Mellow Monk

Been on a bit of a Japanese green kick and I have tried a handful of senchas, gyokuros and a highly touted shincha over the past few months — I must say Top Leaf is the cream of the crop. For my tastes, and wallet this is the best sencha I have found yet!

Everything about this tea is very well rounded, without a single glaring flaw or characteristic dominating the flavor profile or aroma. Top Leaf brings the entire gambit of Japanese flavors together seamlessly into a full bodied and near perfectly balanced cuppa creamy green greatness: sweet, creamy, savory, nutty, vegetal, mildly oceanic with a forgiving faint citrus-like astringency. Really I can’t emphasize enough how well balanced these elements are in this particular tea, its certainly an accomplishment!

Another high point, Top Leaf is relatively flexible and forgiving with regards to brew temp and time which is not a characteristic shared with many other senchas I have encountered. It brews wonderfully mellow and sweet at gyokuro-like temperatures ~ 120 and can tolerate a full minute of 180 for the savory 2nd steep without getting overly bitter. Anything in-between is great too of course! Really, you have to completely blow it (in sencha standards!) to muck this one up.

Overall a great great sencha and certainly worthy of a spot amongst one of my favorite teas. Its exceptionally well balanced bordering on exquisite! I have gone through 3.5 oz and recently ordered more! In my opinion, you’d be hard pressed to find a better quality japanese green for the price.

It’s a sipdown!

Finished off a pouch of this today. I will miss it but am going to try and drink some of my other green teas before I buy anymore. My skeptical bf thinks I buy way more tea than I can drink. Of course he is right… lol

see previous notes for more info on this tea

No notes yet.

Quite vegetal (think buttered steamed asparagus) on the first infusion, and mildly astringent after that. Surprisingly flavourful and long-lasting for a karigane!

First infusion – 5 g. per 8 oz water, 60 deg., 45 sec.

Second infusion – 5 g. per 8 oz. water, 60 deg., 1:30 min.

Third infusion – 5 g. per 5 oz. water, 60 deg., 10+ min.

It’s been a while since I’ve had this one but I still LOVE it!

I think Mellow Monk will soon be the only Japanese Green tea in my cupboard (once I drink everything else, lol)

It’s so creamy and fruity, just amazing. I bumped the rating up a bit today.

This is extremely good Sencha. The Price is fantastic as well! I would recommend this to anyone. Brew it a few times too! Don’t use too hot of water or over brew.

Another awesomely awesome tea from Mellow Monk. This tea is sweet, grassy, tangy, citrusy, earthy, buttery, smooth, creamy, and yummy. The taste of this tea depends on the amount of yuzu peel to tea ratio I steep. Sometimes, it tastes more sencha-like, where it’s more sweet, grass, earthy, smooth. Other times, I get more citrus and tanginess and it tastes almost like a creamsicle. I really like it.

I typically make a flavored tea for my thermos when I go to school, and this one holds up really well in it. Again, my only gripe about this is the amount you get for the price, but I’m really enjoying Mellow Monks teas! I also would like to apologize for the sudden surge of notes and that they are so short. As I’m sure most of you know, sometimes life gets in the way of what you would like to do…in this case too much school prevents me from visiting you awesome people. But, there’s always some really awesome teas that you just have to share with everyone, and I had a slight break to let you all know about some of these awesome teas I’ve been drinking!

After having had Top Leaf, someone suggested I try this one. I’m glad I did. This tea is fantastic. It’s predominately grassy and seaweedy, it’s brothy, and has that wonderful umami taste. Yum! I’ve been drinking this almost every morning for about two weeks now. I can also get it to resteep very well at least four times before the flavor starts to diminish. I love this tea so much, my only gripe is that it’s not all that cheap for the amount you get, but I do love it, and I do like their eco practices.

The weather is beautiful today but I think my allergies are going haywire, after 2 cups of tea and a coffee this morning I am still tired. Just popped a Sudafed and thought I’d drink some of this delicious green tea.

I have been very impressed by the quality of Mellow Monk and highly recommend their products!

I had this yesterday and it was delightful! I would like to pair it with or use it in soups soon! I’m thinking about Cauliflower…what do you think?
What about tweaking this one to incorporate?
http://blissfulyogajourney.blogspot.com/2013/02/cauliflower-soup-blomkalsuppe-mail-call.html
It was part of my Norwegian Foods Week last week!

This is a first-rate fuka: clear and clean in the cup, crisp and fresh on the tongue. It has the usual taste elements of a good-quality fuka as well. Excellent, but pricey.

First infusion – 3 g. per 8 oz water, 65 deg., 3:00 min.

Second infusion – 3 g. per 8 oz. water, 65 deg., 10:00+ min.

Thank you for the lovely sample Alphakitty! The leaves have a beautiful deep green color. The aroma is slightly vegetal and sweet with hints of butter. It’s sweet and has a bit of a buttery\vegetal taste to it. I want to say that there is a bit of a light(and I mean LIGHT) citrus flavor in the background. I reeeaalllllyyy enjoyed this tea. It’s been a minute or two since I’ve had a nice green :]
Thanks again!

hmm. not much more to say about this one aside from the fact that it is sooo delicious and one of my favorite Japanese green teas. see previous notes for more details.

1.5 tsp for 100 ml; loose-mesh stainless steel basket in small ceramic cup

Dry leaves warmed in cup.

01 (25s; 158F): Shorter brewing seems to bring out a better side of this tea. A much more balanced degree of astringency, and a very good moderately thick body as well. Not nearly as bitter as the last time, instead with a pleasantly tangy and grassy flavor. A touch of the tamaryokucha sweetness.

02 (15s; 158F): Even thicker body, which pairs nicely with the clean vegetal flavor, balancing brothy umami and grassy sweetness.

1.5 tsp for 100 ml; loose-mesh stainless steel basket in small ceramic cup

First thought on smelling the freshly opened dry tea—fennel. Somewhat sweet, rather than vegetal, though none of the berry notes sometimes found with tamaryokucha.

Dry leaf warmed in cup. Could have used a longer warming, but the smell was nonetheless intriguing, as always. Seemed both darker and cleaner than the Mellow Monk mecha and shiraore (“Blissful Buds” & “Frosty Garden”) that I’ve been having.

01 (1m00s; 155F): Not terribly fragrant liquor. Sometimes that comes across more on the second steeping. Medium astringency, with a somewhat upfront mineral flavor. The finish is closer to what I would expect from this tea, though darker like the warmed dry leaf. None of the brightness or sweetness that I enjoy.

Seems like this one will take some figuring out as far as preparation.

02 (20s; 150F): Tried going lighter on this steeping to see if I could lessen the astringency, potentially allowing lighter flavors through. Nice color, and a slightly more discernable nose, with some herb-y notes. The mouth is still pretty unexciting, though on this steeping I’m getting some great semi-sweet herb flavors and a little bit of tang on the long finish. A little bit of “sweet salivation” / cooling.

03 (45s; 158F): Leaf acquired much more seaweed smell. Mouth has a very pleasant, clean feel and taste. Very nice actually. A little more of that tang picked up on the finish of the second steeping, this time in the mouth, pleasantly playing with the herb flavor. Interesting how little sweetness is present. There is definite potential in this tea.

~2 tsp for 80ml; loose-mesh stainless steel strainer in small ceramic cup

Dry leaf warmed in cup. Delicious, complex, and full smell of sweet grass.

Changed up the parameters a bit—greater ratio of tea, even lower temperatures. It is interesting trying to find an ideal brewing process with this tea, as it seems fairly forgiving.

01 (1m30s; 155F): Very full flavor and velvety feel, though not overwhelming or bitter. The attack has a flavor that’s somewhere between salty and umami (possibly, not sure about my sense of umami). Perhaps a little too high of a ratio on this steeping, as the mouth notes were a bit muddled together. However, the finish was impressively long in the mouth—I had to run a quick errand after finishing this cup and each breath of unseasonably warm, humid air gave me an opportunity to consider many of the flavors which were more difficult to discern while drinking.

02 (20s; 155F): Much less muddled, as I compensated by steeping a little more water, perhaps a bit short too. Nice sweet and grassy notes, though a less velvety feel and little to no salt/umami.

03 (50s; 155F): Still tasty, very similar to 02.

04 (2m; 160F): You know …

~2 tsp for 120 ml; loose-mesh stainless steel strainer in small ceramic cup

Delicious complex smell of dry leaf warmed in cup. Heady with grass, sweetness, herb.

01 (1m30s; 158F): Most notable is the mouth, which is smooth, fairly thick, and buttery. Flavor is much less sweet than the dry leaf and liquor smell, tending more towards herb. Some level of drying, though only after (little astringency in the mouth). Not getting the sweet, sweet salivation I have in the past from other gurichas.

02 (25s; 160F): Less thick/heavy mouth. Less drying. Somewhat sweeter flavor. Perhaps a little too short steeping.

I don’t care what anyone says, this is a very good and affordable sencha. I prefer the Top Leaf but when trying to save money I turn to this tea for my daily fix of Japanese tea.

I decided to switch over to green tea and I’m enjoying this yuzu green tea by Mellow Monk… it is delightful. I have to say I have been very impressed with all of their teas but I am partial to this and the fnow garden, both so delicious. I can see I will need to try the others soon! See previous notes for more details.

This is one of my favorite Japanese green teas and I will be getting some more when it runs out… see previous notes for more info. I am really enjoying it today, it’s so fresh and sweet tasting for a sencha.

Finally decided to take the plunge and buy this tea. I’m glad I did. I figured it was more or less a sencha and it pretty much is. It’s a little different in that the grassy-spinach taste is a little subdued compared to the in-your-face senchas I’ve had. I was a little disappointing to have found absolutely no umami factor in it though.

Even with that, it is very creamy with a hint of some juicy quality. And I think there was a slight note of pistachio. I got some sort of nut note and while trying to figure it out I kept thinking pistachio. It may not be pistachio but the color of the tea kept making me think of the green nut! Either way…pistachio!

Speaking of color, the dry leaves are a nice dark emerald, wet they become this bright, vivid, vibrant emerald green. It was very pretty. Even the infusion had a greenish cast to it, very cool, kind of like a sencha or genmaicha infused with matcha powder. This is why I think I was coming up with pistachios and not some other nut…so much green!

I found a slight hint of astringency, but it wasn’t the typically blech bitter-astringency I always taste. This was a silky-astringency. It was actually quite pleasant. I never thought I would say astringency in tea being pleasant…I abhor astringency. But this was just a slight drying of the mouth with a bit of a silky mouthfeel. Very pleasant, what I always thought astringency could be but never actually found it to be, at least not in green teas.

This is such a pretty and good tasting tea, definitely worth trying out.

No notes yet.

Oh my! This aroma – DRY – is AMAZING! You have your wonderfully fresh and crisp and clean Mellow Monk Green Tea with Sweet-Juicy-Citrus-Yuzu! WowZA! The dry aroma – alone – is enough to put me in a trance!

BUT…then…

I added the water!

The infused aroma is unbelievable, too! It’s somewhat the same but with a few minor additions! I can now pick up on a Creamy-Vanilla-HONEY type aroma…somewhat like a Creamsicle! Then there are hints of blossoms/floral notes! What surprise! What WONDER!

The infused liquor is a yellow-green with a slight grey-ness trying to hide throughout! I can now smell a bit of lima bean and/or spinach as well!

I’m totally LOVING the aroma both dry and wet!

YUM! The flavor…is…totally dreamy! Completely creamy! Slightly Green-buttered-veggies! Citrusy and honey-esque! OMG! This is better and better the more I drink it!

Unbelievable! I can’t compare it to others! The green tea base is perfect! The Yuzu is perfect! The texture, aroma, everything…honestly, I can’t imagine this ratio and recipe being changed or tweaked!

My goodness! I’m glad I have a lot of this! I will be sharing with LiberTeas and Azzrian – my awesome Sororitea Sisters…FOR SURE!

WOW!

100.

I decided I was going to try cold brewing some of this last night as an experiment; I always have problems waking up in the morning so figured one less thing to do in the a.m. would be a good idea.

The experiment was a success, it tastes pretty good this way. I don’t know how thrilled I am about drinking cold plain sencha, but it was nice warmed up in the microwave for 60 seconds. I hope I have not offended any tea purists with that statement!

I thought I had rated this before but I guess not… I will do a proper tea brewing and tasting of it soon. For now I can say it is very clean and vegetal tasting.