Naivetea

First impressions of this tea is in the smell. The scent of the dry leaves smells a lot like candy, and smell very sweet. After steeping, the dry leaves and the tea liquor smelled a lot like the Acai Emergen-C vitamin C drink packages. I do not know what Passion fruit smells like, but this tea smelled very sweet, like acai, and had hints of crisp apple and peach in the scent as well.

Check out a more in depth review & a time lapse steep video at my blog! http://bit.ly/9flx7I

I like the light taste of the osmanthus..it intensifies the flavor and quality of the oolong.

Took me a couple of steeps to get this one right. It wasn’t outstanding but still tasted pretty good. I’m not such of a strawberry person anyway.

Toasty, ricey, little hints of vegetal flavors here and there and pretty smooth. Not silky or creamy, just smooth and soft. The leaves expand quite well, as expected for an oolong.

This is my first Dong Ding oolong. Not sure I am enough of a fan to keep it around, but it seems to be a very nice tea and I wouldn’t turn it down if it were offered. And I will not make it through 7 steeps. I will probably never get through 7 steeps of the same tea in a row. :) Too impatient, too many teas!!!

Again, thanks for sharing, Tamm!

Thank you Dinosara for this sample. :) I have been saving my more floral teas for warmer weather and the UK has finally seen the start of things to come. Hopefully the snow is behind us.

I don’t recall trying anything from Naivetea before but have tried Butiki Teas version of rose violet calendula Oolong so there are some means for comparison.

In raw form this tea consists of dark brown/black oolong balls with a few yellow calendula petals mixed amongst them. If you look very closely there are a few very small pieces of violet petals but I can’t see any rose in this 7g sample.

Upon opening the packet I could note a very strong floral aroma with particular rose peaks and Turkish delight essence.

Once steeped the tea is yellow in colour with a very light floral scent. Not as strong as it’s raw form but still present with a little sweetness.

The first few sips reveal a very mellow floral taste that has a pinch of sweetness and grass like essence. Despite a dark appearance this Oolong does have a very green flavour but it’s so mild that it’s characteristics leave a lot to be desired. To add to the list of flavours there is a powdery, floral perfume after taste that dries the mouth a little.

This tea would be suitable for people that like subtle flavours but for me it’s just too subtle. I brewed 7g into a mesh teapot that holds 2 and a half cups of tea so ideally it should have been more potent in my opinion. I remember Butiki being fresher and much stronger than this.

Overall while this tea is delicate and light it is also rather tasty, I just wish it was stronger. For me this is a slightly above average blend that works well before or after a meal due to it’s light aura. A nice cleanser but not suitable for those that like to be taken away with a floral taste and aroma to their own flower field…like I do.

Oh and just a side note – This is my 499 tasting review. Almost at the big 500 :)

Thank you so much for the sample Dinosara! I wanted to try this one first because I’ve had a Bao Zhong before but never a plain one. I have had a coconut flavored one that I LOVED. This one is wonderful too! Might be my favorite oolong I’ve tried so far :D I can’t wait to get to my next steep, heh. It is light and buttery and floral YUM.

Earlier in the evening I really wanted to make something in my gaiwan, but I ended up with a rich latte instead. But the gaiwan bug wasn’t leaving, so I decided to just go for it! At 2:30 in the morning. Maybe no the brightest idea, but my packet of this from TeaEqualsBliss was calling out to me.

Rinse: 10 seconds. Okay, I know you are technically not supposed to drink this, but to heck with it! I tea how I want to! Yes, I just used tea as a verb. I was amazed at how fast the leaves unfurled. After a mere ten seconds in hot water they were fully expanded! And so pretty, all of them fully intact like they just fell off the tree into my cup. I almost overestimated the capacity of my little gaiwan, they’re right up to the lid.

This “steep” was like a punch of floral nectar, rich and thick like honey. Orchid and jasmine! Also a wee bit vegetal.

1st Steep: 20 seconds. This smells like vegetables, fresh buttered spinach. It’s still floral, orchid but now with a hint of lychee. Sweet, fruity.

2nd Steep: 20 seconds. Buttery! This steep has a creamy mouthfeel, not sweet but quite savory. I’m smelling kale! It’s less floral but still with the orchid element. More honey.

At this point I stopped, for some reason green oolongs (and ONLY green oolongs) have the tendency to make me a bit nauseous. I still love them, but 2 steeps + a rinse is my limit.

There’s such an interesting mix of sweet/savory here: butter, honey, spinach, flowers. It’s so complex, I saved my leaves and can’t wait to see what the next steeps bring tomorrow!

The initial aroma is rather strong, especially if you’re not used to lavender. However, I find that once steeped, the lavender settles down and doesn’t overtake the oolong’s natural notes, which is both surprising and pleasant. Quite relaxing for a late-night tea, as anything with pure lavender usually is.

What a wonderful tea! I had forgotten that I had this one. This has many roasted, bread like notes mixed with an almost herbaceous sweetness. There are also some underlying green notes that I really love. As an introduction to both dong ding oolongs and Naivetea in general, this is really wonderful.

This is another tea that I won recently! This is the first tea that I am trying from Naivetea. I’m having this after some popcorn (plain-ish) so hopefully that doesn’t interfere. This smells lovely dry. There is something about it that I can’t quite put my finger on; woodsy maybe?
I’m having a hard time letting this cool! It smells lovely; roasted and sweet. Wonderful! It is very roasty without too many malt tones. It has a sweet edge at the back of the sip. There are green notes midpoint in this that remind me of deep spinach. I really enjoyed this one!

As others have noted, this is a decidedly more robust Bao Zhong than what I am used to. Sweet, but also vegetal. Substantial.

Sipdown, 228. This is one that I have for some reason have had for a while but never got around to sipping down.

Oof, first sip was a little too hot… usually I am not so impatient but I wanted something to drink right away. I feel like there is something stuck in my esophagus low down and it won’t go away, but clearly there is not.

I enjoy this tea, even it if is on the roasty-toastier side of things. I don’t know why I am not a big fan of toastiness in tea, but it seems to be generally the case. Still, this one is toasty in such a way that it works for me, accompanied by a light sweetness. A pleasant afternoon tea.

I had one Dong Ding oolong and really liked it, so I asked for some samples of others and luckily Amy Oh sent me a sample of this one! I tend to love the teas from Naivetea, so I am definitely excited to try it.

This one smells way more toasty than the dong ding from thepuriTea. The roasted grains aroma reminds me of some of the darker oolongs I’ve tried. When I breath in deep I get a nice autumn leaves aroma. The flavor is not unexpected based on the aroma but not exactly what I was expecting based on thepuriTea’s. That one was basically unroasted, but perhaps it is unusual? In any case, I do enjoy it a lot. It’s a bit vegetal, nicely roasty, a tiny bit sweet.

Thanks so much for this sample, Amy, I’m glad I got to try it!

Dry Leaf Aroma: The dry leaf has a refreshing toasted wheat like kind of smell if that makes sense. There is another smell too but I can’t describe it but it is not a bad smell.
Wet Leaf Aroma: I get a toasted smell that has a sweet smell I almost associate it with honey with a woody under tone to it.
Liquor: Has like a amber type of color.
Taste: I get like a toasted flavor with a woody maybe even smoky flavor with like a honeyed sweetness.
My Score: This is a 94 This is the best Ti Guan Yin to date I have ever tasted. This one is pricey but she is good.

This is really a wonderful A Li Shan in my opinion…

It’s a bit floral-y but also very buttery, exceptionally creamy, smooth, rich. One taste of this and my mouth feels like it’s on vacation. I’m picking up some other things too, like a slight mango and perhaps a bit of vanilla. Not as light as some other A Li Shans I’ve had.

I seem to like this the best when it’s steeped at around 180F for 2 minutes but I would like to do some gong fu sessions with my remaining sample. If you’re looking for a good A Li Shan you might try this one. I would certainly buy this again. :)

Tea of the afternoon……

I decided it was time to go forth with another new oolong. I have had this from the second Steepster Box?, but am just getting to it now.

It is similar in mothfeel to other oolongs; It tastes thick. It really kind of reminds me of Genmaicha as there is a little bit of a toasted rice taste. But it has a sweeter finish than Genmaicha. Good, but I tend to prefer a more floral type oolong. We shall see what subsequent steepings bring to the table.

Steeped according to the label (even though I see better suggestions on the main page for this tea…will try that next time)…. 2 tsp tea in about 12 oz. filtered boiled water for 3 minutes. No additions.

This is not my first Wen Shan Bao Zhong, but it’s close to it. I had a pot of Harney’s at their tea room in Soho once, and I wanted to buy a couple of ounces of it, but alas they do not sell it by the ounce, only in a tin! Being told “no, we can’t sell you this tea in bulk even though we have it loose in bulk right here” discombobulated me so much that I didn’t even think to look at the tin, which is only 1.5oz anyway.

So my point is that I liked that one, but I haven’t tried any other since then. The dry leaf on this one smells lovely, with a nice floral oolongy aroma. Steeped, a much more buttery aroma shows up. The flavor is very pleasant; floral, vegetal, a bit buttery. There’s an ever so faint whisp of sweetness that shows up at the end of the sip. Really, a lovely cup.