Teavivre is a Chinese Tea company founded in 2011, run by Angel Chen, Chris Yang, and Wenny Ren. Angel has a note on the site about how she explores many areas to bring the best tea back for her company and capture her experiences in each cup. All of their teas are USDA and EU-certified organic, and they have a lot of tea sourcing information available (which you know I love). After being on their website for a while, I can tell that there is a tea for everyone since their variety is so established and large. They sent me 3 different varieties of Puerh tea, two ripe and one raw. Today, I am going into their 2017 rip puerh and sharing my thoughts:

Fengqing Man Ting Fang Ripened Pu-erh Cake Tea 2017

I started by doing a quick wash with the tea leaves, a practice I admittedly rarely do. But after being chastised by some other people a few times, I decided it might just be a good thing to start doing. Immediately, I started looking at the tea leaves which reminded me of a darker, black version of golden tips that were then pressed into a Cake. Is this accurate? – I am not entirely sure, but that is the best way to describe the leaves that I am seeing with my naked eye.

The color of this tea was a dark, concentrated brown with a reddish-caramel edge. It was beautiful, especially when pouring out of the gaiwan and seeing the different colors stream into the cup. Once the first steep was established, the aroma was straight warmth and caramel. It reminded me of a bakery with some cocoa notes in there and overall just made me quite hungry. It was lovely – I had to pull my nose back from just sniffing the lid for too long.

The taste of this tea was quite soft at first – the best way to describe it. It had some deep earthy tones with a velvety finish on the palate. It did give me some cave/mossy vibes as I now just expect from shou puerh. There was also some sweetness that I could only describe as sweet minerality. So again, this reminded me of a cave and the crystallization on the walls as well as the damp mossy caverns making its way into a single cup. Overall, I was quite pleased with the tea session. I ended up giving into my hunger and ate some granola partway through, which was absolute heaven. There is something about sweet treats and shou puerh that go together so well.

Origin: Mengyou Town, Fengqing County, Lincang City, Yunnan Province, China

Harvest Date: April – 2017

Tea Bush: Fengqing Large-leaf Tea Trees

Tea Garden: Fengshan Tea Area (above 1900 meters altitude)

Pricing: Since this tea comes in a cake version, you can purchase an entire tea cake for $69. Or get a small 10-gram sample for $4. I will always say this – I love when companies do small tea samples as it just helps consumers get a better end experience or just try more. On the website, you can also order 2, 3, or 7 cakes at once, for what I assume is a discounted rate for buying bulk.

Packaging: Each of these samples that they sent came in a small single-serve package. It was absolutely beautiful. I was a bit confused on why they all looked the same (2012, 2014, and 2017 samples I was given) and it, ashamedly, took me weeks to realize I had three different teas to try.

Sourcing: I could not be happier. They give the origin, Tea Garden, altitude, bush type, and harvest date to their consumers. Big thumbs up from me on transparency. Based on this alone, I plan on ordering more samples of tea from them since they are so transparent.

Quick – what is your favorite snack to go with a ripened puerh? Mine of course, is cider donuts. I did it once and it changed how I consume them together. Let me know what yours is in the comments below! Happy Brewing!

-Danielle