bbrowne

Not a big fan of Hojicha. I thought i would like the roastiness, but it’s not a real nutty or toasty roastiness like coffee> I find it rather dull.

I enjoyed this gunpowder more than others I’ve had previously. Less smoky and more vegetal (slightly, but way more than others I’ve had). I’m not a huge gunpowder fan though, so I won’t likely order more of this for a long while.

Another packaged tea that I like more than I expected. Good balance between the vegetal and nutty tones. I prefer loose teas, but would recommend this to someone who prefers to stick with bagged tea.

I didn’t realize I liked this Rishi tea as much as I do. The nuttiness is great and unexpected from a Japanese green. I feel like I should like this tea less since it comes packaged from the market in my neighborhood, but if I’m ever running low and need to pick-up some tea locally I won’t hesitate to buy this again.

I made a mug of Kukicha as my first this morning. The aroma of the dry tea leaves is wonderful — it reminds me vaguely of yerba mate (the lighter color and stems contributes to this also).

The resulting infusion is great as a morning tea — not too much vegetal or ocean comes through. Could be my go-to green tea for mornings before I hit the gym.

I’m drinking this now, but I got distracted and let the tea steep for 8+ minutes. I added some cold water and the result is surprisingly good. Definitely sweet and slightly smoky, with a bit of dark grass. Not too much vegetal aroma. Perhaps this would change with a more appropriate steep time, but I like this tea nonetheless.

The dry tea leaves are beautiful — I think this accounts for much of why I like Chinese green teas so much. It may not be the best Chinese green but I could certainly drink this on a regular basis, especially since the price is right.

The maltiness of the popped rice is a better compliment to green tea than I had expected. I assume the caffeine content of the steeped tea is lower since the actual volume of tea leaves is less. I think I will keep some of this on-hand as an evening/post-dinner green tea.

Going into this tea I was expecting not to like Senchas, or any other Japanese green teas for that matter. I’m generally not a fan of seaweed. So far I prefer the Chinese green teas that are more nutty, more sweet, and more buttery.

I was surprised when I opened this tea and it really had a nose of hay. And I like hay, so I was happy. After 2 minutes of steeping the vegetal notes come out, but they are complimented by more hay and nuttiness that I expected. Bitterness is minimal. Not as sweet as some of the Chinese greens I’ve had but I actually really like this tea.

The second steep (2 minutes) was not as strong as the first, with the hay even more pronounced than the first go-round.