Green Kukicha

Thanks to Invader Zim for this green tea sample.

I’m not sure if I’ve ever had Kukicha, but if I had it’s been a while. Also, is there a difference between green kukicha and JUST kukicha? So many questions.

This is a pretty neat little tea. It’s very green, no mistaking that. It’s got that grassy vegetal taste, almost like spinach. I may have used a little too much tea, so the taste might be stronger than needed. I went with 4.4g for roughly 10 oz of water.

Another motivation to brew up this tea came from the fact that Yogic Chai is offering a lot of their chai’s on sale, and one of them is a Kukicha chai (who has ever heard of that, right?). I wanted to make sure I actually liked it before ordering. Now I’m wondering how this would compare. Hmm…

I do not believe I have ever had a Kukicha before.
I have to say I have been missing a lot!
This is a buttery, nutty, delight!
When I sniffed the dry leaf, which is quite pretty I might add, the initial aroma was nutty.
I love a nutty tea!
I also love a buttery tea and that was the initial taste on the sip but then I was surprised. This tea tasted a lot like an oolong! As I began to take more of the aroma and flavor in I realized this tea also smells when steeped much like an oolong!
Its still very vegetal, grassy, and fresh, yet there is this kick to it similar to an oolong with that roasted oolong after taste.
It is quite rich and I am used to using about 2 Tsp of leaves for greens and oolongs yet with this one I do feel I could have went with just 1 Tsp.
The water I used was 175f but I am thinking I could also have went a little less with the heat too as there is a slight bitterness and astringency but only slight. I am going to work on perfecting this steep because this is a really good tea and I want to do it justice.
Since this is my first Kukicha I have nothing to compare it to nor any experience with steeping so I will do a little research on that but as for this particular Kukicha I would not go over 170 – 1 Tsp – 3 mins on steep. It is very very good and I am going to sit back and enjoy this cup.
:)
ETA: lol wow lookee there … when I finished my tasting note I read what it said about the tea here on steepster in its listing lol it says 165 DUAH