Exploring Green Tea with Teavivre - Teas To See You Through The Festive Season

I'm back! It's been quite a long break from blogging as I prepped all my Mofo posts in advance in October. There were some gaps and I had hoped to do some more throughout the month but life kind of got in the way. I've started a new drug treatment for my hyper sensitive cough reflex syndrome. It's sort of the last resort in the drugs they give patients as I've tried everything else and nothing has worked. It's morphine therapy where I take a controlled low dose twice a day. So far it is having really good results with my cough being about 30% of what it usually is which is great news. I'm still in the stage of dealing with side effects (and hoping they wear off) so that's fatigue, brain fog, nausea, anxiety, headaches, stomach cramps and other fun things! I am trying to feel positive though and trying to incorporate self care practice into my day to day life more than ever.


One of the things I'm doing is making sure I stay hydrated. Alcohol is off limits whilst I'm on this treatment so I've been exploring the world of nice teas more than ever. One type of tea I've always shied away from a bit is green tea. You might remember that I blogged about a wonderful afternoon that I spent tasting and learning about Chinese teas that I was sent from a lovely company called Teavivre. I was excited when they contacted me again to say they were sending me some more samples, this time of some of the green teas that they stock. I wondered if I would be converted!

I loved how the teas in the selection that they sent all looked so different. These flat leaves were from the Organic Superfine Dragon Well Long Jing. They recommend on the website to drink this when you need calming so that will be a good one for me over the next month. This has sweet, grassy aromas and a sweet, buttery mouthfeel with hints of chestnut.


The Xin Yang Mao Jian had twisted spindly leaves. There was nice freshly cut grass aromas and a refreshing palate. It was slightly vegetal, think of spinach with a hint of smoke and a very slightly salty aftertaste.


Different in appearance again were these tightly twisted black/green leaves of Charcoal Baked Anxi Tie Guan Yin Oolong. This tea needed a longer steep than the others. The Teavivre website is really helpful telling you how to brew each type of tea. This produced a bright yellow brew with toasty, seaweed aromas. It had a big, smooth mouthfeel with floral flavours with just a hint of smokiness.


I think my favourite of all the samples was the Organic Bai Hao (White Downy) Green Tea. I've nicknamed this Sweetcorn tea as it really does smell of sweetcorn! This carries through onto the palate and it's really light and refreshing. It was very different to anything I've tried before and has become a new favourite.


I really enjoyed exploring the world of green tea and am definitely converted. I'll be carrying on drinking it through December. Another thing I like about these teas is that they are reviving without having such a big caffeine hit as coffee (around 10% in most cases).  They are going to be useful in helping me deal with fatigue without giving me an anxiety spike like coffee can do. There's going to be a review focus on the blog over December and I've got several more reviews coming up focusing on vegan friendly products made locally to me that would make excellent gifts so stay tuned!


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Interview With Lisa Goddard of Lily and Dilly

Cola de Mono

Growing your own, bargains and a breakfast recipe