and I think it came out a lot better. Much more rounded out flavor, and those sweet potato notes were spot on. Only thing is, it was a tiny bit astringent, so maybe I need to cut down steep time a bit. I did it for 3 minutes, but maybe 2 or 2 1/2 would be better. Anyhoo, I think I’m getting there! At least I have a lot left to enjoy!! :)

Angel at Teavivre was extremely generous and added me to their free tea tasting activity and sent me free samples of 5 teas. Everything came in pretty silver packaging, and it arrived very quickly from China (like 10 days!) I thought it would’ve taken a lot longer, but that’s great! Also, the sample sizes were quite generous…at least 3 cups worth, but most likely more, of each tea.

This tea was the first one I tried. I actually took it on the go with me in my timolino. Shocking! I know, I felt a little bad drinking these fine teas out of a travel mug for my first taste, but it didn’t seem to matter. This tea is absolutely delicious! The dry leaf is like little pieces of hay, but curly. The aroma is very pleasing…I just wanted to smell it forever!

The flavors I could detect in this tea were definitely sweet potato, caramel, and some warming spice (like nutmeg?) Teas that taste like potato haven’t really been my thing, but I really liked this one. I can tell this tea is high quality…it’s very smooth and the leaves don’t look overly processed. I think this tea would be amazing in the Fall (or now!) I’m really enjoying unflavored black teas right now, so this one is right up my alley. I knew Teavivre teas had good reviews on here, and after tasting their teas for myself, I think they’ve just jumped right to the top of my list. Thanks, Angel!!

Yet another sample from Teavivre. I still have a lot more of these to go. This tea (which name is too long that I’m sure to forget by next morning) definitely has a flavour profile to my liking. Chestnut notes are very obvious as mentioned in the description. It tastes surprisingly close to the “Premium Dragon Well Long Jing Green Tea” from Teavivre, but overall it has a slightly lighter feel. Yum.

Wow. This one smelled amazing when I opened the sample packet. Green and fresh (although it’s actually almost a year old now) and oh so delicious. And so bright green, too. Lovely to look at.

I approximated the western brewing directions, using 5g and 14oz of water.

Once the water hit the leaves, the aroma was even more veggie. Mmmmm.

It tastes very green, vegetable, fresh, slightly floral. It’s almost creamy in texture in my mouth. (I guess that’s buttery. Seems a weird way to describe it.) Someone said green beans in an earlier review, and I could buy that, although I thought more spinach. I really like this.

The second infusion was not so spinachy, but it seemed creamier. It was quite satisfying both first and second infusion. I tried a third and it was alright, but not spectacular. It just tasted like average green tea by that point.

I will try the other sample pack of this gong fu style.

Backlog from yesterday. Ok back to trying some non-flavored teas. I’ve been holding off on this particular sample for a while now and this afternoon is the perfect one to give it a shot. Since I only have one sample package, and I was hoping to have enough leaves left to brew this up a second time, I used only 4g and modified the gong fu method that was listed on Teavivre’s site. It worked out pretty well!

The dry tea is very light and wiry, while the scent has many floral notes, along with some deeper sweet tones. After a quick rinse I steeped my first cup for 25 sec; the aroma of this first cup was filled with honey notes and floral undertones, both of which were also present in the flavor profile. The mouthfeel was warm and rich with a slight astringency at end of the sip.

My second cup was steeped for 50seconds and while similar to the first I found the floral notes to be much higher in tone while the honey flavors became almost creamy. The third cup (70 sec) was deeper in both scent and flavor, with fewer floral notes while still being rich and smooth.

I had 3 more cups after this (85 sec, 1:40min and 2 min) and the scent and flavor profiles continued to get softer. After the fourth cup the soft floral notes made a bit of a comeback where as the honey notes, while mild, stayed somewhat consistent throughout. I did also notice a few darker, almost spicy notes staring to come out in the later cups.

In all it’s a really lovely tea, lighter than I was expecting for a chineese black, but not my all time favorite. Though it is one that I would be happy to have again in the future.

I received this in a swap from ashleyelizabeth. Thanks!

This was a really nice black tea. Casey thought it was excellent. I have more mixed feelings about it. I would have liked this more without the smoky note, or if it had a more robust body. I’m not sure if I would order a bigger quantity of this, but I’m glad I have more to try it again.

additional notes:  Turns out I bought a brick of this ages ago and only had it once!  It’s one of only a couple puerh cakes/bricks I actually own.  But on this rainy day I wanted a dark puerh.  I remember I loved it before – but steeping it now, it’s not terribly sticking out as something I would have went out of my way to buy.  Maybe I steeped it weird today.  I swear this is an actual brick – even with a knife this brick is almost impossible to pick apart.  It’s tasty but no notes are standing out today. Maybe I was spoiled in flavor with their other puerh I loved yet failed to pick up during black friday… Also, in the e-mail today, Teavivre is having a clearance sale on their 2021 teas!

Additional notes: I’m trying to drink my favorite ripened pu-erhs again (mainly going in order of my favorites) and this one, according to my ratings, is my favorite. I ordered a whole brick of it before (and I definitely rarely do that.) I think I’m finding, for all the pu-erh that I rated highly, that I used a ton of leaves. So overleafing pu-erh might be what I like to do. Of course, I don’t think you can really overleaf a ripe pu-erh… to me, it just gets more delicious. I think even after cleaning my infuser, it isn’t infusing like it used to, and that plus not overleafing the pu-erh, makes the resulting flavor not as deep as I wish it was. Luckily I have a whole brick to get this right!

Additional notes: I just wanted to try this one again to see if I was correct in remembering how much I loved it. Yes. I used half a sample pouch this time (should be around 5 grams) with a rinse and steeped for 3-4 minutes and this pu-erh is amazing. Last time I used an entire sample pouch (10g) which definitely wasn’t overleafed for me but I think next time I’d go with a leaf amount between 5-10 grams. I got three very delicious mugs from this steep session. I think everyone who tried pu-erh and thought they didn’t like it should try this one. I also think this would be perfect for people who don’t like their tea to be astringent. It’s amazing to me that pu-erh can be so dark yet so smooth. I’m really itching to buy a brick of this one. I’m thinking about it… ordering today!

Another Teavivre sample! I haven’t even caught up on the last samples and Teavivre has already offered to send more samples! Wow! I love Teavivre. I think they want me to try every tea they have… which works because 97% of the time they are so good that I want to buy them. There were four big chunks of pu-erh in one sample pouch… not sure if I should have used them all for one mug. I could have just used two pieces for this steep, but then I realized that pu-erh is rarely astringent anyway… you could probably use an entire pu-erh cake and it wouldn’t make a mug of tea astringent!

I wish Teavivre didn’t get rid of their webpage with the steeping instructions for their teas… I have to guess with this 17 ounce thing. I’m guessing the old page would have suggested something like 212 degrees with a rinse and 1,2,3,4 minute steeps. I sipped four big mugs of this tea all day and I was not close to tiring of it. All of the steeps here had the same delicious flavor… and I could have steeped this many more times. The flavor is surprisingly sweet yet dark, earthy. Pu-erh is kind of difficult to describe as pu-erh is just pu-erh… it has its own flavor. But it is interesting that it tastes so different from black tea. This is the kind of pu-erh I love. I could easily buy an entire cake of this. The value is great anyway… I could probably use the same leaves for many more than four cups. The flavor was consistent to the last drop. Delicious!

Steep #1 // 13 minutes after boiling (accidentally) with a rinse // 1 1/2 min steep
Steep #2 // 6 mins after boiling // 2 1/2 min
Steep #3 // just boiled // 2 min
Steep #4 // just boiled // 3 min

Not at all as good, when it is room temperature.

This morning’s review is possible, thanks to Teavivre for providing the sample of this old, raw pu’erh!

Contemplating the package of sheng (raw) pu’erh in my hand, it seems that this is a worthy tea for using a small yixing pot that I have dedicated to raw pu’erh. I start heating the water and open the package of tea in the meantime. The small sample package contains leaves and clumps of leaves, broken from a tuocha or a cake. And the smell of the leaves…what a raw smell it is, and I do not just say that as a pun. A raw pu’erh from 2006 has had some years of aging in which to intensify in flavor. From the aroma of the dry leaf comes a very green scent, mellow but figuratively seeming to have come straight from the tea plant. As the water finishes boiling, I put the leaves into the pot, then pour some of the freshly-boiled water over them for a quick rinse of no more than ten seconds, which is discarded. Having added a large amount of leaf to the pot, I decide to begin with twenty second infusions, rather than my normal thirty. The rinse did the leaves a lot of good – it awoke the aromas and flavors.

The smells, rising from my cup, are complex. Deep in the heart of the aroma is the raw greenness that I noticed with the dry leaf. Yet spreading outward from that is the more mellow scents of earth and floral notes. The earthiness does not begin to compare to the deep, dark earthiness of a cooked pu’erh, as I have reviewed in the past, but is lighter and less intense. The first sip of tea is strong…very strong…but it finishes quite spectacularly. Like a strong green tea, the initial taste permeates one’s mouth and overwhelms all else. but in the finish of the sip come the taste manifestations of the aroma. Those floral notes, slightly reminiscent of the floral aspects of some oolongs, sit in the finish and the aftertaste, hovering on the edges and lending their complexity.

For the second cup, I steep the leaves for another twenty seconds. The leaves are fully expanded and fill the small pot in which I am brewing. The aromas have not changed much, but the taste is smoother. I would not describe the taste as more mellow, for it is still as intense as the first sip, yet it does not seem as overwhelming. The leaves last through several more infusions. The flavor is, in many ways, refreshing in its complexities. Yet, it can be consuming quickly and without much a thought to the depth, and one will still receive from it an enjoyable flavor. On my personal enjoyment scale, I would rate this sheng pu’erh a 90/100.