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Thank you TeaVivre for the sample!

Now that I’m finished this semester I get a month to sit down and enjoy myself for about a month before starting summer classes. So, in a month if I disappear again for a little or show up sporadically you’ll know why.

I’ve been wanting to try out TeaVivre’s teas for a while seeing how well rated they are here but had been reluctant since they didn’t sell sample sizes yet. Then someone posted the link for free samples, so here we are! This is the second one I tried, my notes for the first one need to be found, and this reminds quite a bit of Long Jing, but as others have said without the butteriness.

The dry leaf is long and straight but not flattened like longjing with notes of fruit, floral, black pepper, and vegetal. The infusion was light in color and had a salty aroma to it. Taste, the taste was indeed very interesting and complex. At first I was getting a very salty note, but it was more in mouthfeel than in taste. There was a nice steamed asparagus note, but it seemed to take a second or two after taking a sip for it to come out which I found interesting.

There was a nice delicate floral note and fruit note that seemed to go together very well. The fruit note came in later in the cup and come in stronger in the later steepings. It reminded me of plums, but it was the taste of the skin of the fruit, not the juicy flesh. A nice plum taste with a hint of astringency. Overall a very good tea that I’’m glad I got to try. Thank you TeaVivre!

Backlogging from last week.

I think this was another sample I had received with my order, I can’t recall for certain though. Anyways, I like white teas and I like peach, however me and ginger have a weird relationship. Fresh ginger I can handle and do enjoy in small amounts, dried powered ginger I don’t really care for. This tea tastes like it contains the dried powdered form. I can taste the white tea base and some peach notes and feels like it has potential to be a nice flavored white tea, but the ginger in this makes it impossible for me to truly enjoy it unfortunately.

Backlogged from last week.

This is a sample I received with my order. I was pleasantly surprised by this tea. I love blueberries, but I’m not typically a fan of them added to my tea. For whatever reason I find that blueberry added to tea just ends up tasting like blueberries and no tea. This was a decent balance. I could taste the green tea base, which usually doesn’t happen with blueberry added. The blueberries were nice, tasted almost like a nice preserves, and didn’t overwhelm the tea. They looked like the little dried blueberries you can by in bags at the supermarket next to the cranberries. If I order from this company again I’ll probably get more of this tea.

Backlogging from last week.

Thank you Bonnie for this tea!
Upon opening the package the smell was very jasmine, not overwhelmingly so, but it was close. It scared me because I didn’t think this was going to be any better than most other white jasmine teas I’ve tried. There was my problem, I assumed.

This tea dry smelled very strongly of jasmine, but when brewed it mellowed out significantly. The tea was wonderfully smooth and crisp. I got the lovely crispness and hay notes of Silver Needles and the jasmine was soft and smooth and light. It was amazing how powerful the jasmine smelled dried then mellowed out so much in taste. This is definitely one of the better jasmine scented white teas I’ve had. Thank you Bonnie for sending this one to me!

Backlogging from yesterday.

I’m afraid I’m going to be doing quite a bit of backlogging since I’ve been off of here for a little. It’s getting to be the end of the semester so all the professors simultaneously decided to give out all the work at the same time. But I only have one last assignment left until finals…thank goodness!

As for this tea, I never had this before, so I didn’t know what to expect. I opened the package and saw what looked like Silver Needles, took a sniff…Silver Needles but not quite. I went over and grabbed my tin of Silver Needles to compare, no, these were different, slightly different color and smell.

The liquor was so clear I was starting to think I had done something wrong. I waited for it to cool and took a sip, no I don’t believe I did a thing wrong with it. It tasted lovely. I was a mix of the light crispness of Silver Needles with not quite honey notes, more like nectar. The description said honeysuckle, I grew up with honeysuckle but this was not what I was expecting. I was expecting the floral qualities, instead I got the nectar qualities of honeysuckle and it was divine. Delicious tea!

A nice little sample I received with my order. Been wanting to try it but been lazy. So, here we go!

This is a very interesting and different white tea from any other white tea I’ve had before. I don’t get any hay or straw notes or the sweetness I get from Silver Needles. Instead I get steamed green vegetables with a touch of butter.

There’s a crispness to it that seems odd since I’m getting butter notes. There’s a hint of floral notes, more so as the tea starts to cool. There is a spice flavor in the aftertaste like pepper, but not quite. It reminds me of a Darjeeling. Tea grown from that area (or Ceylon) doesn’t exactly tickle me pink.

I can see where people say they get tea ice cream. It’s not something that jumps at me screaming ice cream either. It’s in the way the greens mix with the buttery notes and retains the crispness.

Now that the tea has cooled considerably I can taste the traditional white tea hay notes. It still smells and tastes like steamed green veggies. There is a slight astringency in the aftertaste, more as the tea cools, not enough to be unpleasant.

This is a very interesting tea, one I’m glad I tried, but one that unfortunately doesn’t quite fit my flavor preferences.

Backlogged from last-night.

I’ve had this for a couple months now and I kept putting off on trying it because the red rooibos smell was very strong and I prefer a little more flavor added to my rooibos. So, last night upon sniffing my non-caffeinated “teas” I came across this. It didn’t smell quite as strong as usual. So I figured why not finally try it.

The red rooibos is very strong in scent and taste in this one. The berries (actual dried berries in there) didn’t cover up the rooibos, but helped accentuate it. It complimented the rooibos and the lavender very well. The lavender isn’t strong at all, it’s just a hint, the rooibos and the berries take center stage with this one.

This isn’t a rooibos I crave, but it’s good for once in a while.

Backlogged from yesterday.

I had 5 sachets of this in the neat little tagalog. This is a nice, reliable green tea. I love the orange scent to it, but I don’t think there is actual orange oil in it. Typically when something has an oil added you can see it floating at the surface of the infusion. I didn’t get any, but I definitely got the scent.

The orange citrus doesn’t overpower the green tea in scent or taste. I couldn’t tell you what kind of green tea was used in this other than that it was probably a Chinese green tea. I wouldn’t consider the green tea high grade or anything special. Nothing made it really stand out aside from the added flavor.

The description says there are marigold petals in there, but being in the sachet I don’t see any, then again I’m not ripping the bag open either. I’m assuming the marigold is where I’m getting the slight creaminess from, mellowing out the citrus a little.

I can get about 3 steepings out of a single sachet, the first two being the only ones really worth it. Every time I brew this up it tastes exactly the same. It’s not like other teas where one day you may get grassiness and the next day you get buttery notes. Because of this I found it’s quick useful take take along when traveling. The only thing that makes it taste different is using too hot of water, then it just gets bitter, but that’s to be expected from green teas.

This isn’t a green tea I can find myself craving, but if I’m craving a generic green tea with no frills this will do. I found it to be a crowd pleaser for those who are not big into teas, and for those who occasionally drink tea.

This was a nice sized sample I received with my order last week, thank you David.

At first sight I am impressed by the leaves. They’re all whole leaves, not broken or tattered at all, flatten and vibrant green. Dry, the leaves have a green bean scent with something sweet that I can’t quite place my finger on. Wet, that almost candy scent is stronger and driving me nuts…I know what it is, I’ve had it before, but my brain cannot conjure up what it is, just that it is familiar.

The tea is wonderful tasting, very complex. My first thought is cooked green beans, but there is also a chestnut note and I’m getting an oceanic, salty taste to it with an almost creamy aftertaste. The oceanic note comes in at the tail end of the sip, salty and crisp. Reminds me of standing on the beach during off-season on a windy and slightly chilly yet sunny day. I can still smell that something that’s sweet and taste it on the tip of my tongue. I can’t take this anymore, what is it?!?! I went to the Verdant site to see the description for it and there it is…butter rum lifesavers.

Another wonderfully complex from Verdant!

The Jingshan is soft and crisp, tasting of asparagus and corn with a natural sweetness to it. The lavender is wonderfully floral and earthy adding extra weight to the tea, in a good way. The bergamot and lemongrass are light and I smell them more than I can taste them adding more of a crisp feeling, playing opposite of the lavender.

If you are not a fan of lavender or florals I wouldn’t recommend this one. Lavender is a strong one and easily overpowers what it is paired with. Even though there isn’t much lavender in this blend and doesn’t overpower the tea, it is impossible to ignore.

I love me some Earl Green teas and this one doesn’t fail me.