Tamayokucha (Extremely Green Tea)

I’ve been on the road a good part of the day and went to a little restaurant before heading home. They had a selection of 2 leaves and a bud teas right there out in the open on my way out so I asked if I could buy a few individual bags since I haven’t tried any tea from this brand yet. I brought 4 home and this is my first one.

It looks and smells like a typical green tea and upon first sip it seems to be a peppery tasting green tea.

I think I might go outside my comfort zone on this one and add some Agave Nectar just for the hell of it.

Are you shocked? I am.

It’s actually not too shabby. It cuts back on the pepper taste I was getting and it is quite enjoyable. I may try this Agave Nectar method every once and a while but I will certainly report with my normal way first…which is naked. :P

This tea naked I would give about a 70 – this with agave nectar I will go between 75 and 78ish.

I thought I had logged this before…. weird. Anyway nice, grassy and buttery.

I am going to refrain from adding a number rating to this tea on this note. As I get into this description, you will understand why.

I was visiting family down in Arizona and, while waiting for a shop to open, decided to pop into a coffee shop that advertised fine tea on their sign. I found the tea selection and it was all Two Leaves and a Bud. I was pretty excited because the boxes provided some good information about each tea and it was clear the company knew what they were talking about (and doing). After some deliberation, I decided to give the Tamayokucha a try.

As they were getting the tea ready, I asked them what they knew about the company (since it was new to me). The shop owner looked at me with a blank expression and just informed me, with a question in her voice, that it was the tea company they liked the flavor of best of the options they tried. They didn’t know anything about the company or their tea. But that’s okay. I wouldn’t expect them to know about every brand they carry, but it was a little off-putting the way they reacted to the question.

After a minute, I was handing a burning hot take away cup. Seriously. Even with a sleeve on it, my hands were burning. I also wanted to take the tea bag out early with how hot the water was. I was pleased to see that the bag was a silk pyramid bag with plenty of space for the leaves to expand. I was not pleased to see that the entire bag, string, label and all, were flat at the bottom of the cup. I had to find a way to fish it out and ended up burning myself in the process with how hot the water was.

I had to sit for 5 full minutes without touching it for it to sort of be cool enough to sip. It was extremely disappointing. The tea didn’t taste…. like tea. It was almost buttery and left a weird after taste.

From reading this tale, it’s pretty freaking clear that there were issues with how the tea was prepared and served. Not to mention the fact that it was probably relatively old and may have been a little stale by the time I ordered it.

So this is something I’d like to try again in the future. Perhaps order samples of the different teas the company has to offer and go from there!

This past week, I received a newsletter from Two Leaves and a Bud, naming this tea as the “Steep of the Month” – so in honor of that, I decided I would brew myself a cup.

I really like this tea. It has a beautiful nutty and vegetative flavor to it. Buttery. Delicious!

Steep Information:
Amount: 1 teabag
Water: hot spigot water, 6-8oz
Steep Time: a little over 5 minutes (http://steep.it)
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: sweet, herb-like
Steeped Tea Smell: grassy
Flavor: grassy
Body: Full
Aftertaste: bitter
Liquor: translucent dark yellow

too hot water? too long? anyway, grassy

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss!

Rating: 2/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2011/12/two-leaves-and-bud-teabag-green-tea.html

I couldn’t find this anywhere, but – by accident – finally located it at a Korean eatery near my work. It’s a very resilient green tea, handles 190F water like a champ. The flavor is lightly grassy, kelp-ish, sweet, and a bit buttery with a fruit note. Everything a guricha should be.

I meant to log this back when I started the box, but failed. Oh well.

It’s mostly pretty grassy, with a bit of butter. Steeps to a very pretty yellowy color. Oversteeping gives it a sharp note somehow, but I’m not sure how to describe it. Not bad, but not good enough that I am going to go buy another box, and I’m not really regretting having finished it. Still, I drank 15 cups of it, so it’s not like I really disliked it.

I assume this entry is the same tea that I tried. On the company website, it’s now called “Organic Tamayokucha Green Tea (Light Caffeine).”

For those of you who know me, I scheduled regular write-ins for National Novel Writing Month at Moscow Bagel & Deli when I lived in Idaho. And on those cold November evenings, I would always order a large cup of tea. And I always chose from the selection a teabag of Organic Tamayokucho Green Tea by the Two Leaves and a Bud Tea Company. Why? It was the only green tea I liked from the selection. And green tea, for me, is a familiar thing. It doesn’t become a distraction in of itself when I’m concentrating on something else. This is one of those times when a diva tea is not wanted.

The tea is almost yellow with an aroma and taste that was very mild. There’s no bitter, astringent, or off tastes. It’s green tea, stripped to the most basic. There’s no wow factor, but I think that’s the whole point of its charm. It’s stoic, supporting, and gets the job done.

Recommended for: those scared of strong green teas
Brewing suggestions: 90°C/1 teabag per 1 cup water/steep 5 min

Sweet. Grassy. Handles my oversteeping with grace. A nice green!

A typical green tea. Got it at a restaurant and was happy enough that they gave me “real” tea. It’s pretty standard – not really bitter or astringent.

This is a slightly sweet green tea. Its not overpowering or astringent, no bitterness. The green tea flavor is very mild. This is an ok tea for me, nothing special. I tried a second steep but it was too weak to drink. This was another T.J.Maxx tea that I found for 1.99 for 4 sachets of tea.

A little disclosure: I have only ever tried this tea when served to me in restaurants. So, I have no idea what temperature the water was, how long the water sat out before they brought it to my table, whether or not the tea bag was stale…basically, there are a lot of variables going on.
Every time I have tried this tea, it was weak and bland. I have steeped it for 2 minutes, I have let it steep for the entire time we were eating, and nothing improved the watery taste. The liquor stayed a gutless pale yellow and the taste, as I said, was flat.
Again, I have no idea if this is an issue with the tea itself or with water temperature or brewing time, but I have been underwhelmed every time.

Another packaged tea that I like more than I expected. Good balance between the vegetal and nutty tones. I prefer loose teas, but would recommend this to someone who prefers to stick with bagged tea.

Got this organic Tamayokucha in a 100 gram loose leaf container labeled “Organic Sencha Green Tea.” I dropped Two Leaves and a Bud an email and they quickly verified it was the same thing.

The first steeping does have a unique bite to it, but the second and third are smoother. I liked it.

This was my first go-round with Two Leaves and a Bud, and I have to say I was slightly disappointed. All the reviews below are correct, and it has a fine flavor, but with a name like “Extremely Green Tea”, I was expecting Green Tea flavor that knocked me upside the head.

Originally published at The Nice Drinks In Life: http://thenicedrinksinlife.blogspot.com/2013/01/organic-tamayokucha.html

Origin: China
Type: Tamayokucha
Purveyor: Two Leaves and a Bud
Preparation: One bag steeped in about eight ounces of boiling water for 3:00 (as recommended), sipped plain

Here is an interesting specimen: Chinese-grown leaves prepared in a traditional Japanese style. Tamayokucha (also known as tamaryokucha, which altered syllable one would think would alter the entire word) can be processed either via pan-firing or via steaming, and Two Leaves and a Bud made a good choice in the latter. Pan-firing brings out a more vegetal essence in the tea, and while this example certainly has some of those characteristics, it also, because of the steaming, was able to keep plenty of space for sweetness, tannins, and just plain roominess.

The color of the brewed tea is light yellow, rich, translucent, and full of character, not unlike a pigment that might be used in a stained glass window. The aroma is sweet – not honey-like, nor sugary, nor fruity, but sweet. There is also an undertone to the aroma, more of a texture than a scent, really, which gives it a sort of earthy feel, in the same way that one can feel the air in a woodland before and after a rain differently than one can feel it in other settings. (This is surely magnified many times over in pan-fired varieties.) Perhaps the best approximation – and it is only that – of this unique combination of sweetness and texture in the aroma is a steaming-hot mug of green tea ice cream.

This tamayokucha tastes delicate, light, flavorful, pure, with a touch of briskness (surprisingly), and nice tannins (which are at optimal levels). Sweetness is there but not overpowering. The fine-tuned combination of all of those factors yields a delicious brew that really tastes like green tea ought to taste; truly an excellent example of the category.

As per its dynamic character, this tea can serve equally well as a morning get-me-going potion, an object around which to unwind in the afternoon, or (for those unaffected by caffeine) something to make one cozy of an evening. Enjoy.

This is one of my favorite green teas. Not as astringent as most others, nice and clean taste. Very calming.

This tea has an intense green tea flavor, almost too instense. I tend to use a smaller portion of leaves and under-steep it to make it less overwhelming. Once the green tea flavor is reduced it’s a good cup of tea.

This was my first time trying this brand and this type of green tea, and I was pretty impressed. The sachet was silky and had plenty of space for the leaves to infuse. The flavor was very mild and lightly sweet. Of the new teas I have sampled (from a traveling tea box) this week, this one is so far, my favorite. I will most likely purchase this tea in the future.