Ito En

Nothing more refreshing than an Ito-En Sencha Shot. . . yummmmmy. Now, what should i have for lunch?

I quite liked this one. It is light to the taste. I found that a longer steeping time made for a better first steep.

Ti Kuan Yin (Iron Goddess of Mercy) is an oolong grown in Fujian Province and is designated as one of China’s “10 Famous Teas” and may be the best-known oolong in the world.

The batch I’m reviewing, Iron Goddess Superior, was purchased straight from Ito En’s Madison Avenue store in Manhattan, but it can also be purchased from the company’s less-than-user friendly website. On the website, the loose-leaf teas can be found on the homepage nav bar under “Ito En Brands,” which strikes me as a little weird, but whatever. Or go straight to the tea selections from this link. http://www.itoen.com/leaf/

This Ti Kuan Yin is lightly oxidized, much less oxidized than more traditional Ti Kuan Yins, such as those I’ve purchased from Porto Rico Importing. The infusion (or, as they say in my neighborhood, “da wet leaves”) are olive green, as opposed to the medium brown I’ve seen on other Ti Kuan Yins. And the liquor was light green, as opposed to medium amber.

I did a four-minute steep, which in some circles would be considered a long steeping time for this tea, but I’ve found most oolongs can go three or four minutes. This tea can also be served using what’s called the gung fu (or kung fu) method, using large amounts of tea for very short steeping periods -as short as 30 seconds - and steeping it multiple times, which enables you to bring out the tea’s different nuances with each successive infusion. However, all I was interested in was a cup of tea, not to make a whole afternoon of it.

Anyway, this tea had that typical Iron Goddess roasted flavor, but not quite as intensely as other variations of this tea I’ve tried. The tea wasn’t bad, but given my penchant for black teas and more oxidized oolongs, this seemed just a tad thin to me or maybe too green. Hey, if you’re going to all that trouble to process an oolong, which may be the most complicated teas for growers to make and involves bruising the leaves, sweating them to stimulate the tannins, and other complicated steps, you’d think they at least oxidize the leaves more to make it more distinctive from a straight pan-fired green.

I give this tea neither a thumbs up or a thumbs down. If you’re normally a green-tea sort of person, you might appreciate this Ti Kuan Yin’s green leanings. If you’re coming to oolongs from the dark side, black teas that is, no George Lucus reference intended, you might prefer a darker Iron Goddess, like what they have at Porto Rico Importing. http://www.portorico.com/store/page30.html

At $1.40 an ounce for Porto Rico’s Iron Goddess, as opposed to Ito En’s $5.60 an ounce, you might also appreciate the price savings. Porto Rico also has a pricier superior grade Ti Kuan Yin at $3.31 an ounce (still cheaper than Ito En’s), but I haven’t tried that one yet.

If you’re in New York, you should definitely check out both stores, arguably the two best tea purveyors in the city, although completely different experiences. Ito En, Madison near 69th, is a zen-like Japanese experience, complete with the salespeople presenting the tea to you to sniff like a fine wine. Porto Rico is unmistakably New Yawk. (Go to Porto Rico’s main store on Bleeker, just east of Sixth Avenue.)

In bagged form, this is a decent jasmine green for the price.

I loved it, its really great for backpacking trips.

Many good teas consist of one leaf bud for every two fully developed leaves. Other premium teas are imperially plucked, one bud for every leaf. Ito En’s Yunnan Gold Tips are just buds, and nothing but the buds. It’s kinda what a white tea would be if you let the leaf buds oxidize.

This tea is smooth in terms of how it feels in your mouth, has a really malty taste with an aftertaste that’s sort of like honey or caramel. And with the tea plant pumping all that sugar to nourish these buds, it’s not surprising that this tea is sweet, even if you don’t add sugar, honey or agave. It’s not as full-bodied as a “regular” one-bud, two-leaf black Yunnan, but with a five-minute steep, this tea can hold up to milk.

At $7 an ounce, it’s not cheap. It can be purchased at Ito En’s store on Madison Avenue in Manhattan if you happen to live in NYC or it can be ordered online at http://www.itoen.com/leaf/.

So what don’t I like about this tea? Well, for one thing it’s not organic and that’s a pretty big deal for me. When you buy produce, you at least get to wash it before you put it in your mouth. Tea arrives dry and goes straight into your cup when you make it. While I like Chinese black teas, when I think about safe application of pesticides (or food safety in general) China isn’t the first place that comes to mind. Organic tea is a big selling point for me and given that there is so much wildly harvested tea in Yunnan, it wouldn’t think it would be hard for Ito En to find an organic source for this tea. Numi Teas apparently has an organic Yunnan gold tip tea, and I’ll certainly be giving that one a whirl at some point and see how it compares to Ito En’s.

But if you like malty black teas or like Yunnan’s in general, this tea certainly meets the taste criteria.

It’s a darker oolong than I would pick on my own, but all in all not bad.

A light and refreshing first steep. The subtle citrus hints would make this a good “first timer” introduction to senchas for those used to Chinese greens and whites.

I think this is my new favorite “cheap” tea (cheap, as in it’s only $40/lb). A good everyday tea.

So, so much better than the lemon sencha I’ve complained about here before. Nice and smooth, with just a hint of citrus.

This is my final piece, so I’m trying to savor it. Those notes of movie popcorn are really prevalent in the aroma of the first steeping.

The instructions on the bag recommended 190 for 3 minutes whereas the web site recommends boiling for 1-2 minutes. I went with the former for this first steeping.

A really unique pu-erh.

This is one of the most curious teas I’ve tried in a while. The first infusion was had only a slight earthiness, unlike most other pu-erhs I’ve tried. What really threw me for a loop were the undertones of popcorn. And specifically, movie popcorn.

I’m serious. Stop laughing.

The second and third infusions tasted more like a standard Chinese green tea (with very almost none of the expected pu-erh earthiness) and had no remaining hints of popcorn.

Very strange. But, I like.

Brew this one right and you’re in for a treat. It’s got that bright, vibrant flavor you’d expect from a good sencha. Nice and smooth and the brewed leaves have a full, almost “cooked” aroma.

I missed the alert for the first steep, so it went a minute or so too long, which is a sin with Japanese greens, it seems.

Subsequent steepings were better.

A nice, fresh Japanese green that’s described as midway between a sencha and a gyokuro. To me, it definitely felt more sencha than gyokyro; that is to say it didn’t have the strong grassy notes and may be more palatable to those who are new to Japanese greens.

Another nice sencha, with a light vegetal flavor. A good nighttime tea.

Even though Ito En is the equivalent of Lipton Tea in Japan, I really enjoy their iced tea. They are extremely refreshing and don’t contain any sweetner. I tried this one for the first time today and it has a stronger flavor than their regular green tea. It kind of has a grassy/sencha flavor to it. The regular Oi Ocha tastes more like barley/popcorn/gen mai cha to me.

Tea’s Tea is the only bottled tea I can drink, and the Golden Oolong is my favourite. Honest, awesome tea!