Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
A cup of Nonpareil Yunnan Dian Hong Chinese Red Black Tea will not only attract you by its taste, but also by its appearance: so dark and strong with tight and long tips. This tempting appearance is produced in Yunnan. While if you want to describe its taste, you can use the word elegant. It can serve you a cup of elegant gongfu tea or afternoon tea.
High mountains and proper environment produces good tea. Chinese Red has a price of high value. Its special tea tree and superb making skills make this tea carrying a unique fragrance as rich as perfumes. The top notes make you delighted; the middle notes fresh your mind; the base note of strong floral fragrance make you intoxicated.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Ahhh-ma-ZING! This tea is truly remarkable. Nonpareil Yunnan Dian Hong Chinese Red Black Tea from Teavivre is one of those memorable black teas that I believe all tea lovers should try!
The tea brews up dark and has a thick, silky mouthfeel that seems to coat the palate with it’s full-flavored goodness. I taste notes of deep, dark bittersweet chocolate and an undertone of rich, creamy caramel. It has that “baked” quality to it, the kind of taste that evokes thoughts of freshly baked bread.
There are notes of malt and there is very little – as in next to NO – astringency to this tea. In fact, I mention the astringency only because just now I took a sip and really focused on what I was experiencing to see if I could notice any astringency. And when I’m very focused on it, I can detect a slight dry sensation toward the tail. It’s ever-so-slight and those who tend to be astringent-sensitive shouldn’t worry about this tea.
For those of you who remember Dawn from Simple Leaf and miss it (and let’s face it, if you remember the tea, you miss it!) this tea would make a really good substitute for that tea. It reminds me a lot of that tea. It is rich with notes of cocoa, sweet, caramel-y undertones and notes of stone fruit (plum-ish) mid-sip.
A really memorable, delicious tea – and it’s just as flavorful with the second infusion, too!
Organic Nonpareil She Qian Dragon Well Long Jing Green Tea from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
In the early Spring, when the tea buds just appeared their face on the trees, the harvest of She Qian Dragon Well is ready to begin. The tea gardens in Hangzhou are busy making the first flush teas. The fresh leaves of She Qian Dragon Well are all in one bud with one leaf shape, as straight as an upstanding flag. The beautiful shape also brings enjoyment to the brewing.
Organic She Qian Dragon Well Tea can reach your requirements for both quality and health benefits. A good starting of the year is in Spring; a taste of good spring tea is from She Qian Dragon Well.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
FRESH! This Organic Nonpareil She Qian Dragon Well Long Jing Green Tea from Teavivre is the brand new harvest from Spring 2014 – wait a sec – this IS Spring 2014! It doesn’t get fresher than that!
The leaves are beautifully jade green, and they produce a liquid that is very pale green. The flavor is very fresh, pure, and clean. There is a sweet, nutty flavor to it that reminds me of chestnuts. The chestnuts have a slightly buttery taste to them too, and there is an invigorating “green” taste. This is nutty, vegetal, buttery and pleasantly sweet.
I like the mild flavor of this, it doesn’t have an overpowering vegetative tone. It has a well-balanced, nicely round flavor. The texture is soft and brothy.
The flavor is complex with the top notes of sweet chestnuts, steamed veggies that have been lightly drizzled with melted butter and as I continue to sip, I start to pick up on a light, apple-y mid-note. There is a hint of savory taste in there … almost salty or perhaps kelp-y might be a better way to describe it. It’s not a strong note, it tastes like someone added about half a pinch of salt to my steamed veggies!
Teavivre has been a long-standing favorite company of mine and this tea is a perfect example of WHY I love them so much. This is one of the finest Dragon Well teas I’ve yet to taste. It is so fresh and I can taste that freshness in every sip.
Fengqing Wild Tree Yesheng Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake 2013 from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
This raw pu-erh cake is grown and produced in Fengqing, Yunnan, which is the origin place of DianHong black tea. This Wild Tree Yesheng Raw Pu-erh Cake is harvest in spring of 2013. Between March to May, after harvesting the fresh leaves, tea workers will process them: fixation, rolling, drying, sifting, and then store the leaves in carton boxes.
As the workers use iron pan for fixation, and roll the tea with their hands, the leaves do not have good looks as machine-made leaves. Yet regarding on quality, this Wild Tree Yesheng Pu-erh Cake is a green food from nature, in the mists and clouds on high mountains. It is a tea worth being in your collection list.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
The dry leaf aroma of this 2013 Fengqing Wild Tree Yesheng Raw Pu-erh Tea Cake from Teavivre is almost non-existent. This surprised me, only because I’m used to Pu-erh having some aroma, but I didn’t smell much of anything when I smelled the dry leaf.
Conversely, the wet leaves have a strong vegetal scent to them that immediately made me think of peas. Granted, peas are not my favorite vegetable (that’s putting it mildly) and because of that, they are not a food that I’m smelling on a regular basis. But when I smelled these wet leaves, green peas is what came to mind.
For those of you who are like me: timid when it comes to Pu-erh tea because of that strong, earthy and sometimes fishy taste and smell, you can rest assured that you won’t experience that with this Pu-erh. This is a very young Pu-erh, and it tastes much more like a green tea to me than it does a Pu-erh.
It has a vegetal taste, but it’s a remarkably smooth vegetal note. It doesn’t have that “crisp” or “lively” sort of vegetative taste that you might experience with a typical green tea. Instead, this has a very mellow vegetative taste. It doesn’t taste grassy. It tastes like mild steamed vegetables: like spinach, perhaps, only milder and sweeter.
There is a buttery note to this too, something I don’t typically experience with a Pu-erh. So, imagine that aforementioned extra mild, sweet spinach, topped with mushrooms that have been lightly sauteed in butter and then topped with thinly sliced almonds … only the almonds are raw. It has that sort of creamy, buttery taste that you might experience with a raw almond.
Later infusions brought out more savory flavors to the vegetal tones. Notes of salt and seaweed were contrasted by some newly emerging fruity notes. The flavor becomes deeper and more complex with each new infusion.
I like in “wild tree” teas like this that I can almost taste the “wild” in them. There is a note to these teas that I don’t often find in the more conventional farm grown teas.
I would recommend this Pu-erh to those new to Pu-erh so that they can experience some “different” Pu-erh teas, as well as fans of green tea. It’s a really unique tea experience … one definitely worth trying.
Golden Monkey Black Tea from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
Coming from Fujian, the Golden Monkey is made of the fresh buds and leaves of Fuding Pekoe, by lightly sun withering, rolling, fermentation and drying. Golden Monkey has the particular aroma of black tea. You could scent the fruity flavor through every sip of the tea.
The golden hairy tips truly make this tea more attractive. This is one reason why it is called Golden Monkey. Another reason is its monkey-claw-liked shape of the dry tea, which is in golden and black color. When brewed, the Golden Monkey Tea tastes brisk and smooth for the first sip, presenting a distinctive flavor. If you like stronger flavor, you could brew for a longer time. The sweet aftertaste could act faster for thicker liquid. You could only feel it when trying by yourself.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
When I got my most recent package from Teavivre, this Golden Monkey Black Tea was the one I was most anxious to try! I love Fujian teas, and Golden Monkey teas are among those that I favor most. And since this Golden Monkey was coming from Teavivre, I KNEW it would be stellar. Teavivre is one of my favorite companies for a reason: they offer some of the finest teas I’ve ever tasted.
And this tea does not disappoint! It’s so good!
It is rich with caramel-y taste, and that caramel-y taste is the reason I find Golden Monkey Teas so enchanting! Well, those yummy caramel-y tones and the notes of cocoa … and this tea has cocoa notes too.
It’s very smooth from start to finish. At the finish, there is a crisp, dry astringency. The sip starts out sweet and robust with notes of earth, leather and fruit. The fruit notes remind me of apricot and raisins. Then I notice the caramel-y undertones and the distant notes of chocolate. As the sip nears the finish, the flavor becomes crisper. The aftertaste is sweet, hinting at a burnt-sugar sort of sweetness with notes of molasses.
I like that this has a bold flavor – it’s a strong enough tea to be something I’d enjoy as my first cup of the day, but it’s smooth and flavorful enough to be something that I’d happily drink throughout the day, any time of day.
A really, really good tea from a company that I knew would deliver nothing but awesomeness!
Fengqing Zhuan Cha Raw Puerh Brick Tea 2005 from Teavivre
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Pu-erh
Where to Buy: Teavivre
Tea Description:
The Fengqing Zhuan Cha Ripened Puerh Brick Tea 2005 is small but has full weight of 240g. The brick is in the size of 13.5 cm long, 9 cm wide and 1.5 cm high, which makes the tea easy to store. Brick tea is a kind of compressed pu-erh tea. This Raw Pu-erh Brick Tea has yellow and bright liquid, stronger flavor than ripened brick with strong astringent taste. Yet the bitter taste differs from other teas’. A strong sweet aftertaste comes after the liquid fills in your mouth, as well as the long-lasting mellow flavor promoting the secretion of saliva. The sweet aftertaste still remains even half a minute later. This Raw Pu-erh Brick is picked in 2005’s spring and summer, and pressed in the same year. Aged Pu-erh Brick teas will become more profound after years of store. It is regarded as an eatable antique in China.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Although I’m not always enthusiastic to try a pu-erh, after having tried a good number of pu-erh teas from Teavivre without disappointment, I found myself actually looking forward to trying this 2005 Fengqing Zhuan Cha Raw Puerh Brick Tea.
After a quick rinse (15 seconds), I infused my first cup for just 45 seconds and achieved a very strong, deep flavor with notes of mineral and a somewhat salty/savory note. The description above suggests “promoting the secretion of saliva” and that’s what I’m experiencing from this tea. The salty note from the tea encourages my mouth to begin watering.
This is earthy but not in the same way that a ripened pu-erh would taste. This is more earthy/vegetative sort of taste. I note hints of kelp. By mid-cup, I start to notice some bitter/tart notes that brighten the overall flavor.
I steeped this tea eight times before I was ready to move on to something else – but I do suspect that this tea would have kept going strong for at least two or more infusions! With each infusion, I noticed a deeper flavor than with the previous cup. The flavor keeps developing.
I’ve often used the word mellow to describe a pu-erh but I don’t think that word applies to this tea. The savory/bitter notes are very unique to me. I don’t consider myself an expert when it comes to pu-erh, in fact, I think of myself as just the opposite. Pu-erh is the tea that I feel least knowledgeable about, and with each new experience, I feel as though I’m learning something new and after each experience, I feel as though I’ve so much more to learn!
That said, I can’t recall a tea quite like this one before. It has a brine-like flavor to it … but not a fishy-brine taste. The brine here reminds me more of a vinegar-ish type of taste, the savory/bitter/salty notes you might experience from vinegar. The earthy notes here are very mushroom-y.
A very intriguing tea!