Yunomi

My very fist houjicha! I bought the sampler from Yunomius and decided to try the basic roast first as sort of a default option.

I followed the instructions to use a lot of leaf (a big heaping tablespoon), but I oversteeped it waaaay too much. It was really really roasty! It reminded me of some oolongs I’ve tried, though it was too strong. Next time I should try steeping it in a gaiwan rather than western-style. Can you do that with Japanese tea, or are gaiwans best with Chinese teas?

However, I’ll say that the tea is definitely doing its job of not adding caffeine to my system. I’m really tired and gonna go to bed now.

I woke up bright and early today thanks to the excessive happy chirping of birds and my cat chirping at the birds. Laying in bed I thought to myself, I should make some origami, and so I got all my paper out of storage and set it up in my craft and tea lair. Of course I promptly went back to sleep and have not actually started folding anything yet, but I am mulling over some projects, I am excited. I have a suspicion that I will hang lots of modular pieces from the rafters.

Today’s tea is Shincha from Onejima, Kagoshima from the Yamane-en Tea Shop and Yunomi.us. This particular Shincha (first flush of Sencha, for those unfamiliar with the term) comes from the rare Shouju Cultivar whose name translates to Eternal Happiness. With a name like that I knew I needed to try it, plus have I ever seen a Sencha that I didn’t immediately want to try? The aroma is very green, full of life and grass! There is also notes of cedar and straw with a touch of kelp. I am used to Sencha smelling faintly sweet, but these leaves are savory and green, I find it very intriguing and pleasant.

Once the delicate leaves get a dip in warm and fairly short bath, I notice the aroma gets more of a chestnut quality with a strong grassy note. This fades to a kelp and finally fresh sea-side air. I love when the aroma of tea evokes the ocean, it is just such a clean aroma. The liquid mixes the aroma of spring vegetation and sea-side air, primarily fresh grass, there is also a tiny touch of chestnut at the finish.

The first thing I notice about the taste is how sweet it is, surprisingly honey sweet compared to its savory aroma. The sweetness has an almost citrus quality, similar to orange blossom honey mixed with a gently and fresh grass taste. The midtaste is kelp, giving this tea an umami quality. Finishing the experience is a sweet citrus note that lingers in the mouth for quite a while. This tea manages to be very subtle while also being very complex, a quality I find very endearing.

As to be expected I wanted to have another dance with the leaves. The second steep, like the first starts off very sweet, but it differs by being more of a sugar cane sweetness instead of honey. The rest of the taste is buttery smooth and grassy with a gentle hint of hay. The second steep has a whole new level of subtlety that I find very soothing. I can imagine being a leaf absorbing sunlight while drinking this tea, it feels refreshing and soothing in that very manner.

For blog and Photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/04/yunomius-and-yamane-en-shincha-from.html

As you might have noticed, there was no blog yesterday. I was at a Passover Seder, replacing my usual tea for a bit of wine. Ben is half Jewish and very close friends of the family are Jewish, and they host a very awesome Seder every year. Of course they host other fantastic Jewish feasts, but Passover has always been a favorite, I am so glad they always think to include my Shiksa (which also means meal in Korean) self. Even going far enough to reward me a sweet five dollars (I feel rich!) for the Afikoman! I love exploring cultures that are different than mine, especially when they enjoy including ‘outsiders’ who want to learn!

Today’s blog is going to be a bit of an adventure, since I am reviewing an ingredient! Specifically Genamicha Ingredients by Yunomi.us and Yaname-en Tea Shop, made from Toasted Uruchi Rice and Tokachi Black Soybeans. Toasted Uruchi rice (or Uruchi-Mai) is a short grain polished rice that is most commonly eaten in Japan, the soybeans are from the Tokachi region of Hokkaido. I decided to mix the ingredients with three different teas (for a start, I know I will come up with more blends) giving a nice demonstration of how the rice and soybeans perform under heat.

The first blend is using Sencha of the Summer Sun, by Obubu Tea. The aroma is exactly what you expect, a nice toasted rice aroma that blends really well with the sweet and grassy aroma of the sencha. The taste is like sticky rice and popcorn with a slight bean taste that fades into the grassy sweet and slight seaweed umami taste. I noticed that adding the Genmai to the Cha that it brings out more of the sweetness from the sencha. I call this blend a success.

For the second experiment I did something I always wanted to try, Houji Genmaicha! The aroma is the wonderfully toasty roasty, blending the toasted and slightly smoky aroma of the Houjicha with the toasted rice makes the tea smell just like autumn. The taste is fantastic, I almost don’t have words other than yummy, yummy, yummy. The smoky and roasted flavors of houjicha blend perfectly with the toasted rice sweetness, there is also a hint of the soybeans which adds an earthy quality. The taste, like the aroma, is very autumnal, bringing the idea of falling leaves, distant fires, and harvest.

For the final experiment I went with Sakura Sencha. You might remember from my review of Sakura Blossom Tea that I mixed the Sakura blossoms with Genmaicha and Sencha and really liked both of them, so I deiced to mix my Sakura Sencha with Genmaicha. The result is very similar to the Sakura blended Genmaicha, slightly salty and nutty with roasted rice and a floral finish. Very much the taste of spring!

I enjoyed this little experiment with rice and tea, I can’t wait to come up with some new concoctions using this tasty roasted rice. I liked the addition of the soybeans, it added an extra nutty and earthy quality to the tea, definitely a new favorite!

For photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/04/yunomius-and-yaname-en-genmaicha.html

Thanks so much Jennkay for a sample of this tea!

I love Japanese greens but I’m not sure I’ve ever tried a bancha! The dry leaves look very fresh and HUGE. Brewed up it is extremely green and vegetal tasting and smelling, like spinach or maybe kale, but somewhat sweet and almost a little spicy. It is a very interesting change up from the types of greens I’m used to! Very fun to try :)

I am so excited for tonight! Around 2AM (Central Time) a full Lunar Eclipse will be starting, an infamous Blood Moon. It is one of the many things on my ‘things I want to photograph’ list (it is a huge list), I have my camera and tripod all ready. I also have proper moon viewing tea selected, proper snacks, a large pile of blankets, and cushions ready as well. Sadly the beautiful warm weather decided to wander off and it is going to be practically winter outside tonight, I wonder if I will chicken out and photograph it through a window?

Today’s tea is a rather unique offering from Yunomi.us and Chakouan Yamaguchi Seichaen Co. #14 Ureshino Gyokucha-Ochatama, what on earth is this mysterious tea you are probably asking right now. Gyukucha, or round tea (or Japanese Gunpowder) is a byproduct of Sencha production, from Ureshino in the Saga Prefecture. This rare and unusual tea is not only a tea but a tasty snack, well, I certainly like snacks! The aroma of this emerald green tea is sweet fresh grass and seaweed with a sharp vaguely floral aroma. It smells warm and a tiny bit chestnut like, it reminds me of a blend between the aroma of Sencha and Gyouro, very tasty aroma.

Before I steeped the tea in my Kyusu, I wanted to test the snack aspect and popped a few of the tea balls into my mouth. First impression, yum! It tastes like seaweed and grassy green tea, it starts out umami and fades to sweetness with a nutty finish. I love these, I want to get a bunch and toss them in with my much loved rice cracker snacks (the kind that has seaweed and such, not the gluten free cracker substitutes). My only complaint is they are a little too crunchy and hard, a complaint I think most wouldn’t have, but I have sensitive chompers.

Snack time concluded and into the Kyusu the Gyokucha goes! The wet leaves are even grassier and seaweed heavier than the dry leaves, a really great blend of umami and springtime. There is still a very tiny hint of chestnut at the finish. The liquid is umami kelp to the max! After the initial aroma of seaweed fades there is a faint sweetness like grass and flowers, very field like.

The taste is hard to accurately put into words, it is a taste that evokes imagery. When I first sipped this tea I was immediately struck by how clean and fresh it tasted, it was like drinking raindrops off a blade of grass. It brings the cleanliness of rain and the sweet grass taste. The mouthfeel is creamy and full, nothing short of exquisite. The taste fades to seaweed and sea air giving it an umami finish.

You all know I had to have another dance with this tea, the aroma of the liquid is much the same with the second steep with a touch more of the chestnut quality. This steep is very sweet with a creamy full mouthfeel,, it does not have any of the umami quality, instead it just retains the freshness from the previous steep.There is also a surprise hint of fruit at the very end, leaving a sweet aftertaste. I really enjoyed this tea, not only was the taste amazing, it had the double feature of being a snack and it was unusual.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/04/yunomius-and-chakouan-14-ureshino.html

Cold brewed this one again! I realized that the reason I like this one so much as a cold brew is that it maintains the balance between that vegetal quality of a green tea but also the roasted flavor. I feel like with a lot of my roastier cold brews, the roasted taste kind of takes over, but in this tea the two flavors really complement one another. I’ll probably pop some more into the fridge after I wash out my water bottle. I have a feeling this sample will be sipped down very soon.

It’s suddenly become so humid at the same time that my allergies decided to flare up. All in all, not a great time to be drinking too much hot tea. So I threw a couple teaspoons of this tea into my water bottle and left it in the fridge for about 12 hours. It has a nice earthy taste like crispy fall leaves with a roasted flavor as well. I think the roasted seaweed flavor is still there, but a little less prominent. I knew it was a good idea to cold brew this one! This is one of those rare teas that I seem to like the hot and cold brewed versions pretty equally.

Every time I open my drawer of samples, I’m amazed at how fluffy this package is. Today, this tea is reminding me of roasted seaweed in a good way. It’s a very clean, smooth tea. It’s really nice on its own as I am having it now, and I can imagine that it would go well with food as well. Now that I think about it, it will probably make a nice roasty cold brew as well. I’m excited to keep experimenting with the rest of this tea!

The first thing I noticed was that this sample packet was a lot fluffier than the others. When I opened it up, the dry leaves are just as shown in the picture: big, flat, whole tea leaves! That was pretty exciting. It also smelled kind of like someone took a bunch of crunchy autumn leaves and roasted them. Actually, that’s kind of how I would describe the tea flavor as well. The roasted flavor is a bit light compared to some other teas that I have, but it is nice and pleasant. Overall, this tea has a clean taste, which makes me think that it will do well as a cold brew. I guess that will be my next adventure!

I’ve been saving my sample of this for a special occasion. I’m teaching my first class later today and I am SO NERVOUS! Looking for that theanine calmness :)

Anyway, of course this tea is amazingly sweet and smooth and vegetal. Very luxurious and velvety. Wish I could drink this more often! I do enjoy sencha as well but this is definitely a special treat!

This was a free sample received from my last Yunomi order.
My cat kyusu arrived today and I’ve been looking forward to using it.

Instructions from Yunomi via website:
Leaf – 5g
Water – 80ml
Temperature – 60c
Steeping time – 2 minutes

The leaves are very shiny and a mixture of both medium green and light green colours.
Also some are finely chopped while others are roughly 4mm in length.
They smell like sweet grass and butter. A lovely and pure scent.

Once steeped the tea is cloudy yellow and has a sweet grass and mineral scent. Like brocolli grilled with butter.
Taste is sweet and buttery to match the scent but in a more mild manner. Getting a nice low level broth flavour too which adds some savoury to the sweet.
Overall it’s medium strength and with just a touch of astringency in the aftertaste along with some dryness.

A further re steep of 2 minutes 30 seconds reveals an increase in umami and astringency. Preferable to it’s first steep.

This is nice Midori but I have had nicer, from Naturalitea too. But for the price I would consider stocking this in when I place another order.

This is one of the teas I ordered from Yunomi that showed up on Friday. I’m just now getting a chance to try it. I woke up with a sinus headache after having one most of the day yesterday (not fun at a high school robotics competition, let me tell you.) So I figured a nice mug of tea would be nice.

I picked this one and started reading the steeping instructions. They’re for 2g of tea in a 1/3 of a cup. I probably could have broken out my gaiwan and used that, but I really wanted a nice mug. So I used about 5g and put it in the basket of my ForLife mug. There aren’t a lot of flowers in the 10g size, either, maybe about 8 or 9, so I put 4 of them in this portion and left the rest in the other half. 190° was the recommendation, which seemed a little hot for me, but it seems to have worked out well. I might try the other half at about 180° just to see if it makes a difference. There was also a lot of dust in the pouch, but probably because it is such a small amount and traveled half way around the world.

It’s a nice, green, grassy sencha, quite clear once I let the dust settle. It’s maybe a touch floral, but not much. When I ordered it, I wanted more floral, but now that I’m tasting it and that’s not what it is, I’m actually quite okay with that. It’s got a really nice flavor.

I don’t think it’s helping my head any. I’ve got way too much to do today. After robots taking most of my time since Wednesday night, and new furniture coming tomorrow, we’re so behind. I have to go buy a sheet set because the company I ordered custom sheets from screwed up and the fixed sheet hasn’t gotten through customs yet. ( I should have opened that sooner, but I didn’t want the cats getting into it.) I have a lot of vacuuming to do, as well as moving the old furniture into the guest bedroom. We were supposed to have my BIL here to help, but his flight tonight was cancelled and the only one he could get on today is taking off soon. (Husband took him to the airport and should be back any minute now.)

My head still hurts, but this tea is good. I’m looking forward to seeing how the leaves resteep.

Sipdown! I’m kind of proud of myself for clearing out my cupboard so well. Although I probably will make up for it as soon as I get my Obubu shipment.

I’m not sure if my notes are really reflecting this at all but I’ve been on a big Japanese culture kick of late. Literature, food, tea, everything. I decided to do my first tea subscription with Obubu tea just because I’ve bee having so much fun with it all (that and I like that the subscription also has some benefit to the community).

Anyway, this was a free sample with my Sencha order and I’m drinking it in my new DAVIDsTEA double wall glass tumbler (12 oz volume). I steeped up the whole sample since it was around 8 grams and the instructions said to use 5 g for 5 oz. I used the below parameters and no additives.

The dry leaf smell was of an almost burnt sencha. I know I’ve had houjicha before but I am pretty sure it used bancha leaves as I remember huge brown leaves, and not the blade of grass sized leaves that characterize sencha. I’m not a fan of outright burnt or ash tasting teas so I’m hoping this tones it down just to a pleasant toasted rice-esque note once it steeps.

Despite being sencha based, this tastes a lot like the houjicha I remember. Very genmaicha like, really. It is also very smooth and not bitter in the slightest, with discernible hints of seaweed. Sometimes teas take me a while to drink because my brain likes to ruminate over the flavors. But this – I’m not sure how to really explain it other than for a hot tea it is surprisingly refreshing and slides down your throat like water. Maybe its the minerality I’m trying to describe? Because that is a savory/umami quality I really enjoy in tea as well.

Anyway, I like this. I’m excited to see what my spring tea from Obubu will be because I’ve quite enjoyed their offerings so far!

This is a refreshing, rustic, and simple tea. It starts out with balanced sweetness, savory, and it’s surprisingly smooth, with later infusions becoming more astringent. If brewed with slightly less leaf and water is just above lukewarm for the first two steeps its flavor profile is elevated with proceeding steeps. Great price for tasty organic tea!

This is a quick note that will be altered shortly in the future. It’s not a ‘real’ review because I am highly medicated on anti psychotic drugs. While the question of me being psychotic will be questionable (depending on whom you ask) I have another reason for taking them. I have an ear infection, and one medication used for both earache/pain and dizziness caused by the infection also treats people with anxiety issues and mental disorders such as schizophrenia. Thank you dopamine. My husband has called me ‘weird’ today too and ‘scary’ so I think they have had some effect.

Regardless I thought I would keep drinking my tea. This was a special tea purchased from Yunomi in their rare but reasonable section. It has such large and whole leaves, so beautiful and autumnal. It’s flavour is also sweet and toasty which in a weird way reminds me of autumn. Oh yeah I’m cooking dinner and I need to go and dish up before it burns. But suffice to say this tea is beautiful so far.

I’m re-visiting this tea today. It’s been a while since I had ‘decent’ tea (being anything that is not bagged) as I’ve suffered for the last month with sciatica. It’s been pretty bad this time and I’ve struggled to walk at all for a few weeks, though honestly I have been so stressed packing for my house move that I needed the break…though I could have done without the excruciating pain. Well that is life I suppose, at least for the time being I can move around enough to use my kyusu and carry on with my life a little.

The umami is strong with this one (she says in a Yoda style voice). Which is true, it is very umami but the after taste is sweet and more Sencha like so I get the best of both worlds in one pretty unique tea. I have a few pots more of this one before I run out, though I will definitely place an order in a few months for some more.

First thing is first, run down my tea cupboard before I move….in my case it’s easier said than done. I hope my fellow Steepster-ites have been well :)

This tea arrived with my last Yunomi order which was only a couple of days ago. This tea intrigued me for two particular reasons:
1 – It’s rolled up into balls and resembles Gunpowder Green
2 – It says you can also eat this tea as a snack.
Well there is also a hidden number 3 – it’s a beautiful shade of shiny green

The first thing I did when I opened this tea is go ahead and eat a piece, diving into the deep end so to speak. It’s actually quite nice but also rather astringent and much stronger than I expected. It tastes like seaweed and cabbage but very raw. Like I said not disgusting but just an acquired taste.

If I forget about eating it for now I can note the tea itself. The balls vary in size but they average an estimate of 4-5mm and are flat rather than round (mostly anyway). They are dark green and very shiny but also have a rough look, like the surface of a stone. Though it’s mostly ball shaped leaves there are also some thin, small curls of leaves and stems present too. They have a sweet yet perfumed scent that is rather strong, also very mineral. Particularly savoy cabbage (or similar) and sweet grass.

Steeping instructions were followed and taken from the Yunomi website.

First steep – 30 seconds
The pale yellow tea has a subtle yet sweet smell which is more floral or mineral now than grassy. Oh yum! It tastes as it smells, very fresh and light but sweet and mineral. I’m imagining a light spring rain dancing upon the leaves of this beautiful plant and the fallen dancers are the result of the dew in my cup.

Second steep – 45 seconds
Thicker but still sweet and mineral with no astringency. The increased strength is still very mild but the flavour it has is beautiful. It has a green Oolong feel about it with notes of honey.

Third steep – 1min 10secs
Another slight strength increase but still no astringency though this one is a little perfumed and dry. Also more mineral and grassy than before.

This is a light and sweet green tea that tastes pure and very refreshing. There was no astringency at all though-out three steeps and the flavours carried on well. This is one of my new favourite Japanese greens.

Another wonderful Yunomi club sample. I missed work today as I slept in by mistake, luckily my boss (also my mother) was fine with it. My husband snores so loud at night time that it keeps me awake, I’ve always been a light sleeper and I need complete silence to actually fall asleep. He sounds like a jumbo jet scaring an elephant! I know it’s not his fault but in the last few months I’ve had very little sleep at all. I’m thinking he should have a sleep apnoea test.

I tear open the packet and take a sniff inside, it’s very sweet and floral, like sweet grass, honey dew with a dry perfume in the background. Very nice overall scent wise. Pouring a pinch or so of the leaves into my hand for inspection I can see small shards of dark to medium green leaves that are thin and very shiny.

My instructions recommend to steep 5g of leaves in 80ml of water at roughly 60C for 2 minutes. I’ve decided to double the leaves and water so it should still be at the recommended level.

Steeped this tea is golden yellow with a grass and seaweed scent, less sweet than it’s raw form. Flavour wise sip …..woah….. UMAMI! Savoury yet sweet and broth like, sweet and floral with creaminess and a hint of astringency. Very …well…strange tasting, but this is at a pleasant level. A nice sample to try and get me used to umami.

I think my cat Ivory may be Japanese, he loves the smell of Japanese teas and when I get a parcel from Japan he is first to come and smell it’s contents. :)

It says to steep the next pot for only 30 seconds. So a quick steep later: a much milder tasting tea which is more green in appearance. Hints of grass and flowers are still present but are very mild compared to it’s first steep. Leaves some dryness in the mouth during after taste.

A nice tea overall and I’m happy I got to try more umami, but this is still not the right tea for me. I would recommend it for others that wish to sample umami tea, this is rather mild umami and would be great to start with.

I had an awesome day, best day I have had in a while! Lately all my plans have been going poof for one reason or another so when everything went perfectly today it made it all the sweeter. First off I got a gloriously comfy new desk chair and shelves from a very nice lady on freecycle, the chair is high back and leather just like my old beloved chair, and the shelves are a perfect fit for my Tea Lair. Ben decided to take me out for an afternoon snack at Subway and shopping at the thrift store where he bought me some awesome new clothes. Also the radio seemed to be playing all the right music so I had fun dancing and singing like a goof. All an all, awesome day.

Today’s tea is a little bit of summer captured in tea, Sencha Summer Citrus by Yunomi.us and Ocharaka Tea Shop. This beautifully bright green sencha is blended with Natsumikan (translates to Summer Tangerine) a type of citrus native to Japan. The only distinctly Japanese citrus I have had is Yuzu, so it was exciting to research the Natsumikan a bit, famous in the city of Hagi and frequently brought back as a souvenir. They are described as being a blend of oranges, lemons, and grapefruits with a more sour quality. Sounds exciting! The aroma of this summer themed tea is intensely citrus, true to the description it smells like a citrus salad rather than one specific fruit. There is also the sencha aroma, delightfully fresh sweet grass and mown hay. It blends quite wonderfully with the slightly sweet and slightly sour citrus aroma from the Natsumikan.

Steeping the leaves brings out more the the fresh green aroma, very evocative of a field in summer, full of fresh grass, sweet hay, and a delicate touch of vegetal. There is of course still the aroma of citrus, but it is much milder and mostly sweet like oranges. The liquid is delightfully green with notes of fresh grass and vegetal (I want to say artichoke and lettuce but it is very faint) there is also a very delicate touch of kelp and of course an undertone of citrus.

The taste is mild and refreshing, it is very much so something I would want to sip during a summer day. There is a bit of citrus sweetness, again with the blend of different citrus fruits, and a midtaste of sour citrus, but it fades to sweetness again which is quite nice. There is a green, fresh grass quality that blends well with the citrus, the green is more vegetation than vegetal so it almost feels like you have the citrus leaves as well as the fruit. As the tea cools the citrus becomes sweeter and the sencha takes on a vegetal lettuce quality. This tea is good both hot and cold, and it might be the best citrus themed teas I have yet to taste.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/03/yunomius-and-ocharaka-tea-shop-sencha.html

This really does taste a lot like sencha—or even matcha, with less of a bite. It’s mellower and more buttery than a real Japanese green, but it’s got that freshly mown lawn note down. It’s very different from other herbals I’ve tried. Thanks for the sample, Nicole_Martin!

I decided to take another trip to Japan this afternoon by sampling this Ureshino Kamairicha. I believe this was part of a Monthly Club package tea but it is possible it was a gift for placing an order. Either way I have a sample and intend to sample it’s delights.

The tea is small and rather finely chopped and the leaves are dark green with some stem. It has a sweet yet mineral, green scent, the more I sniff the sweeter it becomes and also more floral, similar to honey suckle and sweet grass.

Following Yunomi steeping instructions:
Serves: One person
Water amount: 1 tea cup / 6 oz / 180 ml
Water temperature: 80C
Tea leaves amount: 5 grams

First Steep (Issen Me – as I am learning Japanese)
30 second infusion
The tea ‘soup’ is yellow green (resembling yellow Jade) and has a sweet yet buttery grass scent. Flavour is very buttery and grassy with some sweetness and a floral after taste. Has a little astringency but at a nice level. Very sweet grass still and with a dry after taste.

Second Steep (Nisen Me)
10 second infusion
Very flavourful for only ten seconds, in fact I think it would have been too astringent if it were any longer. Still buttery and like sweet grass but the dryness has increased though it’s still at a satisfactory level. Also has elements of hay.

Third Steep (Sansen Me)
30 second infusion
An increase in the astringency though it still remains sweet, enough to be pleasant still. Again the dryness has increased also.

It was a nice green tea but if I’m honest it was not unique and I’m afraid I would forget it easily. I am happy to have tried it but it’s not a tea that I would re-stock.

While sorting through my teas after placing a hefty order for some more Japanese greens (my new passion) I found this teabag that was sent as part of the Yunomi club package. It’s a large see-through bag with 10g of beautiful bright green leaves that resemble the smell of grass and seaweed. Very sweet and green but also wonderful and vibrant.

The instructions say to leave the bag in one litre of water at room temperature for roughly 4 hours so I prepared everything ready this early evening time and it has been waiting in my kitchen. Well It has roughly 10 minutes left until it’s time to taste. It says it can either be warmed up after the steep or drank as an iced tea. I will be warming it through a little via microwave (going to try 30 seconds, I just want it luke warm).

Ok it’s finished and I had to double the steeping time to 1 minute to make the tea luke warm. The result is a yellow/green looking colour (very similar to Yellow Jade) and has virtually no scent. Also some froth on the top of the water.

It tastes very gentle and weak but does has some sweetness and hints of flowers. Also a little sour and dry, perfumed if you will, but not astringent. It said in the steeping instructions that 2 bags may be required to get it at the desired/personal strength. Another bag would bring out more of the flavours but this is still nice by itself, refreshing really to have such a light green tea.

My husband pulled a face when he touched the side of his cup and asked if it was cold (knowing full well that it was) but after his first sip his expressions changed completely, an enthusiastic ‘Mmmmmm’ parted from his lips.

Overall It’s nice and would be perfectly suited for a hot summers day but for me it’s too soft and I would prefer just a normal method green.

Sipdown (128). So I’m finishing off the other half of this sample today. I thought I tasted perhaps a bit of floral flavor, but I think that’s just my mind trying to connect the tea to the name. Like I said in my previous tasting note, it’s basically just another sencha to me. I steeped very briefly (~20-30 sec?), which helped reduce the bitterness, but it was still there. Disappointingly not what I was expecting from this tea. Will not repurchase :(

Backlog. Yesterday was inadvertently a very Japanese day- all Japanese green teas and Japanese food for dinner. Not that I’m complaining! Anyway, I had this after classes to relax before I headed back out into the cold for dinner. I have to say, I was really excited to try this one but was disappointed. It tasted just like a regular sencha (grassy, a bit murky) to me with nothing really coming from the “flower” part of the blend. And I did make sure that I had flower buds in the tea. I also tried resteeping a few times to see if the floral flavor would show up, but it never did. As a sencha, it was also very finicky. It turned from very mildly flavorful to bitter much too quickly for my lazy self to babysit. Sadly, I’m not going to be reordering this one. I do have one teaspoon left, so perhaps it will miraculously taste better or I will be more patient, but I don’t really see that happening.