I had the wonderful opportunity to come in contact with Samir Balwani of Turvani. I received a sampler (which you can purchase here) on Friday and decided to try the green tea first! Before I get into the tea, I wanted to share with you some information about Turvani!

Here are some questions I asked Samir and his answers! You can tell from my commentary after some of the questions that tea drinkers think alike :)

1) How did your love of tea start?

You can thank my dad for that. I started drinking tea with him, and it became a ritual we shared together. It’s the experience that I love. While our tea brews and while we drink our tea– we get a few moments for ourselves, where nothing else matters except for the people we’re with or the time we’re afforded to just enjoy our tea.

Cue all of the feels, he hit the nail on the head!

2) What is your favorite type of tea?

You’re right this is a tough one. I don’t know that I have a forever favorite tea, but I can tell you what’s my favorite right now (sorry if I’m cheating!). I’ve been drinking our Assam Golden Tips a lot lately. I’m a big fan of Assam tea, especially with a light splash of milk.

3) How would you explain the difference between loose leaf and tea bags to a non-tea drinker?

I’ve found the easiest way to explain it is to talk through how tea is produced. When tea is processed, whole leaves are separated from the dust and trimmings. The whole leaves are then graded based on the quality of the leaf. What’s left behind, the dust and trimmings, are collected and used for tea bags. Since they’re smaller broken leaves, they brew extremely quickly and tend to have harsher tastes. If you enjoy drinking tea and want to really taste the subtleties that tea has to offer, you have to drink loose leaf tea.

This is so important to understand, the "left over stuff" is just not as good!

4) What is your favorite type of vessel to enjoy your tea in? (Glass, mug etc)

There are a few mugs that I love drinking my tea in. We actually are in the middle of writing a post about the differences in tea mugs and coffee mugs; and which cups you should be drinking from. I’ll share that with you once it’s done. In general your tea mug should have a flared mouth and the rim should taper. The flared mouth lets your tea cool to a drinkable temperature. The tapered rim lets the tea flow over your tongue and gives you the opportunity to experience every flavor the tea offers. I’ve been using this mug from Crate and Barrel lately for my Assam tea. I have a beautiful black teapot set with smaller teacups for my Green and Oolong teas.

5) What made you start Turvani?

I started Turvani with the mission of making the world a better place, through tea. Everyone is so busy these days. We’re always running around, our calendars are double booked all day, and we’re stuck to our phones – trust. I’m no different than anyone else. That’s why tea became so important to me. The act of brewing tea, the 3 to 4 minutes per cup that you have to wait, the 5 to 10 minutes of drinking the tea, that you can’t help but enjoy – it slows me down and relaxes me. Every cup of tea becomes a few stress free minutes that I could have for myself, or share with a friend. It resets my mind, gives me a moment to take stock of the world around me, and simply makes me happier. That’s why I started Turvani. I want everyone to have the opportunity to enjoy exceptional tea that becomes an experience to drink – making the world a happier place.

Not sure if y'all have been soaking in my blog but THIS is why I swear by tea!

6) How did you pick the name Turvani?

Turvani is loosely inspired by a Sanskrit word that means “victorious”. We knew it was perfect for us because the idea of finding 10 minutes in our day, while seemingly so simple was definitely one where we felt victorious when we did. The idea of Turvani embodied exactly how we felt when we drank our tea, we felt like we could take on the world.

7) What is your favorite tea pun?

Oh tea puns are so much fun and there’s just so many! I think my favorite is the simple “Sup Brew?”

I dig this.

Now to the tea! It pains me to say this but green tea is always a hit or miss. I've only had few green teas that I loved. This has nothing to do with the quality of the tea but I'm just more a black tea person. The green teas I have enjoyed taste much bolder like black teas.

I was a HUGE fan of this tea!

Look: This is probably the most beautiful tea I have ever seen.

Smell: These leaves have a very rich and earthy smell.

Taste: I loved it! This tea was so refreshing. I'm not an expert tea taster but this tea had a much stronger flavor than most of the green teas I've had. I always try teas plain before I add honey. The strange thing was that when I added honey, it didn't make much of a difference in the flavor. Usually when I add honey to tea it not only sweetens it but alters the flavor a bit.

Overall I really enjoyed this tea. I have had so many green teas that were too weak for my taste. I will definitely be enjoying this tea again soon!

What is your opinion on green tea? Have you liked and disliked different kinds or are you ALL about green tea? Let me know!