Teavivre

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Recent Tasting Notes

99

I just got this one from TeaVivre and I was really excited about the sample package! I was surprised by the generous sizes of the samples, thank you again, TeaVivre!

I steeped this one for 1 1/2 minutes and it smelled amazing right away. I’ve never tried a Lapsang Souchong before, so it’s my first experience :) The dry leaves do smell so intense that I took a deep breath and then coughed for a minute or two! It is amazing.

When I took the first sip I didn’t feel anything, but a split second later a wild smoky taste blossomed in my mouth, but I still could feel a great deal of good black tea leaves. A really nice sour’n’sweet aftertaste is also present and gives a good strong finishing touch.

Overall, it is an amazing tea and I don’t really have the words or skills to properly describe it. It is just the most surprising tea I’v ever had and I am totally going to buy some more.

This is so far one of the

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 1 min, 30 sec

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89

Thank you Angel and Teavivre for this Sample

I had all three granddaughters helping out on this review and we went through three steepings using a french press (of all things..this was big enough to brew for 4 people).

The first pour was the lightest colored. Light golden brown and toast scented. Schey said the taste was grassy and the other girls thought the flavor was good but tasting like earth and somewhat astringent.

The second pour was medium honey brown and smelled like wheat bread to all of us. We sweetened the tea and enjoyed the sweet bread and honey flavor. Megan noticed that there was a little saltiness.

The third pour was the most interesting. We labored to find the words for what the flavor was.

“Sesame!” I said….“Exactly, yes”, was their reply. But I couldn’t just stop there and leave well enough alone.

“Sesame Street!” I cried! (I meant to say Sesame Tahini!)

We rolled, cracked up…cried…laughed till we hurt…what a goofus!

So, ok ok ok…I thinketh this tea tasteth like Sesame Tahini and Honey!

We all liked it. We had a good laugh!

The next review I PROMISE to be serious Teavivre! Really!

ashmanra

I bought this one and I ADORE it! Glad you all had fun drinking it!

TeaEqualsBliss

When tea is FUN it makes it even better! LOVED reading this tasting note!!!

Bonnie

I like to include notes on the tea education of my grandchildren (not the 2 toddlers yet) ages 7,9,11,15,17,18 all close by. Some love LS, one Puerh, one Yabao and some Chai or Oolong. Little by little!

Kittenna

Love hearing about your tea tastings with your grandchildren, Bonnie. So glad you can share that with them!

CHAroma

Wow! So many grandchildren!! By the way, what is sesame tahini?

Bonnie

CHAroma… My daughter and son-in-law had 3 daughters then adopted 3 boys and then have fostered 27 children so far (they have 2 right now) that’s why so many. But the house is big (3 bathrooms), on an acre. Sesame seeds ground up like peanut butter make a spread or tahini. It usually is found in the grocery store in a can and the oil separates so you have to stir it like natural peanut butter until it’s incorporated with the ground seeds and smooth.

CHAroma

Wow, your daughter and son-in-law are awesome people!! (But I’m sure you already knew that). ;) I’ve always wanted to adopt. There are so many kids out there that need/deserve good homes. It makes me really happy to hear that your daughter is being so generous. I wish her all the best!

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89

A very light lovely cleansing oolong! Not a “typical” oolong either.
Sweet honey notes with a lovely earthy essence but not OVERLY earthy!
Some floral notes, yet not OVERLY floral!
Some fruity notes, yet not OVERLY fruity!
LOL this tea has a little bit of everything within it yet nothing is lost, muddled, or confused!
This is a very complex BLEND yet a very easy to drink and easy to distinguish on the palate!
I feel this is an excellent beginner oolong yet satisfies the long time oolong lover!
Just beautiful!

Missy

hehe that’s what I told Dylan. This is the one people new to oolong should try. It’s complex but very mannerly.

Azzrian

Ha! I like that! “mannerly” :)

SimpliciTEA

I love that word, too, as it gives the tea personaliTEA!

Azzrian

Yes and so many of us do use personification in our tea reviews!

Invader Zim

I finally got my sample of this in the mail today! I’m so excited after seeing all these wonderful reviews I’ve been really wanting to try this one.

Missy

hehe @ personaliTEA

Azzrian

Zim I would not say it is Teavivres BEST but its one I could see drinking daily almost like a morning black – more of an afternoon daily oolong. Dependable and smooth.

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97

I received my shipment from Teavivre the other day wickedly excited of course. As I am finding with other teas there are many degrees of the lapsang…like Kevin Bacon. Which reminds me of one of the most amazing sandwiches I had from Melt in Cleveland named the 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon(six kinds of bacon!). A great tie in to lapsang or Tea review ADD? You decide. I do love lapsang and I’m finding that I like the more subtle lapsangs as well. I’m starting to appreciate lapsangs that have a great black tea base as well as the smoke. This one is a little less smokey. Much like the Upton Black Dragon as opposed to the strong smokiness of Dr. Tea’s. There’s a little sweetness that comes through. I’m also detecting some nuttiness(almond) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qtEjJuGo_U As much as I love drinking lapsang I also love cooking with it. I combined this with Man tea’s Jalapeno black and made a turkey brine and then smoked the turkey. Another great lapsang

Autumn Hearth

Now I not only want some Lapsang but I also want to go to Melt, was the 6 Degrees on the menu recently?

The DJBooth

That was a couple months ago it was one of their weekend only special. It was a well spent 16 dollars…so much bacon. Amazing like a double rainbow!

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90

AmazonV was good enough to share some of this with me…thank you! I’ve been hitting the coffee every day this week. The reason being I’ve been staying up late at night prepping for vacation and general goofing around. Anyway, I had to remind myself why I stopped drinking coffee and opted to bring this to work with me instead.

Now we don’t have a proper kettle or anything like it here in the office. Just a water cooler with HOT water spout and a Keurig. So I worked with what I had with the hot water spout thing. I have to say it didn’t turn out too bad! I loved the little nest shape with the rose pressed into the bottom of the nest. This pu-erh smelled like others I have tried – earthy. But I love that about pu-erh. However, I can taste something extra as I sip this tea in my very quiet office..which I assume must be the rose. All in all it is a really nice tea and being a pu-erh I’ll get at least three more steeps out of it this morning. Why was I drinking coffee again?

Preparation
Boiling 1 min, 0 sec
K S

I like this one better than the standard Toucha exactly because of the something extra.

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95

Free sample from Teavivre

The pearls smelled malty and slightly chocolatey when I opened the packet. They were larger than other pearls I have had. I must say I rather liked the hefty chunk of them. So, out with the infuser mug, which I generally reserve for my jasmine pearls and gunpowder, but that is a practicality decision, not because it brews them best. I was not sure how many pearls to put in, so I plumped for five pearls. The mug is about 200ml.

As I poured the water over them, the maltiness of the aroma increased. Once steeped, I had to wait a bit, because it was really too hot to drink. I am not good at waiting! The first sip told me what I needed to know. This tea is malty with a smooth, thick underlying chocolateyness that is gorgeous. The liquor is reminiscent of dark chocolate too. The sweet aftertaste lingered at the back of my tongue for some time too. Lovely. In some respects, this tea was like drinking a mug of cocoa, but nicer.

In the end, I managed to get four steepings out of the leaf, but the real flavour only lasted for the first two. After that it was slightly chocolatey sweet water.

I generally struggle to find black teas that I really like (other than Darjeelings), but this one definitely hits the mark and will be making a reappearance in my cupboard soon.

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec
Bonnie

This is good. I think based on you liking this tea I’ll send you a sample of Laoshan Black from Verdant.

Roughage

Thank you.

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82

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!

Preparation
Iced

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80

Thanks YET AGAIN to LiberTeas for this one, too!!!

This was Charcoal-like with a sweetness and a dry taste in the after taste. I actually like this one chilled or iced a bit better than hot. It’s sweeter and seems more complex as it’s cooler. Puts a smile on my face!

Tea_is_wisdom

This is a really good tea. I enjoyed it and would consider it to be of high quality. I also think people who enjoy teas like Dan Cong and Taiwanese Oriental Beauty will enjoy this tea too since they all seem very similar. Take care and like always keep on steeping.

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90

I’m starting to have black tea withdrawal symptoms but they are not severe enough to keep me from trying another non-black sample from Teavivre. Oolong is not my favorite but Teavivre always seems to make it interesting.

When I opened the sample packet, a somewhat sweet and milky or malted aroma spewed forth. The green and yellow tea leaves had been rolled into tight little nodules.

I steeped this blend for three minutes at 212 degrees. The brewed color was a light yellowish green.

The flavor of this tea is rather sweet, malty, and tangy. There is also a light tea taste reminiscent of Teavivre’s green teas. I didn’t find any bitterness. A soft and sweet aftertaste was left on my tongue.

I noticed, in the description of the tea, that it is recommended to use three to four teaspoons of tea per cup. I didn’t see that in time and scooped my usual one teaspoon per cup. I still thought the flavor was full and ample enough to enjoy.

Oolong (any Oolong) wouldn’t be my morning beverage of choice, but I would really appreciate this one at the end of the work day or as part of my dinner dessert.

This is yet another very nice tea from Teavivre. If Oolong is your preference, you will probably like this tea even more than I did!

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec

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94

Lovely. Nutty, vegetal but not overly so, mildly grassy, lovely smell, slightly sweet. Everything a Dragonwell should be.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 1 min, 30 sec

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97

This is my favorite green tea so far. I like it because it is so different. It has a light roasted note that leads to sweet mellow vegetal flavor. Not like asparagus or steamed veggies, like the way small trees smell if cut into the bark. Maybe it’s just a green flavor that is a tiny bit malty. I’ve had some smokey tea today so I don’t know if I am getting the aftertaste from my previous tea or there is a little bit of smoke in this one as well. It’s a really awesome green tea. I was pretty sure green teas weren’t going to be my thing but this is totally changing my mind.

Thanks Teavivre and Angel for the most excellent sample!

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 1 min, 0 sec
TeaBrat

I love gunpowder greens! :)

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99

As always, a big thanks to Angel and the Teavivre team for this fantastic samples.

It’s been somewhat well documented that Moroccan Mint is one of my favorite teas in ze world. So, as many gunpowders as I’ve drank, this is really the first gunpowder I’ve drank alone (yeah, with nobody else).

The little pellets in this sample are remarkably shiny, I don’t know how to explain it other than that. They look like precious little rocks.

Anyway, so how does it taste? Brilliant, that’s how it tastes. It’s wonderful. There is a sweetness to this tea that is wonderful, and a slight vegetable flavor. Not that in your face, I’m eating a serving of boiled cabbage flavor, but a soft, sweet, this tastes like the forest vegetable flavor. There’s a bit of a tinge of that malted flavor that I associate with black tea as well, that really rounds this out quite pleasantly.

So, in preparation for my big meeting thing tomorrow, let’s break it down to three bullet points (that would fit on a powerpoint slide!):

1. Lightly sweet
2. Tastes like the forest
3. Reminds me of black tea

I definitely think this is going to be a tea I keep around for a while. Actually, I think I’m going to go put in an order with Teavivre right now. I’m missing their Bailin Gongfu, as well.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 1 min, 0 sec

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89

Last Teavivre tea before I go back and re-try the Pureh! Thanks Angel, and I am sorry it took me so long!!

Smell: Dry, it had a grassy/veggie/earthy smell, if that all makes sense. Steeping it was a bit more smoky/vegetal, all good, of course.

Taste: It was very earthy and smoky, and then a nice, sweet aftertaste popped in, though it wasn’t too sweet, which is good. I also decided to add a small bit of honey, and it went very well with this tea. It has been a long time since I’ve had green tea, though, to be honest, so I don’t have anything else to add right now as I have to build my green tea vocabulary and tasting notes back up to remember what is good/bad about it. But do know that I highly enjoyed this tea!!

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 2 min, 0 sec

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90

This is the first real tea I have since late last week. Finishing this sample off today. Then probably disappearing again. My desktop computer died. My son offered to help build a new one. The parts came in last week and I am still trying to get things set up and old things moved off the old hard drive. Maybe later today I can look up for more than the few minutes it took to enjoy this one. Nice easy to drink, kind of malty tea.

Sami Kelsh

I hope you get your computer sorted soon! hugs

SimpliciTEA

Good luck with your computer.

K S

Thanks. It has been mostly fun putting this together with my son, just time consuming. The big issue is the lack of backups (does anyone really back up their data at home?) I have almost everything up and working correctly now. I went from Vista to Windows 7 64 bit. I installed Thunderbird as my email program. It is my last hold up. Because I cannot launch Vista to export my messages and address book off the old hard drive, I cannot figure out how to import them into my new system – but I will.

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90

A sample of this was included with my black Friday order. I am just getting around to opening it. I had this a long time ago and recall liking it but not being as wowed by it as others at the time. One thing I notice today is the recommended steep time for western brewing is 5 – 10 minutes. That sounds excessive but maybe it needs it?

I first catch a spicy note like cinnamon that melts into malt. Just past the malt it becomes nutty/woodsy then gets a brisk little bite. The aftertaste has just enough astringent briskness to catch my interest. I can’t think of another Chinese black that has this element. Better than I remember.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 6 min, 0 sec
K S

I looked back at one of my previous notes and it appears Teavivre revised the western steeping recommendation. So it is much longer now.

caile

Yeah, I don’t recall that long of a steeping time before, but perhaps it is so the leaves can open up more.

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90

Most every one has been crazy for this one. Previously, I just wasn’t as impressed. Let’s see what happens today. This is the last of the sample – 5 pearls and some loose crumbs. I boiled the water and steeped 2 minutes per the label instructions.

Ooh, I do love the smell and the dark golden caramel color. The aroma is like cocoa bread or… brownies! Needs sprinkled with powdered sugar :) Mmmmm brownies, but I digress. The taste is deep and rich and malt and cocoa and delicious. There is also a big chunk of flavor in the back that reminds me of an old barn stacked with hay. Then I notice the cocoa is mixing with notes of nuts and wood. Later cups the roastiness comes out to play. This is pretty amazing. How could this not have caught my attention before? I am really wondering if I used fully boiling water in my previous attempts. I could not have brewed this correctly.

This is awesome. Wish I had realized this at the beginning of the sample. Definitely upping the rating.

ashmanra

My first time sipping this one I wasn’t wow’ed. Then it crept into my thoughts again and again, and made me order it. Now it is a staple.

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90

6 pearls and boiling water for two minutes. This makes a lot of leaf whose aroma to me is burnt caramel. This is better than I remember. I think it suffered from over blown expectations. From my perspective, I don’t get the chocolate notes of Bailin Gongfu. I don’t get the richness of Dian Hong Golden Tip, or the robust taste of Golden Monkey. I expected it to be all those things combined. What tea could live up to that? What I do get today is a bit of roasted bite up front that quickly dissolves into a lovely light sweet cup that does have enough cocoa notes to make me think brownies. It has a wonderful aftertaste. The aroma of the wet leaf in the press calls for many resteeps. This is a nice tea that is better than I remember. – Interesting update. I went to lunch leaving a half filled mug on my desk. It was room temperature when I returned. This is excellent cooled down. There is a level of smoke that rises up and fills in all the holes in the flavor. A worthy cup.

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90

I used 6 pearls today to see if maybe I just didn’t use enough yesterday. To me it appears like too much leaf after steeping. It does pump the flavor a little. This is a good tea, with hints of smoke, chocolate, and occasional malt. I would never turn a cup of it down. It just doesn’t move me like it has others. I am sticking with my initial score of 85.

Preparation
2 min, 0 sec

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90

Opening the package and viewing the contents is kind of like journeying to another world and trying to figure it out. The closest comparison I have experienced to these pearls is jasmine pearls but these are much larger. They look like miniature flowering tea pods. I am looking at them and trying to figure out how many do I use? I went with 5 as that seems to be the starting point I have read in other reviews. While I am pondering, I notice these smell like unsweetened chocolate.

This is pleasant but not as full bodied as I was expecting. The amount of expanded chocolate brown leaf in the bottom of my press tells me I used a sufficient amount. So, either this is a very light bodied tea, or I need to increase the steep time.

I think the novelty of brewing this amazed me far more than the actual tasting. Don’t misunderstand, this is quite good. It just didn’t knock my socks off like almost everything else I have tried from Teavivre. Since others liked this way more than me, I am going to hold off rating (I was thinking 85) until I try it again.

Generous sample provided by Teavivre.

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87

Sipdown, 127. This is one of my winnings from the recent Teavivre Taiwan oolong giveaway.

Apparently I have tried this one before, although I don’t know if the name has slightly changed because I don’t remember it being specifically Taiwanese the last time I had it. Well, I’m happy to have it again. The smell is definitely traditional TGY… green, but a little roasty too. I looked at the steeping instructions on the sample packet, which said boiling water for 3 to 10 minutes. LOL, whut. That is insane. And perhaps a misprint, since the steeping instructions are different on this page.

Mmm, this is such a pleasant tea. I have come to enjoy the roasted flavors of this type of oolong, and drinking this really makes me see the similarities between traditional TGYs and the unroasted Wuyi oolong I had earlier today. This tea is honey sweet, like honey on a pastry. Yum. Who knows, maybe there is a place in my cupboard for traditional TGY after all.

Preparation
Boiling 1 min, 30 sec
TeaVivre

Thanks for you found the issue, we are adjusting all brewing guides, and will change it soon.

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87

This was a nice oolong to have with lunch today, and I can see how traditional, lightly roasted tie guan yins like this one are great everyday teas. This is quite tasty, just roasted enough to give it a light touch, and “ground” it more than an unroasted, green, floral oolong. Quite a good example of these types of teas.

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87

Yet another of my free samples from Teavivre… thanks so much for the opportunity to try all these teas! I really consider Teavivre to have greatly contributed to my tea education with all of their samples.

When I opened the sample pouch and sniffed the tea, I was kind of surprised by how super vegetal the leaves smelled. Like, woah spinach and greens. I sniffed some more and started to get roasty scents, and the faintest hint of butteriness. Definitely not like the super green tieguanyins I’m used to drinking. I steeped it up and smelled a super roasted, toasted grains aroma from the liquor. At first it seems like that is the only note, but after smelling it a while I start to detect the slightest hint of sweet florals hiding out. Intriguing.

I have to say I was pretty prepared not to really be a fan of this tea because I don’t tend to like roasted oolongs. But Teavivre proved me wrong. I’m not head over heels or anything, but this is a tasty cup of tea. The roasting is light and doesn’t take over the flavor. It just kind of nicely hangs out there, adding some nice warm, toasty notes. The other main flavors are the slightly floral sweetness of the tieguanyin, with some light vegetal notes, but nothing like it seemed when I smelled the dry leaf. As I’m drinking it the sweetness is growing in my mouth adding to the tastiness of each successive sip. Definitely a tasty tea, and it surprised me by making even this nonfan of roasted oolongs enjoy it.

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec
Tabby

Teavivre’s tastings have definitely been a learning experience for me, too.

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