Your purchase will support Steepster.
“From this weekend and flash steeped with boiling water similarly to how I would normally make a Genmaicha for myself – mostly because I just needed to finish off some of the sad pile of green tea...” Read full tasting note
“Picked up some of this a few months back from a friend. My SO brewed some this morning. He over did it a bit – very bitter in the mouth – but a sweetness in the after taste. I loved it by the end.” Read full tasting note
“Good tea, but I dont think its good enough for the price. I picked this up a couple of weeks ago for 40% off and to me it was a good deal at that price. The tea is very buttery compared to a...” Read full tasting note
“It seems strange to go against everything a particular tea stands for. A gyokuro is supposed to be minimally processed, is it not? Why roast a gyokuro? According to Steepster, Davids is the only...” Read full tasting note
If you’re looking to treat yourself to an exceptional green tea, you can’t go wrong with gyokuro. One of the highest grades of Japanese tea, gyokuros are shade-grown for a sweet, grassy flavour all their own. And unlike your average gyokuro, this particular tea is slow-roasted during processing, which gives it rich, toasty finish. With notes of brown butter and a uniquely nutty aroma, this is one luxurious tea. Hey, why have anything but the best?
DavidsTea is a Canadian specialty tea and tea accessory retailer based in Montreal, Quebec. It is the largest Canadian-based specialty tea boutique in the country, with its first store having opened in 2008.
From this weekend and flash steeped with boiling water similarly to how I would normally make a Genmaicha for myself – mostly because I just needed to finish off some of the sad pile of green tea samples I have lying around…
I like the flash steeping method for this one though – it was very light/delicate and didn’t have the greener more oceanic notes I hate in gyokuro while still having that nice toasted grains and roasted chestnut note I like in roasted teas. A nice compromise.
Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts and feelings regarding the teas, and not the company’s.
Good tea, but I dont think its good enough for the price. I picked this up a couple of weeks ago for 40% off and to me it was a good deal at that price. The tea is very buttery compared to a Japanese Sencha type tea. Grassy but more buttery and greasy than anything.
It is good, just overpriced, like a lot of DT.
Flavors: Butter, Grass, Green
How much tea and water are you using? Also, what temperature? If you follow DT’s instructions, you will get a cup of tea. But nobody actually drinks Gyokuro like that. :)
How should I be drinking it?
Well, Gyokuro is a very expensive tea. They go to all the trouble of shading it for 6 weeks. It’s used to make matcha as well (which ain’t cheap either). So you have to treat it like a green tea. Lower temps. Less water. More Leaf.
7 to 8 grams of tea
140-160F temp
1.5 to 2 min per steeping (do multiple steeps)
That’s how I normally do it. I never use boiling water for greens or white teas.
What do you mean by multiple steeps? Let it steel pull it out and then wait and let it steep again?
Oh I forgot. 200 mL of water at most. Multiple steeps means you brew it multiple but seperate times. Brew Drink. Brew Drink.
where in the world were you able to buy it from? they’ve discontinued it, and are completely out of stock everywhere.
JennK I got it about 2 weeks ago, it was 40% off for their final carrying of it. Looks like we wont see it for a while, or ever again.
It seems strange to go against everything a particular tea stands for. A gyokuro is supposed to be minimally processed, is it not? Why roast a gyokuro? According to Steepster, Davids is the only one to attempt it.
The dry leaf smells kind of like a barn, but in a good way. It’s more than hay; it’s the wood, the humid smell, something a little horsey.
The brew tastes like roasted chestnuts and cashews. There’s a little buttery flavor, but the dominating flavor is roasted—roasted nuts and hay. There’s also a hint of cedar wood. It’s a little drying as well.
Flavors: Butter, Chestnut, Hot Hay, Nuts, Roasted Nuts, Toasty
Although David’s Tea has now discontinued this tea, I still have more than 100g of it. As soon as I heard that they would no longer carry it, I stocked up on as much as I could (despite the price…). It is my favourite green tea to date – for so many reasons. I often find myself in the middle of the day in random situations craving this tea. The smell of it is unlike any other green tea this company carries. I often find myself keeping the steeped cup close to me when I have this tea to make sure I can smell it. I find the description to be quite true in that it really does have a buttery taste.
Well, it definitely tastes buttery. I wasn’t sure about it at first, but by the time I finished my sample, I got used to it, in large part because I discovered that if you experiment with the amount of tea that you use in a single steeping, you can adjust how strongly that buttery note comes out. If you want a subtler taste, go for 1 to 1.5 teaspoons. An acquired taste. I’m pretty sure this tea is growing in the back of Paula Deen’s yard.
Flavors: Butter, Grass, Roasted, Toast
Delicious! Very “green” tasting… like spinach water almost (but not in a bad way). Super silky smooth and almost has a buttery aftertaste. LOVE this! Be really careful not to brew for too long… green tea get SUPER bitter. I usually go for the minimum time suggested and it comes out perfect.
Flavors: Butter, Spinach
Oh goodness this is delish. What a great way to use up my free 50g. Really happy with my choice!
It’s rich, buttery, and quite intense. Mind you, I overleafed this a tad, which leaves a bit of bitterness in the aftertaste. It reminds me of how spinach sometimes tastes. The same bitter I get from brussel sprouts (which I hate) but paired with the buttery sugar notes, the whole package really works for me. A rather complex tea… YUM!
I like this one a lot too. I often use it as a travel mug tea.
Oh hey that’d be an awesome travel tea! What ratios do you use for that
I steep very lightly and under leaf. So approximately half a DT teaspoon to 12 or 16 oz. And resteep a couple of times too.
Ah. I know the bag says to use 3/4 of a tsp. Which means this will go a long way at half for 12 or 16oz. Thx Evol! :)
I just picked up 25g of this, seeing as it is on sale since it is being cut, but I will get more before it is gone if I decide I like it (I suspect I will).
omg no! hope they still have some by the time I go to the store
A DT staff member told me the other day that they are bringing in maybe five straight teas on August 2nd. The selection sounded promising. One of them is white peony.
Oh yay!! I can’t wait to see what they get :P
Maybe I’ll even try the white!
I wonder if the green will be like the blue mountain twirl that I miss so much.
The plain teas are in. I am looking forward to trying them. I wonder whether DTs is trying to redeem itself after their overly sweetened and overly imitation flavoured shenanigans.
Very good tea, tastes excellent with honey. I think the recommended 3 minute steep time is too much and results in a more bitter flavor. Good tea for repeated steeps. I think the gyokuro yamashiro is a little better however.
I decided to take full advantage of my free 50g of tea from DT’s Frequent Steeper program and get a free pouch of (what was at the time) the most expensive tea they stocked.
To me, it tastes a fair bit like a sencha with that initial grassy tone, but it mellows out into something fuller and sweeter with a slightly nutty flavour that reminds me of the genmaicha they serve at my local sushi hangout.
I haven’t tried many gyokuros so I’m not sure how this rates over all in terms of quality, but I found it to be a decently enjoyable plain green tea. It’s perfect for drinking with a sweet dessert as the slight bitterness counters the sugar nicely.
