Sakura Tea

Tea peeps? This tea is FREAKING BEAUTIFUL!

This is a new tea for me, and from what I was told from the tea seller, yunomi.us, this is a very traditional japanese flavor. Ehh! A Challenge! An Adventure! Lets go!

Dry leaf, these pretty blossoms smells like pickles. Oh boy! Most likely they smell like this since they are salt pickled cherry blossoms.

The taste? I get a cute kiss of a sweet cherry taste that is floral. The sakura tea’s flavor flutters softly towards a more savory flavor that’s a little salty. The more I sip away, the more stronger and floral this tea gets.

Full review with lots of gorgeous pictures on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/04/03/sakura-tea-from-yunomi-us-tea-review/

This tea has very interesting steeping directions. However, they help to offset the salt (which preserves the blossoms)…
The sight of the tea is very nice—clear liquid with a pink flower floating in it.

The smell of the blossoms and the taste of the tea is like cherry jam, which I like very much. However, it is muted, and there is certainly salt present in the flavor (especially towards the end of the cup) so that wasn’t my favorite…

This is good, but, I wouldn’t buy it. The coolest thing about it (besides the appearance) is that I can now tell what Sakura really tastes like, and so it has pretty much the exact same flavor of cherry that Den’s Sakura Sencha has (though, that one is definitely stronger). I’m curious to also try Rishi’s Sakura Sencha to compare. Either way, I’ve now learned the difference between simply cherry flavor and sakura flavor (the latter being different, though I’m not exactly able to describe it well, it seems more buttery).

This is basically a pickled flower. It is lovely once the petals unfurl. It makes me feel like a princess. Everyone knows that flowers are a princess’ favorite food.
The tea itself it a little salty and winey tasting. I’m guessing the wine flavor is actually the vinegar. Mostly it tastes lightly a cherry with a floral character underneath.

It is a pleasant drink but it takes getting used to. I imagine fresh cherry blossoms to taste much better since they won’t need to be preserved in salt and vinegar. I’m guessing you’ll need to be in Japan during springtime for a treat like that.

Wow, talk about different but so cool. You have to go into this with an open mind and I think I did or at least I hope I did. It was lovely and so very unique. I tried it plain for my first time but based on the flavor I can imagine this a great addition to Genmiacha and Sencha and I truly can’t wait to try it that way.

Flavor: Sweet and lightly floral as you would imagine a cherry blossom to smell. Tiny bit salty but most of the flavor was removed during the 5mins I let the flower soak in warm water, as directed. I then put in a spoonful of water, one at a time using the water the flower was soaking which adds a bit of a salty flavor. I noticed after the second spoonful that the sweetness vanished and the flavor became completely different. I wish I could describe it but let’s just say it was very unique and no it doesn’t taste like water with salt. I am glad I tried it and recommend you give it a try knowing it is a big risk. I imagine this to be a love it or hate it experience for most.

I can’t believe I never logged this tea! I’ve had it for quite some time and although it says that the expiration date is 6 months after shipment, these smell beautiful much after that. This is a truly beautiful tea. In the back the tiny flowers have a smell of light umeboshi, salt, plum/cherry, and floral hints. It is simply amazing to watch them steep. I wish I had a decent camera because you can see the veins in the translucent skins of the flower petals. As much as I enjoy watching blooming teas, this feels much more organic. Since I couldn’t find any official steep times quickly I treated this very similar to an herbal. I used only 6oz of tea for one slightly larger and one medium blossom.
Once steeped this actually has a much strong smell than expected. It has a very light liquor that reminds me of white wines. It has a very unexpected ume plum smell. It is very distinct and reminds me of my favorite Japanese ume gum. Any sense of floral smell is very subdued. The flavor is very much the same, very light, subtle, and most of the flavor is on the back end of the sip. It is a very fun and amazing tea that I would advise people try at least once.

I’ve been wanting to try this for a long time, so I finally ordered some sakura tea from Obubu Tea.

The tea has a very delicate cherry scent, with a salty undertone, and tastes similar. The taste is much stronger than I expected from a single blossom: uniquely floral and refreshing, mildly sweet, with a hint of salt. You can also add the salted water you soaked the blossom in back into the tea to taste, which makes the flavour stronger and saltier.

If you have glass teaware, I recommend using it with this tea so that you can watch the blossom unfurl itself when you pour on the hot water. You can get several infusions out of each blossom – I’ve drank this tea several times now and usually get four or five infusions out of a single blossom.

This tea is fascinating and very much worth trying. It’s a really marvelous experience to drink clear, sweet nectar scented with cherry blossoms.

The flowers arrive salt-pickled and must first be soaked in warm water before use. The unsoaked salted sakura blossoms smell like a sweet candy. It reminds me a little bit of the smell of salted plum candies from the Chinese grocery store. While the liquor produced from steeping the sakura blossom is clear and virtually colorless, it has a very distinctive sakura taste, like honey, sugared plum and melon. Steeped as recommended, the flowers bloom exuberantly in the hot water and reveal a very sweet and floral taste with a complexity of flavor.

I also used this to flavor my everyday genmaicha and it tasted delicious. It really adds layers of complexity and sweetness to the tea!

The steeped flower is gorgeous, check out my photos here: http://www.leafjoy.com/2011/01/tasting-sakura-cherry-blossoms-from-obubu-tea-includes-pics/