191 Tasting Notes
ok, it might be on account of i JUST finished an extremely salty/umami second steeping of a fancy sencha, but this is SO YUMMY! i love a good toasty houjicha, and this one hits the spot. perfect late afternoon tea!
Preparation
this is interesting – very seawatery, very vegetable-y, i think they call that umami? it’s a little mellower than other senchas, there’s still a tiny bit of bitterness, but this is smooth and sweet and salty. a little heavy on the salty, this first steeping. will update upon seconds.
Preparation
started over on the multiple steepings of this for today. first steep – as described before, and i still love it! this stuff will easily become a daily craving for me, so after today i’m going to try to not drink it THAT often (maybe just every 2-3 days?) so that i don’t get sick of it. it is such a strong presence, i can tell that might happen a little too easily.
but for today? i binge! NOM NOM NOM GREEN NOM
Well…reminds me of silage, you know, the old hay/cornstalks/whatever is left after harvest that is stored by the farmer in a silo, left all winter to ferment and to feed the cows when there’s nothing green to eat? That stuff. Fermented half-rotten cornstalks in a barn warmed by 30 head of cattle and their various bodily excretions and fulmigations.
Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, mind you. Kinda.
A friend of mine (a big foodie and an excellent cook) will only buy imported butter because she says all butter made in the US tastes like silage. After she said this, I did a taste test myself and though I’m not sure I’ve encountered silage before in my life, she’s right about the taste difference.
Aw man that sucks! At least fermented tea is expected to taste a little…like rotten vegetation. Btw, by the end of that cup i decided i liked the warm barn flavor. Not loved, but liked.
oh wow, this tea is GREEN. the dry leaf is bright green, the liquor is a dusky green, and the flavour, well, it is just a complex combination of all green and verdant tones possible! there’s grassy, asparagus, green beans, spirulina, all in a very brothy drink. there’s also a creamy fullness to it that satisfies. just plain good. if you’re craving green tea (yes you do, you know who you are), you can’t get any better than this! there is a tiny bit of astringency, but i’m adding that to the spirulina flavor in my mind.
Preparation
Second steep, by the way, at closer to boiling and at 30 sec or so, was just as good. Not as bright bright green, it had definitely mellowed a bit. No loss of flavor, richness, or even color! I’d have gone for the third (etc.) steeping, but was getting late in the day for me + tea. Will start over tomorrow…love this stuff!
