Organic Tian Mu Mao Feng Green Tea

There’s no doubt that the quality of Teavivre teas are amazing. I’m always astonished by the number of steeps I get out of a couple of teaspoons of leaves. I’m so grateful to Angel Chen and the Teavivre company for introducing me to their superior quality teas with these free samples. I am waiting with great anticipation for the order I just bought to arrive in the mail, to see what new favorites I might find.

Despite Teavivre’s tea quality being superior to any other company I’ve tried (I’m basing this on their consistently high number of steeps); so far they haven’t satisfied my partiality for flavored teas. I’m not sure if this preference makes my taste less distinguished or sophisticated, but that’s just what I like…so there :P I’ve tried a Teavivre version of flavored tea – in fact their jasmine tea, is my favorite from them so far, and their 5 Featured Flavored teas is part of that order that is currently in transit. But if I had to choose a single company to purchase tea from for the rest of my life, I must admit I’d choose a company that offers some of those flavors that tea purists would deem gimmicky. I’m sorry, but I appreciate the jazzy little names and the cutesy little non-tea ingredients. I say bring on the chocolate chips, the sprinkles, the candy, and the fruit! Variety is the spice of life. Part of me knows that these ingredients are quite likely part of the reason that I don’t get the number of steeps as a pure tea, but I don’t care – life’s too short to go without sprinkles!

Thankfully, I don’t have to choose a single company to purchase tea from for the rest of my life. And I am fortunate to be able to experience true variety in all companies, flavors, and grades of tea. I know that whenever I wake up wanting a high quality tea, I can grab this, or any of my Teavivre teas, and I am never disappointed.

Thank you to Angel and Teavivre for this sample.
When I opened the sample pouch it was like a batman comic – ZIP BAM POW!
The aroma was intense and intoxicating!
So yummy of an aroma of spinach, butter, and sweetness!
THIS was going to be A MAZE ING!
I let my cup steep a bit longer than recommended as I tend to find all green teas a little too light for my liking so allowing it to steep 3 minutes I have a very full brothy cup of buttery vegetable goodness!
This green is a bit more intense than most I have been drinking as of late and I appreciate that! Often I feel green teas to be just too light, too lacking, but this has a full wonderful flavor profile!
I have actually been drinking many pure greens as of late but hesitant to log them because I kept feeling maybe I was doing something wrong. Not only has this tea been quite enjoyable but has affirmed that I actually do know what I am doing but have been drinking inferior green teas!
I probably didn’t even need the extended steep on this one but even still I did not get any astringency or bitterness by allowing it to steep longer! Yes I know I am supposed to add more leaf rather than let a tea steep longer but I was getting a bit frustrated with adding more and more leaf only to get no added flavor results form those other greens!
So with that said I am truly loving this tea.
Thank you Angel and Teavivre for allowing me to sample this!
NOTES: Buttery, vegetal, creamy, full mouthfeel, brothy, strong flavor, intense aroma, crispy long stringy leaf pre steep, long puffy delicate and fluffly feeling leaves post steep, rich flavor that leaves me wanting more!

This is still part of the free sample sent by Angel and Teavivre. Thank you!

After lunch today, I swallowed and winced. Uh-oh! What is happening? A sore throat? And I have a voice student coming in an hour!

I cast about ideas for about two seconds when the lightbulb popped on. Make a pot of tea! I liked this one last time, and I just got an email from a friend requesting that I recommend some green teas for her cupboard since she is a converted coffee drinker who mostly has black and puerh tea now.

The dry leaves pulled a fast one on me. I remembered how good they smelled the first time, so I gave a big sniff to the pouch before pinching out my leaves. What is this? CHOCOLATE? I must be wrong. Sniff again. No, this smells very strongly of chocolate now! I guess I need to check the pouch again and make sure there is a bit of chocolate from someone’s hands (who would do that?) on the pouch but I swear I didn’t see any!

I used more leaf this time as I felt my last brew was a little weak. The leaves are so very long and thin that a teaspoon is pretty useless for measuring it. I think I got it right this time because my pot was fantastic. Smooth, buttery, vegetal but not grassy, and a little nutty. Maybe the chocolate scent manifests as a nutty taste? Very good tea, my throat is a little better, and I definitely plan to resteep this and have another pot tonight!

Thank you, Teavivre!

I used to think I didn’t like green tea. TeaVivre’s green tea selection has changed my mind. Now, if I don’t have a sample to review, I am most likely going to grab a Chinese green for my own enjoyment. This one is cool right from the start. The leaves are dark, long, and spindly. The smell today is of hay, cocoa, and maybe a touch of malt. No one else noted this, so I thought maybe I imagined it. Steep it up and the small leaf turns green and with a steamed vegetable scent. The liquor is sparkling clear with a light yellow green tint. Sipping brings out a third set of flavors. I still smell the hay and cocoa but do not taste it. The taste I find hard to describe. It is a bit sweet, with a bite bordering on a good bitter. It is not exactly grassy but it tastes green. It’s kind of vegetal, buttery with a touch of grain or nut. This is a clean and refreshing green. Two thumbs up.

Experience buying from Teavivre http://steepster.com/places/2857-teavivre-online—

After Angel sent me a PM requesting I review a group of selected tea samples she was willing to send me, I requested this particular spring green tea to try out as well (along with one other), and she willingly sent it along with the rest. Thank you Angel and Teavivre!

Just this weekend I received a package with all ten samples of the teas she said she would send (yay!), each weighing roughly 15 grams. This particular spring green tea is advertized as being harvested on March 6, 2012. I brewed this up the morning after I received the package, and I am excited to try the other green teas soon (there are two others). I am writing this review from my notes and from my very recent memory of drinking it just yesterday (I don’t post reviews on Sundays).

Right away the appearance and aroma of the dry leaf blew me away, as it was a dark vibrant-green color, with a unbelievably strong vegetal aroma that seems to be characteristic of any fresh green tea. It was composed of very thin, wire-y looking leaves the shape of which reminded my somewhat of the roots of a tiny tree; it was unusual in appearance and I really liked that. So, we both got off to a great start. I used all but a tablespoon or so of the sample, estimating I had at least 10 grams of tea waiting patiently in my pot (and likely more like 12), and so I used only about five cups of water rather than my standard six cups in my glass Bodum teapot, such that the leaf was free to roam, and I added my standard amount of Stevia. I held a few grams back in case I feel the need to brew it up later in my new gaiwan.

Wet the leaf smelled like what I imagine fresh cut spinach would smell like: a fresh, strong, vegetal aroma. I believe the color of the tea liquor was light green. The leaves were mostly on the bottom for most steepings, but on the second I remember some of the leaf moving to the top while steeping. It has a good smelling, fresh aroma (although I was sniffing it while steeping, I basically went by the timer). I decided to start the first steeping at a little higher temperature than I normally do (180F), and a little longer (1.5 minutes), rather than my standard 170F, one minute, because I am finding hotter and longer tends to be better for most of the green tea I have been brewing up lately.

Now to the flavor. Overall, although it was on the mild side, my wife and I both enjoyed drinking it (and she can be a hard one to please when it comes to green tea, in my judgement, anyway). It had good flavor through three steepings and mild flavor on the forth. I used near-boiling water for a fifth (I like to push limits the first time I brew up a tea) and it was definitely flat tasting (my guess is I scorched the leaves). Still, three good steepings and a decent forth is more than I expect out of a tea at this price range ($10.90 / 3.5 OZ = a little over $3 / OZ). Very generally, the number of good steepings I expect to get out of a green tea is relative to its price: I expect at least one good steeping for $1 /OZ, two for $2 / OZ, etc. Maybe a little silly, but I am very cost conscious, and that’s an easy ‘value scale’ for me to remember and use.

Finally, the wet leaf. Again, the first time I brew up a whole-leaf Tea (not necessarily flavor-added ones), I like to do what I call a ‘leaf analysis’. I spread out the leaf on the counter, preferably where there is good light, give it a little time to dry, then pick through it, looking for patterns and oddities. I literally used to sort the parts into piles (by whole leaves, buds, bud-sets, stems, broken pieces, etc.); I know, talk about anal! But I found that was taking just a bit more time that I though was really necessary (it was sometimes taking more than fifteen minutes, and I even started taking photos of the sorted piles), so now I simply take a few minutes at most to sift through the wet leaf and look at the big picture: are there lots of torn/shriveled-looking pieces? Is the color and size of the leaves/buds generally uniform? Are there many stems? What really stands out the most?

So, in this particular tea I noticed right away that there were a surprising number of stems, and I mean long stems, some were even thick (not many), and there were a number of torn leaves, with few buds (or bud-sets). It reminded me of a lower-grade HSMF from an e-bay seller (China Cha Dao). I consider this leaf to be of a lower grade than most green teas I seen (practically none of Seven Cups, Jing Tea Shop, Verdant Tea, Life in Teacup or Tea Trekker Teas have had this many stems and torn pieces). Interesting and all (to me, anyway), but when it comes down to it flavor still matters the most. The wet leaf was at least uniform in color, and vibrant looking (which to me is a verification that it was indeed fresh), and still not unreasonable considering its price.

I liked just about everything about this tea, and I hope to purchase some later on this year. This is easily a tea I could drink everyday, and it turns out I can afford to drink it often at it’s very reasonable price. This is one of the best values for a fresh spring green tea I have ever come across (having looked at many dozens of green teas). I have been looking for an affordable, quality, fresh spring green tea from Teavivre, and as it turns out, this one fits the bill.

These leaves are beautiful – long, slender, and wiry. They are so dark … deep green. Such a dark shade of green, in fact, that they almost appear black. The liquor that they produce is very pale, though. Pale and delicious. Soupy, brothy… like a delicious vegetable soup without the vegetables. Very comforting and lovely to sip. Satisfying.

Mao Feng is one of my favorite green teas, and if I were to choose just one green tea to stock my tea cupboard I’d likely choose a Mao Feng, because I love that it tastes like what I expect it to. It tastes like green tea. Beautiful and comforting. Cozy yet exhilarating. Very refreshing.

I’m finally getting around to opening up this sample so graciously provided by Angel at Teavivre.

It’s really cold outside, and I was looking for a tea that would be clean and clear and very light. I’ve had this one for awhile, so I decided to try it.

Upon opening the package, the leaves are very thin, long and twisted. They have a strong dark green scent, like that of spinach or kale, and they’re the dark grey-green of kale as well.

I put ~2tsp into my 20oz Amsterdam pot, steeped at 180 for 2 minutes.

The liquor is transparent. It looks like nothing more than water. The smell is similar to the kale smell of the leaves, but it is very faint.

The flavor, however, isn’t. It’s not a strong, punch-you-in-the-face kind of flavor, but this definitely isn’t water I’m drinking. It has that sweet grassy sort of taste I like in green teas, with a little bit of natural vegetal sweetness that sparkles towards the end of the sip. It’s a little bit like seaweed, to be honest.

Free sample from Teavivre. Thank you.

Wow, opening the packet hit me with a strong aroma. It practically knocked my socks off. The smell is asparagus and pork chops. More asparagus in the dry leaf, which is a dark brown. Then I brewed the tea and the aroma was much meatier on the first steeping. The liquor was as advertised: yellowish green. The leaves turned from brownish to bright green in the hot water, and such dinky little leaves too. Lovely. The taste was fresh, grassy, slightly nutty with a light, sweet aftertaste. There was no astringency that I noticed and it rebrewed well three times. I really enjoyed this one.

This is another sample provided by Angel and Teavivre for my review. Thanks.

So this is much like the other green I tried today. Butter and spinach-y notes with maybe a nutty quality. I didn’t think it had the floral quality that the Organic Hangzhou Tian Mu Qing Ding Green Tea had. I think of the two, I would purchase the Organic Hangzhou Tian Mu Qing Ding Green Tea. It seems to be more complex. This one might be good for a comfortable cup of tea.

My only chance to sample more new tea today is in the morning. Green tea doesn’t give me the caffeine burst that I need to kick my brain into motion, but I will go ahead and take one for the team anyway.

When I first opened the sample package of Organic Tian Mu Mao Feng Green Tea (I’m glad I only have to type it and not say it), the strongest pre-brewed smell that I ever experienced launched from within. I’m not sure how to identify it. Fresh cut asparagus on steroids is the best descripion that my sputtering brain can come up with (without my morning cups of turbocharged black tea).

I brewed the long thin black leaves for two minutes at 195 degrees. A greenish gold liquid became the final product.

The flavor of this tea is very light. There are twinges of sweetness and grassy or vegetable attributes, but nothing that takes charge. That is not to say this is a weak tea, because it is not. The flavor is full but not overbearing. I found it very easy to guzzle down four cups of this brew. I also enjoyed the light sweet aftertaste after each sip.

Teavivre has created another tasty and distinct tea with characteristics all its own. This would be a terrific selection to enjoy in the afternoon, at dinner, or for dessert.

I wish my favorite local Chinese buffet restaurant would offer this product. I would gladly switch back from their water to hot tea to wash down the mass quantities of peking duck and sushi!