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Ah….I had been saving this for a rainy day – which turned out to be day 1 of 3 days of back to back meetings… Too bad it’s only a sample because it is really good! Heavy on the floral notes, but I like that in a green oolong. It kind of reminds me of an orchid oolong I loved a while back but can’t find anymore. Perhaps this one is a new contender.

The lavender is really strong in this one! Which is a good thing of course. Steeped up great – not bitter or anything, just tasty lavendery goodness. This place is local for me – they had a Living Social coupon which was cool. The building was kind of hard to find but so far it’s been worth it!

Apparently mixing two types of tea I don’t really like gives me a tea that is actually pretty good! This one really surprised me. I’m not a big fan of Earl Greys, and smokey teas are even farther down the list, but for whatever reason when they’re mixed it’s pretty tasty – might even make my “should actually try again list”. Thanks ToiToi for the sample!

Got a sample of this over the weekend from Awkward Soul (thanks!) over the weekend at our OC meetup! And I am resolving to do better about logging swaps so samples don’t disappear into oblivion. :P

I steeped this one hot, because I apparently don’t read directions. It was good though. In a word – peachy. I wasn’t expecting the yogurt chips to dissolve so much so it was a little surprising when I poured opaque tea. I have a bit of the sample left so I’m going to try it over ice next time

Thanks Pekko Teas for the sample! It felt more like getting a gift than a tea sample with the tissue paper and gold packaging :P

Loved this tea – this is the third time I’ve made it. The second time I steeped it a bit too long and it got bitter — I think the sweet spot is definitely closer to the 3 1/2 min mark. It has a bit of the floral-y sweetness of a Darjeeling (I could call it muscatel but I would be lying if I said I knew exactly what that meant for the flavor). Definitely an afternoon tea for me – not quite as heavy as my Assams or Yunnan blacks – which today is a good thing.

I enjoyed this while working outside on my laptop and listening to variations on one of my favorite songs, Canon in D. Yay Friday!

Thanks Nature’s Tea Leaf for such a generous sample!

I steeped this a bit hotter than the recommended time (since that’s what my zojirushi was set to for today). I used to not be such a fan of silver needle — I remember the first time I tried it I felt kind of guilty that I didn’t see what the fuss was all about, but lately I’ve done a 180 on that. I love how it can be vegetal and sweet, full-bodied and light, and stand up to my mildly abusive work-steeping habits.

Fresh and flavorful :)

So this is the last of my TeaVivre samples from waaaay too long ago, and the only one that I hadn’t tried yet. In between getting those samples and now, we have moved to Southern California, land of perpetual sun and practically no rain (at least so far – I’ve been here since June and he’s been here since March). This pu-erh reminds me of autumn rainyness, without — as I saw in an amusing assesment of ripe pu-erh elsewhere — tasting like hamsters. The closest we’ve come to that after-rain smell here is from the sprinkler system that runs at 4 am every morning in our apartment complex. The tuochas are also a tiny bit bigger than some of the others I’ve seen, so I was able to get away with shorter steeping times for more steepings.

I’m not getting a lot of smokiness with this tea like some of the other review, but it’s definitely a sturdy tea. I rationed out this sample in my group of tea to drink on those “oh my god I think I got hit by a train” mornings. Especially for the price – this is worth keeping around

Another in my backlog of teas that I have been drinking but not logging…(going to be a long list) This one is probably one of the best Long Jings I’ve had – the best one being in a tea shop a couple years ago, and I’m not sure where they got it from. This isn’t too nutty or smoky, and it’s also not overly sweet.