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I always wondered what the awesome tea was that I got in some Japanese restaurants and now I know! The tea has a wonderful deep roasted flavor and I don’t even know how to describe the soft but wonderful aftertaste. This tea involves wonderful flavors I literally don’t have words for! :(

The tea smells more like grape bubblegum than normal grapes. It’s a very sweet somewhat aggressive smell. The taste however is a bit more subtle. Again, more grape bubblegum than grape the fruit, but much milder, less aggressive than the smell. It’s a fun tea for the morning and mid day.

Bright and grassy both in nose and taste this is what straight up green tea should be. It’s just a mild round green hug. Both the first and second pulls were equally awesome.

If made via the instructions, 1 rounded teaspoon per 3 ozs, then this is going to be one pricey (but tasty) tea. However I did the unthinkable and on the third (yes, third, the shame!) pull I actually used my usual green tea approach of 165 degrees and used a ratio of 1 rounded teaspoon per 8ozs. The results were wonderful! In fact, I had thought it would be so weak that I let it over steep! The idea that you could over steep on a third pool hadn’t occurred to me.

If you like clean vegetal green tea, a ‘straight up’ green tea taste then this is a winner!

This mug is without peer (in my limited experience) for making a cupa. The stainless steel basket is a joy, small enough holes not to let the tea leaves and material get through but porous enough to give an excellent steep. The basket also fits snuggly into the top so you have a ready place to put it when you are done steeping. The cup itself is substantial without being too heavy and ridiculously easy to clean. Everything cleans so well that I can safely use very different types of tea in it and not worry about cross contamination. This is literally one of the best purchases I have made in years. If you make two cups of tea at a time this is just an awesome choice.

I would buy the cup in white. My original cup is a gorgeous aquamarine but Den from Den’s Teas pointed out that any color other than white won’t really show the tea’s color properly. I just made some Houji-Kukicha and instead of looking like rich caramel as it does in my white cup it looks like mud in the aquamarine cup. I clean my white cup daily and haven’t had any staining issues.

Rich flavored and wonderful roasted this is a satisfying bancha

This tea doesn’t have what I look for in a Genmaicha, which is the rich flavor of the roasted rice. Don’t get me wrong, as a tea, this is good stuff. It has a rich flavor with just a hint of sweetness. But I’m still looking for my favorite Genmaicha.

Note that I made the tea both according to the instructions on the website (1 rounded teaspoon per 4 oz at boiling) and also my preferred way (1 teaspoon per 8 oz at 165) and both tasted good. But it’s the flavor of the roasted rice that I’m looking for and didn’t find.

A refreshing Sencha with really nice passion fruit/pineapple notes. The taste isn’t quite as clean as I might like, the fruit and green tea tastes seem more to mush together than reinforce each other. But nevertheless this is much better than any bagged tea I’ve had and better than the teas I get from a place like Teavana.

When I originally made the tea I made it exactly to instructions using boiling water, 1 round teaspoon per 4 0Z and 30 seconds steep time. The result was a strongly aromatic and very tasty tea! But the second pull, again following instructions, boiling water and 15 seconds steep time, had a good aroma but almost no flavor. However the bigger problem for me is that I just don’t want nearly that much caffeine. I literally couldn’t sleep!

So I now make it using my normal way of 1 teaspoon for 16 OZs, 165 F water and 2 minute steeping. The result is a fruity (without being excessive) tea that tastes just as good on the second pull as the first.