Mastress Alita Send Message

Sampler September! This is the last of the Jugetsudo teabag samples in my PDX fundraiser bag… only two samplers from that bag left to go! (I’m shocked with myself that something I ordered in July is going to be sipped down by September, considering the fact I’m still plowing through what feels like a thousand teas all purchases back in 2018…)

This teabag had very fine green leaf as well that looked similar to that from their Sencha teabag. It was a bit light on genmai, and I’m not sure if that is intention of the blend or luck of the teabag. The matcha dusting was obvious.

My own preference for genmaicha is a bancha base, not too scant and not too heavy on the genmai, and without matcha, but genmaicha is genmaicha and this is a pleasant and relaxing cup. Despite the low amount of genmai I saw in the leaf, there is a very nice toasted rice flavor to the tea. The matcha, too, is light enough to not overpower the cup with marine umami, and I’m getting a fresh, grassy flavor with a hint of vegetal peas. The tea has a nice greenish sheen to the liquer color from the matcha. There is a sweetness right at the end of the sip which is very pleasant. It’s a fine morning cup.

Sampler September! Feeling the need for an afternoon pick-me-up to get me through an afternoon of working on manga and manhwa scanlation projects, I grabbed this bag from the PDX fundraiser samplers.

The teabag packet is only labeled as “Sencha”, but the only sencha offered on Jugetsudo’s website is “Sencha Asa”, so I’m just going to assume they are the same one. The leaf was very fine, but didn’t appear to have the powdery/crushed appearance of fannings like the hojicha teabag from the same company. The dry leaf also had a very fresh aroma.

Steeped the single teabag for about 2 minutes in 350ml 175F water. It may have had a slightly longer steep as I took out the trash while waiting and my timer was already beeping when I got back. Thankfully the extra time didn’t hurt this cup, as there is no awkward green tea bitterness. The tea is very smooth, with a decent amount of buttery flavor (my favorite flavor in sencha). The vegetal notes taste most closely to spinach and seaweed, with a touch of that briny/salty quality to the marine note. The butteriness smooths it out so the marine flavor (my least preferred flavor in sencha) is mellowed out a bit. Warm buttered greens and ocean air… quite relaxing!

Sampler September! There were only green teas left in my PDX fundraiser bag, and I was in the mood for black tea this morning. Found this sampler from a long ago Yunomi order.

I had a Benifuuki cultivar wakocha in the past and loved it. No idea what cultivar(s) this tea is, but my brewed cup has a deep color and a strong bready/grain-like aroma, with a bit of a raisin/muscatel edge. (Is that a cat hair floating on top? …I choose to ignore that…)

Prepared western, using my own preferences for black tea rather than Yunomi’s guidelines (Japanese brewing guidelines always use a much higher leaf-to-water ratio that makes everything taste bitter to me). So half the sample (2.5g) in 350ml 205F water. I may drop the temperature to their suggested on my final serving, just to see if that makes any difference.

Mmm… the flavor definitely reminds me of the Benifuki black I tried and loved before. Leads with a somewhat malty but strongly bready flavor, with just a hint of raisin and cinnamon in that bread. A strong fruity presense quickly takes over, which tastes of a syrupy cherry and orange citrus. There is a mild florality but mostly it is just floral sweetness… a dab of wildflower honey. Super smooth.

I will have to add more wakocha back into my life… I appear to be a fan!

Sampler September! Another offering from the PDX Tea Fest fundraiser bag. There was a set of three Japanese green teabags (Genmaicha, Sencha, Hojicha) by Jugetsudo, and I really felt in the mood for a cup of houjicha tonight.

When I opened the package, the single sachet teabag had a trifling amount in it, and what it did have could in no way be considered “leaf”… it was all powdery fannings. I’m a fan of hojicha, but I like big, full, leafy hojicha, so I already wasn’t impressed.

Unsurprisingly, brewed up it is the weakest cup of hojicha I’ve ever tasted… like a faintly woody water. What is there of the flavor hints at a good hojicha; a nice roast, walnuts and caramel, woody without turning barky. But it is just far too weak.

I am guessing getting the loose leaf of this same tea would be incredibly pleasant, but the teabags from this company leave much to be desired. Though I don’t care for the somewhat “barky” edge of Yamamotoyama hojicha teabags, I would definitely take them over this.

This is probably the sort of tea I should prepare warm in a gaiwan, but lacking the time for that sort of thing, I’ve instead been using it as cold brew.

My last batch was 6g to a liter, my typical measurements for white tea, brewed overnight, which produced a very sweet, slightly citrusy brew, with a lot of straw and chrysanthemum notes. I wondered if with this sort of leaf that was under-leafing it a bit, so the batch I’m drinking today increased he leaf by a gram, and it is a stronger flavor. The strongest flavor is melon, with a hint of vegetal zuccini, fresh cucumber water, wet hay, and a light florality on the finish. Slightly different flavors, but both have been very quenching cold brews.

Sampler September! Another sampler from my Tea Fest PDX fundraiser bag.

The steeped tea smells strongly of blueberries… with a tarter edge than the sweet and syrupy blueberry I often get from teas that reminds me of a pancake syrup.

The tea has a nice body for a flavored black tea, with a touch of breadiness coming through. The flavor is juicy and fruity; I’ve rarely eaten much huckleberry in my life, so my tongue is tasting blueberry. Sweet, but not syrupy/candy sweet, with a more juicy/fruity edge. Very smooth.

My work thermos will be empty by lunch.

Happy Grandparent’s Day! Today the prompt is to drink a tea that reminds you of a grandparent.

While none of my nuclear family are tea drinkers, both of my grandmothers drank tea. My grandmother who passed in 2020 was a firm English/Irish Breakfast drinker. As a child I strongly associated the smell of black breakfast blends as being the “smell of tea” and still remember it fondly when I drink one of those teas.

My other grandmother (still alive, but in a care facility with severe Alzheimers/Dementia) was a fan of Orange Spice tea. I don’t have any teas specifically branding as orange spice blends in my stash, but this particular chai is very heavy on orange peel, making it more of an orange spice tea in my eyes. Brewed up a pot to drink during K-drama watching with Todd.

Has a nice aroma of vanilla cream, clove, and ginger. The citrus comes out on the sip more than the nose. It’s not as strong of a note as a proper orange spice tea would be, but there is an undertone of tart and pithy orange, a strong mix of clove and vanilla mid-sip, and a warming sensation of ginger against the back of my throat at the end of the sip. The ginger is strong with this one; normally I prepare this tea as a latte to take some of the heat off, but in the spirit of making it closer to the Orange Spice I remember drinking with my grandma, I am taking it plain today. I have a mild headache and the ginger feels nice on my head and stomach, despite being a little warmer than I tend to prefer.

Sampler September! This is another sampler from my TeaFest PDX fundraiser box. It was a single teabag of pu’erh inside a sealed card from the Taoist Tai Chi Society of the USA, Oregon Branch. The card has directions for preparing it iced, which is how the Taoist Tai Chi Society prepare it for the convention. While I would certainly like to try a straight pu’erh iced, their directions are for the “pour over ice” method, which I really dislike (I never put ice in my tea because no matter how I make the ice or where I get the ice, it always makes my tea taste funny to me), and there just wasn’t enough tea leaf when I opened the bag and weighed it to do a cold preparation using my own preferred methods. So I just steeped it warm instead.

A dark and earthy morning cup. The aroma is strongly mineral-heavy ground, with small hints of smoke and leather. On the sip it veers more in the marshy/wet ground direction… it’s not one of my favorite flavors, but it also is more smooth and unassuming than I usually get with that flavor. Very earth with a strong “wet rocks” minerality. It’s an easy sipper, despite the fact that puerh isn’t my favorite tea in regards to taste. I really like the thick and smooth mouthfeel, though. Most straight pu ends up around the average mark for me, this one is mellow enough I think I’d rank it a bit higher, like a 65…

Happy Ampersand Day! Today the prompt is to drink a tea with the word “and” in the title!

Managed to find one of my 2018 stash that fit the bill. The dry leaf looks like Gunpowder Green (though TCT’s website doesn’t specify), which isn’t my favorite, but I’m hoping the spices might cover up the “smoky” taste I don’t like. It has a heavy fennel/clove aroma to the nose from the dry leaf, which is quite inviting.

The brewed tea also has a lovely fennel/clove peppery aroma, with some deeper almost earthy smells from the green tea. It tastes quite pleasant; earthy/dry grass flavor lacking the smoke, a touch of mint without it being strongly minty like a Moroccan Mint, and a strong fix of fennel and clove in flavor, leading to some citrusy and peppery notes. It really ties together well.

Pulled this tea from the TeaFestPDX sampler baggy, as a nice, brisk Assam really sounds nice for this holiday morning where I was still dragged out of bed at the same time as a work day by a very insistant breakfast-seeking cat. I’m really feeling that need for caffeine…

While I normally don’t take tea with additions, lately I’ve been in a latte mood, and I really wanted to brew this as a pot, English style, with some milk and honey. But since this is a larger sample, I decided to just have a plain cuppa first. I used a teaspoon (about 3g) for 350ml of 205F water, steeped for three minutes. The dry leaf was lovely, small, curly, and golden tipped, with that smell I often find in black teas that reminds me of a BBQ marinade, somehow.

Steeped, a bit of the marinade smell is coming through, but now the aroma has a strong floral undertone which hampers that umami/orange saucy smell. It also smells very malty. To taste, it is very bold, and quite smooth, with just a touch of astrigency and drying after the sip, which doesn’t lean into unpleasant territory. It tastes strongly of tannic malt, orange zest, ground spice, and just a subtle hint of wildflower honey and rose. Very much a breakfast tea, and while it is fine plain, I definitely feel that adding warm milk is really going to work in this tea’s favor.