Ito En

This one has been a long time coming, I’ve missed Japanese green teas dearly. From what I’ve read, this is sort of in between a sencha and a gyokuro because it’s shade-grown for a shorter period of time than gyokuro. It’s light and of course vegetal, with notes of citrus, cream and a little bit of sweetness. Delicious.

Backlog from yesterday…I happened to see these in the store here in NC (I love Harris Teeter!) so I thought I’d pick up a bottle. I think it’s fantastic! The perfect lunch/afternoon iced tea on a hot Summer day. I found it to be cool, crisp, and only have a slight veggie flavor to it. I’ll be picking up more of this when we head home!

The other day I bought a few different loose teas from unidentified brands in bulk at Wegman’s, and this is one of the teas that I know to be Ito En. The citrus smell is there in the dry leaf but is very light, it’s more of a subtle hay like smell with hints of citrus. Upon tasting, this tea is different than what I am used to in a sencha in that it doesn’t really have that vegetal flavor, it’s just a pure buttery flavor with light citrus undertones and it makes for a very tasty cup.

I love the very oolong-y flavor of this iced tea! While in DC at school I would pick up a bottle about twice a week, but now that I am back in chicago I haven’t found a local vender that has it in stock. I can always get the leaves and make my own, but if anyone has any tips where I could pick up a few bottles near Oak Park, IL or the north shore of chicago I would definatly make the trip!

Drinking this as a bit of a celebration cup, I just got my scores back for the SAT’s and I scored in the 86th percentile. I’m so happy and relieved and the deep and refreshing vegetal flavor and caffeine kick of this tea are making for a very happy me.

I’ve heard Ito En being called the “Lipton of Japanese tea”, meaning that the quality is very low. But I saw some of this at a store, liked the aroma coming from the leaves, and decided to sample it. It was much better than I expected. It was more lightly flavored than senchas I am accustomed to, but was still very satisfying. Less buttery than other senchas I’ve had, but a little bit more sweet and vegetal. It was very good.

For $9.50, this is a surprisingly good matcha. Not bitter, really no complaints at this price point, I would rate it 85 factoring in that it is such a bargain. I have had worse matcha’s that cost twice as much.

Good choice for a daily matcha.
https://www.itoen.com/loose-leaf-tea/japanese-tea/matcha-teas-tea-7-oz-can.html

(Again, for any matcha beginners, a bamboo whisk is required- you can use any wide ceramic or pyrex bowl in a pinch, but without the bamboo whisk it just is not going to dissolve or froth up, so it will not taste right)

One of my two favorite matcha’s.

High in the savory “umami” flavor, no bitterness, perfect for thick or thin matcha.

$19.50 per cannister, fair price for ceremony-grade matcha.
https://www.itoen.com/loose-leaf-tea/japanese-tea/matcha-koto-no-tsuki-7-oz-can.html

(Note for beginners, you need a bamboo whisk for matcha… a Chawan (tea bowl) is desirable, but you can get away with using a pyrex or ceramic bowl, but without the bamboo whisk, the matcha really is not going to dissolve properly and will not taste right. For some reason using a Western-style metal whisk doesn’t work, probably because the bamboo whisks have up to a hundred tines, whereas metal whisks might have only 10 or 15)

This is one of my favorite black teas ever, period. At $24 an ounce it better be good, when I first purchased it in 2008 it was $35/oz that year and I was skeptical. But after tasting, I understood why the high price.

Incredibly delicate, balanced, winey, not smokey like Hao Ya Keemun. Good for a splurge every now and then.

As far as bottled teas go, this is by far my favorite. It’s absolutely delicious and refreshing when served ice cold. Although it’s little expensive, I always keep a couple in the fridge at work for convenience. In my opinion, this tea tastes exactly as it smells (easiest way to describe it); the jasmine is very prominent with almost a nectar-like sweetness. I only start to pick up on the green tea aspect when the beverage starts to warm up.

While this tea can’t really compete with the loose leaf variety, I would definitely recommend picking up a bottle or two if you can find it.

I bought this on a whim at my local Japanese store. I was needing some caffeine for my ride home. It says it’s the #1 Japanese green tea. I agree with what another person said, it tastes like a Chinese green tea. I was surprised to see it’s a product of Thailand. It is refreshing, but I don’t think I would buy again.

This is one of the few Teas’ Tea varieties that I haven’t tried (that I would want to) so when I saw it here at JFK I grabbed it for the flight. I wasn’t expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised. This tea is not for the floral faint of heart… it’s really jasminey, which means I’m a fan. The jasmine’s fresh though and not soapy or perfumey, with that flavor of honeysuckle sweetness (even though it’s unsweetened). There’s a bit of a bite from the green tea, which provides a nice, slightly grassy background. Definitely a tea I would readily buy again. (No rating because I dictated this review to my iPhone and the sliders don’t work.)

First steep has a fairly strong spinach flavor, vegetal and a bit tongue-coating. Second and third still have milder hints of that flavor, but with a more balanced grassy note.

Tasting Notes:
Steeped Tea Smell: a very strong vegetal odor, sharp
Flavor: smooth, vegetal
Body: Full
Aftertaste: very astringent, bitter this needs a chaser

I don’t like greens, and no surprise, I did not like this canned sencha.

I purchased this while grocery shopping, I want to have ready to drink teas at work in my lunch. I had this at lunch, so it was cold as my lunch was kept refrigerated.

Rating: 1/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2011/09/ito-en-can-green-tea-sencha-shot.html

Last month I was lucky enough to try Teas’ Tea Mango Oolong Tea, a delicious lightly sweetened bottled tea. And don’t take my word for it – if you read the company’s June press release, you’ll discover that this tea won “first place at the 2011 North American Tea Championship in the Ready-to-Drink Flavored Oolong Tea category”. So yeah, it’s that good.

Here’s a little more about the taste (in my personal…oh heck, professional, opinion): it’s, um, amazing. I don’t hesitate to call this the best Oolong tea I’ve tried, and this is coming from someone that normally wants their tea hot and unsweetened. It has about 80 calories per bottle, and each bottle contains 160% of your daily Vitamin C allotment. When drinking this tea I immediately detected a wonderful mango/orangey (sure, that’s a word) taste, but the aftertaste is almost peach-like. The aroma is fruity and pleasant, and the tea is packed with antioxidants.

Loved it!

I thought it was funny to see Kirkland Signature brand Japanese matcha/green tea until I noticed that it was actually Ito En rebranded for Costco. I’ve been very happy with most Ito En products in the past so I was excited to try it.

All in all, it isn’t that impressive, but it is still hard to beat for the convenience and price. The taste is a little bitter but I’ve rarely seen anything better in a bag or pouch.

Iced jasmine tea is a bit of a rare bird, but I think it is underrated and this is a great example. I find it crisp and refreshing, and not overly floral or sweet. Easy to pound on a sunny day.

A little expensive, but worth it compared to the over-sweetened crap that fills the aisles.

Probably my favorite bottled tea. Typically I don’t expect much from bottled teas but I’m a big fan of all Ito En’s white and green bottled teas in the Teas’ Tea line.

Vegetal notes of seaweed, grass, and spinach like a mild cold-brewed sencha. Crisp finish, noticeably free of any additives or sweeteners. I could drink this all the time, hot or cold weather. They are a little bit expensive (and hard to find) here in the US, but they are worth it over the syrupy sugar water that passes for bottled tea everywhere.

Very impressed in this tea. I generally have very low expectations for bottled teas, but I loved this. Gotta be one of the very best bottled teas I’ve ever had. Light and delicate flavor is well preserved and not muted with additives or sweetness. Crisp and refreshing on a hot day, my only real complaint is that it is kind of expensive for something that I always drink down so fast. I also think it is kind of bold to offer a Chinese white blended with a Japanese green, which it seems isn’t commonly sold but I enjoy nonetheless.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I loved these. Very strong, but not like oversteeped sencha, it was more like a super-concentrated taste. Some astringency, but not really too bitter. Definite strong vegetal flavor typical of sencha.

I really like these as a quick pick-me-up on warm afternoons or mornings (I lived in Florida for a while where it is too hot out for hot tea by 7am). It is nice to just pound a cold shot really fast, much better than an acidic and sweet energy drink. It’s not world-class tea but what do you expect out of a tiny can?

I found these at Big Lots for $.50/can and I wish I had bought out their entire supply while they were still available.

Back in June, I ordered an Ito En Matcha Gift set from Amazon.com for about $30, that included a chawan (tea bowl), chashaku (bamboo scoop/spoon), chasen (tea whisk) and some matcha tea. I had no idea that the Tea’s Tea ceremonial grade matcha would be so good, and has quickly become my matcha of choice for usucha — or “thin/light tea.” I just checked out Ito En’s website (https://www.itoen.com/matcha-teas-tea-7-oz-can.html) and now they even have it on sale for less than $10 for a tin. A great deal, and now I see they even won an award for this Tea — I am not surprised!