Sakura Vert

Happy National Fragrance Day!

I have been really into sakura flavor lately, and its aroma is one of its biggest appeals to me. I love that combination of floral/fruity/candy/umami notes that dinstinctly define “sakura”.

These sakura teas from Lupicia are quite old now (I just finished off the Rooibos one as warm lattes in the evening!) and I still need to finish off the others. Lupicia Hawaii doesn’t carry them anymore, but my palate has gotten to the point where I’m not quite as pleased with the salinity in the cup caused from the salted preservation of the leaves than my past reviews seem to indicate, so I don’t feel so bad saying goodbye (and at least I still have Chasandai’s sugar-preserved sakura tea, which is phenominal). I do however like “salty teas” used in cooking, so I thought I’d try this tea as a base for sakura rice.

I used an ample amount of leaf since it steeps quickly in the boiling water and needs a strong infusion before adding the rice to the tea water in order to get the flavor to carry through. I loved the sakura rice I made using preserved Obubu sakura leaves, but wasn’t sure how well just using a sakura flavored tea would work, but the results were much better than I’d expected! The rice really did have quite a lovely sakura aroma, and had stained a slightly goldenrod color from the tea. And I got a nice flavor of subtle and sweet cherry, as well as the saltiness.

Nice! This will probably be how I finish off this tea, as I like the saltiness of the leaf in rice, but find it a bit of a turn off in a teacup.

Tea #2 from teaswap with Mastress Alita.

I’ve never brewed sencha, so I have no idea what I’m doing. Lupicia says 2.5-3 grams, boiling water, 1.5-2 minutes. Boiling water seemed like an unfair treatment to green tea, so I’m a Woman Going My Own Way. Whole 6 gram sample in uncovered 150mL glass gaiwan, 170F, 1min.

Dry leaf smells floral, cherry, with an earthy basic (as opposed to acidic) pungency and finally some grass. Lots of activity going on in the gaiwan. Saponins, bunch of leaves sitting on the bottom and a layer floating on top with lots of movement of leaf up and down in between. Never seen such a stratified brew. Almost neon green-yellow in color and cloudy with a chance of butt. Smells like some weird medicinal red/orange/green butt. Oh, it smells like chewable vitamins and butt. HA! Tastes repulsive going across my tongue. Weird lightly salty thickslick with soapy floral cherry green butt. Persistent aftertaste. The smell wafting from the empty glass a foot away makes my stomach retch. What tea got on my hands from pouring through a strainer made my fingers smell like butt. Smell my finger!

This is literally the first tea ever that has left me incapable of doing a second steep.
I’m glad I got to try something so offensive! Gotta set the low bar somewhere.

Thanks Mastress Alita :)

Was too salty for me. It may be that I am at the end of the tin and the salted leaves are more plentiful. I prefer an unflavored green tea, so I don’t think I will buy again.

This is a little too mild in my opinion. I could steep this longer but Lupicia recommends 1.5-2 minutes and I already threw away the sachet. If I were to steep this longer I think it would have too much green flavor, like matcha powder flavor – some might like this though. The salty sakura flavor isn’t very pronounced.

Hello again, Steepster! I’ve been absent for the last couple of days, and I’ve missed you. I did Tough Mudder over the weekend, and between getting ready for it and lying about like a dead person afterward, I didn’t have much time to drink tea or read notes. Luckily, I’m now caught up on all the reading I missed while I was away! And since my cupboard is now overflowing with swap samples (Dexter pushed it over the edge with her generous care package…) I’m going to try to write notes that are less formal and shorter so I can pump them out faster! So, here we go!

This sample came from Dexter’s ridiculously large box of samples. It’s a mixture of darker sencha leaves with lighter crumbled leaves (“salted cherry leaves”). It smells a little bit like vinegar, but there’s also a powdered sugar note.

Steeped, it smells much more like sencha with a little bit of a salty note. Wow, this is definitely an interesting one! It starts out quite salty and grassy/spinachy from the sencha, but the tastes changes a lot by the end. It grows sweeter and there’s an almost grain-like flavor in the aftertaste, and possibly some floral (thinking cherry blossom here). Not at all bitter for me, but I did use the lower end of the time because the leaves are so broken. Quite yummy, and unique!

I’m not sure what I was expecting with this tea. Salted cherry leaves?! What would those taste like? Turns out it is very savory and almost broth like. I’m not sure if the cherry leaves add any flavor or if they are only a vehicle to transport the salt. As it cools, it gets bitter and I have already had to reheat this cup twice. I’m going to have to say I really don’t care for this tea, which is surprising considering how much of a Lupicia fan girl I have turned into. Oh well, can’t love em all!

Another tea from Dexter3657! (198)
I’m really really happythat I was sent this sample because it was a tea I was interested in trying, and nearly bought on my last order just because I was curious.

Boy… am I glad I didn’t. It’s an ok tea, but it’s not for me. It’s not what I wanted. :P

So thank you Dexter3657 for letting me try this out first!

Wow , is this tea ever different! This is a sample from Dexter3657. I didn’t really follow the brew times since it had boiling water for green tea. I infused it at 185F for 3 min.
Definitely an acquired taste for this one. Just brewed it just tasted a bit strange but not bad. As it cools down it becomes more salty and bitter. The bitterness at the end of the cup is really strong.
I have one more tsp left of this so I think I will try it with boiling water next time and the shorter infusion to see if there’s that much of a difference.
Thanks Dexter3657 for this sample. I’m glad I got a chance to try it.

If I had to use just one word for this tea, it would be “clean.” Inoffensive, not too strong with the salted cherry leaves. I wish it was a bit stronger, actually. The sencha base is decent and the saltiness is very, very subtle – though you do get that scent that is just spot-on for sakuramochi. Tiny bit soapy, but not in a bad way. Works well with ice. One of those for the “nice to have tried it, but probably won’t repurchase after I finish this packet” list.