Ocharaka: Hojicha Honey & Grapefruit

Drank this one tonight with a cold salad. This is one of the few teas that I have ever had where smelling it actually ruins the taste. The flavor of this is quite nice, but the smell is rough… I think the roasted nature to it makes it odd to drink if you smell it, but the fruity and citrus notes are very enjoyable. Overall it was a fantastic paring for a cold salad on a hot day :)

Woo, my Yunomi order came! I’ve been dutifully checking the mailbox every day because since I chose the free economy shipping, I didn’t have any tracking and was unsure when it would show up. Needless to say, I was excited to find it had been delivered today! After trying (and enjoying) Ocharaka’s Houjicha Japanese Pumpkin, I’m looking forward to trying the three other flavors I picked up. This is the one I was most excited for, so it’s going first! It’s a combination of roasted stems (apparently gyokuro stems) and leaves and there are also some flower petals and citrus peel mixed in. Dry scent is lovely sweet citrus with some roasted and rich notes.

Mm, the steeped tea has a lovely sweet and mild grapefruit aroma along with a strong roasted undercurrent. Yum, the grapefruit flavor here is lovely! For some reason, grapefruit is a flavor that tends to be done well in tea, happily for me. I’m not sure I really taste honey, I think it’s melding with the slightly sweet and rich roasted houjicha base. Delish! Ocharaka has done it again with this one.

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