240 Tasting Notes
Full disclosure: this tea was sent to me as a free sample by the vendor. However, there was no expectation that I would provide a review.
May as well move on to my other genmai-cha sample. This one a bit dustier and without so much rice.
Flavors are toasty but swing towards a sweet greenness quickly. Lingering glutamates from the rice stick on the palate. Still pretty rice heavy, but with more leaf and more kelpiness. Enjoyable, but simple.
Preparation
Full disclosure: this tea was sent to me as a free sample by the vendor. However, there was no expectation that I would provide a review.
Spent some time on the porch this morning and tried this tea out in further preparation for the full on shin-cha experience.
I must say I’m a little skeptical of shin-cha mixed with toasted rice and coated in matcha. Can the base leaf itself really be that good if there’s this much other stuff going on? Maybe this is the best use of shin-cha this year, considering the variable and broadly poor harvest.
The first steep is viscous, but largely tastes of strongly toasted rice. Maybe the first 6g of tea that tapped out of the bag had an inordinate amount of rice kernels, but this is one toasty cup of green tea. Dark emerald green soup. In the flashy finish quick glimses of tangerine citrus and umami-forward theanine sweetness. This tea has a real savory edge to it, hinting at sesame and green onion. Mild and a little heavy on the rice.
The second steep was completely empty. This tea does not steep more than once.
Flickr photo at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_skua/4668561111/
Preparation
Full disclosure: this tea was sent to me as a free sample by the vendor. However, there was no expectation that I would provide a review.
Still at work, so let’s keep drinking tea. I’ve had enough caffeine today, so I’ll start to mellow out with something without. I must say I have mixed emotions about houji-cha as a style of tea in the first place. The concept of taking poor quality green tea and roasting it to produce something light, caffeine-free and easy to brew is, in my mind, not something to get all worked up about. On the other hand, it has a nice roasted flavor that’s rare in the tea world outside of a handful of oolongs.
At 200F and 90 seconds this brew comes through a little lighter and littered with dust (again). The flavors are bit coarse and charred. Faint bits of espresso, some tannic, dried autumn leaves and a touch of dark caramel. The body of this tea seems surprisingly thin and really parches out the tongue. I believe I’ve had deeper and fuller examples of the style, so I’ll go ahead and say this isn’t particularly exemplary in my mind.
Preparation
Full disclosure: this tea was sent to me as a free sample by the vendor. However, there was no expectation that I would provide a review.
Continuing to explore the Maeda-en tea bag line in preparation for sampling the shin-cha this weekend, I moved onto the Premium Sen-cha. I turned up the heat a bit, seeking a little more thickness than the last brew.
I was surprised at how much dust came out of the nylon bag, but I think it was worth it, because I didn’t get that chalky paper taste from the nylon bag. This cup is sweet, clean and crisp, but lacks an overall depth of flavor and complexity. It’s bright, green, and heartily satisfying, but I want a little more from my sen-cha, some chewiness, some more chlorophyll, some more nuance. This is an improvement over the last bag, in my opinion, as it lacks the masking toasted character, the paper bag flaw, and improves in breadth of taste. However, it’s still rather light and simple. Glad to see, though, that it can take some heat without getting bitter.
Preparation
Full disclosure: this tea was sent to me as a free sample by the vendor. However, there was no expectation that I would provide a review.
With my houhin at home and a handful of tea bags from Maeda-en at my disposal, I look to this sen-cha as an afternoon pick-up at work.
I’m not sure I’ve ever had a sen-cha as roasted as this one, with a distinct cooked chestnut and toasted rice overtone. It’s like having houji-cha and sen-cha at the same time, yet the roasted character drowns out most of the green or kelpy aspects of the tea, which show up as juicy vegetal flavors in the finish. Very light. A simple smooth drinker.
Preparation
I found this version above average, when compared to the other four in the series. Again, very tight, thick compression of small leaves from the core of the cake came in my sample. When dry, an aroma of white raisins and warm earth. The first steeps produced a bright, clear middle golden soup, fresh with complex sweetness, some hickory chips, a pale maltiness, and fresh almond milk. It definitely had a bit of a creamy or milky character that made it silky and complex. Nice, but faint, bittersweetness in the back of the throat rounded the flavor. An enjoyable sample, for sure.
First, I must admit that shu puer is not something I get overly excited or worked up about. I enjoy it for some of its medicinal properties, its overall smoothness, the warmth it brings me, and as something that steeps many, many times. The flavor profile is okay. I’ve had a variety of loose leaf shus that work okay as at-work drinking teas and most of them are usually pretty light on the “riper” aspects. This one, however, gets a little fishy for me, even after a rinse and a few steeps. It does have larger than average leaves for a loose leaf shu and the overall flavor complexity is much deeper than other examples I’ve had, reaching into the umami, mushroom, and roasted nut characters. It is supremely smooth. A little tea goes a long way, with a relatively small portion giving a 6oz gaiwan more than half a dozen steeps before showing signs that it was thinning out. Again, I got what I paid for here, a smooth, not too weird, daily drinker loose leaf shu. I’m pleased with Seven Cups prices and quality.
This tea has bones. Yesterday’s Zi Yun Shan was palatable, if a bit flat. However, today, the Li Li Xiang lit me up. Nice tight nuggets of roasted delight grew into large crumpled and creased muddy-colored leaves. Nice chewy depth with flavors of almond, apricot, and a nip of lychee. The moderate amount of roast really adds depth and complexity to an otherwise expectable flavor. A bit nutty, as toasted sesame seeds. Most importantly, this tea held on. A layer at the bottom of my 6oz gaiwan lasted many, many steeps and gave a succulent brew from a 48 minute steep (!) at the end. I’m impressed by the quality of such an affordable (on-sale) tea. One that reminds me how good more oxidized, roasted oolongs can be.
I purchased a bargain-bin 2008 batch of this tea to drink at work, as a light, “green” oolong. Accordingly, I need to drop my expectations for excellence from this tea. I followed the brewing guidelines and ended up with a tea a bit too thin and empty for my tastes. At two years old, the amount of dry leaf used needs to be double and the initial steep drawn out a bit. Faded wet spring lilacs, faint peach nectar, and a slightly sulfurous quality to the finish, maybe a bit raw and rough. In the end, I got what I wanted from this tea: affordable, organic, green oolong that’s not flawed.
