Jasmine teas of various sorts are staples in my cupboard, mainly because they work better than chamomile and Valerian as a sophoric for me, and when I can find a heady fruity one they instantly transport me to either the flower markets in India, or my landlords patio at dusk in Guayaquil, Ecuador.
This is a nice dragon pearl and is different enough from my existing one: http://steepster.com/yyz/posts/164356. Whereas my current one has the deep heady fruity jasmine of flowers laid out in the sun, this TeaVivre tea has a crisper cooler jasmine like that which has been just brought out of a cooler in a flower shop. It is not powdery or insency ( until the later steeps), nor overly perfumy, it is slightly fruity, and in the first steeps the tea is very sweet even stevia like. Roasted notes of amber, cream, plum Green peas, later on cooked greens, insence, and other savoury notes are also present.
The dry leaves were smaller and more tightly rolled than my other jasmine with about 25% silver buds visible, with the rest of the leaves being mostly olive green with some brown notes. There is a little astringency in the tea but it mostly has a creamy texture. It has a moderate level of intensity in the jasmine flavour, by the third steep the jasmine and the base tea fully balanced each other. It is by no means as intense a jasmine as my current favourite green jasmine http://steepster.com/teas/sichuan-emei-shan-zhuyeqing-tea-co-ltd/36227-emei-shan-flower-mao-feng-jasmine, but this one is of good quality and easily obtainable.
I would consider getting this tea when I run out of my existing pearls!
@1.25tsp pearls/200ml/85°C
45,60, 80, 130, 150, 180s
Thanks again to *Angel* at *Teavivre* for this sample. I will thoroughly enjoy the rest of it.
↧