Japanese Green Tea Co.

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Recent Tasting Notes

68

Japanese green tea in a bag seems such a shame. The leaf is such a vibrant green that it must be enjoyed to the fullest in full view. But this one, it’s okay in the bag. After tearing open a teabag to inspect the leaves I discovered a stifled green. This is not a bad thing. All tea are different colors. The aroma is somewhat industrial. New building drywall for the dry leaf. The wet leaf is more vegetal. Which is good, can’t say I was really looking forward to trying out drywall. Asparagus. Tall, spring grass. The flavor is a bit grassy. Smooth on the palate with a bit of astringency. There is a unique flavor here that I am going to attribute to the Benfuki cultivar. It is somewhat medicinal and earthy.

beerandbeancurd

Industrial, such an evocative word to describe a smell.

Don’t often think of medicinal/earthy for greens. Interesting.

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95
drank Nozomi by Japanese Green Tea Co.
1233 tasting notes

This is my favorite green tea and I haven’t reviewed it?! Shame on me. This is a truly fantastic Japanese Green Tea. From the moment you open the bag to the lingering flavors on your palate everything is so good. The leaf is a vibrant green. Lush. Jade. Elegant deep jade. Mostly small leaf but also some long needle like leaf. And the dry aroma is luscious. Mango, passion fruit, hints of grass and vegetal notes. Even an interesting honey note I just pick up. A very sweet honey not savory like Manuka. The wet leaf is very mushy. Smells of asparagus and slight cream. AND OH THE MOUTH FEEL. It’s so silky. Wow. Just a tad bit of astringency. The flavors are newly grassy but mixed with a perfect amount of umami and some vegetal notes. I love this tea. Love, love, love.

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88

The brewed leaf smells heavenly, all pure and vegetal and green. I let it cool down to 51 C / 124 F so I wouldn’t burn my tongue.

I got this at a tea festival in Portland with Sara in 2019. We both really liked it.

Oh, it has been a while! A slight bitterness and astringency, vegetal notes at the end of the sip, something almost leathery, and I swear candy. I’m really vibing with this tea for the extended winter here. I might keep at it and sip it down.

Flavors: Astringent, Bitter, Candy, Leather, Vegetal

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec 3 g 12 OZ / 354 ML

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32

This is only slightly better than the “Green Tea with Lemon.” I say slightly because I do at least taste matcha in this one, which I did not from the lemon. But it still isn’t very good. Mostly, the orange and sugar tastes like Tang, with a slight matcha aftertaste.

Meh.

Flavors: Grass, Orange, Sugar, Sweet

Preparation
Iced 3 tsp 17 OZ / 500 ML

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30

A few months ago I bought this lemon matcha and also the mikan (orange) matcha by this company, wanting to add those flavors to my morning breakfast smoothies.

Sadly, both flavors turned out to be awful as smoothie additions because they are so damn packed with sugar that they make the smoothies way too sweet. So I figured I’d try a water preparation, so I added a tablespoon of powder and 500ml ice cold water to my water bottle and shook it like I was beating the devil out of it.

It just tastes like instant powdered lemonade. It’s a nostalgic taste; growing up my parents used to buy the big tubs of CountryTime lemonade powder. But I just can’t taste the matcha at all. There is a slightly different mouthfeel than I’d get with instant lemonade, but that is all I can taste.

Meh. Definitely will not purchase more of this.

Flavors: Lemon, Sugar, Sweet

Preparation
Iced 3 tsp 17 OZ / 500 ML
Cameron B.

Aww, that’s a shame. Mikan matcha sounds amazing…

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82

This is one of the last Japanese teas left in my collection after strenuous sipdown efforts, and the only tea I could reasonably use for the prompt “oceanic notes” since I already used by culinary matcha for “a tea smoothie.” I purchased this tea in 2019 from the Portland Tea Fest; both myself and my friend Todd were impressed by this one at Japanese Green Tea Co’s booth. (I also paid a lot for it, and could’ve used this for “a pricey tea” as well…)

It has a strong buttery, vegetal aroma… Like copious amounts of melted butter over steamed asparagus and spinach. There is also a saline-like umami note on the nose, that mixed with the strong vegetal notes evokes seaweed. It is quite umami, with a thick salty vegetal flavor, but it is also very smooth. The tea is grown using the chagusaba method, which supposedly causes it to be naturally sweeter than many Japanese greens.

It’s a very pleasant sencha, full of smooth, silky butter and oceanic umami vegetal notes. Given the weather, I’ll probably be opting to cold brew it in the future.

Flavors: Asparagus, Butter, Ocean Air, Salt, Seaweed, Silky, Smooth, Spinach, Umami, Vegetal

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec 2 g 12 OZ / 350 ML

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88

After finishing my sample from @skysamurai, I was still thinking about this tea for a few weeks after so I finally decided to get it. It’s honestly really refreshing, sweet and nice in the summer even as a hot tea. I think it is the first kabusecha I have had before, so i feel pretty lucky to enjoy it so much. It’s also such a brillant bright green liquor. It kind of makes me chuckle how the hue reminds of the color of cartoon green acid or cartoon radioactive waste.

Feeling a little unwell today and its helping me relax in the right way- listening to ghibli sound tracks and working at relaxing pace (at home).

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 1 min, 30 sec 2 tsp 10 OZ / 295 ML

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88

Just got back from vacation and I have finally had time to try the first teas from Skysamurai.

Preparation: Western
Tasting Note: I haven’t had a japanese green besides matcha in awhile so this was really refreshing. I don’t think I have had this variety either so it was a pleasant surpise. The dry leaf was very sweet smelling like sugar cane and umami. The tea was really nice, I thought it was the perfect combo of vegetal, sweet and umami. It was really refreshing.

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 1 min, 30 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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90

Finally brewed this in my Kyusu.

A year of aging actually wasn’t too bad for this tea. It has become much mellower in flavor, somewhat like a muted matcha, and the creaminess note from before has become less intensely creamy yet more of a pronounced flavor if that makes sense. All in all, a good experience even though it aged in my puerh box due to my own incompetency and low storage space.
I want to see how this turns out in a few years, or maybe a decade—I’ve heard good things about aged senchas.

Flavors: Milk, Ocean Air, Vegetal

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 0 min, 30 sec 5 g 6 OZ / 180 ML

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90

I prefer Nozomi from the same company, but this is also amazing! I haven’t been able to brew it in my Kyusu yet, so that’s worth noting.
It has all the flavor bells and whistles of a Japanese green with a nice unique creamy note, almost like cornbread. Maybe a light milk? Whatever it is, it’s really good and mellow.

Flavors: Kettle Corn, Milky, Umami, Vegetal

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 1 min, 30 sec 5 g 160 OZ / 4731 ML

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95
drank Nozomi by Japanese Green Tea Co.
24 tasting notes

There’s a reason this tea has won so many awards in its home country. It has a nice umami, marine, rich flavor like many high quality Japanese fukamushichas, but also has some nice undertones of freeze dried strawberries that really ties the tea together!

Flavors: Marine, Seaweed, Strawberry, Umami

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 0 min, 30 sec 3 g 4 OZ / 120 ML

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60
drank Hojicha by Japanese Green Tea Co.
961 tasting notes

TeaTiff TTB #19

This was a pleasant, if slightly boring, bagged hojicha. Plenty of the toasty, roasty flavor I was expecting, but it came across a bit thin and lacking in depth.

Flavors: Roasty, Toasted

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML

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90

TeaTiff TTB #1

I was craving a green tea when the box arrived, so this was the first one I pulled out. I’ve had some bad experiences with Japanese green tea in the past, but this one is delightful! It steeps up to a bright lime green and has a delightfully smooth, delicate vegetal flavor. Definitely something I’d consider purchasing on my own. This box is off to a great start!

Flavors: Smooth, Vegetal

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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50

Skysamurai’s TTB Thank you!

Hojicha. My first encounter. Again, I just think so.

Tea #9
Not boiling water. But hot enough. Tea bag is waiting next to the cup. Now, it’s in the cup. Steeping is rather short. Maybe the two minutes mark as Shae did.

Results: roasty. It actually reminds me an Chinese oolong from Sea Dyke Company that I have at work. It’s not bad, but I have been expecting more I think? I can see potential in hojicha, but this was not the best, which I have expected. But it is so mediocre. It was just an okay drink.

Flavors: Roasty

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec 10 OZ / 300 ML

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2021 Homemade Advent Calendar Swap – Day 20
From Skysamurai.

This is the sachet/tea bag version, but this company also has this same tea in loose leaf form. I’m admittedly not the best judge of this tea because I don’t drink green teas often, and when I do they are typically flavored green teas. That said, this tea isn’t bitter like others I’ve tried so it’s not so bad. Not one I would choose on my own, but it’s interesting to try something new every once in a while.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 2 min, 0 sec 8 OZ / 236 ML
Michelle

Its the magic of advent season where we all try things we wouldn’t normally. Glad it wasn’t bitter!

Shae

Very true!

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78
drank Hojicha by Japanese Green Tea Co.
2170 tasting notes

2021 Homemade Advent Calendar Swap – Day 9
From Skysamurai.

I decided to make a latte with today’s Advent tea, so I’m not sure if it’s a true representation of the tea itself (since I added some tasty additions). I steeped the tea bag in a small amount of water, sweetened with honey, added frothed milk, and topped with a sprinkle of cinnamon. It was delicious! I can’t say for sure if this was an exceptional hojicha or if I just like hojicha lattes in general, but I loved this one.

Flavors: Roasted

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec 4 OZ / 118 ML

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76

Backlog: I was going through some of the samples that Whiteantlers gave me a few years ago, and I took a break from the usual oolong for an actual green tea. I was kinda surprised this tea was flavored because it just smelled like a really fresh green sencha when I opened the bag.

I used my whisk and bowl, and when I tried the tea-I was caught off guard by the citrus sweetness. It reminded me of emergency a little bit, but it was sweeter and lighter. It was a hot summer day, and the orange was welcomed. It reminded me of some Japanese Sherbert Ice Cream I used to have in Hawaii, and there was a little bit of a sugar crystal texture in the lightly grassy green matcha. I was very happy with it and finished it quick.

Flavors: Citrus, Creamy, Grass, Orange, Sugar

derk

I hope White Antlers is well.

Daylon R Thomas

Me too. I need to email her to say and check in.

ashmanra

Just heard from White Antlers. She had delta variant Covid that broke through her vaccine protection and was in hospital. Still recovering and weak so staying with a friend but getting better, the summer heat making it harder.

tea-sipper

oh no! One of the unlucky ones who had to go to the hospital with the vaccine, but if White Antlers didn’t have that vaccine… wishing you speedy health, White Antlers.

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68

Sipdown 22- 2021
A perfectly nice green tea. Mostly tastes of toasted hay, with some bright vegetal notes. There’s a slight nuttiness as well.

Flavors: Green, Hot Hay, Nutty, Vegetal

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100

Aroma of Passion Fruit Mousse. A bit in the flavor too! Sweet grass. So good. You guys have to give this one a try. Even if you just buy a sample. Also make sure to read the notes on the page. It is processed in a really unique way!

Mastress Alita

Yes, I sampled this at their booth at the Portland Tea Fes in 2019 and couldn’t walk away before buying some!

Skysamurai

I totally misjudged this when I bought it.Thought it was going to be your typical sencha with a fancy name. Didnt read the description. Man was I wrong. This is amazing.

Martin Bednář

Woo, that sounds great!

Martin Bednář

But can’t get over 30 USD shipping fee :)

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32

Sipdown. I didn’t care for this hojicha. It was very dusty, and the leaves were incredibly broken. I tried making a few different cups, and they were all so roasty that I couldn’t really taste anything else.

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18

A hot cup.

Very lemony taste and sickly sweetness mixed with piney earthy seaweed.

It met its fate with the kitchen sink after a few sips.

Flavors: Artificial, Candy, Earth, Lemon, Pine, Seaweed, Sweet

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 1 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 8 OZ / 236 ML

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87

I’ve really been craving green teas, and I sadly don’t have many in my collection. I decided to cold brew this one, and wow was it refreshing. Buttery and sweet, and such an easy drinker. No bitterness or astringency whatsoever. A hint of snap peas and grass.

Flavors: Butter, Grass, Peas, Sweet

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73

I grabbed this sample with the Japanese Orange matcha sample I tried from the same company. They claim to add sugarcane and sugar syrup to their soil to enhance the natural sweetness of the tea. Not sure if I buy that, but it was a perfectly decent bowl of matcha. Very smooth flavor, nicely grassy with only mild bitterness.

Mastress Alita

I bought a sencha at a tea festival where they said the same thing about using sugarcane in the soil to enhance natural sweetness in the sencha. It was one of the best sencha I’d ever sampled, I will say that, so I do have to wonder about the merit of it…

amandastory516

Interesting! The same brand does have a sencha that has won at the Global Tea Championships, I wonder if it’s the same company!

Mastress Alita

Oh! I think it is, now that I look closer… was the sencha called Issaku? Whether the sugar cane story was salesman snake oil or not, my friend and I loved that sencha sample at the Portland Tea Fest and both ended up going home with some!

amandastory516

I believe so! I’m very curios to try it. I don’t mind their claims, as long as the tea tastes good.

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73

I’m bumping this one down since the last time I had it. It’s a really oddly sweet, even though the orange flavor itself is pretty nice.

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