Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Tea Tasting - Teavivre

 
Tea tastings have been taking place here in my kitchen.
Teavivre recently contacted me and asked if I would like to sample their tea.
After looking at their website, www.teavivre.com, I said I very much
would love to taste some samples.
They generously sent samples of the following:
Ali Shan Oolong -  this tea had a lovely, soft floral mouth feel
and brought back memories of my visit to Ali Shan. I steeped
it my typical 4 minutes, which was way too long.  A shorter
steep made for a delightful cup of tea.
Dong Ding Oolong - The fragrance divine, the flavor a bit on the green
side of oolongs, I would recommend a short steep time for best results.
Long Jing Green - This organic green tea was my biggest surprise.
Since I don't often sip green teas I wasn't expecting it to delight.
The flavor had a sweetness very much unexpected and not at all grassy.
A very good green and organic tea.
Golden Monkey - Teavivre recommended steeping this tea at 194, which
in my taste is abit cool for a black tea.  However, with this temperature
I found a winey first fragrance and spice notes in the after taste.  With
a new pot of tea at boiling the flavors were not as pronounced.  Fascinating!
Yun Nan Dian Hong, black full leaf - smelled wonderful, nice long needles.
Steeping at 200 for 4 minutes I found it to be smooth and fresh mouth feel.
A second teapot at boiling temperature was still good, but the slightly
cooler temperature definitely brought out more flavor and delight.
Wow!  I am learning black teas maybe don't need to be steeped in
a full boiling pot of water.
This tea just was mentioned by Fox News as one of the top 10 teas to drink.
Yun Nan Dian Hong, golden tip - A lighter Dian Hong with a nice smooth flavor.
I did find, though I usually like golden tip more, that I really enjoyed the full
flavor of the black full leaf Dian Hong more than the golden tip.
It just had a more complex flavor on the black full leaf.

I really learned from these tastings that temperature of the water can make a huge difference.
Thanks Teavivre, it was fun and I would definitely recommend your tea company to my readers.

Teapot in photo is sitting in a museum near the Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

What an opportunity for you - all that tasting. It sounds lovely.

Unknown said...

What a lovely, and unusual, tea pot.

Jeanie said...

That's very cool to be contacted for tastings! I love it!

Angela McRae said...

I just did a Teavivre tea tasting today myself (for tomorrow's blog post) and thoroughly enjoyed them!

Jeanne said...

Fabulous indeed.
Much love and many blessings and here's to many more cups of tea and thee.
Love Jeanne

Cathy said...

Very interesting post, Marilyn. I didn't realize that tea is so sensitive to the temperature of the water. Lovely tea pot.

Relyn Lawson said...

Oooo... I love San Francisco. That city has THE BEST museums!

paris parfait said...

What fun to try so many new teas!

Rosemary said...

Beautiful tea pot - wonderful tea tasting and reviews. Of the teas you mention, I have only sampled Long jing and Golden Monkey. I must work on sampling more!