Muji

This is plain rooibos tea in a bag. Yep. That’s it. I don’t think I’d ever buy this one in the U.S., but I find myself craving rooibos while in Japan, as a departure from green tea (which is amazing, but I can’t drink it after 5pm or I don’t sleep). Muji has a 10 tea bag for 294yen pack, which isn’t bad for Japan rooibos pricing.

You know, considering most flavored rooibos just tastes like rooibos to me anyway, this is just fine. Rooibos even tastes healthy to me. I can actually use these tea bags to make an entire cold pitcher too. Numnumnum.

So I’m living in Japan for a year for research, and this is the first tea I review in a while? Well, truth be told I’ve been awfully stressed, and as my U.S. stockpile of herbal teas is on its way across the ocean to me veryyy slowly, I’ve had to make do with things like chamomile. U.S. Liz is not a big chamomile fan.

However, Japan Liz is a big Muji (Full name = Mujirushi Ryouhin) fan. I love that store, and as I live almost across the street from one, I visit fairly often.

This tea brews into a gorgeous golden cup. No matter how I manipulate the brewing times, I just don’t taste the orange though. It’s much better if I treat this as a straight chamomile. I can see the orange pieces in the tea bags, but they just don’t stand out. At least chamomile actually works to relax me. If I can get myself to a better tea shop soon I probably won’t bother to re-purchase this bad-boy.

I had this tea the last time I was in Tokyo. It was a limited-edition tea for fall 2011. Since, I’ve been searching for a comparable chestnut-flavored tea in Canada, but have had no luck. Chestnut is a rare flavor here, in tea and otherwise. I hope David’s gets on this soon.

Muji’s tea had no sweetener but tasted sweet, and had no chocolate but tasted like liquid chocolate. The flavor of the roasted tea and chestnut combined to produce something so uniquely delicious that I had to give into temptation and drink it in place of water throughout my stay. I miss it so much.

I don’t know what everyone else does with their tea leaves/bag after they’re done preparing tea, but I generally leave mine in all the way. I can’t be bothered to use a strainer.

Strangely this cup doesn’t taste different no matter how long the bag steeps, which is nice. I wanted to call it “mellow” initially (how ironic, given the lemongrass), but it’s not. It’s…rounded, let’s say, and while the lemongrass is distinct, it’s not sharp at all. Once the temperature’s almost lukewarm, there is an added smell/taste of honey.

This tea is the opposite of those which force your attention upon them with every sip, no matter what you’re doing.

Very, very awful taste. Let’s just say the aftertaste reminds me of bile acid. These two teas that I bought from Muji is enough for me to stop exploring the rest of their tea products.

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