Kukicha

Two things today, tea and a rant. I’m writing about tea first so anyone who wants to skip the rant may do so. ;)

Tea: I like this! It’s very grassy and slightly bitter, similar to a sencha but a little more toasty tasting. My brain is preoccupied tonight so nothing more to say about this tea for now, which brings me to…

The rant: I took my last midterm today. It was a literature identification quiz, for non English literature majors this is something I probably have to do at least once a quarter/semester. A professor gives you a portion of a text and you have to identify the title, author, and sometimes the date they wrote it or date it was published. Last year I took an Elizabethan poetry class where I got A’s on both tests (out of at least 30 sonnets to remember and some other texts).
The professor said she felt this test would be “quite easy”. I honestly have no idea how I did. She only gave us 1-2 lines, or in the case of the novels we read, 1-2 sentences from which we had to identify the title and author.
She wrote an email a few hours later stating most people did poorly, and she didn’t know why. I wrote back to her (and apparently a number of other people did as well) stating 1-2 lines is really an unrealistic expectation. Her response is that she would “come up with a plan of action to boost this situation” and that all the lines were things she discussed or read out loud in class, so if we studied we should have been able to recognize it.
Well, I know a professor I’m never taking a class from again.

Now, rant hat off! Thanks for letting me blow out some steam, Steepster.

A light green tea with a pleasantly nutty underbelly — okay, okay: undertone (undertaste?) — that is very interesting, particularly since it comes from the addition, apparently, of twigs. Well done, twigs! Who knew you were dying to get into the tea business lo these many centuries?

Green teas on the nutty side tend to intrigue me far more than their grassier-tasting cousins. Too much grassy flavor = liquid lettuce. Although I do love a good salad, said love is incredibly fleeting when composed in liquid form.

Sidenote/Sidemuse: Drinking a cup of green tea always makes me feel distinctly mellow, the sort of mellowness I never feel with black, white, or even herbal teas. Why is this?

Just got this in from Adagio. It reminds me of a less smooth and wholesome version of Samovars Ryokucha. It’s definitely got that chestnut aftertaste coupled with a very earthy and grassy undertone. I do sense just a touch of sweetness but it’s not that powerful.

Something I ordered back in September from Adagio. I wanted to give some of their teas a try based on amazing reputation I had heard, and chose a green that was particularly hard to find.

This tea… is an experience. The twigs give the green tea a nice hint of cashew/almond taste that is very feint. It’s awesome, and very light. I can’t really say anything more about it, as the tea is simple.

For newcomers, this is a definite place to start. Also, this would be excellent in any chocolate based tea lattes because of the tea’s undertones. I would probably concentrate it to do that.

2 slightly heaping tsp. in 500 ml. water.

It almost seems to be a combination of the sencha and genmaicha that I’ve tried from this same sampler. It’s grassy but not as much as the sencha, and it’s slightly roasted like the genmaicha. I think that this is the only one of the three that stands alone – the other two are better when paired with a meal.

I’m loving them all so far though; it’s going to be hard to pick which ones to restock!

Light, sweet, nutty, grassy… I want to keep this with me forever and ever. This tea embodies all the reasons I fell in love with green tea in the first place. Thank you so much to Aggie for giving me some to try!

I really like this tea because it’s so versatile. Unlike other teas, I enjoy it in a variety of steeping methods. Each has a unique flavor. Western style—it is smooth and reminds me the most of green tea ice cream. In a gaiwan using extra leaves and short steeps, there is a rich buttery taste. As an iced tea, a new sweetness came out of it.

I’m much more monogamous when it comes to green tea. I could be satisfied with just this one. For a casual green tea drinker like me, this is a good staple to have year-round in the pantry.

Adagio has run out of the larger shipments of kukicha for now, so I hope the next batch is as good.

Indeed an interesting tea. It is not bold or complex as other greens but it is definitely nice. The dry leaves smell buttery and the infusion has the characteristic pungent aroma of japanese greens but a lot more subdued. It pairs well with mild tasting meals and is a good tea to drink during meals because it is not very complex. I wouldn’t drink this every day but will keep it handy for when the mood strikes.

I purchased this tea specifically so I could drink it throughout the day while I was working. I really enjoy it because it has a great aroma to it and the taste is good (I’m no tea expert, but this is just what I prefer at the moment). I usually steep one serving about 3 times before I get another scoup of it. So far it’s worked great in providing me with energy and focus throughout the day. It helps keep me not only hydrated but alert throughout the day. The tea’s taste is to me, a light bodied tea, with more grassy overtones because of the steams I’m thinking (maybe not?). Overall, this is a good tea and I will purchase it again.

Very pleasantly light green tea taste, but can take on a horrible grassy flavor if you over steep.

My favorite green — has a nice clean, somewhat grassy (but not too grassy like other greens I’ve had) taste. Good overall balance. Be careful not to oversteep, but its not as sensitive as other teas I’ve had.

Well, finace says it tastes like drinking a pine needle tea, but as he’s never had pine needle tea, and it’s definitely more grassy and toasty than that, I’m inclined to discount the thought. There’s a nice aftertaste of something chestnutty that lingers here too.

I made a mug of Kukicha as my first this morning. The aroma of the dry tea leaves is wonderful — it reminds me vaguely of yerba mate (the lighter color and stems contributes to this also).

The resulting infusion is great as a morning tea — not too much vegetal or ocean comes through. Could be my go-to green tea for mornings before I hit the gym.

I think it is important to try a tea couple of times before you comment on it. For me this tea is a prefect example of why i say this.

As i have said before, green tea is not my favorite. When i first started drinking this tea i did not like it at all b/c i felt it was way to grassy for me. i made it a couple more times and could not finish the cup. Each time making it differently so that i could try to get it to good for me. It was way to grassy for me.

Well i did. It is still not my favorite tea but it is okay. It is grassy. It is a smooth grassy taste. If you are a green taste drinker then you will probably like this tea.

Wow.. I really smell the roasted chestnut flavor! It’s a savory style tea and reminds me of the Adagio artichoke green tea. It’s a little powdery, light to medium flavor, very smooth, and has a pretty light green color to it. For me it tastes more savory than sweet…

I ordered a sample of this in the past and having largely forgotten about the tea ordered a 4 oz. bag. I’m glad I did. The tea, as some before me have noted, isn’t the most complex or aggressively grassy green tea.

I coaxed out its light sweetness with just below boiling water and steeping time of 2 minutes without any problem. The ending notes of nuttiness are also present and enjoyable. Some of the typical green “grassy bitterness” is present in the background, but it is exceptionally smooth for a green tea.

I’ve only had a couple cups of Kukicha so far, but it seems like a tough tea to mess up. Because of its lack of complexity its not the type of tea where you notice something different each brewing, but its also not the type of tea that you love one minute only to find yourself repulsed with the next cup.

Good until the aftertaste which tastes like the dried leaves smell – a bit sickeningly sweet.

Light, grassy with the potential for biterness. Easy to drink.

I didn’t care for this at all. It gets bitter far too easily and is very grassy. I prefer green teas a little less “earthy”.

Very good, but I was surprised to see the leaves and twigs in such small pieces. It was more powdery than I expected.
Liked it lots, but I’ve had better.