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before the leaves unfurl, (which takes a number of steeps as it’s very tightly rolled) there’s a sharp brittleness to the tea, with lots of soapy, perfumey floral note. Not altogether pleasant, but I’ve learned never to judge an oolong before it opens up to you.
As the leaves do open up, it smooth out, nothing perfumey and only the slightest soapy aftertaste. Sweet florals, light grass, lettuce, there’s a nuttiness to it as well — pecan. There’s the sort of mineral butteryness I find in Sencha, with a slight bitterness. The florals are very perfumey to me after the leaves have fully expanded, I find there’s a bit of a strange smell around my set while brewing this one.
I have also found that through this session, the flavours have come full circle, back to the soap and perfume of the rolled leaf, just with a fuller body. Some may enjoy these tastes, but I can’t really see this ding dong ever be something I’d seek out.

Sipdown (#3).
The leaves aren’t as pretty as the picture suggests. More broken up than I would like to see, but no matter,
It has lots of cherry, malt oats, dark rich chocolate, it tastes very similar to their laoshan black, but i believe this is stronger in the cherry and sweeter. it’s very soothing and calming, the astringency is strong, but not overwhelming, it’s a nice amount. More chocolatey and rather sugar-like in the mddle steeps, it’s rather a course sweetness, tastes just like if I had added sugar to it. Also marhsmallow, it fades out to wood and oats and some malt, a bit of chocolate, I actually prefer this to the regular laoshan black, but I didn’t properly notice until I took the time to write about them both! I find reviewing teas really helps to deepen my appreciation of them :)

im really confused by how what im drinking here is the same tea as im seeing these high ratings on.
okay. i think i have 3 more upton samples left after this, but ok so I will tell you that once I opened the sample and smelled the leaves, I basically lost hope that it would be any good. It smelled like bad hot dogs. After trying it, it’s nowhere near as bad as I thought it’d be, it’s a little bit floral, mostly grassy with a sort of meaty texture at the back of the mouth, and a hint of some kind of fruit. Maybe like a creamy strawberry? that strawberry lasts only a couple steeps, it develops what I can only describe as a dirty, muddy flower? I dont think the muddy flowers are gong to go away, unfortunately.
Bitter lemongrass, wood, hay. I got an odd taste of salmon skin. there! Okay, FINALLY, after like a litre of brewing, I’m getting notes of apple, honeydew, but its crowded by very powerful astringency, which makes it difficult to appreciate any of the light fruit notes. The back/middle of the tongue and roof of the mouth are left dry. This definitely isn’t a pleasant tea, but it isn’t terrible.

Sipdown (2)
In the beginning, this one is really roasty tasting for such a green oolong, very floral as well, it’s a bit more floral and roasty than I’d like to begin with, but most of the roastiness steeps out pretty quickly to reveal sweet vegetals – bok choy, kale, and once it does, mmmm. It has a nice thick, moderately astringent feel in the middle, and late steeps are gorgeously creamy and floral, reminiscent of vanilla ice cream, thick florals (Very slightly perfumey) and nice sweet aforementioned vegetals. definitely an above average oolong, and I wholeheartedly recommend IDESTea’s entire selection.

I really like this laoshan black! It brews up a nice thick orange soup, it’s quite like an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, nice and malty and woody, with subtle cherry and peach/apricot notes, later steeps bring out more nutty tastes, strong cherry with dark chocolate.

Oh. My God.
So apparently this one’s hand-plucked, and to my knowledge I’ve yet to have a hand-plucked oolong, So this is exciting!

Anyways so it’s very vegetal, mineral, light soap & perfume in the first steep, sweet, bok choy, green beans, spinach, light flowers,
But then after the third steep, good ol’ third steep, the soap/perfume is mostly gone, and well, now, I don’t like florals in my tea; anyone who has even glanced at my profile knows that, but this has some kind of thick, sweet florals that I don’t just love, I crave the next steep, it’s wonderful.
Steep 4 is even better, thicker, richer, sweeter, a bit fruity and thickly vegetal, it’s like I can feel the leaves. Have you ever just licked an unrolled oolong leaf? No? That’s reasonable. But um if you want to understand the mouthfeel I’ve got right now, go and do that, I mean probably when you’re on your own sometime, because, well, people will run away. And we don’t want that.
Anyways, the fifth is more floral, thinner, sweeter,
6 is a bit more fruity, still a nice floral, some astringency, has been coming through since about the 3rd steep, but a very nice amount.
7 florals take over, but not in a bad way (It’s weird to say that it isnt in a bad way)
8 It tastes like basil actually; flower stems, there’s even hints of earth which are very pleasant and subtle,
My god i need to try more Dan Congs, I always default to taiwan for my oolongs, but if tea like this is coming from the mainland, well I may just need to reevaluate everything I know. That’s exciting.
Actually, wait, what am I saying, I have 2 on the way from Verdant currently, so you’ll be hearing more from me soon.
So you know what, flower tea people? I finally understand you.

I already gave this one a very positive review, but now whenever I drink it, I don’t like it, my tastes have no doubt changed a bit, and this is just subjectivity, because it’s actually quite nice, but I really don’t like florals, and that’s all I seem to taste anymore, just with slight cocoa, and quite a bit of earth.

Teavivre sample 5/5

I got a bunch of teaware today from YS :D I’m so excited I finally have a serving pitcher and a cup that I can actually see the tea colour in! yay :D!

Anyways! From the moment I smelled this bi luo chun, I decided to save it for last, I have had it for a week or two and this is my first time having it and well that takes willpower after smelling this, just trust me. It smelled incredible.

It tastes very sweet and roasty, like sweet peas, toasted rice, bok choy, spinach, very very sweet at first. i got a slight bitterness on a couple of the steeps, but I managed to get rid of it with a shorter steep succeeding it. It gets less sweet after the beginning, more roasty in the middle of the session, and then I get corn and carrot notes, it fades out around the 8th or 9th steep, which is a bit longer than I expected, a lot of greens don’t last that long for me. The roasty notes were a lot like a genmaicha, which was really great because it balanced wonderfully with the incredibly sweet vegetals. Lovely balance in this one. Really quite something delicious, but I suspect you’ll need to be quite careful about your steeps, the slight bitterness kept coming back.

Teavivre sample 4/5 :)

This is the second yellow tea I’ve ever had, but the other was also a Shan Huang (from ESGreen). This one smells a lot better, and the leaves look prettier, just based on first impressions, we’re off to a good start.
Steep 1: Soybean sprouts, lovely sweet vegetal, corn, peas, carrots, can I just stress how sweet this is? pear and apple, spinach, bok choy.
Steep 2: It actually tastes a lot like a laoshan green
Steep 3: Edamames!
…
It’s slightly more astringent than I would’ve liked. After about 5 steeps, most of the complexity is gone, but what remains is spinach, sweet and light and thick, with bits of astringency. Teeniest bit bitter, but it’s balanced out by honey notes. I really want to say that it tastes like the white part of a watermelon, but I just ate watermelon before starting this session so I’m pretty sure that’s where this is coming from.

The flavour of this one fades a bit quicker than I would’ve liked, but before it does, it’s phenomenally complex and extremely tasty :) Definitely the best of the teavivre samples so far!