John Ciubuc Send Message

Unfortunately, at the time of this tasting note it seems that this tea is out of stock and removed from their shop.

Going with ~5g, 100ml, at 200F. Started with a quick 5s wash

Smells strongly of dark chocolate mixed with a mineral, rocky scent and raisins. This definitely smells like a nicely flavoured wuyi rock oolong tea.

Steep times were as follows: 5s, 7s, 10s, 12s, 20s, 25s, 35s

First thing I noticed when tasting the tea is that the taste is identical, literally identical, to the smell. Dark chocolate and raisins with an underlying mineral background.

Around my third steep, the dark chocolate taste remains more prominent with a ‘roasted mineral’ taste coming in. I do want to note that this tea isn’t sweet at all so far, it’s a little bitter but not overly so, just a ‘flavour bitterness’ if you will.

Starting this one off with ~5g, 180F at 100ml with a 5s quick wash.

I’m fairly certain this is a type of milk oolong, as it looks just like other milk oolongs I’ve had in the past as well as having the distinct ‘creamyness’ that’s associated with milk oolong.

Steep times are as follows: 5s, 5s, 8s, 12s, 15s, 20s, 40s, 1m

For first impressions, this is a milk oolong tea that focuses less on the creamyness from milk oolong, and more on the floral flavours that the tea contains. Probably the most ‘floral’ tasting tea I’ve tasted to date with a rather persistent after taste.

When slightly oversteeped, it doesn’t get that nasty flavor of ‘petals’ that most floral teas taste, instead starts to adopt the heavy vegetal taste that other milk oolongs have.

This tea mainly has a very strong, but not piercing, floral flavour that rides over a smooth, creamy undertone. It’s a pleasant tea to relax with, regretfully it’s out of stock at the time of this posting, but a pleasant tea nonetheless.

Starting off with around 5g, 180F, at 100ml.

Lovely scent even without washing or steeping or anything. Floral and jasmine, but not overpowering like some other jasmine tea I’ve tasted.

Steeping times are as follows: 3s, 3s, 4s, 6s, 9s, 12s, 15s, 25s, 30s, 45s, 1m

I do have to say that this matches the tasting profile on steepster 100%. It’s mainly jasmine and green tea taste, but very smoothly mixed and not overpowering whatsoever. The fruity taste is more melon-like in nature, giving me hints of cantaloupe in the mix.

Another nice thing about this tea is that despite its mellow nature, it is consistent throughout. I am on my 7th steep and the flavour tastes identical to the first steep.

I haven’t tried any of the other jasmine teas from teavivre just yet, but I can give a comparison to the Yunnan White Jasmine by Verdant Tea that I have tasted many times. The White Jasmine has a far stronger jasmine flavour and just overall is stronger. This tea is much more mellow in nature. Additionally, the jasmine pearls mix together the jasmine and melon taste, whereas the white jasmine has a very strong jasmine taste that gives way to melon as it approaches the end of it’s steeping life.

Subtly sweet with a lovely mellow melon jasmine, can’t go wrong when choosing this tea

Update: On my 9th steep of this tea (the flavour just doesn’t stop!). Now there’s finally an actual change in flavour. There is a distinctly sweet melon taste rising up. Now most tea give a sensation of sweetness from my experience, but this literally tastes like sugar. If I was to close my eyes and take a bite of melon, I wouldn’t be able to tell the difference (Yes, melon doesn’t have jasmine but still).

Started off with a 5s wash.

Steep times were: 5s, 8s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 30s, 45s

First steep has hints of black currant, nuttyness, and other fruity hints. It also has that traditional ‘oolong’ taste which I honestly don’t know how to explain. First steep is also overall mild. There is a tad bit of a slight tartness at the back of the tongue, which is really enjoyable.

Second steep, carries on from the first with a bit more sweetness and tartyness present. It’s a great combination.

Third Steep, same as second.

Fourth steep, a little bit of a floral taste now added to it.

Rest of the steeps kept the consistency from the fourth steep, but lowered in intensity.

A decent oolong in my opinion. For a really good tea session, requires quite a bit of leaves and potentially a bit longer steeping times.

One of my favourite teas currently.

Very strong taste that is consistent for the entire steeping session.

I did a 5 second wash with ~3.5g, 90ml at 205F

This steeps extremely quick when it’s prepared enough. A proper wash lets it hydrate and open up. First steep takes a little longer, about 10 seconds for a proper cup, but the next 5-10 steeps after that can be done in as little as 5 seconds.

I recommend leaving a seed inbetween each steep session. Just a little bit of water left in the gaiwan (or whatever tea receptacle you prefer) that will absorb a healthy amount of tea. The seed will mix with the fresh water for each steep, which gives you a very quick but very rich taste. The seed will not affect longevity of the tea, so you don’t have to worry about having less infusions out of it. But on the plus side, each cup of tea will be incredibly rich and strong which is A+ in my book.

Flavours are pretty similar to what’s posted in the profile above. Cacao, cocoa, creamy (extremely creamy. This tea feels like it coats your very being in warmness and smoothness), roasted nuts, brandy, a tiny bit earthy. A hidden hint of cherry if you brew it strong (when it goes to dark dark red in color).

Going with 3-4g, 200F, 90ml.

Started off with a 5s wash. The aroma post wash was wonderful!

lychee, apple, apple wood, lemon, pear, prune, and a roasted smell (when smelling the leaves directly) come about. I would reckon this to be my first true ‘fruity’ tea (when excluding herbal teas)

Larger leaves, so gotta steep slow.

After going through several steeps, I would have to say the taste profile was just like the wash aroma, but I would reckon it to be a tad more ‘bitter’. I did not detect any profound changes in flavour, just reduction in intensity as the further steeps were reached.

One nice, or perhaps bad depending on your perspective, of this tea is the aftertaste. The aftertaste maintains the fruityness of the tea itself, and it lingers for quite a long duration.

Due to the physical properties of the tea, I do not recommend gongfu’ing this tea with a lower amount of tea leaves like the 3g that I did. Normally this isn’t too much of a big deal, but your tea experience will suffer if you skimp out on tea leaf amount. I settled for 3g because that was the last of the tea that I had remaining.

Got this one as a sample.

Going with 5g, 90ml, at around 200F

The aroma post-wash smells like butter and corn and … roasted corn.

Steep times were as follows: 5s, 8s, 12s, 30s

First steep. A bit faint, but tastes like corn and butter.

Second steep. A bit more of a ‘roasted’ flavor than before. Still smooth and keeps a similar taste profile as the first steep.

Third steep. Taste is constant but it’s faint overall. A bit of a vegetal flavor now.

Fourth steep. Tastes like the previous.

I’m not a fan of the taste so I will not proceed past this. Overall the tea is on the lighter side of things and can be considered to be ‘smooth’. I wouldn’t consider it creamy though. Easy enough to brew gongfu style.

Using around 4g, 90ml at 185F

I absolutely adore the smell. Extremely milky and creamy and just lingers in your nose and throat after inhaling.

Started off with a quick wash and I let the tea relax. The smell gets much stronger and adopts a creamy, vegetable smell to it.

One very important thing to note about this tea is that it’s incredibly sensitive to steeping times. If you steep this tea for too long (or too hot), it tastes like spinach mixed with seaweed or something of the like. Honestly making it taste disgusting. But with shallow infusions, it will convert the aroma into the tea itself.

Steep times were as follows: 4s, 5s, 8s, 12s, 15s, + others (lost count, was in a long conversation)

If anyone is following how I’m making this tea, you’ll probably notice that the color looks to be very faint for the first steep. This is normal. You’ll notice that drinking the tea from the first steep results in a very strong floral taste, no bitterness, only a /very/ slight vegetable taste (just enough to be pleasant), and really creamy. The predominant flavours are osmanthus and ‘cream’ for the lack of a better word. The creaminess is generally sweet as well.

The following few steeps encompass a very smooth osmanthus and floral aroma, with a creamy vehicle as means of deliverance.

Things to note: This tea maintains the floral and creamy osmanthus throughout the entire tea session. If you start tasting it bitter or vegetal, you have steeped it for too long. If it started tasting like that from the get-go, heat could also be a factor.

Overall, a pretty decent milk oolong. I personally think the ‘premium silky green’ from bird pick is a better milk oolong, despite it being marketed as green tea (it’s not, it’s definitely milk oolong).