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Got this one as a sample from my last order from Adagio. Upon opening the packet there isn’t much fragrance there and the leaves could be a little stale. I decided to brew this in my gaiwan with a lot of leaf and a small amount of water so I could extract as much out of this as possible.
The liquor is a light yellow, similar to that of other Taiwanese green oolongs. There is a slight floral fragrance along with some vegetal notes.
Overall not a very thick tea. The liquor seems to be pretty thin in the mouth, and I’m not really getting the floral aftertaste that I expect with Taiwanese oolongs, especially a super green one such as Baozhong. While this tea does have some floral notes, there is not much that makes this tea stand out for me and makes it a long step away from a good Baozhong.

This was one of the times where I sat down to enjoy and appreciate a tea with my gaiwan, Silk Road Journey soundtrack, and quite the whole shebang. First note that hits me with this one is just how refreshing it is. It’s a very good mouth-drying astringency that makes you want to drink more.

Aroma – The leaves themselves are very fresh smelling, with floral, apricot, and grape undertones. The steeped aroma brings out more of the clean smell and the ripeness of green grapes.

Taste Profile – Very refreshing. I recommend using a bit cooler water, around 180-190 F, so that you can get out more of the floral and complex aromas. Not to say these are lost when steeped at higher temperature, but I’ve found steeping oolongs at lower temps really tends to accentuate these flavors. The taste doesn’t absolutely blow me away, but for $12 for 1.5 oz, I can’t really beat the price for a good go-to tea.

Thanks Shan Valley for the free sample. On first appearance, the leaves of this green tea are quite dark. After the first steep the aroma of the leaves surprised me a lot. While I smell the expected woodsy-ness and smoky aromas, there’s a strong smell of something very rich (think tobacco or burning pine) that comes through a lot. While I’m not big on strongly roasted greens, this aroma really surprised me. The tea itself is quite easy to drink. It’s pretty roasted and doesn’t lie too heavy on the palette, just make sure you steep at a bit lower temperature to not bring out too much of the astringency that can come through with “oversteeped” roasted greens unless ya know, you’re up for that kinda thang

I have to say this is pretty different from most other TGY’s that I’ve had. I tried a lot of different ones while I was in China and this one still stands out. Rather than the usual floral taste I associate with most oolongs this particular one had a bit of grassiness/seaweed taste that I wasn’t quite expecting. It goes down incredibly smooth and has just the right amount of dryness. The aftertaste is quite sweet and I found that this is where the floral taste I associate with greener oolongs really came through. I would definitely recommend this as an experience to see how TGY’s can vary from vendor to vendor. Really good!

The leaves for this smell great first of all! Pretty grassy, yet roasted too, a bit more than a TGY in my opinion. However, although I do like some qualities of this tea it’s not my favorite. The roastedness is a bit overpowering for me sometimes. The first steep is nice and grassy, with a little bit of a sweet aftertaste, although not as much as a TGY. By the third steep it reminds me a lot of a Green Tea Frappuchino from Starbucks. It’s sweet, mellow, and has the sweet milk taste that I was looking for! I like this one, but not as much as a TGY. Thanks Angel!

First site of the leaves: they seem to be very well rolled with a great mineral aroma. First steeping is pretty much what I expected. It’s definitely recognizable as an oolong because even though it’s got a lot of flavor, it’s never overpowering. Very good, clean rocky aftertaste and I’ve found that after a while it tends to dry your mouth out. My first Da Hong Pao, but I doubt my last. Thank you Teavivre!

Decided to brew this up more chinese style today by putting a lot of leaves in a glass and just letting it brew inside the glass. Try it this way! I wasn’t getting much sweetness and flavor out of this one with my gaiwan but now the tea seems much better. It’s a very classic Chinese green. There’s a scent of fresh cut grass and the first sip is pretty grassy. However, there is a nice aftertaste of sweetness and it lingers on your tongue for a few seconds after. On the second steeping the grassiness went away and the tea became much sweeter and fruity. Definitely can find some peach overtones

THis was my first time trying Pi Lo Chun and although it’s good it’s not exactly my cup of tea ;P. It holds up really nicely to several infusions and reminds me a lot of gunpowder tea. Be careful though because it can turn astringent fast. The dry leaves are very pretty and have a nice smokiness to them which translates over to the cup. If you like smokiness to your greens by all means you’ll love this! I simply prefer something a little sweeter and floral.

This stuff is terrific! I’m always scared of blacks because if you steep them too long the tannins really come out and they get really astringent, not the case here! This one never get’s astringent. The dry leaves are very classic for a Chinese black and have a nice, spicy, cocoa scent to them. The smell of the liquor is a bit drier but the flavor is completely there. With notes of chocolate, warmth, never astringent, spicy, this is exactly what I expect of a fujian black tea. If Teavivre keeps it up I don’t know what other tea merchants will do . . .

What a great oolong. I steeped this in my gaiwan using the small packet it came in for about 3 seconds with 1 more second each steep. This tea is thick sometimes and has great character. On third steeping it got very sweet. Like has already been said, it’s light though. it’s like breathing in the breeze that blows through a garden. Very nice oolong and very affordable. I like teavivre more and more every day.