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A pretty innocuous sencha. There was a taste about this that, initially, I really wasn’t a fan of, but I seem to have gotten used to it over time and it doesn’t really bother me. A nice tea!

There’s a taste to this that I really don’t like, but I can’t put my finger on what, exactly, it is. I had expected that I would really enjoy the sweetness of the fukamushicha, but I found it sickly and just really unpleasant. What a shame!

A very mild sencha with a gentle bitterness at the tail end. It has a strong aroma of steamed zucchini and squash (not the pumpkin kind, the little yellow kind we get in Australia) and tastes slightly vegetal and green – the bitterness is really the star here. I don’t love it, but it’s not bad either.

Wow, okay, this roast is much too dark for my taste. All I’m getting is smoke. So much so that it’s kind of overwhelming. It’s not necessarily a bad thing and I’m sure that if you’re into that sort of thing, you’ll love it, but this really isn’t for me.

I haven’t tasted very many hojichas, but this is lovely. It’s vegetal but distinctly toasty, which would be a perfect blend for a chilly winter morning, which, incidentally, I’m experiencing quite the opposite of. The liquor is quite a bright green upon first pouring the water, but it brews to a dark yellow. It reminded me a lot of a forest – dark and damp and full of vegetation, with a distinct sweetness and rich roasted flavour. Really nice.

I didn’t like this genmaicha as much as the NaturaliTea one I drank yesterday. I found the green tea to be a little bitter, which is okay, but the flavour intensified and intensified until I couldn’t really stand it anymore. If you like bitter flavours, you might love this genmaicha, but it’s just really not my bag. Oh well.

I was a little bit worried about this genmaicha because it has something of a burnt smell to it, but none of that translated once I had steeped the tea. It’s a nice blend – toasty and nutty, rounded out by a subtle little astringency from the green tea. It also brews up to a very green liquor; much greener than any other green tea I own. There’s just something so comforting about a good genmaicha.

I’m not normally a huge fan of fruit tisanes, especially when they contain apple, but this makes such a beautiful, refreshing cold brew. It’s still tart and a little sour, but I find those flavours much more enjoyable iced, and a little simple syrup really takes the edge off. Definitely tastes of hibiscus, apple and pomegranate and the tartness that goes with them, but it’s bright and fruity underneath and it’s really quite pleasant. Throw some soda water on top, and I know what I’ll be drinking this summer.