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Thanks to Teavivre for the sample! I think I’ve tried and enjoyed this tea before, though it’s impossible to find my note in the huge list of reviews. I wish they’d put the most recent ones at the top so we don’t automatically see things written twelve years ago! I steeped 2.5 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water for 3 minutes, refilling the cup as needed.

The dry aroma is of chestnuts, butter, artichokes, and green beans. The first steep has notes of chestnut, butter, light roast, artichoke, spinach, and green beans. The next few steeps are sweet and nutty with artichoke and asparagus. The tea is smooth, nutty, and sweet, and the vegetal notes don’t take over until the final steeps. I get green beans, lettuce, and grass at the end of the session.

As expected, this is a much nicer longjing than Teavivre’s basic version. It’s nutty and smooth, without the vegetal bitterness of lower-quality dragonwell. The only thing I miss is the florality that sometimes features in this type of tea.

I received this tea as a free sample in my last order. It seems to be the least expensive longjing in Teavivre’s catalogue, and I don’t think I’ve had it before. I steeped about 2.5 g in 250 ml of 185F water starting at 4 minutes, refilling the cup as necessary.

The dry aroma of these extra-long, sometimes broken leaves is of chestnut, sesame, orchid, and spinach. The first steeps have notes of chestnut, sesame, butter, faint florals, spinach, kale, and green beans. I taste some bitterness that I typically don’t get with higher-quality longjing. Subsequent steeps are buttery, nutty, and vegetal, with cashew, chestnut, sesame, kale, spinach, umami, and beans being prominent. The final steeps have some bitterness, along with lettuce, spinach, nuts, and faint sweetness.

This is a nice entry-level longjing, though there are better ones on the market. I’d recommend this tea if you like nutty longjing and don’t mind a touch of bitterness.

I won this tea in a recent giveaway. Apparently, I’ve written about it before, though I have no memory of drinking it. I didn’t pay as much attention to this tea as I wanted since I was swamped with work and grabbed the first green tea I saw. I steeped 2.5 g in 250 ml of 185F water for 4 minutes, refilling the cup as necessary.

The dry aroma is of asparagus, green beans, lettuce, corn, and grass. The first steeps have notes of corn, spring flowers, butter, asparagus, beans, lettuce, and grass. This tea is quite vegetal, though it has some sweetness. The tea becomes more vegetal in the middle, with asparagus, beans, spinach, lettuce, and butter. The final steeps have notes of spinach, asparagus, and grass, with touches of bitterness.

This green tea is much more vegetal than the ones I’ve been drinking recently. It has a nice brothy quality, but otherwise it tastes like a fresh but generic Chinese green tea, which is not at all a bad thing.

I’ve been curious about Tai Ping Hou Kui for a while, as it’s supposed to be a floral tea. After reading a discussion of it on TeaForum, I finally bought a sample. I followed Teavivre’s instructions and steeped 15 leaves in about 250 ml of 185F water, starting at 4 minutes and refilling as needed.

These long, flat, beautiful leaves stick up above the rim of my cup! The dry aroma is of orchids, pears, and vegetables. The leaves are easy to push into the cup after a few seconds in hot water. The first few steeps are very subtle, with orchid, pear, bok choy, cucumber, green beans, and minerals and no bitterness at all. This tea is quite sweet, with a taste I’d describe as sugary. Predictably, the tea gradually becomes more vegetal, with cucumber, green beans, lettuce, bok choy, zucchini, and minerals. There’s a lingering floral sweetness in the aftertaste. The minerality increases in the final steeps, and the tea becomes even more vegetal without acquiring any bitterness.

This tea is pleasantly floral and sweet, but its subtlety is a bit of a drawback. There’s nothing really wrong with it, and pushing those long leaves into my cup was kind of fun. However, I’d recommend their Mingqian Bi Luo Chun and Longjing over this tea, especially for the price.

Though I’m just reviewing it now, this was the first 2024 harvest tea I drank this spring. It was also my first Meng Ding Huang Ya, though I’ve had good experiences with Huo Shan Huang Ya from Teavivre and Yunnan Craft. It was relatively affordable for a pre-Qingming tea, so into my cart it went. I steeped 4 g of leaf in 120 ml of 175F water for 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 90, 120, 160, 190, and 240 seconds, plus some longer steeps. I also grandpa steeped 3 g in around 250 ml of 175F water, starting at 3 minutes.

The dry aroma is of hazelnuts, toasted corn, green beans, and butter. It suggests that the tea was roasted recently. The first steep is light and silky, with notes of corn, green beans, cucumber, squash, butter, and faint florals. Steep two has stronger notes of beans, corn, hazelnuts, and apple, with some melon in the aftertaste. Its extra strength may be due to three little buds that escaped through my teapot’s filter holes and floated in the cup for about twenty minutes without me noticing! The third and fourth steeps have more spring flowers, plus hazelnut, beans, kale, squash, and grass. I get apple and something herbaceous in the aftertaste. The next few steeps are nutty, buttery, and green, with lots of beans, grass, and kale but not too much bitterness.

Grandpa steeping this tea was a bitter mistake: hazelnuts, corn, kale, beans, and grass, with only hints of the more delicate flavours I get when I gongfu these buds. It tastes a lot like a green tea.

This is a robust yellow tea that can taste a lot like a green. In a teapot, it lacks bitterness and has good longevity. I consider it good value for the price and a nice way to start my spring 2024 tea lineup.

Here’s yet another matcha from my dwindling pile of Nio samples. I steeped the entire 2 g in a mason jar with about 100 ml of cool water.

The dry aroma is of sweet grass and mild veggies. Shaking the contents of the jar produced a good amount of foam, which I view as a minor accomplishment. This matcha is delicately grassy, with notes of cream, seaweed, spinach, and lettuce. Grassiness and umami predominate, though there’s also some sweetness. Bitterness is noticeably absent, which comes as a pleasant surprise.

This matcha is still intense for me, but it’s more enjoyable than some of the other ones I’ve tried. I agree with the vendor that this is a good place to start for matcha beginners like me.

Nio is having a buy two get one free sale prior to May 21, which is International Tea Day. I think there are some other items on sale as well. Take an additional 15% off with the code LEAFHOPPER15 (I get a small commission when someone uses this code).

Daylon generously sent me a humongous box of tea a while ago, and I couldn’t resist cheating on my green tea marathon with some oolong. I steeped 6 g of leaf in 120 ml of 195F water for 25, 20, 25, 30, 30, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of orchid, spiced cookies, grass, and faint fruit. The first steep has notes of apple, orchid, narcissus, spiced cookies, butter, and grass. The next steep has a bit of stonefruit along with the apple, nutmeg, and spring flowers. Steeps three and four add custard and some melon. By steep five, the tea starts getting fairly grassy, though there’s still a lot of tangy apple and florals. The final steeps have notes of grass, spinach, and florals.

This tea has an unusual profile for a Da Yu Ling. Maybe my rating is a bit harsh, but I found it to become quite grassy after just a few steeps. I suspect this DYL might be past its prime, but it was still pleasant after all that green tea. Thanks again to Daylon for the box!

For a spring project, I decided to compare three Mingqian teas from three companies: Bi Luo Chun, Longjing, and Anji Bai Cha. The vendors were Teavivre, Treasure Green, and Seven Cups. I received my last shipment of tea on Thursday and did the Bi Luo Chun comparison session over the weekend.

Over the past few years, several people have recommended the green tea from Seven Cups. However, the cost to ship to Canada is high and the teas usually sell out within days, making it necessary to place multiple orders to get everything I wanted. I contacted the vendor and asked if they would hold some tea for me, and they generously agreed. I was able to get six spring teas over about a month, and while the shipping was high, I think it was worth it! This is the first pluck of their regular Bi Luo Chun.

Tea bush: Seed-grown Heirloom Quntizhong
Location: Jingtingzhen (Xishan Island), Suzhou
Picking date: First pluck, March 28-29, 2024
Price/g: US$2.00

For the session, I steeped 2.4 g of all three teas in 120 ml of 185F water, starting at 4 minutes. This produced very potent steeps! I later did a more typical session, steeping 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water starting at 4 minutes, refilling the cup as needed.

The dry aroma is of heady lilac, gardenia, magnolia, cantaloupe, pear, butter, and green beans. The first round gives me lilac and other spring flowers, heady gardenia and magnolia, buttered green beans, something nutty and cakey, cantaloupe, pear, and asparagus. I can also taste the fuzzy trichomes coming off these tiny silver snails. The middle steeps retain the lovely fruity/floral aroma, with herbs, asparagus, and lettuce. The tea is a bit drying at this point and has a lovely pear/fruity aftertaste. The final steeps have hints of orange, kale, those lovely florals, beans, minerals, and grass.

This is the only Bi Luo Chun that seemed more attenuated using my normal parameters than in the comparison session. The florals were softer, though still very noticeable, and the tea had the same mild bitterness in both scenarios.

This Bi Luo Chun immediately set itself apart by its heady floral aroma, and I’d say it was my favourite of the bunch. It had the most potent BLC fruitiness and florality, with florals similar to a gaoshan, along with some vegetal bitterness. The tea stood up the best to my heavy-handed steeping and actually seemed to benefit from it. At $2.00 per gram, I’m not surprised this made an impression on me, and it’s probably the one I’ll finish the fastest.

For a spring project, I decided to compare three Mingqian teas from three companies: Bi Luo Chun, Longjing, and Anji Bai Cha. The vendors were Teavivre, Treasure Green, and Seven Cups. I received my last shipment of tea on Thursday and did the Bi Luo Chun comparison session over the weekend.

I chose Treasure Green as one of my vendors because it had pre-orders for spring tea up in the first week of March and sold all three teas I was interested in. As a Vancouver-based vendor, it also had fast shipping, which turned out not to matter because the other vendors sent their tea much later.

Tea bush: Not specified
Location: Wuzhong, Jiangsu
Picking date: First week of March 2024
Price/g: US$1.23

For the session, I steeped 2.4 g of all three teas in 120 ml of 185F water, starting at 4 minutes. This produced very potent steeps! I later did a more typical session, steeping 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water starting at 4 minutes, refilling the cup as needed.

The dry aroma is of green beans, butter, orchids, and faint pear. The first round has notes of green beans, new peas, butter, cucumber, soft florals, asparagus, nuts, and other spring vegetables. The tea is quite soft and it’s hard to pick apart the flavours. I also get a fruity aftertaste similar to pear. Subsequent steeps are more cruciferous, with broccoli, asparagus, kale, minerals, sugar, pear, and pops of lemon. I get a bit of earthiness in the final steeps, along with soft florals, minerality, grass, and spring veggies.

Of the three teas I tried, this one stood out for its minerality, soft orchid florals, and cruciferous vegetables along with the predictable green beans. The tea was very soft, which made it pleasant to drink but hard to describe. I could definitely taste the fruity undertones, but those cruciferous veggies tended to drown them out. It was still a high-quality BLC.

For a spring project, I decided to compare three Mingqian teas from three companies: Bi Luo Chun, Longjing, and Anji Bai Cha. The vendors were Teavivre, Treasure Green, and Seven Cups. I received my last shipment of tea on Thursday and did the Bi Luo Chun comparison session over the weekend.

After my great experience with Teavivre’s Ming Qian Bi Luo Chun last year, it was inevitable that it would end up in this comparison. It’s a relatively pricy tea, but the least expensive of the three BLC in this set and also quite affordable for a Mingqian harvest.

Tea bush: Small-leaf tea bush species
Location: West Dongting Mountain, Wuzhong District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu
Picking date: March 15, 2024
Price/g: US$0.78

For the session, I steeped 2.4 g of all three teas in 120 ml of 185F water, starting at 4 minutes. This produced very potent steeps! I later did a more typical session, steeping 3 g of leaf in 250 ml of 185F water starting at 4 minutes, refilling the cup as needed.

The dry aroma is of green beans, green pepper, florals, butter, and nuts. The first steep is fuzzy and viscous, with notes of baby green beans, green pepper, cucumber, kale, florals, butter, chestnuts, and faint pear. Subsequent steeps reveal more fresh spring veggies, including beans, green pepper, and asparagus, plus nuts, orchid florals, pear, butter, and a bit of citrus. The tea is surprisingly sweet in spite of all the veggies. The final steeps are nutty, grassy, mineral, vegetal, and still fairly sweet, with hints of florals and fruit here and there.

Of the three Bi Luo Chun, this one is the most vegetal, with the fewest floral or fruity hints. Either they were less prominent than in the spring 2023 version, or the other teas made me notice them less. Either way, I enjoyed the springlike, beany, nutty character of this tea and I think it fared pretty well against its more expensive competitors.