Yunomi

So, Yunomi threw this in as a free sample in one of my orders, but I’m not sure if it’s #1 or #12. It came in a brown tear bag with a foil interior and contains two teabags, but they don’t look like the #12 bags.

I don’t usually do teabags, but trying to sipdown greens I’ve opened or green samples that I have in the morning. Sort of chose this one at random. Steeped in probably somewhere around 140 ml of water heated to 70C, but then it took me a bit to actually pour, so probably cooled a bit, and steeped a bit longer than 2 minutes.

The resulting flavor is nice and light. Has a sweet chestnut aroma and flavor with a hint of creaminess and a bit of umami in the background. Pretty good. Second steep at 80C and probably about a minute max. Very light and smooth, creamy with a vegetal aroma. Not going to try for a third steep, but this wasn’t bad!

This was a very interesting and different tea that I greatly enjoyed sampling. I’ll most definitely be acquiring some to have on stock in the future.

I started off with 5g of tea. The dry leaf was not uniform at all. There were pieces that looked like small flakes, needles, and just powder. Some leaves were light, but most were a deep green. The aroma was very nice. Very typical sencha. Sweet and vegetal with a slight acidic side.

After steeping for 1 min with 250ml of 160 degree water the leaves took on a wet seaweed appearance. Fuzzy and hay like. All clinging together. A light green color. The aroma was typical sencha with a tendency towards acidic and sour notes.

The liquor of the first infusion was an even pale, dirty green. A nice puke green, but in an appealing sort of way. I know, it sounds weird. The aroma was very faint, but my sinus’s were congested as well so that could have been part of it.

The taste was very different and unique. My first impression was umami, but with a strong astringency as well. Lots of bitterness, but not overpowering. It was a strong yet enjoyable bitterness. There were also very very slight notes of earthy smokiness maybe. Not sure exactly. I’ll have to try again when I try this the second time around.

The second infusion was stronger, more bitter, with hints of smoke and sourness. Still easy to drink. Not overpowering and very enjoyable.

Ratings (from 0-10)

7 – Dry Leaf Appearance
8 – Dry Leaf Smell
5 – Wet Leaf Appearance
6 – Wet Leaf Smell
7 – Liquor Appearance
7 – Aroma
8 – Taste
9 – Value (Is this taste, aroma, and overall experience worth the cost.)

= 73.5 = 74

Rating Multipliers

0.5 – Dry Leaf Appearance
0.5 – Dry Leaf Smell
0.5 – Wet Leaf Appearance
0.5 – Wet Leaf Smell
0.5 – Liquor Appearance
3.5 – Aroma
3.5 – Taste
0.5 – Value (Is this taste, aroma, and overall experience worth the cost.)

A very mild sencha with a gentle bitterness at the tail end. It has a strong aroma of steamed zucchini and squash (not the pumpkin kind, the little yellow kind we get in Australia) and tastes slightly vegetal and green – the bitterness is really the star here. I don’t love it, but it’s not bad either.

I really enjoyed this gyokuro. Great umami while having a lingering taste and notes of green beans, brussel sprouts and a hint of saltiness (I know, maybe my brain made that part up).

To start, the dry leaves were a wonderful deep green. They were very fine and spindly and mostly quite uniform. The aroma was a deep deep sweet umami.

I started with 5g tea in 75ml of 120 degree water for 2 minutes. The first infusion produced a pale yellow liquor. It was nothing too special, but it did look nice. The aroma of the the liquor was of deep umami. The taste was very strong umami. Very deep, full, with a lingering in the back of the mouth.

The second infusion with 250ml of 190 degree water for 15 seconds produced a beautiful bright green liquor. The aroma had strong scents of seaweed and a slightly saltiness in the the back of the mouth. Saltwater. The taste was full, rounder, and had a bite throughout the mouth compared to the initial infusion.

The third infusion (steeped as the second) was mellower. Started to lose flavor. Had a slightly astringent bite. Slight sweet green bean taste. Perhaps notes of brussel sprouts.

Rating

8 – Dry Leaf Appearance
8 – Dry Leaf Smell
8 – Wet Leaf Appearance
9 – Wet Leaf Smell
6 – Liquor Appearance
8 – Aroma
8 – Taste
5 – Value (Is this taste, aroma, and overall experience worth the cost.)

Total = 78

Multiplication factors

0.5 – Dry Leaf Appearance
0.5 – Dry Leaf Smell
0.5 – Wet Leaf Appearance
0.5 – Wet Leaf Smell
0.5 – Liquor Appearance
3.5 – Aroma
3.5 – Taste
0.5 – Value (Is this taste, aroma, and overall experience worth the cost.)

After reading some of the reviews on this tea, I realize I may be the black sheep. I personally was not a big fan of this tea. It was extremely astringent, but not in a good way. It left his astringent taste that just tasted bad. It’s hard to describe. I just found it having a bad aftertaste.

To start, the dry leaf’s appearance was a finely chopped mix of light and dark green pieces. It was very powdery and left an interesting first impression. I initially thought this was a sign of poor quality, but realized that this is what “konacha” means. I’m still new to Japanese terms so I was ignorant of this fact. The smell of the dry leaf was like astringent greens. Very reminiscent of matcha.

For the first infusion, I steeped 5g of tea for 30 seconds at 140 degrees in 75ml of water. The resulting liquor was a greenish/yellow with lots of leaf particles and powder (due to the broken up aspect of the leaf). It did not look super appealing. The aroma was not bad though. It had a very deep matcha smell. Bitter. The wet leaves themselves were a beautiful deep green mush (due to the small leave size). The aroma was nice and light. Not too overpowering.

The taste was umami and astringent. Initially this was really great. However, following the initial burst of umami and astringency was a super bitter bad aftertaste. It was not a simple bite, but a taste that left me running my tongue around in my mouth trying to get rid of all the liquid. Furthermore, this bad taste lingered. Now, this was not something that ruined the tea, but something I personally cannot stand.

The second infusion was made with 250ml of 160 degree water for 30 seconds. The liquor was a very deep green and very matcha like. Much more appealing than the first infusion. The aroma, however, was pretty lacking. It just wasn’t strong enough to really smell. The taste was similar to the first infusion in the fact that it was very astringent and bitter. There was a strong taste of overcooked spinach. Again, a lingering bad bitter aftertaste.

Overall this tea was ok. After reading the other reviews I am looking forward to trying it again. Maybe I simply don’t appreciate the flavor profile. Regardless, at this point it is not my favorite by any means nor would I recommend it.

Ratings (from 1-10)

6 – Dry Leaf Appearance
7 – Dry Leaf Smell
7 – Wet Leaf Appearance
6 – Wet Leaf Smell
4 – Liquor Appearance
6 – Aroma
5 – Taste
5 – Value (Is this taste, aroma, and overall experience worth the cost.)

Total = 56

Rating Multipliers

0.5 – Dry Leaf Appearance
0.5 – Dry Leaf Smell
0.5 – Wet Leaf Appearance
0.5 – Wet Leaf Smell
0.5 – Liquor Appearance
3.5 – Aroma
3.5 – Taste
0.5 – Value (Is this taste, aroma, and overall experience worth the cost.)

To start I would like to say I’m trying out a new rating system listed at the end of this review. I’m a math person so it’s pretty systematic. It’s an attempt to standardize my ratings and reviews. It might be tweaked as I go along, but for now it is how I will be rating all my tea reviews.

This was an enjoyable tea. My initial reaction to the dry leaf was it’s variety, yet uniform look. It consists of a mix of longer slivers and short flattened pieces of leaf. However, there is not much between these sizes, so it is also fairly uniform. It was a lovely dark green color. Not as dark as a fukamushi, but very close. The smell of the dry leaf was of very sweet grass.

The initial steep was at 150 degrees for 75 seconds with 200 ml of water.

The wet leaf lightened from the dry leaf surprisingly. Not as appealing. The aroma, however, was a lovely fresh, damp seaweed smell with a slight bite. The liquor was a pale, greenish yellow, although definitely more green than yellow. The aroma from the liquor was like sweet grass, seaweed, and green beans with a slight bite detected in the back of the throat. The taste was a pleasant balance of umami, sweetness, and astringency. There was a nice full feeling in the mouth with a slight bite in the back of the mouth, although neither was overwhelming.

The second infusion was for 15 seconds at 175 degrees with 250ml of water. The aroma lessened quite considerably with this infusion. The taste become more mellow. Almost zero astringency. Notes of walnuts. Vegetal, but sweet at the same time.

Overall a great sencha. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Definitely in the range of high quality everyday senchas.

Rating

7 – Dry Leaf Appearance
8 – Dry Leaf Smell
6 – Wet Leaf Appearance
7 – Wet Leaf Smell
7 – Liquor Appearance
8 – Aroma
8 – Taste
8 – Value (Is this taste, aroma, and overall experience worth the cost.)

Total = 77.5 = 78

Multiplication Factors

0.5 – Dry Leaf Appearance
0.5 – Dry Leaf Smell
0.5 – Wet Leaf Appearance
0.5 – Wet Leaf Smell
0.5 – Liquor Appearance
3.5 – Aroma
3.5 – Taste
0.5 – Value (Is this taste, aroma, and overall experience worth the cost.)

This was part of a secret santa tea gift from inkay, which was incredible, by the way!

This was my first matcha latte ever, so preparation was a little iffy. I’ve never even had a professional one, so I kind of made it up. I started by making a paste with 170 degree water, then I used my espresso machine to make milk foam. I just kind of made up how much milk to add and stirred.

I wasn’t really feeling it plain, and my chat had recommended adding some vanilla, so that’s what I did. The result was what I would imagine green bean ice cream to taste like. It was weird at first, but it grew on me. It definitely has a different flavor than my usual matcha.

Less sweet, a little more bitter, and more vegetal, yet still somehow smooth. Very nice! Thanks inkay!

I haven’t tasted very many hojichas, but this is lovely. It’s vegetal but distinctly toasty, which would be a perfect blend for a chilly winter morning, which, incidentally, I’m experiencing quite the opposite of. The liquor is quite a bright green upon first pouring the water, but it brews to a dark yellow. It reminded me a lot of a forest – dark and damp and full of vegetation, with a distinct sweetness and rich roasted flavour. Really nice.

My goodness, that name is quite a mouthful. :-) This tea features short grass-like pieces of leaf a lovely dark green. For this review, steeped at around 170F for about 2 minutes. First steep was a cloudy yellow-green that tasted quite broth-like, noticeably salty with a slight sourness. Something like a seaweed broth. The next steep was sweeter, with the saltiness replaced by a more grassy sencha flavor with some bitter notes creeping in, but overall weaker in flavor. The third steep had little flavor left.

A quality tea, and a good price, but the savoriness is not my favorite flavor profile.

Sipdown. Drank the very last of this today. It’s both a relief and sad, as I had ordered 100g of this so was worried about drinking it fast enough, but it was so tasty that I’ll miss having it as my morning go to. Thanks for many good mornings, Nakamura-en #01!

Nothing like good gyokuro in the morning. This is one that I continue to enjoy coming back to again and again, and I plan to try others from Nakamura-en. I’m glad I bought this in a large quantity, as it has made it possible for me to share with a few people and still have a good amount for my stash. :3

So I chose this as the first thing to steep in the shiboridashi I made and oh my goodness. Umami and brothy with a creaminess that is more butter than cream. I get spinach out of the vegetal element here, and the brothiness is definitely of a briny nature.

While the first steep came out a deep golden hue, the second and third are a deep, vivid green, thick, silky soup, full of a more balanced medley of flavors than the first steep. So glad I got as much of this stuff as I did!

50C/80C/80C
120/20/30

Basic sencha in my opinion. Easy to drink. Well balanced. Nice light green/yellow color. Nothing special or spectacular though. A very good average, but it also doesn’t surprise you or offer anything special. Seems like a great everyday tea though.

Drinking down the last 5g of this this morning. I was so tempted to dip into a new gyokuro or houjicha or something, but I figured I should drink my open and other smaller green samples first, plus this let me drink a larger amount at a warmer temperature.

Due to the lack or sorting and whatnot, it is a bit of a hassle to prepare this one because of the dust and fannings. I enjoy the grassy, beany, faint chestnut and light astringency, but it doesn’t stand out enough for me to necessarily crave it in the future. I also find this tea to be harsh on an empty stomach in the way that matcha is for me. All in all, though, being able to have the opportunity to try unrefined tea from a single field is quite a special thing, and it helps me to better appreciate every tea that I drink, and all of the work that goes into achieving the final flavor profiles that teas end up with.

I was so busy trying to make sure that I got through the bigger packages of green teas I had open that I haven’t had a chance to try some of the Yunomi samples I got. Went for this one since it calls for 240 ml of water, so I’d be able to sip it for a while.

The dry leaves are a blend of dark leafy matter, light colored stems and dust, with some brown bits here and there. It floats atop the water while steeping and puts up a fight as I try to strain it. Until now, I’ve been preparing my Japanese greens in a gaiwan and using the lid to strain, but this yields too large an amount for that and it quickly clogged up my strainer.

The resulting liquor is a light, cloudy yellow green that has a very light taste. It’s very smooth with a bit of a creamy texture and a beany, vegetal taste similar to edamame, and the faintest hint of chestnut in there and some umami trying to push through. The fact that this is aracha becomes increasingly apparent the longer I drink, as the flavor profile is less defined and bold than what one would experience in a fully processed tea.

I think that is what ends up making aracha unique. Since the leaves don’t go through sorting and further processing, there is less input from the human element to guide the experience of the drinker at the other end of the process. The end result is an affordable easy drinker that can be enjoyed by anyone who can appreciate its subtle complexities.

I see that someone has actually prepped this gongfu style, so perhaps I’ll try that with what remains of my sample.

This was a pretty decent sencha – I enjoyed the irony of drinking it as some of the season’s first snow was falling today. I liked this one best with a longer/cooler (2m at 140F) first steep. That steep was nice and bitter, but mouth-wateringly so, rather than mouth-drying. It had a nice milky flavor and texture to go along with the grassiness. Decently vibrant in its grassy notes. I was able to get 3-4 steeps from this one, all of which were tasty. A solid, if not spectacular, sencha. Doesn’t stack up with some of the other Obubu sencha I drank earlier, though that may be unfair, as this one isn’t as fresh at this point.

This tea is much darker than I remember! It’s sharp too – a bitterness that is very coffee-esque. This would definitely slap me awake in the morning. Very woodsy scent in the dry leaf, very smoky in the warmed kyusu, and a “burnt toast” smell in the wet leaf.

Full bodied. Left a nice mouth feel. Not sure if the lingering sweetness is from this or the sencha I drank earlier. I wish I had more to experiment with, but I don’t. I don’t think I’d order more Amber, but I would definitely drink more if it was offered to me.

Bought this a while ago from Yunomi and am just getting around to drinking it now. It is tasty with a sweet and sour flavor going on. Not really an unpleasant sour taste. Overall it is quite good. They are now sold out of this but I suppose they will get it in again. I forget what I paid for this but I don’t think it was too much.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water for 3 minutes.

I really enjoyed this sencha from NaturaliTea. It was well balanced and provided both notes of astringency and sweetness.

I began with 5g of tea steeped at 160 degrees for one minute. The initial infusion was quite sweet, while still not being overpowering. There were also flavors of green beans, veggies, and sweet wheat grass. It was both sweet, astringent, and balanced. Akin to a nice sweet and tart apple. Both flavor categories working well together.

The second infusion was steeped at the same temperature for about a minute again. It was slightly less sweet with an almost smokey astringency in the back of my throat. Overall, however, it maintained the flavor profile of the first infusion. Quite well balanced while tipping towards the sweet side.

I’m glad I only had a sample size of this tea. It’s okay but not a favourite sencha. It’s a bit difficult to brew. First infusion was at 70C and it had a bit too much bitterness and astringency in it. It was very grassy but the slight bitterness and astringency took away from it. I was hoping for the 2nd infusion at 80C for 10 sec it would be sweeter and not bitter. It still had a slight bitterness & astrincency. Less grassy flavour and not very sweet.

Glad I only had a sample size of this tea. It’s gone now.