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My second batch of samples from Teavivre arrived today! I was very surprised when my mail lady knocked on my door as I didn’t think I would have to sign for this package (I didn’t have to last time, which is weird). Regardless, I was very excited when I took it inside and opened it up! Again, I was at a loss for what to try because I’ve been eyeing all the samples they sent me this time. So, I flipped them over so the label was facing the table and lined them up and shuffled the order around and asked my little sister (I’m babysitting) to pick a number between 1 and 5. She chose 3, and this was the third one in the lineup, so I decided to brew this up. I specifically asked for this one when I asked if I could get another box of samples (thank you again Teavivre!) and so I’m super excited to try this! I’ve also never had a milk oolong before, but I’ve heard wonderful things about them so I’m so excited to try this one.

So.
Dry Leaf: Again, the packaging is wonderful. For this tea (and two or three of the others I got), there are 4 individual baggies with tea in them inside one bigger bag. I don’t know how much is in each because the little baggies are in Chinese (further proof of the high quality of this tea) and it doesn’t say on the bigger bag they’re all in. I assumed that one package would be enough for 10 oz of water, so I threw one in. The dry leaf is pretty green and it smells very fresh and vegetal, a little salty, actually.

First Infusion: About 200 degrees (it says boiling but a.) I think that’s a little too high and b.) my kettle boiled and I wasn’t right there so it cooled for about a minute and a half and I was too lazy to put it back on :P) for 2 minutes in my Noble Mug from DAVIDsTEA. The resulting brew is fairly light. It still smells a little vegetal. Again, I’ve never had a milk oolong so I don’t really know what to expect. It tastes very fresh and slightly vegetal but not in a savory way. Usually when I think of vegetal I think of the opposite of sweet, but this is different. It’s like fresh garden picked veggies. Aasdklfjdaslk this is so hard for me to put into words, but the best I can say is sweet veggies. Definitely not as sweet as a fruit but still slightly sweet. There’s a very distinct heaviness left in my mouth afterword, which I’m assuming is the milk part coming through. As this infusion cools, the sweetness comes out more and more. This is a pretty good, but based on this infusion I wouldn’t repurchase.

Second Infusion: Boiling water for 2 minutes and 30 seconds. It’s times like this when I really wish I had a gaiwan. The leaves have opened up so much and it’s hard to brew them in a basket like I do. I’ll try to find one around here (though finding tea supplies is not-so-surprisingly hard here in Vermont). This infusion is much creamier. I can definitely sense the milkiness of this. It’s smooth and heavy in your mouth. This time it’s a bit sweeter. Not a lot, but it definitely got sweeter. Still vegetal though. I think the main difference in this infusion is the way the creaminess came out. Like the first infusion, as this one cools the sweetness comes out more. It’s starting to turn more fruity than vegetal. I don’t think the leaves have it in them to make a third infusion, so for now this is my review. Not phenomenal (I don’t think I prepared it exactly as I should’ve, so I’m going to try it differently next time.

On somewhat of a side note, I have a good idea for my TeaTrade blog (it’s still a little confusing to me so I don’t really use it). I was thinking about making a tea review blog that connects teas to the arts. Like taking whatever tea I choose to review and then say music that compliments it or art that it makes me think of. It sounds kind of weird now, but what do you guys think? Any comments/suggestions would be great!