Naivetea

Sipdown, 134. :( :( I had been hoarding the last of this one since it is one of my favorites, and this afternoon I decided I needed to stop hoarding, especially a green oolong. Then I proceeded to get distracted once the timer was done and not take the tea out, leaving it to oversteep. So sad! I mean, it’s still drinkable, which is amazing, but it’s not perfect. Sigh. Well that just fits how my day and my week are going so far.

So a few weeks ago I found a pouch of this randomly in a box without any other tea around it. Like I had found it and stuck it in their at the last minute while moving, or it had accidentally fallen in. Regardless, I was surprised and delighted. This is one of my favorite teas ever! I resisted the impulse to hoard it (there is one cup left) and decided to make a cup this afternoon.

Well this is delightful, and everything I expected it to be. Lovely passionfruit flavor, lovely oolong flavor. If you love green oolongs, and flavored oolongs, do yourself a favor and order a sample pack from Naivetea; you won’t regret it.

My university is totally killing me lately. They have not been able to get my pay disbursement right, and even their attempts at fixing it have been royally f***ed up. Plus now my university email address is bouncing all mail sent to it. Joy! >:(

I needed some nice, relaxing tea. I haven’t had any of my Naivetea teas in a long time, even though there are some that I am head over heels with. This is one of those teas.

Oh my god why have I not drank this recently. This tea is so absolutely delicious its mind blowing. So incredibly naturally sweet, it’s as if I’m actually drinking passion fruit juice, but better because there is amazing green oolong flavor behind it. Gotta drink this more often, and get a whole tin of it from Naivetea at some point.

Well this is certainly making me feel a bit better. Can always rely on tea.

This was another of the must try asap teas that I just got because I am absolutely nuts for passion fruit, and again combining that with oolong was something I had to try. The smell of the dry tea is astoundingly identical to a fresh passion fruit. Not passion fruit juice or any other passion fruit flavored thing I have ever encountered, but the smell of fresh, ripe passion fruit when you crack it open and slurp out the insides. I am transported to Tanzania, where I ate dozens of passion fruit from the market. I haven’t smelled that aroma in years because it’s so hard to find fresh passion fruit where I live. Not to mention it probably wouldn’t compare to eating it fresh where its grown. How do they do that?? There’s just a richness, a depth, a leafy complexity that really comes from the rind of the fruit more than the pulp. Just wow.

I steeped this one for two minutes based on my experience with the lychee oolong. The liquor is a medium yellow and has that buttery oolong aroma overlain with the same juicy passion fruit aroma I described above. The flavor is wonderful, really amazing. I like passion fruit juice/nectar a lot, but it’s not like eating the actual fruit. This tea IS like eating the actual fruit. And maybe then drinking a nice cup of green, buttery, floral oolong. But really, the oolong melds so well with the passion fruit flavor that it’s tricking my brain into believing that it is part of the passion fruit flavor. That’s really the only way I can describe it because it is so that one singular experience that it’s not a combination of flavors anymore. Totally amazing. So glad I found this tea company!

This one is just so nice. One thing I like about Naivetea’s flavored oolongs is they don’t seem fake or artificial in anyway. This has a light strawberry flavor that is just really delicious. I highly recommend them!

I liked this pretty well but I think the passionfruit oolong from Naivetea is still my favorite of the flavored bunch I had the pleasure to try.

This is a tea which is meant to be savored and appreciated. The strawberry flavor is here but it is very slight and subtle. I am intrigued by their process for flavoring tea which they describe as thus:

“Also in the Naivetea family are a selection of teas infused with the essence of fruits and flowers, such as lychee, peach and lavender. Unlike many commercially-infused teas, which are simply “sprayed” with the flavor, Naivetea’s are infused the traditional way, by allowing the tea to actually absorb the flavors naturally from the raw ingredients after the fermentation process”.

This is not a dessert tea and it does not taste like gummy bears. It’s an oolong that has been lightly kissed by strawberry essence. I am getting more of a buttery flavor here with my second steep. Very enjoyable, I think this would be fabulous in the summer…

When I did this cupboard sip-through exercise last year, this was the newest tea in my cupboard. It was the end! Now, it’s #27 (Kind of. Like I said, my numbering is going to be off because I added a bunch of samples after I started counting down), and I still have almost two pages full of teas ahead of it. Fun times!

Anyway, same as the passion fruit, this one is still delicious. Lychee oolong perfection.

My other Naivetea restock. It’s one of those teas that you just can’t wait for it to cool down enough to sip it.

Ahhh, my perfect lychee oolong. Lovely lychee flavor, lovely oolong flavor. A great balance between the two, and incredibly authentic lychee in the blend. So thrilled to finally have this back in my cupboard.

With this tea, I’ve gone all the way through my cupboard. I skipped a few teas here and there, and I still have a pile of new Verdant Blends club blends that I haven’t gotten into (but they are at home, and I haven’t been drinking a ton of tea at home. I’ve been on my cupboard chronology so long I don’t hardly know what to drink next now that I’m done!

Since I returned to Naivetea last week and had the passionfruit oolong and was reminded how amazing these teas are, I decided to pull out the lychee version this afternoon. I love love love lychees. I love how they’re a mix of rosey and fruity, and any time I find lychee-flavored anything I have to buy it (found lychee mochi ice cream at the grocery store the other day—amazing!).

This tea, like the passionfruit, is so amazing. The flavors are so real, like eating fresh lychees and drinking a fantastic high-mountain green oolong tea at the same time. Love it so much. These oolongs seem more like jasmine pearls than they do other flavored teas, in that they don’t seem flavored but infused by the flavors (and indeed, that’s what Naivetea calls them, infused), like they’ve been sitting around with lychees soaking up the aroma. Totally delicious.

I haven’t had this one since I first tried it a while ago, which means I haven’t had it since I figured out that I prefer Naivetea’s oolongs steeped at 2 minutes, not three. I love love lychees and lychee-flavored things, so this tea is a definite fit for me.

I do like it with a slightly shorter steep as it keeps the vegetal-ness from overwhelming the other more delicate flavors. This is such a great balance between the lychee and the oolong base. When it’s still pretty hot I get more lychee than oolong, but as it cools more of that buttery, smooth oolong comes out. I think also the “oolongy” flavors (florals and such) blend together well with the floral-ness of the lychee so it’s hard to take them apart. This tea is definitely on my re-buy list, along with their Passion Fruit Oolong.

I was super psyched about Naivetea’s black friday sale because I’ve really wanted to try their oolongs. I ended up with an infused (flavored) oolong sample set and a high-altitude oolong sample set, and they sent a free sample of Wen Shan Bao Zhong all of which I’m very excited about. It was hard to choose the first one, but this was it because I love lychees and I really want to see them paired with a green oolong.

The scent on the dry leaf of this is amazing. So very lychee-ful. It really has that floral, fruity, fresh aroma of a bag full of lychees. I could just smell the dry leaf all day, which is a good sign. I chose to steep it like I steep most green oolongs and not quite according to their directions because I don’t really have that kind of setup (basically gong-fu) right now. Smelling the brewed tea, it’s amazing how much the oolong has come forward. It has that kind of buttery, floral, slightly greenish aroma that I love, and the juicy lychee aroma hanging out underneath the higher floral notes.

In the flavor the lychee comes back to the forefront, it seems. The first thing I get is a burst of fruity and floral lychee, and then the green oolong base comes up with a vegetal, rich base. I think I might drop my steep time for this to 2 minutes just because I think I think the vegetal tones of the oolong are just a touch overdone at this time. I originally wrote that I was missing the buttery flavor, but as it’s cooled that has definitely made itself known. It’s lacking that natural sweetness that I feel like would just make this tea mindblowing (though I am getting a hint of it in the aftertaste as the tea continues to cool down to just warm), but it’s still a fantastic tea. Lychee is really the perfect pairing for an oolong with its floral notes to begin with, and in this tea it is just so juicy and awesome. This is a really good example of a flavored tea with a nice balance between flavoring and high quality tea base.

I’m finishing this sample up today… it’s a nice fruity flowery oolong mix. :))

Such a delicious treat… if high altitude oolong and yuzu gave birth to a butter pastry and somehow it all became tea… I upped the rating a wee bit today. Naivetea is delightful!

Another flavored oolong from my Naivetea sampler.

I did not know exactly what a yuzu was (aside from it being a type of fruit). Upon smelling it I was expecting something very tart like a pink grapefruit tea. There is a citrus note here, however I am finding it exceedingly subtle. I believe the base of this tea is an ali shan.

There is a lingering sweetness here in the finish that is difficult to describe, Sweet and vegetal, perhaps I am reminded of corn.

Overall I do not think I like this quite as well as Naivetea’s passionfruit oolong but I still like it quite a lot. The yuzu flavor is very delicate and allows the base notes of the oolong to come through. Does not taste artificial or cloying at all. Another job very well done by Naivetea. Check this out if you are looking for a gentle flavored oolong.

This is a truly excellent tea. So many roasted Ti Kuan Yins taste primarily of “roast” while this tea allows some of the floral sweetness to peak through. Stunning.

I’m not normally crazy about roasted tie guan yin, but this is really quite delicious. Rating number coming soon.

Really quite delightful. Sweet and floral with hints of violet.

I am going to a party tonight so more caffeine is ok for the time being. :)

This came as a free sample with the last Dong Ding oolong I got from Naivetea. I have been very impressed with the consistent quality and deliciousness across their product line. There is a clean and bright quality that is captured so well.

I am a fan of some of the darker roasted oolongs. When these tea leaves are wet they smell like burnt caramel and toast. There is a sweetness here and a smoothness that is quite delightful. I am wondering how mere water is transformed into such deliciousness!

After 4 steeps the tea shows no signs of losing its flavor and just seems to keep getting sweeter and more candy like. I do not think I like it quite as well as the Dong Ding (which got 100 from me) but it is still rather spectacular.

Sipdown!
I am done with my tin of this, I have had it for about a year and it survived very well in the tin it came in. A delicious, buttery soft and floral oolong, one I would definitely purchase again. Naivetea has some great oolongs!

In other news I think I have mice, they were eating their way through some bags of dried barley and sprouting seeds I had. I wonder if mice like tea? I hope not!

I haven’t had this tea in eons and I have no idea why – it’s wonderful!

I’ve been gong fu’ing oolongs mostly, but I have my copyediting homework to do soon, so I thought I’d just sit down and brew myself a small pot. This tea is very smooth, flowery, sweet and a hint of creaminess like coconut milk is present. I was worried this might be getting stale/old but it still tastes wonderful to me.

I re-steeped this also Western style for 4 minutes and it still has a lot of flavor.

Lately I’ve been wondering when Naivetea is getting their formosa oolong back in stock, it’s been ages from what I recall. Naivetea does some lovely oolongs…

this is so delicious this afternoon… light and buttery, a bit nutty and sweet. so refreshing! See my previous notes.

A nice light offering from Naivetea. I now have 1 oz. of this bad boy which should keep me happy for a while. I have no idea what osmanthus smells/tastes like. There is a slight hint of floral here but not nauseating like a floral scented tea. To me it’s brothy and buttery. I also let it steep for 3 minutes or so, I like it a bit stronger and it does not seem to suffer at all with a longer steep time. Gentle and precious.

I am finishing off the rest of this sample today, it is better than I remember it. I have upped the rating slightly. I love Taiwanese green oolongs perhaps better than any other kind of tea. This one is all sweet green peas and clover with not a stinky flower in sight… :)