Shinobi_cha

A sample of this was given to me by a family member who likes tea…
I am not a big black tea fan, simply because I don’t want to get into something that has a lot of caffeine. I like both coffee and black tea, but I try not to drink it often for that reason.

But, I noticed this had a very slight initial astringency, followed by a slight and pleasant smokiness, and it ended with a very slightly sweet and ‘full bodied’ or ‘rounded’ flavor. Not sure exactly how to describe that last flavor that I tasted, but it was the main component of the tea and very pleasant.

So many black teas are named “_______ Breakfast Tea”… and this tea really felt like it belongs at breakfast time.

I wouldn’t buy this tea, but only because I’m not into black teas and don’t intend to get into them. But I will enjoy having a small sample of it, and would gladly drink a cup in the future if the opportunity arose.

As many have recently reviewed (this being the free sample of last month), I tried Den’s version today for the first time.
Strangely enough, I have a decent amount of experience drinking barley tea. In Seoul, I had it for the first time in a restaurant and it was so good I bought it again when I came back to the States.
Korean friends of ours gave us roasted, loose, barley, and I can put a bunch of that in a pot and boil it and drink it hot or cold. I’ve reviewed barley tea before on Steepster, and I was reviewing this stuff (loose roasted barley, not the crushed stuff in a bag that you can more easily find in the store).

This was surprisingly very good, better than the other bagged barley tea that I’ve had before. (Though, not quite as good as the loose, but that’s not surprising).
The sweetness was especially a lot stronger than I expected.

In Germany, they have this stuff called ‘Caro Kaffee’ which my wife keeps telling me about. It’s a non-caffeinated coffee substitute that consists of roasted barley, chicory, malt, and rye. It sounds delicious. You can find it online, but if you want to get something cheaper, get Mugicha! I’m sure it’s good hot, and I imagine it would be good with sweets, just like coffee (yet, you can drink it at night).

I’ve been hearing about how good iced houjicha is, so I finally tried it.
I wanted a big pitcher full, so I used 36oz water and 3 heaping TBSP (9 tsp, as the formula is 1 tsp per 4 oz water) of leaf.
After I got the water to a boil, I poured it over the leaves in our big glass teapot. I let it steep a little longer than suggested to make sure it was strong, filtered the tea into the pitcher and once it cooled to room temp put it in the fridge.

(You know what, even though its kind of boring to read, I put all those directions in most of my tasting notes in case I ever come back and want to know how I made something, in case it turned out well. Also, in case there is someone else who wanted to try it.)

Anyway, iced houjicha IS good. Strong sweetness, light roasted flavor, the benefits of iced tea without the bitterness you get from many mass produced, bagged black iced teas. I shouldn’t even compare the two, as they aren’t in the same category, but having dark-colored iced tea in a pitcher reminded me of what everyone drinks in the South (Lipton, Luzianne, etc.), but tasted SO much better.

Definitely recommended!

The last of this year’s hashiri shincha!

I hadn’t tried it iced (at least, I didn’t remember if I had) so I got about 2oz water, put it in the freezer until it was almost at freezing (35F). I poured that into the side of the kyusu (which had a little more than 1T loose leaf), so that the leaves weren’t completely covered in water, more just sitting in it. (I of course steeped it more, one at 140, 160, and 200F…the 140 was awesome especially too).

It was so good; had as much umami and almost seaweed-like flavor that the Award Winning Premium Gyokuro had. This is definitely my favorite tea so far (with the Gyokuro coming in a close 2nd). I will miss it until next year; hopefully it will be just as good!

This is so yummy!
The 2nd infusion left such an amazing aroma in my mouth after I finished the cup. I don’t remember all the flavors, but the lingering flavor actually continued to develop for at least 5-10 minutes after I’d finished!

This should be called “Fuji Apple Sencha”, as the smell is just like fuji apples (when they are good, they can smell and taste just like that delicious green apple candy flavor, without the fake sweetness). The smell really is scrumptious.

The taste was more subdued than I expected after inhaling the aroma, but I shouldn’t have been surprised, since it was a Den’s flavored. The sencha and apple were really well balanced. This reminds me of a fuji apple-flavored sake I had once (iced) that was incredibly delicious. I’ll have to try this iced, too. For flavored senchas, Sakura is still my favorite, but I’m glad I have more than just a sample of Apple.

We have a friend who lived in Morocco and at a recent visit, taught us how to make the real thing — Moroccan mint tea. You need Chinese Gunpowder green tea as the base, but we didn’t have itunfortunately. My wife had the genius idea of using Houjicha Gold — I was a bit concerned because of the thought that the roasted flavor could take over, but since I knew this could take boiling water, we tried it anyway. (For loose leaf, we didn’t have any other options that could take boiling water very well).

We went out to the small garden in front of our place and picked enough fresh mint to fill up a whole English pot (40oz water) full of mint leaves. We boiled around 36 oz water, added 6 tsp sugar, and poured it over the leaves. Then we turned the fire back on until the water re-boiled. I poured 12 oz this mint-water over the (3 tsp loose leaf) houjicha in a smaller pot, and steeped the houjicha according to the normal directions (boiling for 30 seconds). (Thus, we were able to re-steep the houjicha 3x using 12 oz each time.)

It came out extremely delicious! Minty, sweet, and a very small hint of roastedness.
Our friend said it was reminiscent of the times having tea in Morocco with friends. :-) The secret was using fresh peppermint (especially from right there in the garden!). SO delicious. If this was a separate tea of its own, I’d give it a 90-95.

I’m sure we’ll make it again when more peppermint becomes available.

Finished this up today! Glad for more space for new tea, but it was excellent. Next year I may not get it again only because I still want to try other shinchas and get a good idea of what is out there, however I would guess in the long run it would be one I get in the spring.

Rather than duplicate what has already been said, please just refer to TeaEqualsBliss’ review — I think she described it exactly.

This was my first experience with Gyokuro. I felt pretty overwhelmed by the flavor, it was a little powerful for me (but I loved it…it was just a lot stronger than I expected).
I did the steepings as follows: 5g loose leaf: 1) 2oz water @ 35F for 7 mins, 2) 2oz @ 120F for 2 mins, 3) 2oz water @ 160 for 1 min, 4) 2oz water @ 180F for 30 seconds, and 5) 2oz water @ 200F for 15 seconds.

For the first steeping, I poured the water to the side of the kyusu, instead of directly on top of the leaves, so that not all of the leaf was covered in water (there was a good little pile on top of dry leaf). Closed the lid, and waited. After a few minutes I opened the lid to smelled; the aroma was like seaweed or ocean, salty and a hint of sweet, and there was something present I’ve not yet encountered in a Japanese green (I assume that is because I haven’t had gyokuro before).
I sipped it very slowly, because every drop was FULL of flavor. It didn’t have the typical taste I have come to expect from the other Japanese greens I’ve had… but it was a combination of seaweed (almost salty in an almost irresistible way…so hard to describe because it didn’t taste like drinking salt either) a melon-like fruitiness, and a creamy-sweet that was at first very pleasant, and then ended up being very rich. This tea is VERY rich. If one were lucky enough to have an English pot full of several 8oz cups of this, I doubt one could finish it (though you’d want to!), it is THAT rich.

Subsequent steepings brought out further the overpowering seaweed/salty, melon/fruity, sweet/creaminess in different proportions (with the sweet/creamy and melon coming out more as the temp went up). There was so much going on, and I’m not really that good at describing it.

Like I said, this was a little overwhelming for my tastebuds, but was crazy good. I wonder how much 2oz would cost, if it were for sale?
I hope to get another chance to taste gyokuro like this, and I hope I haven’t ruined my taste for others by trying (I can only guess) one of the best out there!

This is almost gone! :( Maybe 2g left?

I had tried this once a while ago at 140, but I must not have steeped it long enough that time, because the only flavor that came through (that I can remember) was an intense sweetness combined with some pleasant bitterness (not that warming soup-like-greens quality, that extra depth that I was hoping for).

This time I went ahead and steeped it a lot longer, for 90 – 105 seconds.

It really tasted like the most delicous soup broth (without the saltiness), but at the same time it is STILL tea, and doesn’t feel weird to have it with breakfast.

I am not a vegetarian, but the savouriness of this tea makes me a believer that one could find, in vegetables alone, all of the wonderful flavors that roasted meat, beef stock, or bbq provide.

These are just leaves! Yet, they have just as much heart-warming deliciousness as a savoury french onion soup, and a sweetness alongside that rounds the flavor so nicely.

The 2nd steeping was almost as good as the first too… I’m going to miss this tea!

Compared a sample of this directly in a blind tasting against Den’s Zuiko.
I think as others have reported, it must be very temperature sensitive. The first brewing had a lot of bitterness and was also fairly astringent. I still liked it, actually; I can tolerate a lot of bitterness and still enjoy it. However, I don’t remember much else in terms of flavor, though I’m sure my memory isn’t serving me well here. I did like it, but I knew that the other I had tried (at the time I didn’t know which was which, as it was a blind tasting) was better.

Also, I steeped each 3 times, and by the third this one was already spent (tasted mostly watery).

For only one shot, I’m going to give this a little benefit of the doubt, because I did like it, in spite of it having more bitterness/astringency than I expected.

Had a sampler of this and compared it directly to Shin-ryoku. I don’t always like giving a review after just a sample, because if I messed up the brewing parameters (or more likely, if I haven’t found brewing parameters that I like with that particular tea through experimentation, which I can’t obviously do with a sample), I won’t get a very accurate idea of how I like the tea and how it compares to others.

In order to compare this and Shin-ryoku fairly, I did a blind test, and used the same parameters (3 oz @160 F, 2 grams tea, 90 seconds).

This came out with hints of sweetness, a little (just a little) bitterness, creaminess (yes, like delicious whipped cream without the sugaryness), and a little astringency. I think this would do even better at a lower temperature for the first brewing, so I’m going to try it (when I get a full bag) at 140 or iced-brewing and report back.

Had the last of this yesterday.
I brewed it at a bit lower to get the sencha to come through; it had a subtle but tasty umami flavor, but I actually think I prefer it with a more fruity taste and the sencha coming through underneath (instead of being the dominant flavor).

I’m going to miss this until next year, but it is fun to have something to look forward to.

I opened this tea and let my two-year-old smell it. She just said, “Papa, kann ich ein bisschen essen?” (Papa, can I eat a little?) She didn’t know what it was, but that is how delicious the aroma of this tea is,—even a little kid wants to eat it!

The aroma of the brewed tea itself is delcious too; and in my new yunomi the color looked almost as dark as coffee. Such a good tea and I love having it around to switch things up from the normal steamed greens I’ve been drinking.

Sweet, a little thick, so tasty – such good quality tea for the price!
I am very surprised that tea with this flavor is only $15.

If you are getting bitterness, try steeping the first one at 160, and slowly go up from there (10 degrees each steeping).

This has a very nice toasted rice taste; I think I liked the toasted flavor better than the other genmaichas that I’ve tried.

That being said, the matcha flavor doesn’t come through very strongly, nor does the sencha. 1TTEN’s genmaicha has a very wonderful, sencha, fruity-like aftertaste. Den’s has a very nice mix overall (the matcha adds a definite, delicious sweetness). But this is still good and as I said, I really liked the taste of the genmaicha.

For their premium tea bags, so far this is a lot better than the sencha, but not as good as the gyokuro.

I couldn’t wait any longer and finally opened this tea today.
When I opened the canister and dumped the bag of tea into it, I smelled the dry leaf. Surprisingly, the leaf didn’t give off a lot of smell. I saw all the small leaf particles and realized that this was also a fukamushi. (Well, I wasn’t sure until I read other notes on this tea).
I ignored their instructions suggesting 195F water…that seemed too high to me, especially for a first steep. I used 1 TBS leaf, 4 oz water, and 155 temp, and steeped for 45 seconds to 1 minute.

The color was a pleasing light green, and I would say the_skua described the tea very well; I’ll do so again but in layman’s terms, haha!

Basically, it had a very pleasing, fresh aroma, and tasted of fresh cooked greens (without that yucky vegetable flavor that you get from greens…though don’t get my wrong I do love steamed mustard greens). Anyway, the flavor seemed to be a standard Japanese green, but I detected no bitterness, astringency, and a very lingering/filling sweetness that was very different than the other 2 shinchas I’ve tried. I really liked this sweetness, as it tasted like the sweetness of a perfectly ripe melon (no, the tea was not melon flavor, but the sweetness was more like that of a fruit), rather than the extremely intense but short-lived sweetness I’ve tasted in the other shinchas.

As the_skua mentioned, other than the very fresh greens flavor (vegetal as many call it) and that accompanied sweetness, the flavor wasn’t complex or deep. That being said it was delicious! I’m not rating this one quite as high as the other shinchas I’ve tried, as they felt like eye-opening “WOW” experiences, and this did not. However, that may only be due to the fact that I tried the other shinchas first, and had more of an idea of what to expect from this. Even though I wouldn’t say the taste surprised me and made me say “WOW”, I would still say this is an excellent tea; if you’re on the fence about trying a shincha, then I can honestly say this is a good decision.
The reason I say that is because of the amount you get and the price…both of which are better (better price, more tea) than the other 2 I bought in the past couple months. If you’re new to shincha, I’d suggest going with this one; just don’t steep at 195F! (Lower temps always bring out more sweetness and are a lot more friendly to novices like me).

This tea also held up well to 3 more infusions, the sweetness being accompanied by a very slight but pleasant bitterness in the 2nd-3rd infusions, and in the 4th the sweetness was the main flavor. I increased the temp each time (170, 180, near-boiling) and decreased the amount of time I steeped the leaves.

Just so everyone is aware, I did win this tea, but the rating I am giving really is my opinion; if I had spent the money on it, I would have thought it money well spent.

I may buy more of this shincha this year (I think when I’ve finished this, I’ll have had enough shincha for the year!), but I already have my eye on a couple of other offerings by Maeda-en that I hope to get in the coming months.

I tried this sample tea bag today.
I would say it is a decent sencha for a tea bag, falls in the average range, but wasn’t exceptional. It wasn’t a particularly strong flavor, and wasn’t eye opening like the first tea bag samples I tried from Den’s Tea; however, it did leave a very delicious, sweet aftertaste in the mouth.
I’d still go for their gyokuro tea bag if I was wanting to get something convenient and cheaper than loose leaf.

I tried the tea bag sample of this last night.
I have no real experience with gyokuro (though, I’ve been intending to try it)…the only time I’ve had something like it was not great (Gyokuro blend Sencha by Yamamotoyama… I don’t recommend this really).

Like others mentioned, the flavor wasn’t very strong. I used 4oz of 160 degree water, and steeped for 2 minutes. While it did have some watery flavor, the tea flavor was excellent. Pure sweetness and an aftertaste that was also a little sweet but filled the mouth. For a teabag, this was really good tea (and got multiple steepings)… I would buy this if I found it in the Japanese store and wanted to get a good quality tea in bags.

Dear Maeda-en:
I just received this tin yesterday, I am excited to try it in the next couple of weeks and will post my review as soon as I have done so. (I am waiting to open it until I finish a little more of my open tea…I don’t want to have everything open at the same time and then some of it spoil.)

Thanks so much! Thank you too, for sending 4 samples of tea bags as well, I will certainly review those too! That was a nice surprise.

You know what, even though I am biased toward this tea, it is actually VERY good genmaicha. The genmai isn’t so overpowering that I can’t taste the sencha, and the sencha is actually delcious – the aftertaste lingers in my mouth for a long time, and it is a fruity sweetness that is so yummy.

So if you’re thinking of getting genmaicha (without matcha) and you already like it (because they only have 200g, which is a lot), order from them $12 and free shipping …there aren’t many places here in the US you could order from and get that price. (In the grocery store you could, but 1TTEN actually pops the brown rice right before they ship it to you, so it is as fresh as possible…).

Yes, it sounds like I’m promoting them, and I am a little bit I admit, but I wanted to add another note to this tea because it is actually very good.

This just came in the mail to my office.
I entered a contest in May, all you had to do was fill out 2 survey questions, and not only did I win this tea, but 2 teacups and a 12oz teapot too!!

The leaf itself smells very strongly of seaweed and popped rice. The flavor is pretty good, but since my only other experience with this tea is with Matcha, it is hard for me to compare. Unfortunately or fortunately, the water heater at my office heats water to 170 (yes, I brought a thermometer to work once to test it!), so perfect for Sencha, but not quite hot enough for Genmaicha.
Either way, this is still very good. And the coworkers I shared it with also liked it. Maybe this isn’t the best Genmaicha out there, but I’m giving it high marks because it was free and good quality for my taste!

And even if I hadn’t gotten it free, it would have been incredibly cheap – $12 for 7.1 oz.
Go to www.1tten.jp and check it out – simple selection, but good prices, free shipping (and it’s fast for something coming from Japan).

On the brewing instructions that they send out, Den mentions that his grandfather liked brewing hashiri shincha with boiling water, and that he likes it as well. The instructions go on to recommend playing with the parameters too, to see how it affects the flavor so you can find what you like best. The only rule of thumb is higher water temp = shorter brewing time, lower water temp = longer brewing time.

So I just had to experiment and try it with boiling water.

It was STILL excellent. The bitterness (or young/fresh flavor) was more pronounced, but not at all overpowering. With a low quality green tea, boiling water can make it undrinkable, but not with hashiri shincha. While it wasn’t my favorite brewing thus far, it was still delicious and I would definitely do it again. All of the previous flavors I’ve talked about were present and came through after the initial rush of young bitterness and then intense sweetness. Even an amateur like me can tell the difference; this is good tea and I recommend it to anyone who likes Japanese green tea!