Gyokuro Imperial

A delicious green tea, possibly my favourite! The body is a delicate balance of sweet and umami and the complex notes are very enjoyable and leave a clean finish. It’s equally, if not even more enjoyable, when poured over ice, it’s shocking how much fullness the flavour retains even when cooled.

I was hesitant about this at first, but when made with the CORRECT water temperature it’s great. I think 175°F is way too high for this tea. I steep this tea at 130°F for 2 minutes. Its effect every time. Not bitter but you can taste the sweetness of this. Its lovey by its own or iced. Try adding honey or lemon to it. It’s great! I tend to reuse the leaves 2/3 more times!

Ever seen that Spongebob episode where he and Patrick go to Glove World? They get glove hats, glove flashlights, and glove-flavored candy. This tea would fit in nicely because it has a nice buttery texture and notes of fresh cut grass and freshly-opened latex gloves!

Rubber flavor aside, it was drinkable, and I did in fact make several infusions of it. If you can get over the “dentist sticking his hands in your mouth” aroma, it’s not all that bad. Pairs well with pistachios.

I’d think that maybe it’s just me or I got a bad batch, but a friend had said the same thing to me about it a year ago.
Idk, I’m not very experienced with Japanese teas, but I have had one other gyokuro and it didn’t taste like gloves at all. :/

My absolute go to tea. I drink this tea multiple times a week. For me this is the absolute best green tea, as it can be drank straight or with honey. The first sips are smooth and vegetal, and as it cools the sweet notes are increased. Because I enjoy the sweetness I enjoy this tea at room temperature.

Like dried grass. Earthy. Not too strong

So the wonderful thing about ambibeverageous is that being a Starbucks rewards member I can now get a free ounce of tea rather than a free coffee drink. It’s not just the bottom of the barrel tea either it’s any tea…so of course I went for the Gyokuro. Supposedly the most exquisite and finest quality tea right? First steep the pot is like neon yellow and the sediment left over is almost like matcha. The flavor is smooth and grassy. There isn’t much difference though between this and a really good Long Jing. Seriously the same flavor profile. The real test…ummm yeah this ones a two hump chump. Third steep the leaves couldn’t hack it. The pot was closer to a brown more than bright yellow, and this is doing 1 minute steeps like recommended. I’m sorry but if a tea is going cost that much you should at least get 3-4 good steeps out of the leaves.

Nope. Nope. Blasphemy. Whole lot of hot nope in a cup.

If you know me, you know very well I firmly believe Teavana is Satan incarnate. Firstly, Senchas are some of my most precious and favorite teas, and I know very well, they can be difficult and quite tedious to make, and have quite the learning curve. But, for some reason, I don’t feel that Teavanas employees receive any training or gain any basic fundamental knowledge on tea. (When going into the store once I asked if they had any Pu’erh, and they asked is that a brand, and that isn’t a type of tea that exists.)

So regardless of my bias, this tea was terribly terribly made, (they asked if I wanted milk or honey in the tea, and I probably looked at the poor cashier like she asked if I wanted to buy drugs) and the quality of the leaves was nothing but subpar. The brew was too soupy, burnt, and tasted like it had been sitting in that tin for over a year, all the flavor had vanished and all that was left in my cup was the shell of it’s former self. I have had this actually at least twice, trying to give it another chance, but it generally tastes like this each time. The flavor isn’t there, it just tastes astringent.The water was far too hot for a japanese green, and there was far too much tea used. This tea was also brewed for probably at least two and a half minutes…. Do I need say more? I have a feeling that Teavana, adds flavoring to it’s tea as well, even the ones that seem to be just pure tea and aren’t a blend, to try and improve the falvor. Gyokuro is generally a very buttery, flowery umami sencha, this is something different. It tastes like tea powder from a bag of lipton tea.

Overall, don’t try this tea, and please don’t purchase from Teavana. I have plenty of reasons why, and really I only need one reason, and one reason alone why they are the devil.

That reason is: Oprah Chai

I want to like this tea more. It has potential, but the flavors just aren’t well balanced. It’s not bad, really, but it just isn’t as good as it should be, or as good as Teavana says it is.

Long story short, it has a great flavor, but those flavors get lost among each other, and the end product is a bit bland and mixed.

Don’t get me wrong, this is better than most teas I’ve bought in boxes at grocery stores, but it is just not nearly up to par with the concept of high grade, quality loose leaf tea like Teavana wants to be.

I figured it was a good day to break out a favorite. I like that this tea is sweet, but still has just enough grassiness. I have consumed about half of the 3 ounces I’ve purchased in the last month…I’ll try to stretch the rest out over a longer period of time.

Tasting a few of my older teas today, to see if they’re still good… This was one of my first loose-leaf purchases, so it’s at least three years old. And it’s held up surprisingly well! The aroma is the same as when I bought it, a sweet grassy smell. Once steeped, this tea has a buttery smooth flavor, along with a soft vegetal aftertaste. This particular cup is really powdery and a little bitter, since I wasn’t as careful with the steeping as I should have been… I honestly didn’t expect it to still taste this good! It’s a nice straight green. Like a lot of Teavana’s teas, it’s too expensive/not quite special enough to me to justify buying it again. But I’ll certainly keep around what I have left.