86
drank Kukicha by Mountain Rose Herbs
1353 tasting notes

I have decided that today is the day for Mystery Tea. That means simply tea we haven’t had before. So I’ve been looking at the very tail-end of my Steepster cupboard and discovered a couple of things I didn’t know I had.

This one for example. Would you believe I’ve been going around for ages being intrigued by this type and wondering if it was one I should try to invest in when next I can allow myself an order, and I had it the whole time?!

That’s fairly typical of me, actually.14444444444444444 Oh look a cat has been by in my absence… (Heavily abridged by cat’s owner so as to avoid horizontal scrollbars)

Anyway, this is one of the samples that I don’t know where came from. It’s from before I started my numbering system so it’s getting on in age a bit.

Let’s start with a little introductory ramble on two things here.

First of all, green tea. For me to be intrigued by a green tea at all is kind of remarkable. I enjoy it when it is served to me, but I rarely make it for myself. It has to come with a certain sort of mood, because for most of the time I’d rather have a black tea, flavoured or au naturel.

Which leads to the second things, which is roasting. Roasting tea is one of those things about the processing that I just can’t get my head around. It’s so amazing that it can be done, really, because inside my head it just ought not logically work. My brain will simply not allow for the possibility for some reason, even though I’ve got the very proof of it right here in front of me. (Well. Slightly to the left, but still)

Therefore roasted tea is extremely fascinating to me, although I haven’t yet had enough experience with it yet to be actively seeking it out.

LiberTEAS posted about an unsmoked LS yesterday, I think it was, and that tea was as I understand made like a regular LS only it had been roasted instead of smoked. She found that more pleasant than the regular smoked variety and therein stems some of my fascination.

Now, I like smoky teas. I have a specific balance of smokiness that I prefer, but once in a while it just can’t get smoky enough. Those are the times when, it has occurred to me, it’s not smoky tea I want. It’s roasted tea. From what I have seen here and there on Steepster when people have been posting about smoked teas and/or roasted teas, that smoked tea is generally considered a harsher sort of flavour than roasted tea. For me it’s the other way around.

Smoke comes in a bit prickly and sort of surrounds the flavour in a haze of smoky aroma, whereas roasting tends to be a full-on attack of the tastebuds with pricklyness and charcoal and burnt toast. Roasted tea, for me, is much more violent than smoky tea.

So this is really what I’m expecting. An onslaught of charcoal and some sweetly green vegetation underneath. Like something that has been burnt down and grass and things are just starting to grow back.

This tea brews as dark as any black tea and the aroma is definitely one of burnt stuff. Charcoal and something sweet. Like sugar spilled on a hot plate. So far we’re keeping pretty close to that expectation, there, aren’t we? I quite like this aroma. The more I smell it, the more pleasant I think it is, and the more I smell it the more I also think there’s a note of honey in that sweetness. It’s all dark smelling and brown, but it definitely reminds me a little of liquid honey. Or perhaps more of something which has been honey-glazed.

GOSH! I was not expecting this flavour! It so sweet and sugary and more honey! That’s the first thing I get. The next thing is a sort of cereal-ness. It makes me think of Cheerios. It’s the combination of the grainy notes and honey notes that does it. I can actually even imagine that I can taste milk as well, probably since, if you think about it, milk has a pretty sweet flavour as well. Finally there is something vegetal in it that reveals the green origins. I can’t quite put my finger on that note, but I get a random association to spinach. There that’s because I actually taste spinach in it or whether it’s because spinach is one of the things I just generally connect with green tea flavours, I couldn’t tell.

All in all, this roasting was not at all as harsh as I had expected. I found it quite enjoyable, and I think it’s definitely a type of tea that I need to look into more. I think I rather need this in my life. (Should have a closer look at hojicha as well, actually.)

Roughage

I really like that your cat wants to be a part of the Steepster experience. Mine tries to stop me posting by sitting in front of the computer screen.

I am now intrigued by this tea too. I am undecided about roasted teas because I have found them intriguing but I need to be in the right mood to properly enjoy them. I shall have to check this one out when next I have the money to order tea. After all, I like spinach! :-)

Kittenna

Ahahaha, I so love your posts. You and Bonnie consistently get me smiling :) I also love that your cat feels the need to contribute.

You speak of a numbering system – do you give your teas a number as they enter your cupboard, to keep track of age or something? That sounds like a really clever idea.

Angrboda

Roughage, yes I tend to let it stand when they do. :) I don’t know, I think it’s fun. :)

If you try it, it will be itneresting to see if you get the same spinach association as me. :)

Krystaleyn, as you can see some of the samples I have, I can’t remember where they came from. At one point I had a whole lot of them and didn’t know who sent me any of them. I just couldn’t keep track. I then thought up the numbering system. Everytime I receive samples from someone in a swap I give them a number and write down where they came from. This way I can see that all the samples numbered with 7, for example came from Infusin_Susan and all the ones with 8 on them came from Ninavampi. And so on and so forth.

Daisy Chubb

Really great idea!
I’ll have to invest in little stickers when I get sett;ed and start swapping again :)

Angrboda

DaisyChubb, yes, it works really well. I’ve got a little notebook that I keep at Tea Corner. Right now I’ve only noted down name and number, but I’ve considered if it might not be a good idea in the future to also write a list of what each person sent me and when I received it.

Azzrian

Interesting – I buy my peppercorns, cinnamon and a few other select items from Mountain Rose! I have never tried their teas.

Angrboda

I think I’ve tried a few others of theirs. I seem to recall there having been more than one. I just can’t think which ones, or what I thought of them. This one is quite good, though.

Azzrian

Next time I order my regular stuff I am going to grab this and a couple others – yes they actually had a lot of tea on the site today when I looked :) I don’t know how I ever missed it lol.

Angrboda

I can sort of understand how. I haven’t been to the site, mind, so I don’t know how it looks, but if you’re used to shopping for one thing there and another thing another place, sometimes it just not occur to you that one or both places might stock both things. :) I had a look at what else they have in the Steepster database. I haven’t looked at everything, but it would appear that I enjoyed their Ancient Forest a great deal as well.

Kittenna

Your labelling idea is great! At this point, I only have samples from a few different people, and they’re labelled distinctly so I can tell who sent what (they’re also in separate piles in my room), but I probably should start some system like that soon! I have also thought of noting the date I purchased teas, so that I could keep track of their ages and whatnot.

Thomas Smith

If you buy unroasted kukicha or karigane, you can heat it in either a small dry skillet one very low heat on a burner or over a tea light candle in a metal dish (you can buy these for heating scented oil in bed & Bath stores) and it makes for a wonderful deodorizer for a room and you get a relaxing tea to drink once the twigs and few leaf fragments have browned. I generally do this while making dinner or conducting a tasting since you just need to tie the leaves every once and a while with a spoon or chopstick. I then prepare the resulting kukicha/houjicha at the end of the meal or as a finishing tea after guests have tasted a bunch and pair it with sesame or rice crackers. This tea works well:
http://www.hibiki-an.com/product_info.php/cPath/21/products_id/32

Thomas Smith

Dunno how I get away typing “karigane”, “kukicha”, and “houjicha” just fine while autocorrect changes “stir the leaves” into “tie the leaves”

Azzrian

LOL yeah spell check often faiils me as well.

Angrboda

Krystaleyn, it was like that in the beginning for me as well. I had only a few that people had sent me and I could remember which one’s I had bought. I could tell from the handwriting on the labels where each sample came from. Then Pamela Dax Dean be-gifted me with a HUGE box of samples. Seriously, it was MASSIVE! And all of them had different handwriting on them and different wrapping style, and then I got in other swaps as well, and it was simply impossible to remember anymore. I just gave up trying.
For my purchases, I can usually remember sort of in general how old-ish it is. Typically if something gets really really old here, it’s something I don’t really have much interest in drinking anyway.

Thomas, hee, maybe I have to try it in order to understand it.

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Comments

Roughage

I really like that your cat wants to be a part of the Steepster experience. Mine tries to stop me posting by sitting in front of the computer screen.

I am now intrigued by this tea too. I am undecided about roasted teas because I have found them intriguing but I need to be in the right mood to properly enjoy them. I shall have to check this one out when next I have the money to order tea. After all, I like spinach! :-)

Kittenna

Ahahaha, I so love your posts. You and Bonnie consistently get me smiling :) I also love that your cat feels the need to contribute.

You speak of a numbering system – do you give your teas a number as they enter your cupboard, to keep track of age or something? That sounds like a really clever idea.

Angrboda

Roughage, yes I tend to let it stand when they do. :) I don’t know, I think it’s fun. :)

If you try it, it will be itneresting to see if you get the same spinach association as me. :)

Krystaleyn, as you can see some of the samples I have, I can’t remember where they came from. At one point I had a whole lot of them and didn’t know who sent me any of them. I just couldn’t keep track. I then thought up the numbering system. Everytime I receive samples from someone in a swap I give them a number and write down where they came from. This way I can see that all the samples numbered with 7, for example came from Infusin_Susan and all the ones with 8 on them came from Ninavampi. And so on and so forth.

Daisy Chubb

Really great idea!
I’ll have to invest in little stickers when I get sett;ed and start swapping again :)

Angrboda

DaisyChubb, yes, it works really well. I’ve got a little notebook that I keep at Tea Corner. Right now I’ve only noted down name and number, but I’ve considered if it might not be a good idea in the future to also write a list of what each person sent me and when I received it.

Azzrian

Interesting – I buy my peppercorns, cinnamon and a few other select items from Mountain Rose! I have never tried their teas.

Angrboda

I think I’ve tried a few others of theirs. I seem to recall there having been more than one. I just can’t think which ones, or what I thought of them. This one is quite good, though.

Azzrian

Next time I order my regular stuff I am going to grab this and a couple others – yes they actually had a lot of tea on the site today when I looked :) I don’t know how I ever missed it lol.

Angrboda

I can sort of understand how. I haven’t been to the site, mind, so I don’t know how it looks, but if you’re used to shopping for one thing there and another thing another place, sometimes it just not occur to you that one or both places might stock both things. :) I had a look at what else they have in the Steepster database. I haven’t looked at everything, but it would appear that I enjoyed their Ancient Forest a great deal as well.

Kittenna

Your labelling idea is great! At this point, I only have samples from a few different people, and they’re labelled distinctly so I can tell who sent what (they’re also in separate piles in my room), but I probably should start some system like that soon! I have also thought of noting the date I purchased teas, so that I could keep track of their ages and whatnot.

Thomas Smith

If you buy unroasted kukicha or karigane, you can heat it in either a small dry skillet one very low heat on a burner or over a tea light candle in a metal dish (you can buy these for heating scented oil in bed & Bath stores) and it makes for a wonderful deodorizer for a room and you get a relaxing tea to drink once the twigs and few leaf fragments have browned. I generally do this while making dinner or conducting a tasting since you just need to tie the leaves every once and a while with a spoon or chopstick. I then prepare the resulting kukicha/houjicha at the end of the meal or as a finishing tea after guests have tasted a bunch and pair it with sesame or rice crackers. This tea works well:
http://www.hibiki-an.com/product_info.php/cPath/21/products_id/32

Thomas Smith

Dunno how I get away typing “karigane”, “kukicha”, and “houjicha” just fine while autocorrect changes “stir the leaves” into “tie the leaves”

Azzrian

LOL yeah spell check often faiils me as well.

Angrboda

Krystaleyn, it was like that in the beginning for me as well. I had only a few that people had sent me and I could remember which one’s I had bought. I could tell from the handwriting on the labels where each sample came from. Then Pamela Dax Dean be-gifted me with a HUGE box of samples. Seriously, it was MASSIVE! And all of them had different handwriting on them and different wrapping style, and then I got in other swaps as well, and it was simply impossible to remember anymore. I just gave up trying.
For my purchases, I can usually remember sort of in general how old-ish it is. Typically if something gets really really old here, it’s something I don’t really have much interest in drinking anyway.

Thomas, hee, maybe I have to try it in order to understand it.

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Introvert, crafter, black tea drinker, cat lover, wife, nerd, occasional curmudgeon.

Contact Angrboda by email: iarnvidia@gmail.com

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Bio last updated February 2020

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