Den's Tea

I love genmaïcha. This one is very tasty, but I feel like the added matcha doesn’t add as much flavour as I was expecting. I’d have to compare it side by side with a “normal” genmaïcha. Still, I like it a lot and it has a balanced flavour between the green tea and the toasted rice.

The matcha gives this genmaicha a little kick! I did not see any popcorn in my bag, just popped rice. I of course could not taste it either. The roasted rice had a nice flavor, though.

After my disappointing tea this morning I was looking for something a little simpler and with quieter flavors. My Tower of London made the whole room smell like cherries, which I actually did not enjoy. The smell was a little like artificial candy or cough syrup. I wanted something green and nice after that!

This was a good tea. I think perhaps I steeped it too long, but it did not seem to matter. Still delicious and roasty! Yum, just right on this chilly morning.

My first matcha!! I was so nervous making it since I’ve never done it before, but I can tell with practice it should be no problem. I haven’t figured out what’s going to be my dedicated repurposed matcha bowl yet, so I improvised using a wide shallow bowl to do the whisking and then transferring to a gaiwan. It was pretty messy—thin film of green powder all over the place, and some of it goop as it got wet accidentally, whoops.

A little surprised by the taste given how all the matcha lovers on Steepster describe it. It was indeed creamy and thick, frothy, with some sweetness especially at the front, but it also tastes exactly how I would’ve guessed powdered whole green tea leaves would taste before reading about it on Steepster—grassy and pretty bitter, especially at the back and lingering in the aftertaste. That said, I don’t dislike it entirely. I think I just need to get used to it. The aspects that are lovely are lovely enough I can be patient and keep working on it. When I reached the bottom there was some powder left despite my sifting, which made the whole thing end on a sweet, even thicker note, which I liked but I’m guessing means I need more practice whisking.

Wah, it’s a sipdown. I love this houjicha and it will certainly go on my list of things to repurchase from Den’s when I need some other things. Meanwhile I think I can cope with the bagged houjicha I got in Japantown.

Music of the afternoon: Classical Indian music for Healing and Relaxation. It’s groovy! http://www.amazon.com/Santoor-Solo-In-Rag-Bhairav/dp/B0016UIHLM

I had only a little time before work started this morning and was looking for an easy tea bag I could throw in my mug quickly. Den’s Tea sampler to the rescue! This was vibrant green in the bag, with powder that looked like matcha. I loved the color it brewed up to in my clear glass mug — it was a bright green!

The taste is pleasantly grassy and light. It tastes like many other Senchas I have tried, but without astringency. I am enjoying this as my morning tea.

I chomped on the leaves afterwards this time, figuring they were definitely sweet and tender enough. They were. A little soy sauce and some sesame oil (with a sprinkle of sesame seeds for appearance) made them really tasty! Even Fiance ate some!

(I also bumped up the score from 99 to 100, because what can’t this tea do really?)

I usually choose a strong black tea for my morning cup, but we were out of town all weekend and don’t have any milk in the fridge, so I’m happily settling with this green tea instead. It gives me a chance to get to some of my green tea samples, like this one is from Mercuryhime. The dry leaves smell slightly sweet and grassy. The tea itself has a vegetal aroma. I usually tend to choose flavored green teas, so this one was bit of a surprise to me. It has a fresh seaweed flavor with a sweet finish. There is a a strong vegetal aftertaste that reminds me of one of my favorite snacks, SnapPea Crisps. I have no idea if you’re suppose to add sweetener to this tea, but I tried it with a little sugar. You can still taste the vegetal notes, and it just brought out more of the sweetness in the flavor. I don’t know that this is a tea that I would drink every day, since I mostly prefer strong black teas, but it was fun to try it! And I’m amazed at all of the flavors that come out of steeping this one for just 1.5 minutes! Thanks, Mercuryhime, for the sample!

-Dry blend has long, small, flat green tea leaves.
-Dry leaves smell slightly sweet and grassy. Tea liquor aroma is vegetal.
-Tea liquor is a clear medium greenish yellow color.
-Fresh seaweed flavor with a sweet finish. Strong vegetal aftertaste.
-Best with the smallest amount of sweetener.
-Good tea. Flavor is reminiscent of SnapPea Crisps.

Fiance loves this tea! It must be magical.

And even if not, it’s so sooo good.

SO good iced! So good!!!

Smells and tastes great! Fresh, and sweet but not unnervingly so. I’d had negative experiences with green teas in the past but I must say so far everything I’ve tried from Den’s has been very enjoyable. It helps you can use boiling water according to their instructions (why, I don’t know, but hey).

Also, this seems like it’d be fantastic iced. Can’t wait!

ETA: So I had like 6 cups of this today (using 2 teaspoons for the entire day’s worth and my new mana-tea infuser, yay! Not-so-little guy served me well). So good! I love how after you drink it you still have this lovely mouthfeel and flavor just like you’ve eaten really juicy pineapple (it’s similar to how Joy’s Teaspoon Lemon Zest gives you an oily citrus zest mouthfeel that lingers long after finishing the tea). I get it most at the roof of my mouth.

Man this is tasty. Brewing it smells like popcorn, no surprise there, and I love how vibrantly green it is in the cup! It tastes delicious, like a toasty, buttery snack with a fresh-veggies element from the green tea. Yum! No bitterness nor any of that overt grassiness that tends to keep me away from green teas. I also like that it doesn’t require a finicky brewing temp (my thermometer method is clunky). I could easily see this becoming an afternoon “snack”.

This is such a great tea I am having from Den’s after lunch. I love the roasted/sweet flavor of this houjicha. It’s good hot or cold but I was thinking just now it would be fun to try this with some coconut flavor added in. I wonder why more tea companies don’t do flavored houjicha?

If I was stranded on a desert island this would make the top 10 of teas I would want to bring with me. :)

I’m stuck at home today waiting for the plumber (and then babysitting the plumber) because our dishwasher decided to stop draining last yet. Not the best set up for a good day. So I thought I’d break this in. No, I don’t know I’ve managed to let it sit a week without touching it either.

The dry leaf here smells like the freshest lawn clippings ever. And that is absolutely a good thing.

There was a little brewing hint enclosed advising that ramping up the first brewing temperature to 170-180 would bring out a stronger mouth and nose feeling, so I figured I’d try that first.

My first steeping was at 170 for 90 seconds, using the recommended rounded teaspoon per 2 oz.

I was blown away.

It’s grassy and subtly sweet with very very little astringency. It’s only at the bottom of my cup that I notice any dryness. There’s this wonderful savory brothiness going on too. My (probably bewildered) Fiance received a text that simply stated ‘You need to try this.’

I did a second steeping at the parameters on the package, as well (180 for 30 sec) The second steeping is similar to the first, only a little less full-bodied with more sweetness.

I can already tell this tea and I are going to be really really good friends.

I’m off work today babysitting the ceiling repairman fixing our living room. Since I’m at home where my kyusu is I decided a pot of sencha would be perfect! :)

I too received this as part of their $3 sampler. I don’t generally use tea bags so I tossed this in a bottle of water to try it cold brewed. Small amount of dust in the bag so I tossed it in too. Let it sit about 2 hours and gave it a taste test. Perfect timing! It was very refreshing.

I drank about half a bottle and refilled it to see if it would keep going. Much to my surprise it held on for the second brew. This is a very good standard sencha in my opinion. I will order more to have for this summers cold brews!

I’ve decided to tackle my Den’s sampler, that I’ve now had for over a year and barely made a dent in! Shouldn’t take long to get through most things :D

Anyhow, I hadn’t previously tried this one, but thankfully, it seems that age has not hurt it too badly. The flavour is roasty and sweet, and definitely kind of seaweedy. So not quite like genmaicha, especially as the toastiness is coming from the tea itself, not toasted rice. It’s certainly pretty tasty, however! I’d definitely be happy to add this into my “comforting evening teas” rotation. I suspect it would also suit a travel mug well, though I don’t think I have enough to try that.

Sipdown! This tea makes an excellent case for drinking greens when they are fresh, because, uh… it kind of tastes juuuuuuust a bit like cat pee :P Not that I know what it tastes like, but just the smell… you know? So now I get why my dad made the same comment about a green tea I once gave him :)

Anyhow, I will hopefully try more teas of this type in the future, as my previous note indicates that I was pretty impressed, and for the most part, I’m enjoying the chewy, vegetal flavour. It just goes a teensy bit too far into a funny flavour, for me.

Mmmm mmmm MMMMMMM. Den’s really does do genmaicha well. I used a tablespoon of leaf and it’s perfect. The toasty rice flavor is there and the leaves are nice and sweet. No bitterness. I’ve been trying to drink up another genmaicha I have that is going stale; I think it’s time to call it quits on that. Why force myself to drink stale tea when I have this in the cupboard?? I just feel terrible throwing tea out, knowing how much work goes into it…

Today brewed 2tsp with 8oz water at 170 degrees for 90 seconds. Mmmmm tasty! So fresh. I LOVE sniffing the dry leaf. Almost intoxicating just smelling it!

Happy Mother’s Day!
Because my mother is an avid roses person, along with being strictly “sencha-only” in regards to tea, this was an easy choice for the day.

Brewed with Den’s parameters. This is a light-tasting, light-bodied sencha, and that mildness works well with the understated rose flavoring to create a very polite, elegant brew. No loud notes here, just a very balanced, steadied tea. This has that nice, soft, “fluffy” (?) texture I like from mild sencha. Incredibly easy to drink.

Although… is this really what rose flavor is like? Since Mother keeps our gardens overflowing with roses, I’m familiar with roses, but I haven’t had a lot of rose-flavored things. The aroma is very pleasantly rose, and there are petals in the dry leaf, but this tastes more like… pineapple? If pineapples were flowers… It’s not entirely fruity, but it’s bright, slightly sweet-tart, almost tropical. By rose-flavor, I was expecting a dewy, fresh-cut, perfume-like profile.

Whatever this flavor may be, it’s certainly clean, and applied with skillful restraint. Lively, without being loud; subtle, without being spineless. Mr. Den seems to make such balanced blends, I look forward to relying on them more and more.

No notes yet.

I brewed this tea following Den’s tea instructions (2 grams of tea in 3 oz water for 1 min) and it was just perfect. It’s a really sweet green tea with no bitterness at all. It was very flavourful and I enjoyed it a lot.

I also tried brewing it using 2 grams of tea in 6 oz water and it was still sweet and delicious but not as flavourful.

I received this as a sample in my most recent Den’s order. This is meant to be thin match (Usacha). I was pleasently sursprised by the lack of bitterness. It was smooth and creammy, sweet and delicious! I immediately wanted more! The caffeine kick was amazing, move over coffee I just found your morning replacement. I will have to include this on my next order as I loved it so much.

I purchased this Matcha to make Matcha Au laut’s for my family. I am tired of paying a lot for Starbucks green tea fraps so this was an ideal alternative. I mixed it with Splenda packets and vanilla flavored almond milk and ice cubes in a blender and its a huge hit at home! My family thinks it tastes exactly like Starbucks offering.