Sakura Houji

I’m going to do a couple backlogs of new stuff now too. Someone on the tea subreddit works at Lupicia and offered to send me some of this after I said I couldn’t believe sakura leaves were salty. I have really learned a lot about cherry blossom trees this year.

I should have probably looked around to see what a good water temp for a houjicha is but didn’t. I kind of probably went with something higher than I’d typically use for green tea, though doesn’t really matter, it tasted fine, but I think it could be improved.

The taste was interesting, mostly it tastes like houjicha, but then it’s just a bit salty, a little floral, and just faintly cherry. It’s definitely a unique mix of flavors.

I have enough for another couple cups to experiment with it. I’m just really excited I was able to try this without having to order it. Nobody else has written a note on it, so it was definitely unchartered waters for me.

Sipdown 25

The teabag I have was labeled ‘8810’ with no name, and I had thrown it into my wok tea stash. Trying to sipdown my work stash, I blindly steeped this up. Wow, this is salty. I wasn’t expecting it, so the salinity hit me and it wasn’t super pleasant.

It’s slightly sweet and has a hint of salt that remains with the palate after each sip. I feel it’s flavor is more at home with those who prefer earthier teas or warmer flavors (along the lines of being somewhere between genmaicha and jasmine).

It should be emphasized that this is made with salted cherry LEAVES, and not blossoms. Because of this, it has a greener flavor, though is mild enough it doesn’t distract from the faint cherry taste.

I would reccomend drinking this unsweetened and pairing this tea with some sakura mochi, daifuku, or a slice of Mizu Yokan. But it also pairs well with some toasted plain mochi doused with a little shoyu.

I’m still trying to work through the very old Lupicia sakura teas in my stash. Most of them just aren’t for me, because despite how much I like sakura, I’m really turned off by the “salty” taste in the cup from the salt preserves they use. (I’m also really upset to learn that the Ume Vert I ordered on my birthday order has… salt-preserved ingredients. If Lupicia would just freaking disclose the ingredient lists as printed on their bags on their actual website, I never would have ordered it…)

The Ume Vert will, undoubtedly, have to be rice-flavoring tea for me to use up the pouch. The sakura ones are at least sweet enough that I have found I can usually hide the salinity of the salt by making sweet lattes using a vanilla plant milk (vanilla almond or vanilla oat, depending on what I have on hand). Which is how I’ve prepared this cup. 3 parts tea to 1 part warm, frothed vanilla oat milk. I used two heaping teaspoons of leaf and steeped in 205F water for 5 minutes.

The aroma is warm wood and sakura. The sakura is getting overpowered a bit in the flavor by the houjicha, though. I’m getting a strong woodiness, some roasted nuts, and only a subtle hint of sakura sweetness left on my tongue after the sip when some of the deeper, roastier houjicha notes start to fade.

It’s a nice enough latte, but I honestly could’ve made a plain houjicha latte and probably wouldn’t have noticed much difference. Not my favorite execution of the flavor. Maybe it’s stronger in a plain cup, but then I’d just be turned off by the salt, so I guess I’ll have to make do with plain houjicha with a sprinkle of sakura flavor. Not a favorite, despite how much I love both houjicha and sakura.

Steeped this less than 2 minutes, so I think I got a lighter tea than usual; a light roasted green tea with a sakura finish, nice.

The tea contains salted cherry leaves, not cherries themselves, so the cherry flavor is more subtle than one would normally expect from “cherry” items. The aroma lingering in the empty glass is sweeter and has more cherry notes than the tea itself, so it adds an interesting contrast altering between drinking each cup and wafting the aroma.

I didn’t follow these instructions, but this is what the label says for reference:
One 150ml (5floz) cup
Tea leaves: 2.5-3g
Water temp: boiling water
Brewing time: 1.5-2min
Infusion: 1-2 cups
Ingredients: roasted green tea (hojicha), salted cherry leaves, aluminium potassium sulfate

I’ve been enjoying the bag I got last time I found this in stock. Imagine my surprise to go back to the listing and find it was one of the very first teas I reviewed, but apparently not too favorably! Huh, how things change… or maybe I was wrong on the name of the tea. Who knows.

This tea is has a lovely sweet and mellowly roasted liquor that isn’t too overwhelmingly sweet like some of Lupicia’s other cherry teas, but isn’t very roasted either. It’s a very comforting taste to me and I wish it lasted longer than 2-3 steeps, as I think it’s a limited edition or perhaps seasonal thing. I wasn’t on their website last time I looked.

It reminds me of my love for roasted teas, that’s always good too. Yum.