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This is my final spring 2022 green tea from Teavivre. I’ve been interested in Anji Bai Cha for a while, and decided to order a sample along with my green tea gift set. I steeped about 4 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 185F for 30, 30, 45, 60, 80, 120, and 240 seconds, plus a few uncounted steeps. I also bowl steeped about 1.5 g of tea in 200 ml of 185F water for 5 minutes, adding more water as needed.

The dry aroma of these pretty needle-shaped leaves is of green beans, citrus, umami, and nuts. The first and second steeps have a brothy texture and notes of green beans, soybeans, asparagus, citrus, orange zest, chestnuts, and umami. The next couple steeps become more vegetal, with asparagus, spinach, grass, butter, and beans, though the citrus is still detectable. The tea is not getting as bitter as other greens. The final steeps are predictably vegetal, though some of the citrus and beany flavour remains.

Bowl steeped, the tea reveals all of these notes, plus some spring florals around the middle of the session. The umami isn’t as pronounced, and there’s no astringency. The tea just fades into grass and veggies.

I’m glad I decided to purchase this tea. The citrus and chestnut make the vegetal profile more dynamic, and it never becomes as bitter as some of the other green teas I’ve tried. This is one of my top three teas from this Teavivre order, along with the Bi Luo Chun and Huo Shan Huang Ya.

Given the many reviews on this site, I’m surprised I’m the first to write a note about a Teavivre green tea. I think they’ve changed the name to Premium Lu Shan Yun Wu, though I rather like Gou Gu Nao (Dog’s Head Green) for its randomness! I steeped 3 g of leaf in an 85 ml porcelain pot at 185F for 7, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds. I also bowl steeped the rest of my 5 g sample in 200 ml of 185 water, starting at 4 minutes and adding water when needed.

The dry aroma is of green beans, chestnuts, veggies, and spring flowers. The first steep has notes of green beans, butter, asparagus, grass, sesame seeds, and spring flowers. The chestnut aroma at the bottom of the empty cup is wonderful. The next steep adds kale and brussels sprouts, though the nuts are still present. Steeps three and four are even more vegetal, with grass, lettuce, and what I think is narcissus. The final steeps are full of cruciferous veggies and are a bit astringent, though they retain a floral and grassy aftertaste.

When this tea is bowl steeped, much of the bitterness disappears, though so do some of the florals. The first few rounds are beany and nutty, and then the tea fades into grass, minerals, and lettuce.

This is a bit more delicate than the regular Lu Shan Yun Wu, with more chestnut and floral notes. Bowl steeping is definitely the way to go if you want to avoid bitterness.

Thanks to Daylon for providing samples of two unsmoked Lapsangs from Trident. Unsmoked Lapsang Souchong is quickly becoming one of my favourite types of hongcha, which is unsurprising given my preference for highly aromatic, not-too-astringent teas. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of lemon, lavender, orchid, malt, wood, and soy sauce. The first steep has notes of lemon, orange, lavender, orchid, honey, sweet potato, grain, malt, pastries, minerals, and wood. Lemon zest is more apparent in the second steep, and it has notes of rye bread, tannins, earth, pine, cream, herbs, and raspberry, especially in the aftertaste. Raspberry and cherry are more noticeable in the next couple steeps, along with molasses and a syrupy tropical fruit I’ll call guava. This is balanced by the lavender, florals, herbs, malt, and tannins. The next two steeps have notes of guava and cherry, but mainly emphasize lemon and florals. Steeps seven and eight are still fruity, but more tannins are creeping in and the wood, malt, and minerals are more apparent. The aroma in the empty cup is still lemony and fruity, and the tea has a long, lemony aftertaste. The sweetness continues throughout many, many more steeps, though the tea gradually thins out and has more tannins, earth, wood, and minerals.

This is a less assertive tea than What-Cha’s Tong Mu Lapsang, but I think it’s just as complex and appealing. Perhaps it doesn’t have quite the same variety of fruits as the What-Cha version, but I think it’s perhaps more balanced. That persistent lemon and lavender profile is one I like. I’m glad Daylon sent me so much of this tea to enjoy!

I’ve been neglecting my oolongs from Wang Family Tea, and wanted to rectify the situation a bit before starting on my spring 2022 purchases. This unroasted Alishan is from spring 2021. Following Wang’s instructions, I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of boiling water for 55, 45, 55, 65, 75, 85, 95, 120, 150, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is sweet and floral, with notes of orchid, gardenia, and honeysuckle. The first steep gives me heady orchid, gardenia, honeysuckle, pine, coconut, cream, grass, and other flowers (Daylon mentioned freesia, which fits). The florals are even headier in the next steep. Maybe it’s because of the pine, but I do get a sense of “woodsiness,” as the company calls it. The tea is also a little vegetal, with grass and lettuce in the aftertaste. Sweet freesia and lilac are more prominent in the next couple steeps, along with coconut, lemongrass, pine, lettuce, and that “woodsy” note. The next few steeps are full of sweet florals, but are becoming increasingly vegetal, with lettuce, spinach, and grass. The tea never gets bitter, but has a vegetal, floral fade.

This is a very nice Alishan that’s better than many others I’ve had. It’s definitely on the floral and vegetal rather than the fruity side, but as someone who likes heady florals, that’s okay. I’ll probably revisit another harvest of this tea at some point, though the Shanlin Xi Wild Garden is more up my alley.

This is one of those teas I thought I’d tried, but I don’t see a note. (When I pasted this review into Steepster, it turns out I did write a note for it, but I can’t see what it says! I gave it a pretty high rating, which is ominous.) I steeped 3 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 185F for 20, 40, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds. I also bowl steeped 2 g of tea in 200 ml of water at 185 starting at 3 minutes, adding water as needed.

The dry aroma is of smoke, meat, green beans, grass, and florals. The first steep has notes of smoke, meat, green beans, asparagus, butter, and grass, with a floral and smoky aftertaste. The next steep has even more smoke, and adds spinach and hints of apricot. Already, this tea is quite vegetal. The next couple steeps have hints of florals, apricot, and grass, but the smoke and spinach/asparagus/bitter veggies predominate. The final few steeps are very smoky and vegetal, and I understand why Teavivre doesn’t include them in their instructions.

When I bowl steep this tea, the bitterness and smoke are much less apparent. I get more florals, asparagus, and grass, and even a bit more apricot. The tea fades out rather than getting extraordinarily bitter.

I don’t think this is the green tea for me. I’m not a fan of smoke, and I can really taste it in this Mao Jian. There aren’t enough other flavours to make it interesting for me. Well, you can’t like them all!

I purchased this tea last year after reading some glowing reviews on Steepster. I often find Red Jades to be too astringent, but this one was recommended as being smooth. I also very much enjoyed the Yu Chi Assam What-Cha carries, and I was hoping this tea would be of similar quality. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain pot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of sassafras, menthol, malt, raisins, and sweet potato. The first steep has strong notes of sassafras, menthol, and malt, with hints of cinnamon, cream, raisins, red grapes, and sweet potato. Some tannins are present, but they’re not overwhelming. The next steep is very similar, though the sassafras is stronger. Steeps three and four add notes of juniper, molasses, and honey, and that menthol flavour resolves into wintergreen (though maybe this is a result of reading Derk’s tasting note). Later steeps give me more honey, molasses, malt, sweet potato, and bread, though there’s still plenty of sassafras and wintergreen. I accidentally let one of the later steeps cool down and can notice the plum and nectarine Eastkyteaguy mentioned in the aroma. The final steeps have lots of tannins, minerals, bread, honey, and malt.

This is one of the smoothest Red Jades I’ve had, though I still prefer other types of Taiwanese black tea. The sassafras and wintergreen are especially prominent, which I think is the point of this cultivar. It never gets overly tannic as other Red Jades have done in later steeps, and the complexity of flavours is impressive. I hope Alistair gets this tea back in stock.

Dragonwell is a tea I have some experience with, though not a lot. Sadly, most of the Long Jings I’ve bought over the years have grown old in my tea museum. Not this one! I steeped 4 g of leaf in an 85 ml teapot at 185F for 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 90, 120, and 240 seconds. I also steeped about 1.5 g of leaf in 200 g of water starting at 2.5 minutes, refilling the cup with hot water as needed.

The dry aroma is of chestnuts, green beans, butter, and orchids. The first gongfu steep has notes of chestnuts, green beans, spinach, butter, and orchids. Steep two adds herbs and artichokes, with slightly increasing bitterness. In the next couple steeps, I get a sweet corn note along with the chestnut and veggies. Subsequent steeps are increasingly grassy, mineral, and vegetal, though the corn and chestnut sweetness holds steady until the session is almost over.

Predictably by now, bowl steeping mitigates some of the bitterness and emphasizes the chestnut and corn. It also brings out more of a grassy quality, and the tea steeps out relatively quickly.

This is a pleasant Long Jing that I wouldn’t mind drinking again. As many of these green teas seem to do, it performed better with bowl steeping than gongfu. Perhaps I need to find different gongfu steeping instructions than the ones on Teavivre’s website.

Red oolongs get less attention than they deserve, so I was happy to see this sample in my last What-Cha order. (Then, of course, I let it sit for over a year. . . .) I steeped 5 g of leaf in a 120 ml pot at 195F for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of apricots, berries, grapes, flowers, roast, and honey. The first steep has notes of cherry, banana bread, apricot, plum, honey, and roast. The next steep adds muscatel and jammy berries, with a bit of a drying finish. The next couple steeps have even more baked cherry, blackberry, plum, honey, butter, banana, roast, nuts, and florals. The fruit kind of melds into a general impression, but I can pick out individual flavours if I try. The next couple steeps are a little more drying, but still have that intense cherry flavour. The roast and nuts are becoming more prominent. I finally get some jasmine in steep six, along with a more pronounced grape/raisin note. The cherry persists over the next few steeps, while the tea increasingly has notes of roast, wood, bread, and minerals.

This is a lovely dessert tea with a distinct cherry flavour that I haven’t found too often elsewhere. Some of the other fruity notes are muddled, though that could be because I wasn’t using enough leaf. I’m not sure this would be an everyday tea for me, but I’m glad to have tried it.

I received this tea as a free sample in my last What-Cha order. It’s always nice to try something new from Jun Chiyabari, which produces some of the best, most interesting teas from Nepal. I steeped around 2.5 g of leaf in a 355 ml mug at 195F for 3, 4, 5, and 7 minutes.

The dry aroma is of cocoa, roasted almonds, malt, and wood. The first steep has pronounced notes of fudgy darker chocolate and roasted almonds, plus malt, cream, barley, brown sugar, hints of red grape, and wood. The tea has a slightly drying finish and a vegetal aftertaste along with the chocolate (Togo describes it as bell peppers). The next steep introduces flavours of butter, honey, and bread, though the chocolate is still the star. The final couple steeps have a more attenuated chocolate flavour and have notes of earth and chilli leaf, which is something I’ve tasted in other Jun Chiyabari teas.

This is a lovely chocolate tea, though it lacks some of the complexity I’ve found in other teas from this producer (Himalayan Spring comes to mind). I wish I’d gotten more fruity flavours, as other reviewers have. Nonetheless, it’s a cozy, well-crafted tea that I should have consumed during the winter.

On a related note, Alistair is offering 1 pound for each review that is submitted on his site until the end of June. I’ve been contributing to my Jin Jun Mei and Lapsang fund for a few days now. :)

Chun Ya is a green tea I haven’t heard about that often, and the dearth of notes on it suggests I’m not the only one. I steeped around 3 g of leaf in an 85 ml teapot at 185F for 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 80, 120, and 240 seconds. I also steeped about 2 g of tea in 200 ml of 185F water starting at 4 minutes, adding hot water as needed.

The dry aroma is of flowers, green beans, and chestnuts. The first gongfu steep has notes of green beans, spinach, chestnuts, grass, and faint florals. The next steep has a hoppy/piny bitterness and adds brussels sprouts and watercress. The next couple steeps have notes of hops, cilantro, spinach, asparagus, and chestnuts and are getting bitter. The final few steeps are predictably earthy and bitter, with notes of brussels sprouts, spinach, and grass.

As with the other green teas, bowl steeping brings out many of the pleasant notes (chestnuts, hops, florals, asparagus, spinach) without the increasingly unpleasant bitterness. What it lacks in complexity, it makes up for in drinkability.

I have to say that to my untrained palate, these green teas are much of a muchness. This one is less savoury than the Lu Shan Yun Wu but less nutty/sweet/elegant than the Huo Shan Huang Ya and Bi Luo Chun. I think I would repurchase all of these three teas instead of this one. I already cheated on this drink-all-my-green-teas project with a Red Jade hongcha from What-Cha and an Alishan from Tillerman (no regrets!). However, I will keep forging ahead. Thanks to Teavivre for the samples!