Premium Jasmine Dragon Pearls Green Tea

SIPDOWN! I got up at 5 am to keep an eye on the new hen. When they are adjusting the pecking order, sometimes the newcomer or the smallest hen will get beaten up, but they have behaved themselves wonderfully. They didn’t even get up until 6 am today!

Another tasting note inspired me to make a pot of this, sit outside, and watch the chickens for a while. The wind is blowing and we are supposed to have a thunderstorm, so it is quite overcast and cloudy with sudden piercing beams of sunlight warming your arms and face. The dogwood trees are sprinkling us with petals and stamens and pistils as the wind ruffles through the branches.

I made three steeps so this is a little lighter than I usually drink it, though I did use extra pearls to finish them off cleanly. No fear. The tin is already refilled with Teavivire’s Superfine Downy Jasmine Dragon Pearls. My next purchase from them will be their Jasmine Silver Needle.

These are the jasmine teas I drink when I want to enjoy an excellent jasmine tea by itself. If I am having food, I drink Silver Jasmine Green instead of pearls.

Back to floral teas, eh? I am very excited to try this one because I loooove jasmine pearls. My favorite so far has been Harney & Sons, but I honestly haven’t gotten to try too many different ones (which is partly because I am so pleased with Harney’s I don’t seek them elsewhere). Thanks to Teavivre, I get to try these pearls!

And it seems like I’m in for a treat; when I opened the package I was greeted by the most amazing jasmine aroma. Seriously honeysuckle aroma there, and rich, heady florals like sticking your head into a jasmine bush in full bloom. Yum. The liquor steeped to a pale golden yellow color, and it retains that honeysuckle-jasmine aroma, though in a more subdued way. There’s also something different about this jasmine aroma that I can’t quite articulate. Let me try: most jasmine seems “high” and “bright” in the aroma, like the equivalent of a soprano voice, but this jasmine has some serious “low” and “dark” notes in the aroma, like the equivalent of an alto or tenor, in addition to the usual high and bright notes that really make it a lush experience.

I was writing all that about the aroma, but it holds true for the flavor as well. The soprano notes are present right at the front of the sip, while the tenor notes grow at the tail end and in the aftertaste. The jasmine is lovely and fresh, and not overpowering or perfumy at all. I always look for a natural sweetness in the tea that reminds me of eating honeysuckle nectar, and it is lightly present here (especially as the tea cools), but not as much as I would have expected. Still, these are top notch jasmine pearls, and at just over $3/oz, they seem to be a bargain for the quality.

Added note: I had three extremely flavorful and tasty steeps (12oz each) of this tea before I got jasmined out. This tea definitely keeps going strong!

Sip down :( I spent the day with this most marvelous of teas. I remember when Angel first offered it to me. I almost turned it down. In fact I did turn down another jasmine green she offered. I hate jasmine. Or I did. Or I still do, if it is that over-perfumed icky stuff in a bag from the grocery store. Its even been true of the few other loose leaf jasmines by other companies I have sniffed. But this, oh this, is so different. It is flowers and sunshine. Its’ taste reminds me of grapes. It is nectar. No it is Ambrosia. It is light and refreshing with a lovely green aftertaste. It is multiple steeps of delight. Oh sadness. After today it will be gone….. sigh. I must have more. The shelf life is three years. Jubilation! So what if I have 50 other open samples.

I am anxiously waiting for my next Teavivre samples, so I decided to drink my favourite of their teas today, this is still my free sample I recieved in march.
I am upping the rating to 100 because I love this tea so much! So smooth, sweet, not overly perfumey. And just what I needed on this dreary rainy day.
So soothing and relaxing…..going for a resteep now!……….sigh

Edit- I cold brewed the 3rd steeping of this tea for about 8 hours. This infusion was sweet and delicious with lots of jasmine still present. I am very happy about this!

A simply STUNNING and DELICIOUS beauty of a tea. Floral, sweet, and soothing! This tea really calms the nerves and relaxes you!
Steeps multiple times and is truly a beautiful tea to watch (glass pot recommended!)
There are just not many words that have not been said about this one. Its lovely. Get some!

This is the very last of my green jasmine pearls. I am probably going to drink this for the rest of tonight because I want to make sure that my pearls unfurl all the way. Especially since it is the very last of my packet that Teavivre sent to me. I have to admit, if they didn’t send it to me, I probably would have never tried a jasmine tea.

I put in more pearls than I usually do when drinking this. I have noticed that the recommended tea scoops normally fill up the bottom of my press, so I estimated the amount. I also steeped it shorter. The result is that the tea is lighter in color than I remembered, but so much sweeter! I learned how to steep by tea better over this last year.

I’m finally finishing the last of my sample this afternoon. It’s the best jasmine tea I’ve ever had. I normally hate jasmine tea but this one doesn’t make me feel like I’m sucking on a dry bar of soap.

I have to admit that I was skeptical of this tea since it is A) a green tea, and B) it has jasmine in it. Turns out my skeptisisms were unwarrented.
I brewed me up a large cuppa this golden/green colored drink merely so I could cross it off of my ‘possible teas’ list. As you can see by my opening statement it turns out that is in fact a possible drinker. I can’t say I’m in love with it, but given that I haven’t liked many greens or any of the jasmines I’ve tried it’s still fairing well enough.
First thing that came to mind on the first sip was buttery, real buttery. After that I found myself questioning what was different about the green flavor. Partly it was the addition of the jasmine, though that was pretty tame, yet there was something else difficult to nail down. It’s a kind of malty green hay thing that, again, is difficult to nail down.
There were some sweet notes present as well, but I didn’t get any of the fruity or honey I read others may have found. I steeped this one a few times and found that the distinctly different notes that jumped out in the first cup had all mellowed and melted into a harmony of flavors.
Even though greens aren’t typically my thing I must still comment on the qaulity that Teavivre delivers. The pearls were beautiful and unfurled into delicate slender leaves. Even though it was AZZ that sent me this sample I must add Angel to my gratitude for the opportunity to experience this tea. Azz you were very gracious to send me so many samples to learn from, and Angel you have made it possible for many people to experience your teas and to taste and see what it is that you offer. Thank you both.
tunes-Gactic,albums-From The Corner To The Block/Carnivale Electicos.

This tea really is a tiny bit of heaven on earth, huh? I almost feel funny drinking it on a mere weekday morning. Perfect amount of jasmine – and a wonderful pastry jasmine — not perfume-y at all. The green tea is excellent. It’s beautiful to behold the pearls when you open the tin. It smells wonderful before, during, and after it is steeped. Again, I don’t do ratings, but this is so, so, so a 100.

(Backlogged) morning tea, with brunch. I brewed the first infusion a bit on the light side (1 min) and then the second was a bit overdone, because I was playing with the cat. Still good though, and the parents enjoyed it (but it would have been better if I hadn’t screwed it up!)