Ito En

Each bag of this barley tea is pretty prolific and brews 1-2 liters of fine cold brew tea!! It’s refreshing and simple, tastes like bready barley. If you’re looking to replace literally all of the water you drink with something refreshing that you probably can’t get sick of, this is your jam. One day I’ll get around to brewing it hot.

P.S. I ran out of lemonade once and made a “barley pick” with this tea iced, some good vodka and a little zero-cal sweetener. Absolutely amazing and probably dangerous.

P.P.S. one order of this tea comes with approx. one hundred billion very large bags. This is an extremely cost effective iced tea.

This is probably one of my absolute favorites. When blended well, it’s sooooo smooth, and nothing needs to be added to it in order to make it the perfect cup. It just is. If you happen across this at the store, do yourself a favor and try it out.

I need a pick me up. I have to keep going for at least another 90 minutes. I decided I need to drink up some of my older matcha but I think I will change my mind on that. Now that I have had Harney and Sons matcha, this one made me a little sad.

It isn’t terrible and isn’t the worst matcha I have ever had, but life is short and I don’t need to waste time drinking things I don’t love. This is now being relegated to matcha latte stash. This is my last bowl of this one straight. No guilt. No shame.

A quick cup for a pick me up this afternoon. Two scoops, paste made with cold water, 160F water added and whisked, three chocolate squares consumed. And I made it! Trip to grocery, post office, bank, and….ahem….the liquor store, for vodka that I use to clean the chicken coop, preserve my homemade juju, and make vanilla extract. Yes, really. I don’t drink the stuff! It seems quite horrible to me, honestly.

This is a very drinkable matcha, though it doesn’t hold a candle to the now defunct KaiMatcha Premium. I miss you, KMP!

I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed this one, as I have had it quite a few times.

Yesterday I saw a video on Facebook of a tea master making Matcha. He used cold water to make the paste and it said you didn’t need to sift if you do this. I do always begin with a paste using sifted matcha, but always the same water I am making the matcha with – around 160F. I decided to give his method a try.

I consider it a success. At first I thought I was going to have some clumps but they dissolved well. I probably used a little more cold water than I should have. Next time I will make a thicker paste. I added two scoops of powder because I have a headache and a lot left to do today.

I really believe this is the thickest, loveliest froth I have ever seen for this matcha. As sticky and muggy as it is outside, I do not mourn the loss of a degree or two of temperature in the cha wan.

As for the matcha itself, it was a super economical buy and tastes good enough to drink as a daily drinker. It still doesn’t beat D25 or KaiMatcha Premium, which sadly seems to have gone out of business. But for the price and for a quick afternoon bowl of sustaining matcha, I’ll take it! Grassy, not sour, sweet and smooth enough to stand above culinary grade.

I’m really surprised this has so few reviews, considering you can buy this at asian grocery stores and health food stores all across America.

Skip this section if you don’t like anecdotes in reviews!
I had the pleasure/honor/curse of reviewing about 70 different matchas in a blind taste test a couple years ago for a company that sells matcha. This was done to help the vendor evaluate their products and decide on new matchas to source. Among the blind samples were also samples from other companies and vendors. The idea was that rating and ranking these teas would help this vendor understand how their matcha compared in quality and value to those from other companies. The experience was really fun, and at the same time daunting, and the end result was I burned out on matcha so badly I didn’t drink it for a year!

Now the matcha spark has been relit in me because I saw a beautiful chawan in an Asian market that I just had to buy. I’ve been broke this past year due to a move to my first house and various other factors, so for me it’s been rare to order or review any new teas. I feel like a ghost here since I used to be so active. Anyway, this matcha love usucha cost me a whopping $6 because Sprouts Farmer’s Market had it on sale for $10 and was running a $4 coupon at the same time. What better opportunity to try it?

Actual review begins here!
This was actually one of the matchas included in a blind taste test I did a couple years ago, but it has been so long since I had matcha that when I bought a tin of this recently I decided to just try this one over again before reading my initial evaluation from that taste test, give it a fresh chance.

I do want to share my initial impression though here. My initial rating for this tea back then was only 40/100. My notes read “This tea doesn’t leave a very strong impression. The scent and color were inviting, but the flavor is lacking and finishes moderately bitter. I’m mostly getting a seaweed impression from the flavor, and it’s a bit creamy as well. The bitter finish is unfortunate and really subtracts from the subtle flavors, which in themselves aren’t that easy to discern.”

Now, trying this again a couple years later, are my impressions the same? Has the company changed their product in any way? Let’s give it a try. I’m preparing this the traditional (a.k.a. ceremonial) way with the matcha whisked in about 2.5 oz of water.

This time around, I’ll start by saying the color and aroma are nice. The powder is a nice jade green. It’s not a very vivid color, but it is at least green and not tending toward the dingy yellows and browns of terrible matchas. The scent is sweet, mild, and nutty. The taste is, let’s be honest, rather unremarkable and difficult to describe. In fact, I’m just going to stick with my original description because I think that was a pretty accurate one!

I will say, I have been using this matcha also in soy-milk iced matcha lattes as well as for matcha affogato, and I’ve found both applications to be pretty good. This is not a matcha I’d recommend for traditional use unless you are like me and are scraping the bottom of your savings, yet desperate for matcha. For the modern “froufrou” uses, this one is just fine. I have to say I recall this tasting better a few weeks ago when I opened the tin. I haven’t stored it in refrigeration so I think maybe the powder has just gone “off” a bit since then. I feel pretty neutral about this matcha, so I’ll up my initial review score to a nice even 50. I don’t really feel it is good or bad. It’s just (barely) matcha. Take it or leave it.

I think for the price of this matcha though, you can do better. The tin seems cheaper than others but I only recently realized that it’s also because it is smaller than most that are available Stateside. Most matcha tins I’ve seen hold an ounce, while this one holds just over 2/3 of an ounce. The catch reveals itself.

Just trying this today after getting the sampler in the male. I drank a cup of the matcha that I order with this shipment, and now I’m drinking this. It was a lot easier to pack on the go. After expressing a bias toward Oi Ocha, I realized I had not tried enough of Teas’ Tea to assert such a preference. So I spent more money than I needed to for these samples and free shipping. xD My parents were not impressed. More teas? Yes. So, this is my second tea that I have opened. I couldn’t resist the enticement of the rose.

It is quite light, and the rose is fairly obvious. It’s nice that the tea is mild, because I really wanted the rose to be the focal point of the tea. It is very floral, and reminds me of perfume, but not in an overpowering way. It really is quite refreshing, but I do love rose. I feel that the lightness of the tea and the soft taste of the rose make for a balanced finish without any flavor competing with the other. Its not at all herbacious, at least to the extent that you’re reminded of grass. I could buy a case of this flavor.

Since I can’t find any faults in this, I’m giving it a very biased 100.

A delightful, comforting cup of matcha! It goes down smooth and has a savory taste to it that doesn’t overwhelm you. I like to drink it in the middle of the day to give me a gentle energy boost; it perks me up and doesn’t have the added caveat of a crash later that coffee might have. I usually don’t add anything in it or steep other herbs with it, but a little bit of vanilla creamer or milk is bound to be just as wonderful.

Pretty sure this is the tea I was served last night when we went out for Thai. Nothing special, but it was drinkable for keeping warm in a chilly restaurant. Beany vegetal, pretty diluted, so it probably could have used less water, plus, they poured the water in the mug and brought me the teabag to put in myself.

This is the last of the Ito En bottled teas I purchased last week. As I sit here drinking it iced, it is my favorite of the bunch. I tend to prefer robust and vegetal green teas and this one definitely is that kind of tea.

On the nose, the golden amber liquor produces a strong, grassy vegetal scent with an undertone of grain. In the mouth, I picked up on clear notes of grass, hay, straw, and grain accompanied by a hint of honey on the finish. The sensation in the mouth is heavy and drying. This is definitely a filling tea. Compared to some other bottled teas that I have tried, the ascorbic acid presence is not terribly distracting.

This is a nice bottled tea. It strikes me as being a step up from the regular Oi Ocha. I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a good bottled tea with a bit of bite.

I’m kind of backlogging indirectly here. I am drinking a bottle of this tea as I type this review, but I have had this before. I used to drink this tea in college. I recall purchasing it when I wanted a green tea on the go. I think I always used to buy it at either CVS or Walgreen’s, but I could be wrong. I used to stock up on this and Arizona Blueberry White Tea so I could have some bottled teas to throw in the fridge and grab on the way to class.

Drinking this now, I can see why I used to buy it so frequently. It has a mildly vegetal nose. In the mouth, there is a nicely pronounced grassiness, as well as hints of hay, straw, and vegetables. The ascorbic acid presence is not particularly noticeable. I also get a slightly peachy, nectar-like sweetness on the back of the throat.

Overall, I think this is a nice bottled green tea. I am really enjoying it iced at the moment. I could see myself purchasing this one more often if it were more available in my immediate area.

I must be the outlier here. I’m still working my way through my recent Ito En acquisitions, but so far, this is the only one for which I really do not care. It’s a jasmine green tea that neither smells nor tastes like jasmine.

On the nose, I do not get much of an aroma. There is maybe a hint of floral character and a slight grassiness, but not much else. In the mouth, the taste up front is very grassy and vegetal. It kind of tastes like a combination of straw, hay, and grass. There is a slight fruitiness too that I can only describe as overripe cantaloupe. The floral character is faint, and to me, only barely identifiable as jasmine. Also, I must say that I find the ascorbic acid presence to be pretty noticeable. I have not gotten as much of it from the other Ito En teas I have tried to this point.

After being impressed with the golden oolong, I was more than willing to approach this bottled tea with an open mind. Unfortunately, it has really let me down hard. I have yet to find a bottled jasmine tea that I enjoy. I guess I’ll keep searching and pass on this one in the future.

Living in what sometimes seems like the middle of nowhere can be so frustrating. I couldn’t find anything to descale my electric tea kettle or coffee maker at my local grocery store and had to make the 30 minute drive to Pikeville, KY first thing this morning to find something. Well, I was able to find some descaler, but I also came home with new tea that I most certainly did not need. I knew there was a reason I avoided the large Food City there. I ended up coming home with 2 boxes of Wissotzky Tea (Imperial Earl Grey and English Breakfast), a box of PG Tips (I just couldn’t resist), and 4 bottles of various Ito En iced teas. This Golden Oolong was one of them.

According to the back of the bottle, this tea is a blend of Huang Jin Gui and Tieguanyin. I’m a huge fan of the latter, but don’t care so much for the former. On the nose, I got a mild blend of banana, cinnamon, osmanthus, honey, and peach. In the mouth, I detected notes of butter, banana, osmanthus, apricot, nectarine, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg, and peach. There were also subtle undercurrents of wood and grain.

Truthfully, this tea was kind of surprising. I have avoided bottled pre-brewed oolongs for years because the few that I have had have been uniformly horrible. I am not even really a fan of making iced oolong. Saying that I approached this tea with low expectations would be a huge understatement. This wasn’t bad though. It was very smooth and nothing about it seemed artificial. It would not be something I would choose to reach for with regularity, but for a cheap, quick oolong on the go, it is quite nice. I’m impressed.

271 – golden oolong by Ito en. Review.

Ru Yao dragon teapot, gongfucha.

Dry leaf: fruity, floral.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BL3to3Pg-YC/

Wet leaf: fruity, floral, peachy, green grapes.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BL3v07NgL7T/

1x short rinse

Light steep: I taste/smell; light
—→ cream, peaches, apricots, floral, smoke, green grapes.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BL3urhJgV2S/

Medium steep: I taste/smell; the same as light steep. (Weird)

Heavy steep: I taste/smell; strong smoke.
strong to almost overpowering —→ bitterness, green grapes, peaches, apricots, floral, cream. Very strong mouth drying effect.

All in all, a wonderful tea! Nice aroma, tastes, and cha qi. However the dry mouth effect is creepy. I rate a 99.

http://www.itoen.com/loose-leaf/oolong/golden-oolong#.WAu2t_krKM8

Insanely delicious and totally unique tea. Dark green, vegetal flavor with super high theanine content (I suspect). I’ve never found anything that matches Megami, or even comes close. At $79/lb at Wegman’s, it’s been a challenge to afford my daily habit – but I do – year after year.

Sipdown!

Enjoyed this to the very end. Excellent for price and quality.

Like many of my teas… this one is also past its best before date.. by like, more than an entire year.

This is what happens when you buy at a much faster rate than you can drink, and you live in Australia where there aren’t enough people to gift or swap tea with.

Anyway, this was a Japan souvenir from my boyfriend. First time I made it, I followed a website’s directions to use water ‘just below boiling.’ I assumed this to mean 90-95C and it turned out very bitter with no froth.

Gave this another shot at 80C recommended elsewhere, and it was perfect! Beautiful foam, no bitterness at all. Light and smooth, with vegetal and herbaceous flavours. Slight umami quality, most likely more intense if this wasn’t past its best before date by a year.

Reminds me of my own time in Japan, attending a tea ceremony tutorial in Kyoto. The quality of this matcha is not too far off from the ceremonial grade quality used by my hostess and teacher. Not quite, but not too far off.

Bitter, tasteless dishwater, total RIPOFF—SAVE YOUR $$$$$

This matcha is a bit lighter and sweeter with a more grassy fresh taste to it compared to the other Ito En grocery store matcha.

This is the first matcha that I have had so I do not have any basis to compare it with other matchas. The matcha comes off to me as a strong green tea that is surprisingly smooth. I am only able to whip up much of a froth in the bowl but I am not sure if it has to do with the quality or my lack of experience in making matcha.

Picked this up at a local grocery recently. I wasn’t expecting too much of a canned tea, though it did turn out better than expected. It’s a decently smooth and energizing sencha with an umami undertone, and no excessive grassiness or off-ness that comes with overbrewing. There is, however, a noticeable bitterness. It’s convenient as a cold and unadulterated drink of tea when you’re not able to brew your own, but doesn’t otherwise stand out.

This is my favorite bottled tea. Hands down!

Robust, full flavor. Dark, rich green tea, zero bitterness, it is smooth and incredibly delicious! I would buy this by the case.

My only wish is if Ito-En sold the loose leaf for this brew… I can’t figure it out, it is a mystery to me! A delicious, delicious mystery!

Has the slight roasty bitterness of black tea or of smoky Tieguanyins, without the fragrance / fruitiness / floral notes / butteriness that I like in an Oolong. Nice that they stock it in my office fridge, but I would not drink this again.