First off, Tie Guan Yin is one of my absolute favorite teas! So, when I revieved my samples from Tea Vivre, I was elated when they sent me this tea!
Click to view slideshow. The flavors of this tea are subtly sweet, a bit drying on the mouth as well as floral. My favorite thing of this tea is the reminder of a bright early spring day, when everything is just starting to thaw off and grow again. It smells like those spring days to me, quite floral on the nose.

the aroma of the tea, to be more specific is floral ,buttery, fresh and ‘green’ or vegetal. The flavor of this tea is not as nutty or buttery as some other Tie Guan Yins I have had, but it is quite floral! The immediate flavor is a florality, that tastes like a mix of magnolia blooms, and jasmine. The floral nature of this particular Tie Guan Yin is probably what reminds me most of springtime, when the magnolia buds are blooming, and it is all you smell if you are by a tree.

Flavor is quite vegetal, like fresh grass or something. I enjoy this tea, and due to its floral nature, I find it very appealing. I made a total of 6 delicious steeps. The beginning steeps were a bit buttery and the tea was just beginning to open up. Through the middle and end of the steeps, the tea really opened up to a delicious slightly minty quality. Combined with a great floral quality and a slight nutty taste, this was a beautiful example of tie guan yin and really reminded me why I love the type of tea so much!

disclaimer: I received this tea from Tea Vivre to sample. Thank you to Tea Vivre for sending such generous samples of their teas!

Rating: 85/100
Steep Time: 1-2 minutes
Steep Temperature: 176 Degrees
Price:  100g (3.5oz) for $13.90 ; 200g (7oz) for $26.40 

Click to view slideshow.           One of my favorite things about steeping tea is watching the leaves slowly unfurl with each steep. There is a sense of calm when watching these pearls slowly unfurl from a pearl into long,thin green tea leaves.  It is very beautiful and soothing to watch!

Back to the review! There is a tiny bit of a green tea flavor,which is shown in the crispness I talked of earlier, which shows through a bit in the first steep. However, but the third steep, the jasmine is slowly dissipating and the green flavor starts to become more prominent.

Although I am not a lover of floral teas, this one was not too bad. If someone loves floral teas, I bet they would really enjoy this tea! Sometimes jasmine teas can taste and smell like they have been artificially scented, and this one does not smell artificial at all! I like that it smells like real jasmine, which allows the flavor quality of jasmine to truly become part of the green tea!

disclaimer: I received this tea from Tea Vivre to sample. Thank you to Tea Vivre for sending such generous samples of their teas!

This tea is a champ! I am currently sipping on infusion 5 and the flavor is still strong and delicious! The dry leaves smell very creamy. After the first steep, the leaves still had the creamy quality, but there was also a yummy floral, and buttery smell too.

The flavor was buttery, creamy and floral. the floral quality reminds me a bit of orchids. There is also a slightly sweet finish to the tea. The following 4 infusions all had variations of flavors, sometimes the buttery quality was more prominent, sometimes the floral and sweet quality. Regardless of the steep, this tea was very inviting and delicious. Throughout all the steeps, the tea continued to have a very creamy and smooth texture, which was very interesting!

disclaimer: I received this tea from Tea Vivre to sample. Thank you to Tea Vivre for sending such generous samples of their teas!

Brand: The Tea Room Caramel Honeybush Chocolate Bar
Tea Rating: 65/100 
Price: $3.99 at Wegmans

The Tea Room sells all different kinds of flavored chocolate bars, but in my local Wegmans, they only sold 2, the honeybush caramel and earl grey. They sell a black masala chai mixed with milk chocolate, which sounds like it would be delicious. I’ve had a truffle similar to that from Arbor Teas’ chocolate collection, and i loved it! So I will have to pick that one up.

Moving on, The Honeybush Caramel chocolate bar smelled like chocolate, and faintly like honey. I didn’t get any caramel or honeybush on the nose. The taste of the chocolate is different, and not what I was expecting. I expected the chocolate bar to taste just like a chocolate bar, with barely any tea included in the taste. Instead, the honeybush taste is the only thing on my palate while chewing. Sadly, I did not taste much caramel in the bar, maybe some light honey sweetness instead of the caramel. I was disappointed in the taste, as it was too much honeybush flavor, which I am not a huge fan of. The honeybush flavor in the chocolate bar was woody, earthy and a bit straw-like. I would have liked to taste some more caramel in the bar, and maybe even some added caramel nibs mixed into the chocolate would have helped. All in all, the chocolate bar was okay, but I wouldn’t purchase it again, as it wasn’t ‘my cup of tea’ ….ha ha! I will be searching out their Masala Chai chocolate bar, as that one sounds like something I would enjoy more! So look for that review when I acquire the chocolate bar.

Here are the descriptions of these teas from their press release to make your taste buds tremble

“Mao Jian is made up of soft, curly, tippy leaves, a higher grade and even better than last year. A refreshing, light easy-drinking green.

Xue Ya or Snow Buds are bright, sappy and seriously moreish. Once steeped, unfurl the perfect tips and nibble the soft green buds.

Bai Lin Gong Fu made from the same long curly buds as the Wild White but fully oxidised into this caramel smooth black tea.

Ye Sheng or Wild White is a tea with a beautiful mix of long silvery buds and young leaves. It is an ideal all-day, summer tea, very soft on the palate with a creamy depth and a satisfying full-bodied, warm fruity note, lifted by the mildest hint of flint (from that excellent ground).”

I cannot wait to try these teas! Look for reviews from me in the next 2 weeks!
Finally, if you can’t wait and must have your first springtime teas right now, then here is a promotional code for my fabulous readers SPRING2011 ,which will entitle you to a 50% discount on the spring tea sampler! That’s a pretty awesome deal, samples of 4 fresh spring teas, for around $8!?

Brand: Naivetea’s Dong Ding
Tea Rating: 92/100
Steep Time: 1 minutes
Steep Temperature: 200-205 Degrees
Price: 2oz tin of tea for $28/ 4oz for $50

First thing first, the tea originates from Dong Ding, Central Taiwan and is oxidized at 30% and roasted at 30% as well. The dry tea smells nutty and earthy, and is balanced nicely, with neither coming out more than the other.

Now onto steeping, I prepared this tea for steeping with one teaspoon of tea per 6oz of water and got multiple steeps out of the leaves at around 1 minute per steep. Let’s go watch the tea steep together;

The tea turns out to be a beautiful,striking golden yellow liquor. The first flavors in the tea I taste is a lightly roast quality. I also taste some nice sweet, toasted notes, which remind me a lot of a genmaicha’s sweet/ toasted notes. The combination of both of these flavors is very pleasing to my palate.

The tea is light and smooth in my mouth, and is not excessively heavy at all in my mouth. The tea rolls into my mouth and smoothly around my palate, which I like. This tea is toasted, roasted and sweet all at the same time. In my eyes, this tea would be perfect for people trying to get into the wonderful world of Oolong. This tea is a very balanced tea, and is perfect for those who are not into overly roasted or overly floral oolongs. This tea is a balance between the two.

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Brand: Libre Tea Mug
Rating: 100/100
Price: $32.50 CAD

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Brand: Golden Moon Tea Sugar Caramel Oolong
Tea Rating: 93/100
Steep Time: 2-3 minutes
Steep Temperature: 180 Degrees
Price:  3.8 oz tin of tea for $15.99

The taste of this tea is much milder than I was expecting, especially with such a powerful caramel overtones in both the dry leaf and the tea liquid. The caramel flavor is strongest on the front part of the my palate, as the tea is first entering my mouth for a sip, while I can still smell the caramel streaming up from the cup.  The oolong flavors in this tea pair nicely with the caramel flavors. These oolong flavors I get are some roasted flavors and some floral notes are prominent as well. There was also a hint of vegetal flavor, but I get much more buttery creaminess that I tasted in this oolong, which twists and turns amazingly with the caramel flavors in my mouth.

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This is an herbal tisane tea and the very first time I had ever heard of guayusa,or tasted it. The dry tea gives off very intense aroma of cocoa with a lighter scent of earthiness. I used 1 tablespoon to steep this tea, and I steeped it for about 6 minutes. The company recommends to steep the tea for 4-7 minutes, with boiling water for a ‘darker brew’.
Let’s go and watch the tea steep together…

After steeping and straining the tea into my cup,, the liquid smells of straw, and earth. The brew itself is very dark, which reminded me of a puerh tea. But the liquor color was more brown and less reddish brown, which is common in puerh teas.The cocoa nibs that are found in the dry tea, have melted into the tea liquor, creating a very chocolate-y aroma paired with the straw/earth scent.Shares the slight nuttiness of some of the Japanese greens. This tea is really smooth with a mild cocoa flavor. Guayusa is supposed to pump up your natural energy, like a ‘energy-tea’. Guayusa gave me a very natural energy, with no bad effects, like the shakiness, headaches, and heart palpitations that are associated with high caffeine intake. I did not experience any signs of crashing, and just naturally got naturally tired as the day came to an end, instead of completely crashing or the guayusa keeping me awake for longer than I needed to be. Overall, this is a very interesting herbal tea, and I am excited to try some more out.

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All photographs included in this post are property of Melissa Wrzesniewsky and are not to be taken,shared, or used without the artists consent.