I got off to an exceedingly late start on my tea today, first by sleeping in by over an hour, and then I was delayed by some friends and several games of Settler from Cattan. Regardless, I finally arrived home and decided to try out one of the smaples that I recently got from Den’s Tea. Using 180 degree water, I let this tea steep for a minute for the first infusion. The result is a cloudy green tea, as you would expect due to the matcha. Unfortunately my recent head cold is not completely gone, and the lingering stuffiness prevents me from enjoying the aroma. Anyway, the flavor profile is exceptionally sweet, dominating the foretaste and most of the middle. After letting the tea sit in my mouth for a fe seconds, the nutty flavor begins to shine through, and it is also the major flavor of the aftertaste, lingering pleasantly on the roof of my mouth. All in all, it’s a very plesant tea, and I can’t wait to see how the flavor develops.
The second cup was prepared with near-boiling water, and steeped for 15 seconds. The result is much like a traditional genmaicha, with the nutty flavor dominating and a touch of sweetness. The other thing that I’ve started to notice is that that first cup had a lot of caffiene. I am a bit wired right now. That matcha powder really made a bit difference in the caffiene content of the tea, but that is definitely a plus.
WEll, the bad news is that I got a bit distracted by a bunch of friends coming over, including some that I haven’t seen in months, so I had several more cups of tea without logging them. To summarize the experience, the tea is still delightfully nutty, and the warmer water temperatures that I’ve been susing (somewhere between 160 and 200 degrees) has lead to the development of a bit of astringency, but it’s not overpowering. Teh result is a very pleasant cup of tea, and I’m very pleased with how it tured out. I’m seriously considering getting a larger bag of this in the near future.
