Ryuouen

Solid genmaicha, not quite as good as the Ippodo genmaicha’s in my opinion. I’m under the understanding that Ryouen is known mainly for their Hojicha, so this may just be indicative of that. Flavor is nice and light, although there are some savory, almost saline notes that I don’t love. Still, this is just personal preference.

I did make a cold brew with the pot after I was done and that was great!

This Hojicha slaps. I find that more often than not, Hojicha’s flavor becomes an afterthought since the leaves are roasted. Not so with this. The leaves still retain a slight greenish tint that comes out in the brew. A really nice umami, nutty, taste but still with some lingering green tea notes. Some Hojicha’s have a bit of a bitter aftertaste but this is nice and smooth. I wish it was more readily available in the States!

The instructions called for 30g per liter (or six heaping teaspoons) cold brewed for 12+ hours. I found that I like it brewed a bit weaker at six actual teaspoons per liter. I’ve been making a batch almost every other day this summer.

(I’m bad at describing flavors but it’s quite tasty)

Nice tea. Not crazy about it. Maybe I need to experiment more with brewing it, since I don’t even really know what it is. (Anyone read Japanese?) It’s not very sweet, but also doesn’t have a strong umami flavor either. It’s a nice, mellow, vegetal green tea.

I was so pleased that I was able to google-sleuth this and the name of this tea and a picture! I was really intimidated by the smell of the dry leaves. They smelled very nutty, almost chocolatey, and very umami, almost like seaweed praline- a very strange combination. Thankfully, when this tea is brewed, those notes mellow out and come together in a really nice way. The sweet nuttiness becomes more of a roasted grain flavor, and the umami is toned way down. It has a nice sweetness to the aftertaste, but this tea is still pretty foreign to my palate. I’d bet this would be a wonderful tea to have with a meal.

ETA: The tin has a really odd design on it…It’s an open-mouthed frog, chasing a rabbit (who’s wielding a branch over its head), chasing a monkey?

The picture on the tin is this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chōjū-jinbutsu-giga Known as the first Manga.

1500yen/100g

Actually it’s a karigane(?) of Garyu-Horie which is a company seeming to be related to Ryu-Oh-En, and maybe famous for its package picture using Cho-Ju-Giga.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%8Dj%C5%AB-jinbutsu-giga