Shinobi_cha

Geoff sent me a large amount of this back in March (something like 3-4oz!).
Thanks!

While I wouldn’t have even thought to look at a company called “CoffeeAM” for green tea, much less hand-picked Gyokuro, this stuff is pretty good!

The wet leaf has a very nice aroma, and when brewed cold reminded me a little of a green, fruit-like Tie Gwan Yin. Of course the typical strong sweetness, followed by a little umami is present, but it isn’t really vegetal or bitter at all. Intense, sweet, and hints of fruit are what this gives.

Not one I would have sought out, but I’m glad to have it. I have yet to try their recommendation of just 100 degrees for 3 minutes, but I will have to test it out.

I don’t have a lot to add to what others have said, except that it’s pretty tasty. Good mix of strawberry, and black tea smoothness. I’m sure it would be good with cream/sugar, but it was perfectly enjoyable without.

This is, simply put, one of my favorite teas. Glad to have it back in the cupboard.

I recently bought a Gyokuro sampler from Maiko Tea (until the end of March, they have a pretty good sale going on) because it was $20 off! It includes 5 of their highest quality samples, a few of which (I think) are Temomi (hand-rolled).

This one is the lowest end of the spectrum, but is by no means cheap or boring! I tried half the sample with regular brewing parameters (warm tea, 140, 150, 160, etc), and the other half with ice brewing (34, 100, 140, 160, 180, etc.), to get as good of an idea as I could about the tea. The unfortunate thing about sample sizes, especially for green teas and certain black/oolong teas, is that you don’t get to really experiment and figure out your ideal way to prepare it. I find it takes at least an ounce to figure that out, if not more.

Anyway, on to this tea.

The loose leaf smelled like what I’ve come to expect from gyokuro, but less strongly marine. The ice brewed wet leaf brought out more of a marine aroma, but that was covered up by a strong peppery-sweet smell that was unique and grabbed my attention.

What really impressed me about this gyokuro though, was the lack of strong marine/umami flavor AND the kind of sweetness it had. It was a soft, rounded sweetness that didn’t overpower you, but was fun to taste and also delicious! Don’t get me wrong, I very much enjoy the marine-like qualities of a typical gyokuro, but it is fun to find a tea that stands out from the crowd.

If I were to make a sweetness spectrum, I might write it like this:
honey / sugar / caramelized sugar / syrup / high fructose syrup / fake sweeteners

Now, I’ve had gyokuros that were so sweet, they were close to the fake sweeteners end of things. There was a quality about the sweetness that was extremely intense and took some getting used to. This tea, on the other hand, was much more like honey end of the spectrum. It had a smooth sweetness and really, it even tasted like honey. In one of those cups, I definitely detected some kind of oolong-like fruity flavor as well.

I really enjoyed this one, and since it is pretty affordable (I think about $11 for 50g), it would be one I would get again. If you like a stronger emphasis on sweet (rather than vegetal or umami) in Japanese greens, I would definitely go with this one.

I got this as a sample in my last order, interested to try this new offering from Den’s Tea, and to see what a deep deep-steamed sencha was like.

After my first two cups, I am very surprised! The description mentions an extra roasting process, and I certainly noticed it in the aroma of the dry leaf. I couldn’t figure out why it smelled so familiar and brought back memories of the first time I tried green tea (Japanese). By the second cup, which not only had the same semi-roasted aroma but a familiar sweetness, I figured it out — Houjicha!

This tea is like the perfect mix between green sencha and houjicha! It is still distinctly a green tea in appearance of leaf and liquor, and there are still elements of umami/veggies, but there is a definite roasted sweetness and aroma as well. That was quite a surprise to me and definitely enjoyable. This might not be some high-falutin’ hand-processed, high mountain, light-steamed sencha from Honyama (which I love by the way), but it is still deliciousness in a cup!

Thanks to Geoffrey for a sample of this tea!

In comparison to Rishi’s Yunnan Golden Buds (hereafter RYGB), these leaves are smaller and darker (less pure gold). I think that is because this isn’t a pure bud tea. The liquor is also much darker than RYGB (this is more like a dark brownish-red, whereas RYGB is a light red with a disctinctive gold ring around the edge of the cup).

There was no bitterness or astringency, and had a definite presence of honey sweetness, and cinnamon or some other spice. The aroma and overall flavor are not as strong as RYGB, so I am rating it slightly lower. However, this is still a delicious Yunnan Gold.

Thanks to oOTeaOo for this!
Rooibos Vanilla is really a classic (it seems to be a favorite in Germany), and I love it. I’ve never tried it loose before, until this.

Unfortunately, though my experience thus far has just been German brands of bagged rooibos vanilla, this isn’t any better. Perhaps they use high quality tea, or a good balance of vanilla and rooibos, so that the tea bags are actually good quality; and it’s not that this tea is bad, but the vanilla could be MUCH stronger. I wouldn’t want it so strong as to mask the rooibos entirely (I do like rooibos), but this pretty much tastes like an unflavored rooibos (you can smell the vanilla in the dry leaf, but that was about all I could detect).

I’ve played around with steeping times, too, and that hasn’t seemed to add to the presence of vanilla. I will be continuing to look for a source of loose, delicious vanilla (rooibos/honeybush) and unflavored green (rooibos/honeybush).

I received this from Mel in a swap, thanks!
This is very very good; honey-sweet and has a nice flowery taste. It left a strong aftertaste and made you want to just keep taking sips. It was gone before I knew it!

The 2nd and 3rd steeps were still somewhat flowery, but lost a noticeable amount of flavor compared to the first, so I couldn’t give it a 90 or more. I would consider buying this one at some point.

I’m surprised that I am the first one to log this!
Thanks to Mel for including this as an extra.

This is only that second darjeeling that I’ve ever had, and it is REALLY good. It is flowery, and there is a hint of sweetness — but what impressed me about the sweetness was that it came from a subtle citrus/lemony flavor. Almost as if I had squeezed a little bit of lemon into the tea and put a dash of sugar. Of course it wasn’t that strong, but it was definitely present.

I could see this being a kind of black tea I would drink regularly! My wife really liked it too, as I thought she would.

I received this from Geoff via seykayay — thank you both!

As everyone else has said, this is quite a unique tea (thanks LiberTeas for enlightening me on italics). The closest tea to it in my experience is Mellow Monk’s Top Leaf. No, of course that’s an entirely different tea. However, this as well as the top leaf opened with a very strong earthy note that to me, honestly made me think of their growing regions (both of which, Hawaii and Aso, are volcanic).

Besides that strong earth ‘volcanic’-seeming flavor, I felt like it was pretty smokey. People have mentioned it being like grilled fruit, but I unfortunately didn’t get the fruit part. I detected a very subtle aroma of fruit in the wet leaves (which yes they were pretty, whole, and large), and immediately hoped it would be present in the flavor/aroma of the tea. Alas, I pretty much got the grilled part and none of the sweet or fruit.

It was a little starchy after the grilled/smokiness faded. Unlike other people, this actually went for 3 full steepings: 1TB leaf, 4oz water (each time), 4 mins, 2 mins, and 5 mins.

Being that this is quite an expensive tea, I wouldn’t buy it because I didn’t love it (but I did enjoy it). At the same time, it was really a fun one to get to try. Thanks again for those who shared with me!

This was also part of a swap from Mel — thanks a lot! This was the first heavily charcoal roasted TGY that I’ve had. (I believe I had one from Life in Teacup before, but it was far less roasted than this one).

When I opened the bag, it smelled so familiar, like ‘dear old’ Houjicha. I was hoping this would be a wonderful cross between the roasted sweetness of Houjicha and the buttery flower of green TGY (at least, hints of floral notes or fruit).

Unfortunately, teaddict is right (other person to post on this one); it seems a little too roasted. Don’t get me wrong, it is a good tea and I enjoyed all 7 steepings (which, hadn’t really given out by the time I did), but there was very little evidence that this was a TGY. For the most part, it tasted like a Houjicha, but not my favorite one either.

Now, if I could find a cross between the two, that started with more roastedness on the first few steeps, but became more fruity or floral as the leaves opened, I think we’d have a winner!

This is a very unique, interesting white tea.
Thanks Gingko, for the sample, I enjoyed it both times (I think it was two 3.5g bags)!

The liquor was a light brown somewhat gold color. Honestly, this tea really felt like a black tea, rather than a white tea. The color wasn’t light (green or yellow tinted), the wet leaves were dark brown (again, like a black tea after infusion; not as dark as houjicha or anything), and the first pot I had of this was slightly astringent and had some malty notes!

For the first time a few days ago, I went by the directions; boiled water for 3 minutes. This afternoon, however, for the 2nd bag, I tried slightly under boiling, probably between 190-200 or so, for the same amount of time.

The astringency and drying sensation from the first pot were gone. Instead, the honey-sweetness was much more pronounced! (This was present the first time, but far less obvious). This really reminds me of a less complex Yunnan Gold. It is from the same region, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by that.

For a white tea, this was very surprising – it wasn’t too light, flowery, buttery — the honey-sweetness was quite enjoyable, but I can’t remember there being much else to it. I think I would go for Life in Teacup’s Yunnan Golden Buds over this, but that’s just my personal preference!

This was also part of a swap, thanks Mel!

This is a very enjoyable rooibos. I didn’t taste the cake flavor, but all the spices are there. Adding a bit of milk even hinted at the frosting. A clever idea for a tea, and I give it a thumbs up.

Thanks Gingko for the fun sample for Valentine’s. My wife and I enjoyed this and the Green Kiss Chocolate. There are probably a lot of things you could put these blossoms in to add character/color, and a little flavor.

The chocolate was delicious, very fun to find teeny tiny pieces of leaf in ones mouth after it melted! It had the very familiar flavor of green tea (think green tea icecream) mixed with what I thought tasted like white chocolate (buttery, not dark). I don’t think it’s pure white chocolate or anything, but there’s probably more cocoa butter than cocoa solids.

Anyway, enough about the chocolate, this is about this fun herbal tea.
While I like rose-water flavored things (icecream for one!), I was a little skeptical about drinking actual tea made from little rose blossoms. Just before the steeping finished though, I smelled the lid of the teapot, and it had such a nice, sweet, subtle, rose aroma. It didn’t quite smell like something I’d want to drink, but it was very pleasing.

The tea (tisane) itself I was a little more doubtful about after smelling; it was quite strong (though, still clear in color). However, the taste was nicely muted. The flavor of rose is definitely present, but not overwhelming. I used 10 buds for 6oz water (1-2 buds per oz). My wife pointed out that I should have used a dozen! This is the perfect tea for such an occasion.

Thanks to Mel for the sample of this!
I am very skeptical about milk oolong. Not because I’ve had one before, but because I’ve heard so much ‘controversy’ over them, whether you can find a genuine one or whether it is artificially flavored.

Well, I am on my 5th steeping (I think?) and it is still delicious. Actually, in some ways I think it might be getting better!
I didn’t preheat the pot, but simply used the quick rinse with boiling water to preheat it.
I started with steeps just under boiling for 15 seconds, 15 again, 25, 30, and now 40.

The aroma of the heated leaf was delicious, and the color of the liquor was a very clear yellow/green. The taste/aroma was like sweet cream + butter of popcorn. SO good.
The 2nd and 3rd steeps were somewhat muted; I was at this point wondering whether it was genuine or not. Again, not that I’d have anything to go by other than the milk flavor giving out after a steep or two. The 3rd one in particular made my mouth dry, it was somewhat parching, almost like sand paper? It was still decently good though, so I drank it up.

Now to the 5th steeping, the sweet, subtle flowery aftertaste is powerful and fills the throat. We’ll see if it will continue further. Though I’ve had Tie Kuan Yin many times, for my first experience with specifically a ‘milk’ oolong, this is a very good one.

This is a fun tea. I had somewhat high expectations for it, hoping it would be like a ‘high-end’ genmaicha or equivalent.

It is quite sweet from the kukicha (karigane), and the matcha gives it a strong flavor. However, it lacks the long-tasting sweet aftertaste I’ve found a number of good genmaichas have. The kelp isn’t a strongly present flavor (to me at least), but it certainly adds something unique. The main issue besides the lack of the strong aftertaste is that the texture seems a bit thin, especially steeps 2 and on.

That being said, I like this tea, and it might be one I would get from time-to-time (as an alternative to regular genmaicha).

This is my first tea from Maiko, and I have to say, their packaging is awesome!

I recommend a ratio of 2 to 1 when it comes to leaf and water. 4g leaf, 2 oz water.

It was pretty strong—not overwhelmingly so—but overall AWESOME!

I made sure everything was pre-warmed with very hot water, to control the temps and make sure the tea was actually warm when it was ready to drink! (The teapot had boiled water sitting in it up to the moment I was ready to add the leaf and the cooled water for the tea).

I love this tea. It has such a nice underlying toasted quality to it. As others have said, it isn’t a sweet-based sencha, but rather very heavy, strong umami and grassiness. It satisfies the same desire you have when you want a bowl of warm stew. No, it isn’t savory, but it has that same delicious, satisfying effect.

Thanks to LiberTeas for the sample of this.

I’ve never had a green tea from India, so it was fun to try one. This isn’t one I would seek after, but it was pleasant enough.

The leaves looked like I would think of as a small-leaf green phoenix oolong (if there was such a thing). They smelled like Gunpowder green tea, somewhat smokey and pan fried.

The flavor was like dragonwell/long jing, in that it was something like chestnuts, stir fry, but not as good. However, it had a very strong note of honey at the top of the mouth that was quite tasty and interesting. Strange too, to feel like it was a savory flavor on the one hand, and then a sweet one on the other (aftertaste).
As I said, it’s a pleasant cup.

I recently won a Valentine’s Day sampler from Life in Teacup, and as my free samples, I chose these two Pu-erhs from the Guan Zi Zai factory.
I’ve never had Pu-erh before. After reading enough tasting notes from Steepster users the_skua and cultureflip, my interest was finally perked. Also, I have to point out this article: http://hojotea.com/article_e/puerh_e.htm
After reading it, my impressions of Pu-erh were very much changed and I think it was this in the first place that helped me to even to start paying attention to what people said here on Steepster about various Pu-erh they enjoyed.
It’s a long article, but I recommend it.

Enough rambling… anyway, the first steep or two was smokey tasting and also earthy. But not unpleasantly so; I thought it was kind of calming and smooth.

At about steep four or five, my wife and I both noticed it that it was getting flowery as well (it may have been like this, but this is when we noticed it, at least), and the smokey faded to become more like the smell of tobacco. The earthiness was also less present.

I think it’s pretty yummy, and really fun to have a first-time experience not be a gross one, which seems to be a potentiality with Pu-erh in particular.

I have to really thank Ginkgo again! She is the reason I found my favorite black tea (Yunnan Gold!) and now she’s selling a tasty Pu-erh. Thumbs up to Life in Teacup!

The other day, the dry leaf in the warmed kyusu smelled delicious, just like peaches! Unfortunately, the taste did not deliver in the same way.

It is a good tea, but the best way I can describe it is a ‘lack of carry.’ The initial flavor is good, but it doesn’t have a lasting aftertaste. It seems like a decent asamushi sencha from a good region (I think near Hon yama), but I find it hard to believe that it is a “very rare” tea as SpecialTeas describes.

It could simply be my brewing technique/parameters, so I will have to keep playing with them to see if I can draw this one out.

Thanks again to LiberTeas for sharing such a nice sample!
I tried this again with cold brew (46F water for 12 minutes) and with a regular brew (160F for 1.5 minutes) and each one of those pots I did a minimum of 3 steepings…
This is definitely a unique, enjoyable tea.
The cold brew wasn’t actually as strong as I hoped, but I may have used too much water for the leaf. The hot/regular brew was very good; with strong flavors: earthy, somewhat fruit, and even a mouth-filling mintyness!

Interestingly, the wet leaf smells very similar to the brewed leaf of gyokuro!

I’m not sure I’m sold to buy 100g, yet, it’s just down on the list somewhere… (there’s just too much to try!) :-)
However, I can see that this tea is much more suited to a typical American palate (as they say on the Mellow Monk website) and isn’t grassy or bitter at all, so it could be at the top of the list for some. Either way, I give it a thumbs up!

I’ve been looking forward to trying this one; I bought it when it was 50% off, when SpecialTeas was finally going out of business. I’ve also been dreading trying this one, afraid that it would be so good, I would be sad that it would likely never be available again.

So far though, I’ve found it to be a happy medium. It isn’t quite as good as I expected from the description (though still awesome), but it isn’t so good that no other tea will substitute once it’s gone.

I tried their brewing parameters first a couple of days ago. 140 for 1.5 minutes brought a good infusion, but it seemed a little on the weak side. The next day, I tried 160 for 1.5 minutes, and while that was good, it tasted almost exactly like Sencha Zuiko from Den’s tea. I’m no expert taster by any means, so I’m sure someone could tell the differences, but it was very close. The main difference I felt (yesterday) was that it didn’t have a lot of carry. The flavors were a good mix of sweet, bitter, and light veggies, but it seemed to lack a mouth-filling aftertaste.

Today, however, since they seem to suggest brewing it like a gyokuro (my guess is for the typical American palate, to avoid any bitterness), I tried 140 for 2.5 minutes (a full minute longer than their parameters). It was quite delicious! Pleasingly sweet, and interestingly—even though this is an asamushi (light steamed) sencha—it had a very deep, umami flavor, as if it was a fukamushi! It had an almost thick texture. I didn’t taste their description of fruity/citrus, and unfortunately, it still didn’t have much in terms of aftertaste.

I enjoyed the first two infusions a lot, but the third one wasn’t very remarkable. The last took on a character that seems to be very common toward the end of a pot of sencha, it was sweet, thin, and almost fruity.

I am giving this an initial rating, but may adjust it some as I find better ways to brew it.

Thanks to LiberTeas for the sample!!

I don’t remember a lot about this, since I finished up the sample a few days ago, but it was VERY buttery/thick and very tasty. :-)