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How does this magic tea not have a tasting yet?

Anyways I broke my tea hiatus and got some more Southern Boy ice teas, a couple of tea flavors (including this one), that swirly blue Ru Kiln cup, and that blue gaiwan that I have been eyeing for a couple of months now. I was planning on buying it after I got all my school stuff straiten out, but with it being on sale plus my $10 coupon I could not resist.

On to the tea flavor. This is pretty much what happens when you use a tea ray on a root beer float. The smell of the dry leaf is intoxicating. It smells like strong fresh root beer. After I brewed it, sweeten it, and put it on ice I was blown away. I wished though I didn’t sweeten it as much as I did. It has a pretty strong natural sweetness to it. The flavor was just so strong and vivid. When I added a touch of creamer it tasted even more like a root beer float; right after it has been a few minuets and the ice cream has melted a bit and formed this creamy bubble broth. I bet this would taste good with some club soda mixed in. I am so glad I sprang for this.

Water: 2 5oz batches combined
Leaf: 1.5 teaspoon
Time: 2:30; 3:00
Sweetener: 3 teaspoons of sugar; though one would probably do.
Cup: 16oz cup with ice

I am busy with a tea booze experiment to write anything lengthy right now, but this is the jist……. I love it. I bought it on sale for $15 for 250 grams and I might buy more at sale price.

This tea is so odd. It smells like something my grandma makes at Christmas time. Fudge maybe? The taste is even odder. It taste like English breakfast, but not as bold. Has a honey, yet warm spicy after taste left on the tongue. The lingering mouth feel is like after eating a piece of milk chocolate; the way it coats your mouth. Maybe it is a grassy taste that is associated with Japanese greens, but darker? My mind hurts. I will put up a full review tomorrow on my blog; as this is just he fist steep. My mind still hurts……

Never mind the milk chocolate flavor, it is more of a woody note. So odd.

You can read the full review here:
http://tunesntea.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/tea-morita-sayama-sencha/

I fallowed the steeping instructions for the most part from the site. My first steep was brewed at 160F, while all the others were brewed at 185F. All steeps were steeped for 45sec.

Steep 1: Very savory; strong unami flavor. Slight pleasant grassy flavor and buttery. Light sweet matcha after taste. Very mild astringency

Steep 2: Grass is more present. Not really any unami any more. Never mind it taste it now. Still slight match sweetness. Astringency is stronger, but not bad. Has a strong tea flavor.

Steep 3: More astringency now; but still pleasant. Strong green tea flavor (DUH) some unami now. In the beginning there was a stronger matcha flavor. This tea seems to change profile as it cools. Interesting. This is a very savory steep. Not as grassy as before. Mild astringency now. Cooler: more matcha flavor and a smidgen more astringency.

Steep 4: The prevailing flavor is match. Very sweet with just a touch of savory to ground it. YUM!

Overall this was a very interesting and pleasant tea. I had a rich and dynamic flavor. I love how depending how you steep it greatly changes it’s flavor profile.It seems to change flavors as it cools as well; making each sip different. I am sad to see my sample gone I would have loved to have some more of this on another day.

I made this up the other day. It was good, but the Cotton Candy flavor every one raved about this one didn’t really come out that much. I mean it tasted sweet, but I wasn’t getting a cotton candy flavor. Maybe next time I will try to sweeten this with sugar instead of Light agave nectar. Anyone else have any suggestions?

I did a review for this tea on my blog but here is a quick overview for this tea.

Steep 1: Soy bean, edamame, savory, sweet, beany, light

Steep 2: Citrus, lima bean, brisk, clean . More steamed green than buttered sauteed green and has a thick mouth feel. Slight citrus, fresh green bean crisp. Light nutty note. Sweet greens actually. Yes sweet green after taste.

Steep 3: Still citrus and crisp steamed creamy bean with thick mouth feel. It has a kind of a nutty creaminess. Cooled is a little more savory. Even cooler, more citrus green dry aftertaste. Still sweet green flavor.

Steep 4: Crisper, less citrus. A little more savory now. More sauteed instead of steamed veggie, but still crisp and fresh. I can’t believe there is not butter in this. Do it taste salt??? Still sweet after taste, but with some savory flavor. Man I want some nachos or a steak now to go with this tea. The tea drunk is setting in. Very sweet grass after taste. Must be that spring picking flavor to it.

Steep 5: Very savory sated veggies in butter. Ok becoming very tea drunk. Must eat something. Sorry pallet. This is one of my favorite steeps so far. Very savory green bean, but also sweet after taste. It kinda is giving me the whole spectrum of this tea; minus the citrus.

Steep 6: Much more savory. Very thick, creamy and buttery. Ok this is my favorite steeping. Still that sweet aftertaste, but much more light. Hmmmmm buttered greens.

Steep 7: Lighter, but still savory green. I wonder if my wasabi almonds is making it taste more savory. Hmmmm salted veggies. I also now have a strong urge to buy wasabi peas and brew them with my green tea. So much tea drunk

Ok I think I am done for now. I could get more steeps out of it, but I am too full and tea drunk to continue.

From what I can gather the early steepings are crisper, nuttier, and have a citrus quality to them. Then the flavor starts to move away from the bright crisp qualities to savory, buttery, sauteed flavor. Each steeping though maintained a sweet grass after taste.

Read the full review here:
http://tunesntea.wordpress.com/2013/06/15/tea-2013-spring-picked-laoshan-green-tea/

Bumping this one up due to the fact that the addition of dark agave is perfect! It’s maple and brown sugar taste meld perfect. As soon as this gets re-blended I am buying another pouch.

PFFFFFFFFFFT!!!! My board is coming into day! I just can’t wait. GAAAAAAH!!! Work is being painfully slow and for most of my shift I am bagging. I have been so figidity you don’t even know.

I am making some of this tea to distract me from it, (not going uber well). I really like the tangyness is this one. I find non-roasted or un-aged Tieguanyin to be ok, just a little boring with mainly butter, green leaf and florals. But with this one that tang adds a whole new level to it. I would be some more if I didn’t have stuff to get through. I also recommend brewing it in 6oz of water for western style. The flavor is way stronger.

GAAAAAHHH I WANT MY BOARD!

First I just want to say that I am loving my new electric tea kettle. IT IS THE BEST THING EVER!!! I can now quickly brew tea to the temp that I want, and brew it in my room. Woooo! Now to see how long it will last. I’m hoping it will.

I got this tea yesterday along with my new moriage dragonware teapot
http://puu.sh/38dw3.jpg
http://puu.sh/38dxo.jpg
http://puu.sh/38dxY.jpg
and Khiro shock pads for my long board; I accidentally ordered hard risers instead of shock pads with my board >_> Now I just have to wait 2 more days for it to come in………

Ok on to the tea:
The dry leaf smells yummy. I can’t really describe the flavor other then sweet. It makes me just want to eat it out of the bag. The brew it self smells just as sweet. The first time I drank this sweeten with just light agave, it was ok. I got more of the flavors when it was cooler. This morning I used a some more leaf, then I added a small spoonful of brown sugar and a little bit of light agave….. Yes! This taste just like french toast! The cinnamon is in good proportion too. It’s present, but not dominating. The buttery after taste is awesome as well. It even has this bread/pastry taste there too. I can’t wait to see how this does as a latte. I can see vanilla sugar working great with this as well.

P.S. I should get some dark agave. That would be perfect in this.

Specifics

Pot: porcelain
Steep: Two 8oz steeps in one cup
Leaf: Two small spoon fulls
Sweetener: some brown sugar and light agave
Time: 2:30; 2:50