Den's Tea

This is the first tea I’ve ever tried from Den’s Tea! I bought the Green Tea Sampler for novices, a really cute kokoro (kyusu) teapot, and the sakura sencha gift set. I must say, I am so impressed with this sencha fuka-midori. ! I steeped it according to Den’s recommended brewing instructions. Delicious! I steeped it twice and shared it with my boyfriend, who is starting to like greens!

A great way to enjoy the mornings. There is enough in the sampler to make 2-3 pots!

I’m really enjoying the flavored senchas from Den’s that I’ve tried thus far (the other I’ve tried is the pineapple). The dry leaves have a big, brassy orange scent, while the steeped tea has a much more muted orange scent and taste, but the orange is still present. It’s great how well the orange taste blends with the sencha. I also like that this tastes like orange, not just broad citrus flavor.

Thumbs up!

The green is vibrant, though difficult to discern visually between it and Den’s Matcha Usucha(Matcha Kaze) – which reflects positively on Den’s usucha. Make sure to use a sifter to eliminate clumps. I vary my scoops day-to-day. Den recommends only 1 chashaku scoop, which I do when I’m in a particular rush. Otherwise its 2-3 chashaku scoops for me. 1/3 or 1/4 cup of Water at 175F. Foams up nicely; it could be my imagination, but I could swear his usucha foams up better. Flavour-wise, it is quite good. Den advertises the elimination of bitterness, compared to his usucha. I tend to agree, the small amount that was detectable in his usucha, was faint or non-existent in this koicha. The natural sweetness however isn’t as prominent as I would have liked. Compared to his usucha, I do prefer this. The question is if it worth twice the price of Den’s usucha? Ultimately, that is a personal preference. Compared to other Matcha Koicha’s, it is priced competitively. So definitely worth a shot.

The first time I tried it, I must have steeped it too long. I hated the flavor, and pushed it so far back that I forgot it was there. I brewed a cup this evening, and the taste cup was subtly sweet. I usually hate flavored green teas, but this subtle cherry flavor was a delight. I am glad that this tea was found!

Bought this with my Tencha-Kuki Houjicha. I felt like I almost had to, haha. In the spirit of spring! We may not have many cherry blossom trees in New Jersey, but somehow my spring experience is incomplete without sakura something. I always found it amusing, though, how Japan has so many sakura-flavored things in the spring. I’ve had sakura-flavored Kit Kats… probably sakura-flavored Pocky, too.

Anyway, back to the tea! The leaves smell really, really nice! A liiiiittle bit like candy, but really it’s more like a light sweetness. This is definitely not what one would consider “cherry flavor,” but then again, “sakura” doesn’t mean “cherry” in the fruit sense. It means “cherry blossom” or “cherry tree.” (“Sakuranbou” is the fruit.) Definitely still smells like sencha underneath, though!

The package says to use a higher temp for a more fruity flavor, and a lower temp for more of a sencha flavor, and I used a bit of a low temp, thus resulting in mostly a sencha flavor. There’s a tiiiny bit of sweetness on the end, though. It’s yummy, but I’m looking forward to trying it with a higher temp, too. :) I want to try to recreate the scent of the leaves.

I should mention, too, that as the tea cools, a bit more of the flavoring comes forward in the aftertaste. It’s like floraly sweet.

Ugh… craaappp… sigh… I was gonna make a double cup according to premium sencha parameters, but totally spaced and made it a double cup according to flavored sencha parameters… I hate when I do that. It makes me so mad I almost don’t want to make tea for the rest of the day. It’s ok… but not nearly as good as it could or should have been…

I love any free tea, but what I love even more is when you get something free unexpectedly that I’ve always wanted to try. And this is one of them.

Prepared as suggested. Holy orange! The flavor of the orange instantly hits me in the face when I open the package. Once steeped, the liquor is a light yellowish green. Unfortunately the orange isn’t nearly as strong as it was when the leaf was raw, but it’s still definitely there. The flavor matches that of the steeped tea and not the raw leaf, but that’s ok. I think if it’d been as strong as the raw leaf it would have been too easily mistaken for an herbal tisane. The sencha is very much a part of the flavor profile.

Ok, I admit it. This tea terrifies me. I love cherries (bing to be exact), but I hate almost anything else cherry flavored. But… I also love things that are seasonal and since Japan is known for their cherry blossoms, I knew I had to at least give it a try.

Prepared as suggested. 2g/3oz water. The aroma of the dry leaf isn’t as strong as I was expecting and smells of cherry sweet tarts, not of cough syrup as I feared. When steeped the liquor is a gorgeous yellowish green. Surprisingly the sent of the cherry is gone leaving only that of the sencha.

Hmmm… I’ve only had one other flavored sencha from Den’s (their apple) and the flavor of this one just doesn’t compare. The cherry is very light and is more of the blossom rather than the fruit. I’m not sure I’d like it if it was stronger, but I have a feeling that a person looking for a cherry flavored sencha will be disappointed.

I made some of this iced today. Really a good iced tea, I think I like it better iced than hot. It tastes very tropical and summery. I think that I’ll try to have some of this on hand for the really hot part of summer.

I’m going to write a nice long review the next time I have this. Progress report grades are due tomorrow, and I’m just too swamped with grading.

OM NOM NOM. This is what I think every time I open this tea up and smell it. It smells soooo good. If it were nom-able, I would totally just nom it.

I think they should make Tencha-Kuki Houjicha potato chips. They probably do make snacks that taste like this in Japan. Maybe that’s why I want to nom it so bad, lol.

I’m sooo hungry, and to prevent myself from going down to the vending machine and getting junk food, I decided to have some of this. It was a very tasty decision.

I did end up making this a bit stronger than I had it the last time, but that’s not a bad thing. And it hasn’t made it any better. It’s just as awesome as before. :)

And now I’m thinking I shoulda had this with the sushi I ate for lunch yesterday! It would have gone awesomely together. Oh well. Next time!! :)

I was really excited to try this tea. It sounded really good! So I made sure to order some when I made my real, non-sampler order from Den’s. :)

This tea smells delightfully sweet-roasty-earthy. Not too much of any of those things. It just smells downright good!

It has a light, sweet, honey-like taste. I’m definitely a fan! :D

This comes in bags that make a liter at a time. It’s a fast, cold brew tea and is ready after an hour in the fridge. The resulting tea is a nice, orangey brown color. The taste is very nutty and grainy. It is very refreshing, and makes you want to gulp it down if you drink it while you are really thirsty. I enjoyed my first taste, and I think it will be really wonderful in the summer when it is hot out and we need something really, really cold to drink.

This is definitely something that I’ll be drinking again, especially since it is completely caffeine free. (Well, unless barley somehow has caffeine in it.)

I am ready for Spring and after drinking this I want Spring to be here right this moment. This has a really nice flavor. The sencha and the cherry flavor blend together in an excellent way. Neither one overpowers or sticks out above the other. The cherry flavor is not fake at all which really surprised me. I have another cherry flavor tea in my collection that is so incredibly sickly sweet and fake that I really have to be in the mood for. This one however is perfectly refreshing, green, and sweet reminding me of Spring.

The smell straight from the bag is incredible & pretty strong (like cherry candy) but it mellows once you put the leaf in your brewing vessel.

Steeped, the cherry tasted isn’t nearly as intense as the dry leaf aroma would suggest. The balance between cherry and sencha is quite nice. The later infusions lose the cherry taste and you get more sencha.

This is the perfect Spring and Summer tea. It’s great iced on a hot day. Since it’s only available for a limited time (maybe 2 months near the beginning of the year… in other words NOW), buy a couple pouches and store one unopened in the fridge. You’ll be glad you did when the weather changes and you have this refreshing treat to drink :)

Note, this does have cherry flavoring added.

This was one of the sales last month and I needed more matcha so I decided to place another Den’s order. My 1st Bancha! Steeped as suggested, except I lowered the temp just a bit so I didn’t kill the health benefits.

Does anyone else think astringency has an aroma? The raw leaves smell quite a bit like Kukicha so I’m wondering if that’s from the astringency.

The liquor is a pretty yellow color and the aroma is that of the raw leaf, but quite a bit lighter. I can definitely see the similarities between this and Kukicha although this is quite a bit lighter and sweeter. Given the choice between this and Kukicha, I think I’d go w/ this.

Steeped this a bit long, and used a bit too much leaf. But I decided to just dump the rest of my sample in, since I wouldn’t have enough for two more anyway. It’s not bad, just a bit more astringent than I would prefer. Still yummy, though. :) I love the smoothness and the thickness that the matcha gives it. I’ve decided I need to get some straight matcha at some point. Maybe in a couple months, after I recover from the massive tea spree I’ve been on the past few months!