Teavivre

I have been craving Dragonwell so much lately. I’m going to blame a work test (100% aw yissss) so I came home last night and made myself a pot. And of course when I wanted to write the note, Steepster was misbehaving with the kettle so I completely forgot until now (blame a nap followed by the creation of these https://www.etsy.com/listing/112616805/candy-corn-white-chocolate-bark-set-of-2)

I only steeped it for a minute and I really wish I had for longer :( but that is okay, it was still tasty. I hadn’t had this in so long that when I’m describing it as chestnut in writing I realized I really didn’t remember what that actually tasted like. Still came through even with the lighter steep. There are definitely mineral notes too.

I need to get through this one and then also try the Dragonwell I bought for cheap at the international supermarket. I have a feeling this one will win out though, just in color alone it’s superior. And given I’ve had this for months now, that’s saying something I think.

I am extremely annoyed and each sip takes away the annoyances. Too bad it’s not permanently.

This is still a nice, subtle and sweet green tea. When I stop banning myself from more tea purchases, I think Teavivre is first to break the ban.

I wasn’t a fan of this the first time I made it. I don’t know what it was, but it was just like it smelled delicious, but it was bland tasting.

Well, I tried again after I wanted some actual green tea, and the results were much better this time around. I absolutely love how the liquor smells, sweet and grassy. Reminds me of summer. The flavor is pretty much the same. It’s not the least bit astringent, and I like it. I’ve never had a Dragon Well before this, and while it’s probably not something I’d drink often, I definitely see myself using up this fantastic sample.

Thanks again to Angel for sending me this sample. So out of the packaging I notice a smell of a field. Hay, alfalfa, grass like you are in the country. Not a bad thing considering that I am surrounded by farmland at my house. The leaves look like blades of grass too. Now I must admit that Chinese greens have not been my thing in the past. I tried one before and didn’t think it was too good. So with that I just a bit pensive trying it. I also shared it with a co-worker because I knew if I let it sit in the french press….ho boy welcome to bitterness city. It brewed up a pale liquor. My co-worker said it smelled like chicken broth. MMM I got that too maybe a little nutty, however I thought noodles. Insert Kung Fu Panda!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY12ELBQhQ4&feature=related I do believe I had the noodle dream! Personally I like teas that have more body to them. So drinking a chinese green or a white tea I feel like there is something missing. Very good though.

There is only one middle eastern restaurant in town, and the food is decent, but they use waaaay to much raw garlic in their tzatziki. Coming back from lunch today I knew I needed a tea that would have a strong enough flavor to cut through the garlic, but also not clash too badly with it. Ginger might have worked, but I don’t have any gingery teas here. Then I thought of puerh, but again all of my puerhs are at home… until I remembered I had a few of these little tuochas stuck in a drawer.

Shu puerh, especially ones like this, are not my favorite. I mean, I don’t dislike the earthy, woody flavor, but it’s not really my favorite either. I talked about changing tastebuds yesterday, but my tastebuds have not changed favorably toward this tea. It’s still very earthy, sawdusty, woody, barn-y, and I still can’t taste any rose in it. Is it killing the garlic taste in my mouth? Kinda. But I still don’t know when I am going to get around to drinking the last two tuochas that I have. They’re just not really my kind of tea.

I don’t know why, but I still get nervous about pu-erhs. I’ve actually never had a bad experience with one—actually just the opposite with one, which I love—but all the same I worry that I will really dislike them based on stories I’ve read. Angel Chen offered to send me the plain ripened pu-erh in a sample but I opted for this rose one instead because I love rose-flavored things and even if this isn’t very rose flavored it was less intimidating. I also don’t have any kind of gong-fu setup, which I feel like I would prefer for most pu-erhs.

Anyway, I’m trying this one today! The little tuocha is cute witha small rose bud set in the bottom of it, and it smells earthy and a tiny bit fishy. I gave it a quick rinse and then steeped to the specified instructions on the package. The tuocha almost completely fell apart in that time, though there is a little lump in the center of my strainer still. The liquor is exceedingly dark brown, and it smells really earthy like a carpet of dried pine needles in the woods.

The flavor I’m getting while still very hot is that oaky, woody, a little sawdusty flavor I tasted in one of the other pu-erhs I’ve tried before. I read K S’s tasting note for this one that says leather, and when I think about it, yeah, it is a bit leathery. Really it’s a flavor/aroma that is deeply ingrained in my olfactory memory, the smell of wood stalls and fresh shavings and leather equiptment that comes from spending most of your childhood in horse stables. That’s not to say that this pu-erh actually smells or tastes like a stable, but rather a few individual components… luckily they’re pretty innocuous ones. There’s also a light sweetness that plays on the tongue toward the end of the sip. No rose here. It’s an interesting flavor, and not one I would want all the time, but very drinkable without any of those off-putting flavors and aromas that can sometimes show up in pu-erhs.

This was unusual but AWESOME…here’s why…

I’ve never had an oolong that was soaked in Honey and vacuumed packed (not sure if that is the proper packaging term in this specific case but there was NO air in the package whatsoever). When I opened it the hand rolled oolong leaves were sticky with the honey it was soaked in…much like the texture of a Granola Bar or Rice Krispy Treat.

Because of the leaves being soaked in honey it contributed to a bit of a texture in the tea after it was infused.

The oolong itself was awesome and the honey stickiness turned into flavor was a great addition. It was velvety smooth and florally-sweet-honey-esque. It was unlike anything I have ever tried before!

Really unique offering! So glad I had the chance to try it!!!

Bit of a backlog here… I tried this out for the first time on Saturday. My husband was good enough to drop it off to me at work. :) Again I was impressed with the way Teavivre packages their tea. Sure it isn’t eco friendly, but as LiberTEAS pointed out is sure is tea friendly! I’m sure I’ve had a Keemun before, but I don’t recall what I thought of them. But I’ll tell you I loved this. The smokey flavor that seemed to turn sweet as I finished my cup, was just awesome. Also I really liked that as my cup cooled the tea didn’t get bitter at all.

Yesterday I mixed in a little of Teavivre’s Yun Nan Dian Hong and wow! This was one of my better ideas when mixing teas. I think I might try it again today. :) I can see Teavivre is going to be very bad for my wallet!

Loved this tea, a good morning start of the day at work type tea, strong but still with a very good flavor, it could easily replace coffee for me, enough caffine to get me through but without that jittery kick.

The leaves are little black needle affairs, when it steeps it looks and smells delicious,
I steeped it a little longer then expected, but at a lesser temp, came out nice and golden brown, mixed it with agave sweetener, which complimented the strong smokey flavor well.

Going to try it at a high temp tomorrow, but I definitely have a new work tea.

I always say I don’t like jasmine but then I drink pearls like this, so nobody can believe me. It isn’t my favorite tea, but it’s nice to have as a sort of wind down for the day.

I’ve only had one other kind, and I can already say that I like this one from Teavivre a lot better. It’s a lot smoother. The green tea base is easy to distinguish, and the floral flavor of jasmine is not artificial tasting or overpowering.

I don’t feel like I just heated up a flower in water and started drinking it. I’m going to steep them again since they didn’t even all unfurl and see how that cup tastes.

Another sample stash busting! I am on a roll today. I’m not sure how I managed to drink this only once before but my sample was mostly empty today. Maybe I drank it without knowing it?

I probably ended up using a bit much leaf in my cup this time around, but it still is a very tasty cup of tea, and a very nice dian hong. Mmm, sweet potatoes and oranges. With this much leaf I’m missing out on some of the honeyed notes unfortunately, but perhaps on the resteep.

I’m not huge on unflavored black teas, but I didn’t turn down this one when it was offered as a sample from Teavivre (thanks again!). I do think that Yunnan “golden” teas tend to be some of my favorite blacks to drink plain. When I opened the package on this one my first whiff was definitely the dried sweet potato note others have gotten, and then a malty black tea. I was surprised at the low steep temp for this one, but I stuck with it. The steeped tea smells really malty with a hint of brightness. Like an Assam, which others have mentioned, though that is somewhat disconcerting to me as I tend to not like Assams.

But! I needn’t have worried. What a tea. Those sweet potatoes show up again in the flavor, this time like really good sweet potato french fries… and I love sweet potato fries! The flavor is actually really different than what I expect when I smell the tea. Besides the baked/fried sweet potato, I get caramel notes and some roasty notes as well. All around a really tasty black tea… I think it’s my only unflavored black to crack 90!

I started off my morning with this today and yesterday. I’ve seen Keemun described in many ways. Woody, smokey, piney, winey, earthy, nutty, and leathery. Every time I have a cup of keemun I find myself at a loss for words on how to compare the flavor. I can pickup the keemun in breakfast blends, to some degree in Lapsangs, and in some Pu-Erh. Really I guess when it all boils down the flavor is Chinese black. Of course another great offering from Teavivre. For me the flavor of keemun is old. Not in a bad way mind you. The taste reminds me of antiquity. If that sounds crazy I’m sorry. There is a hint of cedar wood sipping keemun, a little leathery as well. Oddly enough there’s a slight hint of perfume in it. Similar to a very high hopped India Pale Ale. So maybe it’s a little hoppy as well. Overall though a very good tea!

Thanks to Teavivre for providing me with this sample to taste! And a generous sample it was, I’ll be drinking this one for a while (spoilers: luckily that won’t be a hardship!). For someone who loves green oolongs, I haven’t tried very many tie guan yins. It’s basically been the two Verdant pickings and one from Harney that I tried in their tasting room, but I don’t think I really appreciated oolongs when I had that one as much as I do now. So I’m really curious to taste this one! I’ll be trying a lot more oolong varietals over the coming weeks, which I am also excited for.

The dry leaf on this one smells lovely, with nice floral notes and a good “greenish” base. I normally wouldn’t steep an oolong (especially a green oolong) at boiling, but that’s what the package said, so I did it. The liquor is a nice medium greenish yellow, and it has a great scent. I feel like it’s getting harder for me to describe that scent over time as I come to associate it with green oolongs because it ceases to smell like anything but a nice green oolong to me. But it’s that fresh floral/buttery/creamy/sweet aroma.

I have to wait longer than usual for this one to come down to drinking temp, but early hot sips yield a pleasant leafy flavor with a light sweetness and some magnolia-ish notes in the aftertaste. As it cools this flavor profile continues, with the leafiness growing in intensity. The florals are pretty prevalent as well, while the sweetness just kind of lingers lightly at the back. I don’t get a lot of buttery or nutty notes with this one, but I do love a very floral oolong so I’m willing to forgive it those characters. Definitely a pleasant TGY that I really enjoy drinking.

Second infusion. The steeped liquor is the same greenish brown color as the first steep, but is clear rather than opaque like the first steep.

I much prefer the first brewing to this one; I think it’s because the honey note is gone and the floral-ness of the TGY overtakes that wonderful roasted buttery flavor.

Second cup of first infusion.

Luckily I was wrong about any honey sinking to the bottom of the cup and making the last few sips cloyingly sweet. The honey essence stays consistent throughout and really does compliment the TGY flavor nicely. I really, really like this!

This generous sample provided to me by Teavivre.

This is the best Monday ever, followed up by the longest weekend ever – I had clinicals of two 12 hours shifts that resulted in me having to get up at 5:30 AM both days. The wake up was the worst part by far – I suspect I would not have minded so much if I could have just done nights instead of days. As it was, I had no time for anything except sleep and shoveling in food that I can’t even really remember the taste of. Certainly it was not a weekend to brew tea.

But on this Monday (the best Monday ever since I have a day all to myself to relax), I can finally sit down and have a minute to myself. I had picked this tea ahead of time as the first brew of the day – I’ve never tried an oolong with any degree of sweetener and this piqued my curiosity.

The balls of TGY were stuck together with honey, as I assumed they would be, but it’s not as messy as you might think – they were stuck to a waxy paper insert and easily peeled off into my Breville basket. I could smell both the honey and the TGY on the dry leaf, and it was fantastic. The two enclosed vaccuum packed samples were brewed in my Breville in 500 ml. of water at the below temperatures.

This brewed up a cloudy greenish brown due to the honey, I suspect. First taste is surprisingly not very sweet – I still taste honey, but not the sweetness of it, if that makes any sense. I was worried about brewing the TGY at that high of a temperature but it is not bitter and astringent in the slightest. I get more of a roasted buttery flavor than floral from this particular TGY, which I like. The other TGY I tried from Teavivre was heavier on the floral and less so on the butter, so maybe it is the temperature difference?

Anyway, I really like this one. It is such a cleansing tea to be drinking as I appreciate the calm and quiet. I haven’t gotten to the 2nd cup in my Breville yet, but I’m wondering if the honey sweetness might be waiting for me there – I will update when I get there, and when I do a second steep. But for right now – it has been just what I needed today.

Yum, yum, yum!

I have been waiting to get a miss from TeaVivre, but I really don’t think it’s going to happen. I opened up the package on this one to be met with an alfalfa-like scent. Every time this happens with a green, I’m sorely disappointed, so I was expecting not to care for this tea much.

I was very surprised when it turned out to be absolutely delicious! It’s got a very, very tiny hint of grass to it, but not the awful mowed-grass flavor I was expecting. No, this one is crisp and fresh tasting, with some butter to it. It’s wonderful! And it’s so nice and light, and such a pretty color. I’m off to make some more!

(Sample provided by TeaVivre for review.)

Another great but subtle white tea from Teavivre.

The leaves for this tea are beautiful — narrow and complete, silver and fuzzy, with just a bit of green. They look very fresh, and there is practically no leaf dust in the bottom. The taste is very clean and satisfying, light and springlike. Something reminds me of the way grass seems after the frost melts. Fragrant and fragile. I don’t know why I hesitated to try this tea. I should have expected excellence before I cut open the pretty white pouch.

That said, I think I prefer the Bai Mu Dan over this. It seemed like it had more going on…

Tea sample provided by Teavivre for review
Follow up to my last tasting note on this tea

Today my first to the third steeps were lovely, and the fourth was ok but not as enjoyable. Not bitter at all or off putting in anyway.

Having tried both this and the premium version with quick steeps, I can taste the difference. But if you hadn’t tried the “good stuff”, this tea does a good job of standing on its own. Still, I think I prefer the flavour of the short steep method. If I were buying this type of tea, I would prefer the premium Dragon Well even though it is more expensive. But if you are looking for a cheap everyday Dragon Well this regular version is still a tasty option.

100ml gaiwan, 2 tsp, 4 steeps (50s + 10s resteeps)

Tea sample provided by Teavivre for review

This is the companion review for the Premium grade Dragon Well.

Smelling the dry leaves, I am picking up on some familiar notes of the premium one plus a tobacco like smell. My husband found the scent of these leaves more favourable than the premium one.

Then we smelled the lid of the tasting set after the tea was brewed. Here, it reminded me of bitter greens.

Onto drinking the liquor, there is a strong flavour that hit me right away. Followed by slight bitterness, buttery (less than premium), vegetal (less than premium). The taste reminds me of the type DAVIDsTEA offers, or at least the one I tried from their sample pack.

In comparison to the premium Dragon Well, I don’t like this one as much. But I cannot say it is a bad tasting tea. The major difference is that it tastes slightly more bitter, less “fresh”, and is not as refined. However I would still feel comfortable drinking this at home or sharing with friends. I’ve had much worse green tea than this. Next time I will try this gongfu style in a gaiwan.

120ml tasting cup, 2 tsp, no rinse, 1 steep

Tea provided by Teavivre for review

Tasting this again today (after my review 2 years ago) brought back a lot of pleasant memories. It’s just as wonderful as my first encounter. Smooth, vibrant and vegetal flavour that is associate with Dragon Well.

Overall my preference on this tea hasn’t changed. It’s a big step up in flavour from their cheapest Dragon Well, and a fair compromise to the more expensive ones. I think it makes a great gift, because for some reason a lot of Dragon Well I’ve had in Canada is of poor quality. But it’s not so expensive that I feel that it will be wasted or too extravagant a gift.