Yuzu Sencha

My Samovar order came in today!

The smell of the yuzu is definitely noticeable compared to the green tea. It makes me want to cry because it is so amazing.

Once brewed, the grassy/vegetal smell is much more noticeable, with slight undertones of yuzu. I kind of wish it would keep the stronger yuzu smell once brewed, but this still smells amazing.

The first sip. This has a much grassier flavor than I originally thought it would have, which isn’t a problem at all since I love green teas. The sencha is vegetal, buttery, and creamy, with very subtle hints of yuzu in the aftertaste. With each sip, the progression of yuzu seems to get a bit stronger in the aftertaste. Next thing I know, I’m at the bottom of my mug. Damn, need to resteep.

2nd steep, for 30 seconds. I’d have to agree with teaplz, the second steep could possibly be even better than the first. The yuzu is much more noticeable when you taste this. I’d say the tastes of the sencha and yuzu are almost equal now.

3rd steep, 30 more seconds. I’m tasting straight yuzu now. The tea has gotten quite light, but still tastes pretty amazing… Now that I’m tasting almost straight yuzu, it reminds me of drinking a very very light or watered down yuzu juice. I think that is pretty amazing.

With the progression of tastes in this tea, with each steep, you would almost think this is a different tea every time you tasted the new brew. Which that is just amazing.

Overall, I think it is a pretty freaking awesome tea. It is a nice, light, refreshing tea that cleanses the palette after almost each sip. But, there is a part of me that was a little let down. Not with this tea itself, but at my expectations of this tea. Let me explain.

When this tea first appeared on Samovar’s site, I got so excited. I was so happy that I found a yuzu green tea that I could get outside of Japan (then again, I never actively searched for some after I got back home). The first thing that came to mind was the amazing yuzu tea that I had while in Japan. I then went on a little stroll down memory lane. Britt and I were back in Harajuku, and we were walking down Omotesando. I wanted to get some tea at this interesting looking tea shop that was above Heiroku Sushi (which is an amazing kaitenzushi/conveyor belt sushi restaurant, I’d highly recommend going there). So we stopped in there, and I decided to go with the yuzu tea since I had been hooked on drinking hot yuzu juice from the conbini during my stay there. It tasted glorious, it was like they brewed the tea with straight yuzu juice, and it also had a few large chunks of the citrus-y fruit in there along with the tea. It was even better than the yuzu juice that I had been hooked on. So, we come back to reality, and I think to myself “Man, I gotta get this! It is yuzu tea, just like I had in Japan!” So, I am a little disappointed in myself and thinking this was going to taste exactly like the tea I had in Japan.

But this tea, definitely a winner in my book. I’d highly recommend it!

SAMOVAR, have my babies.

Please.

This tea was a total shock. Seriously. Total shock. I can’t believe how much I’m loving this. Really, really loving this. Obsessed with the amazingness.

I’m officially a Japanese green convert. I heart Japanese greens.

I could drink this tea all day. Seriously.

I just… oh man. This tea. Awesome. Incarnate.

Okay, okay, I need to calm down, that way I can write a coherent review. Phew.

I’m just so excited because I really thought this is going to be a throwaway. I mean, I’ve had yuzu before. One of the restaurants I went to a while ago had yuzu salt for their steamed edamame. I’ve had yuzu sorbet at another Japanese restaurant. Yuzu is a pretty bright and clean-tasting citrus fruit, and it’s pretty tasty. Sure, I’ve never had it as a stand-alone thing, but I’m pretty sure of the flavor.

Anyway, this tea is quite gorgeous. The sencha here varies from a very light green to darker green, it’s a bit powdery at parts, and it’s mixed in with a whole load of tried yuzu pieces. The smell of it is mainly that grassy sencha, mixed with a slight citrus note.

I actually put a teaspoon of this into my warmed pot, and the smell coming off it was awesome. Almost completely sencha, but really buttery and warm. Mmmmm.

So anyway, I steeped this up quickly, and I loved the clear, light-neon-green liquid that emerged. The smell I’m getting off of it is rich and creamy and grass and so very Japanese green. And the taste… man. Let’s rhapsodize on the taste, because this was an experience.

The main flavor here is definitely the sencha. It’s light, but full-bodied at the same time, and bursting with flavor. It’s very grassy, but so smooth and peppered with notes of butter and creamy goodness that it’s pretty awesome. The yuzu is a bright afternote of citrus that’s very clean and refreshing and invigorating. It’s clearly distinctly yuzu, as well. Not any other citrus.

The yuzu-citrus-sweet-tart builds as you take multiple sips in a row, mixed with a green sweetness that tastes like you just ate the most wonderful field filled with dew-dropped delicious edible grass.

It’s seriously delicious.

The second steep (:20 secs, 160 degrees) was just as good, if not better than the first. I’m serious. Because now the yuzu and the sencha have sort of swapped places on the flavor totem pole, and the yuzu is more strongly highlighted. It’s almost lime-y sweet, not bracing or biting, but calm and smooth. The sencha notes are sublime here as well. It doesn’t taste tired or weak.

It just tastes like pure awesome.

takgoti, how do I love thee. Let me count the ways. You’ve introduced me to one of the best tea companies ever, Samovar. You’ve sent me amazing samples of tea, such as this yuzu sencha, which wasn’t even on my radar because it sounds so… MUNDANE. But it’s totally not. It’s a flavor festival of epic proportions. It’s grass shot through with sunshine and golden happiness.

I am on such a tea high right now. I am so giddy right now over this stuff. LOVE. LOVE LOVE LOVE.

I actually bought a yuzu in preparation for this tea. After all, how can I comment on a flavored tea if I don’t know what the flavor is supposed to taste like? I ate my yuzu early this morning so thought today was a great time to try this one. I enjoyed the fruit so I hope to enjoy this tea. The tea doesn’t smell quite like fresh yuzu, but it is still noticeably yuzu. The brewed tea smells even less like yuzu – the initial smell is of fresh, vegetal sencha and there’s a little tingle of yuzu underneath.

The taste is intriguing. I didn’t get a noticeable yuzu flavor until I took a few sips one after the other. It seems like the yuzu taste builds but seems to come through the most in the aftertaste. But now I’m getting it some on the very tip of my tongue as I begin to sip. It’s a surprisingly good counterpoint to the sencha. I wouldn’t have thought the yuzu would go well with the sweet, buttery and vegetal taste of the sencha, but it does. It adds a subtle citrus sharpness that keeps the sencha from being too rich or thick.

I’m not quite sure how to rate this. I keep expecting this to taste rich and thick but each sip surprises me with a clean, refreshing citrus flavor. So I can’t quite figure out how high I want to rate this. Somewhere in between the two green smileys but not sure where… Though a big point it this teas favor is the aftertaste – sweet, citrus and buttery. Good stuff.

I had plans for tomorrow. I was going to go to the beach for a few days and be ridiculously delirious about finals being over and FINALLY getting to hang out with my friends again, but alas, this has been completely dashed by the fact that we have been graced with no fewer than 14 inches of snow in the past day and a half.
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Another part of the plans involved going to bed at a decent hour so I could wake up to make the drive to aforementioned beach, but since it isn’t going to happen I thought to myself, “Self, why don’t you go get caught up on Steepster?” And since my sleeping schedule is already completely SNAFU’d by finals, I just spend an extraordinary amount of time reading your tea notes and nearly getting back in sync with my beautiful Steepsterites. [I told myself I’d get to “3 days ago” and by the chariot of Hades I have done it!] I might even be completely caught up by the end of tomorrow, which is pretty insane. Sorry for the ATTAK. It had to be done.

Right, so yuzu sencha. This is a newer tea from Samovar, [who coincidently just got a slew of even newer teas in that you can bet I will be ordering because if I don’t a kitten will die] and I’ll admit that at first I was a little dubious when I took the first sip.

I shouldn’t have been worried, though. The dry leaves have a strong, juicy scent to them [it reminds me of this Japanese gum a friend gave me once] but this is simply a subtle tea. The flavors grew on me as my tongue became more accustomed to it. The yuzu flavor is clean and bright, and I thought it paired exceedingly well with the roasty, vegetal, almost creamy notes of the sencha. [For those unfamiliar with yuzu, it is a citrus fruit. Something I’d pin down between a lime and a grapefruit, tastewise.]

Sometimes, the yuzu sings through the sencha clearly, making for a refreshing sensation, but again, this tea is pretty light overall. It could be because of the very short steep time, so I might try playing around with that a bit, but this reads as delicate to me and I fear oversteeping it. If the yuzu were stronger, I also think it could be overpowering. It’s rather precariously balanced, but for me it works very well.

This is not going to be a drink every day tea for me because of the yuzu, but it could very well be an every third day tea. Or an alternate thursdays and dates containing multiples of five tea. It offers a flavor profile that is new to me, yet holds back from being a novelty kind of tea because the sencha grounds it.

I know, I know, you all are thinking, “What’s new? She likes another Samovar tea.” But I tell you, people, when I dislike a Samovar tea, I will log it as such!

Blerg, it is now late enough to be considered early morning and yet I am not tired. The aftermath of finals, it appears, continue to haunt me still. I will laugh at them by continuing to be on Steepster until I become sleepy. What’s the point of celebrating life if you can’t sleep until late afternoon, I ask you?

(Tea 3 of 8 in the my-boyfriend-is-awesome series)

Living in Japan, I’m surrounded by yuzu-flavored everything, from yuzu ice cream to yuzu soy sauce — and, occasionally, actual yuzus. I’ve become quite the yuzu enthusiast, so out of all the teas Garrett sent me, I probably held this one to the highest standards.

I can smell the yuzu right away. Good start. And I love that cloudy, light green color. It tastes very grassy and sencha-y at first — is it my imagination or is the yuzu taste getting more and more prevalent with each sip? It’s like an author building up the suspense with every chapter and ending the book on a cliffhanger, but you don’t mind because you already bought the sequel. I steep a second cup to find out.

Second cup, the taste evens out. Yuzu and sencha work together, allowing you to understand the relationship between the characters.

Third cup, it’s yuzu all the way. Happy ending.

I ordered this by accident, thinking it was regular sencha.

I typically avoid “blended teas” – they tend to perfume or mask the tea’s natural flavour. Citrus-based blends especially have not been kind to me. This however was an entirely different experience. It’s a strange balance of “mellow” and “refreshing”. I find myself addicted to this refreshing experience. I ordered more. It’s a nice departure from the usual.

1min 30seconds, 175F 10-14oz of water, 1 teaspoon. Good for multiple steeps, though it tends to lose that fresh edge after the second steep. 4 steeps depending on your palate, though you should start incrementing steep time by 15-30 seconds each subsequent steep.

I have yet to try the “suggested brewing instructions”, which is 2 tablespoons over 16oz of water for 2 minutes. Seems a bit much to me.

A much lighter tea than I expected, although the water may have been a little too cool the first time I brewed it. I like a bold sencha, so I was surprised by the mildness. The yuzu is nice (although I agree the smell of this tea is heavy on the yuzu, so I was surprised when the tea itself was a nice mix). I may re-rate depending on how the next new steep is – it’s a very pleasant tea, but not amazing at this price point.