Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
We at TeaVivre have carefully selected our organic Silver Needle White Tea to make sure it is absolute premium quality. When brewed, it has a pale golden color and subtle flowery fragrance. The taste of TeaVivre’s Silver Needle is delicate, without any bitterness or strong flavour.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is a lovely Silver Needle. The leaves are tender and vary in color ranging from a yellowish green to a pale green, with hints of tan and silver, and they are covered with soft silvery fuzz. The aroma of the dry leaf is a combination of hay, flowers and air. After brewing, the infusion maintains that fragrance, although it is a bit softer than that of the dry leaf.
The flavor is so wonderful! It is delicate and sweet, with hints of flower, grass, and fruit. It has a lovely complexity to it, but because the flavors are so soft, I find myself mesmerized by the tea … focusing on the beautiful layers of flavor … getting lost in the beauty of it.
There is some astringency to this tea, but absolutely no bitterness. The aftertaste is sweet and floral.
This tea is wonderfully calming and inspires a sense of relaxation and deep contemplation. It is an absolute joy to sip! This is why I love tea!
Tie Guan Yin – Diamond Grade – Fall Harvest from Norbu Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Norbu Tea
Tea Description:
This is our “Diamond Grade” Fall Harvest 2011 Tie Guan Yin from Anxi County’s Gande Town. Upon opening the package, the intense floral aroma of this tea is almost overwhelming. The dry leaves are dark green and are fairly tightly rolled into the characteristic ball shape of Anxi Oolong.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I do love a good Oolong, and while Ali Shan tends to be my favorite, Tie Guan Yin Oolong teas are right up there. I love their floral notes and that sweet, buttery flavor.
And this is one mighty fine Tie Guan Yin!
As the above description suggests, the floral aroma is incredibly powerful. The floral fragrance translates to the brewed tea – and it completes the experience to deeply inhale the scent of the tea prior to taking a sip. It smells so good that I found myself smelling the cup for hints of that beautiful bouquet after the tea had been consumed!
Deliciously floral, I taste the sweet notes of honeysuckle and orchid, but without that sharp tone that sometimes accompanies a floral note. The texture is silky and smooth, reminiscent of melted butter. There is also a buttery flavor to the tea, which further accentuates the texture, giving this an almost buttered-popcorn kind of taste.
There are hints of vegetal tones to this tea as well, they start out very subtle and as I continue to sip I find these flavors develop. With subsequent infusions (I managed six full-flavored infusions from one measurement of leaves, and with the seventh and eighth infusions, the flavor was lighter, but still very delightful) I noticed that the floral tones began to really emerge, and the flavors become even smoother. My favorite infusions were the third and fourth – the combination of these two infusions made for a very rich, flavorful, broth-y kind of tea with gorgeous floral high notes.
Since my first encounters with Norbu Tea several years ago, I have come to associate this company with nothing but the very best in Oolong teas. If you’re an Oolong enthusiast, you really should be shopping with Norbu!
Organic Ti Kuan Yin Oolong from Arbor Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Arbor Teas
Tea Description:
Ti Kuan Yin is the most famous of all organic Oolong Teas. This Fair Trade Certified organic Chinese tea is grown in the southern reaches of China’s Fujian Province. The tightly-rolled dark green organic loose leaf tea yields a pale golden, smooth-bodied infusion with a complex aroma having accents of sweet flowers, rich greens and forest floor.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
It’s been a while since I’ve last tried the delicious Ti Kuan Yin that Arbor Tea offers, and I’ve missed it! I brewed this Ti Kuan Yin in my gaiwan using short steeps. By brewing it using this method, I managed six very flavorful infusions, each new infusion seemed to taste even lovelier than the one prior!
The body is incredibly smooth and rich, with a thick mouthfeel that is soft and luxurious. The flavor is sweet with a floral overtone and a hint of vegetation in the distance.
There is an undertone of earthiness to this Ti Kuan Yin which evoke thoughts of the mossy earth that carpets the forests of the Pacific Northwest. The sweetness to this cup is reminiscent of honeysuckles.
I love that this tea is organic and Fair Trade Certified, which is true of all the teas sold by Arbor Teas. Overall, I find this to be an excellent Oolong; a lovely, contemplative brew! I highly recommend it!
Silver Jasmine Green Tea (Mo Li Yin Hao) from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
Hugely popular in China, Silver Jasmine Green tea is produced by adding jasmine flower petals to the tea buds during processing, so infusing this premium green tea with a subtle fragrance and taste of jasmine. After drying the flower petals are removed, leaving the tea with its unique taste and fragrance. TeaVivre’s Silver Jasmine is made from premium Fuding Da Bai and Da Hao tea trees grown in Mt Taimu, Fujian.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
If you’ve been reading my reviews for very long, you’re probably well aware that I am quite fond of jasmine tea. It is one of my top three “tea flavors” (the other two are bergamot and chocolate … yeah, I know that chocolate isn’t really a traditional tea flavor, but, what can I say? I’m a chocoholic!) And this is a very fine jasmine tea.
I’ve enjoyed this twice now and have found it to be a remarkable representation of jasmine tea … or shall I say, what jasmine tea should be. It doesn’t taste perfume-y or artificial. The flavors are very well balanced. The jasmine is sweet, delicately floral and not sharp or off-putting at all. The green tea tastes fresh and offers hints of a nutty undertone.
The second time I tried the tea, I added a bit more leaf, because the brewing parameters on the website suggests 1 – 2 teaspoons of tea for 8 ounces of water. The result is – obviously! – a stronger brew, but, the flavors remain remarkably balanced. All of the flavors I mentioned above from the first cup are present in this second cup, they’re just intensified from the addition of tea leaf. It did not cause the tea to become bitter or off-putting, and I found that I enjoyed both servings of the tea. For a relaxing cup later in the evening, I’d recommend just 1 teaspoon per cup, and for a more invigorating cup earlier in the day, use up to 2 teaspoons per cup.
A very nice jasmine, no matter how you choose to serve it.
Yongchun Fo Shou (Bergamot) Oolong Superior Grade from Life in Teacup
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Life in Teacup
Product Description:
Production Year: 2011
Production Season: Spring
Production Region: Fujian Province, Yongchun County
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
This is a very interesting tea for me, one that I was very excited to try. Oolong tea is one of my favorite tea types, and if you’ve read very many of my tea reviews or tasting notes, you’re probably also aware of my love for bergamot.
I brewed this as I usually would an Oolong – in my gaiwan using short steeps. I started with 45 seconds, and increased each subsequent infusion by 15 seconds. I then combine two infusions into one tea cup.
The first two infusions, I found myself searching earnestly for the bergamot flavor. I could taste the flavor of the Oolong, certainly, with a lovely vegetative flavor and hints of floral. It is a remarkably smooth Oolong with very little astringency. It is a delicious Oolong, and there are hints of a citrus tone in the distance, but, it is not a strong, palpable flavor.
By the third and fourth infusions, the bergamot was more apparent. Still not a strong presence, but certainly more evident than in the first two infusions. The flavor was tangy and citrus-y but also pleasantly floral. The Oolong had become even smoother than the first cup, with much of its vegetative taste melding with the other flavors of the tea to create a very harmonious, seamless taste.
With the fifth and sixth infusions, the bergamot was stronger than the second cup, but, this is still not an Earl Grey kind of bergamot where the flavor is very obvious. It is more like the essence of the bergamot fruit, and I appreciate that it offers a different perspective on the bergamot. This cup seems to focus more on the bergamot and less on the Oolong, with the soft mouthfeel being the most distinct characteristic from the Oolong.
A very lovely tea experience … from start to finish. I like that it surprised and challenged me as a tea taster, and that it gave me a different look at a fruit that I had become very familiar with … but, now I realize it was in a very limited way. This has opened my mind and eyes to the beauty of bergamot.