Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms

I can’t believe I never logged this tea! I’ve had it for quite some time and although it says that the expiration date is 6 months after shipment, these smell beautiful much after that. This is a truly beautiful tea. In the back the tiny flowers have a smell of light umeboshi, salt, plum/cherry, and floral hints. It is simply amazing to watch them steep. I wish I had a decent camera because you can see the veins in the translucent skins of the flower petals. As much as I enjoy watching blooming teas, this feels much more organic. Since I couldn’t find any official steep times quickly I treated this very similar to an herbal. I used only 6oz of tea for one slightly larger and one medium blossom.
Once steeped this actually has a much strong smell than expected. It has a very light liquor that reminds me of white wines. It has a very unexpected ume plum smell. It is very distinct and reminds me of my favorite Japanese ume gum. Any sense of floral smell is very subdued. The flavor is very much the same, very light, subtle, and most of the flavor is on the back end of the sip. It is a very fun and amazing tea that I would advise people try at least once.

Smells a lot like Hojicha – roasted! Yum!
It has the brown roasted leaves instead of the twigs, tho, that is the major different to the eye. It is more gentle that I thought it would be but I like this mellow flavor on the tongue. Springy! Gently Roasted! A near Steamed rice/veggie type flavor, even. With a sweeter finish! Lovely!

This is a gentle Sencha. Much less intense and bitter than most I’ve had most of the time.

This has a nice medium green.. A moderate zucchini rind sort of green.

The bitterness is very light and nicely tasty.

2g to 2oz, 15 sec. 5 steeps.

So I have been wanting to buy some matcha for a long time. I needed the whisk and the bowl. Steepter gave me the whisk and small scoop and this little taster of matcha.

My first time making it went well I think. No lumps and nice an frothy. It is has a nice gassy taste to it, but a little bitterness as well. I have had other matcha that was a bit sweeter then this, but all in all not bad. Might make a latte with this.

I have to say what I know about matcha is pretty much nothing. I’ve been resisting the urge to get the whisk because I wasn’t sure I needed a new toy. So I was happy to find one in my Steepster select box, along with a sample of this matcha.

We did get a little card with instructions, which were easy to follow. Yesterday morning I whipped up two batches of it, it took me a bit to get the hang of the whisk but that’s ok. By my second attempt, I noticed the matcha was nice and frothy. But I do see needing a matcha bowl in my future. :)

It’s a very nice, green bundle of joy. The tea is very flavorful, grassy and has a bit of bitterness. This morning I blended some with raspberries and soymilk. I found it needed a touch of sugar. Most of my experiences with matcha have been that they are slightly bitter so that isn’t unusual. I can see how this will be great for making smoothies! And for cooking!

Thanks to Steepster and Obubu for this fun treat!

Very nice, and quite different from other Japanese Senchas I’ve tried. This tea is very much like the description depicts: it starts off with a savory bitterness which wanes into a smooth sweetness toward the tail, and then there is an astringency that cleanses.

I enjoy this for how different it is. It is probably not a Sencha I’d drink every day, but, it is one that I’d enjoy on occasion, and it would definitely make a pleasing palate cleanser after meals.

I wanted to make this tea over two and a half hours ago, but I’ve had a sleeping kitty on my lap. How could I move and force him to get up when he’s soooo cute? Cutest kitty on the planet!

He must be super tired or super comfortable, because he won’t budge despite my yelling. Why am I yelling? Well, you see, I’m watching 24. If you’ve seen 24, that’s enough of an answer right there. If not, Sean Astin just walked on screen. Without pausing to think, I shouted, “IT’S SAMWISE!!!!!!!!!”

Frodo, my kitty, jolted awake on my lap and then calmly laid his head back down and promptly returned to napping. In case you couldn’t already tell, I’m a wee bit obsessed with The Lord of the Rings. But Frodo didn’t seem fazed by my outburst, so I had to wait him out for another 40 minutes before making this tea.

I can say though that the wait was definitely worth it! The brewed tea aroma is roasty toasty houjicha! Ah, how I love roasted green teas. Oh yum! It’s just so yummy! I’m getting caramel and almond notes, and a bit of milky creaminess too.

This tea is awfully tasty for being nearly one year old. This is renewing my love of houjicha. I’ve been drinking a crappy, minced, bagged version of houjicha lately, and I’ve gotten sick of it. I’d forgotten how wonderful real, fresh houjicha is.

For those of you that haven’t tried houjicha before, GO! DO IT NOW!! BREW PEOPLE BREW!!! But really, try it! It’s nothing like regular green tea. The grassy vegetal flavor is roasted right out of the leaves, and it turns into a soft, mellow, toasted cuppa. Soooo good! Thank you Mercuryhime for yet another amazing tea experience!

I tried to rebrew, but I just couldn’t like this tea. It tasted one dimensional to me. Mostly twigs, like a kukicha, which I am not the biggest fan of either. To each their own.

A very mild genmaicha. The rice flavoring is nice and lightly toasty. I prefer greener tasting, like Den’s Tea. I’ve been wanting to sample this, since the rice is different than other genmai based teas. Is this sticky rice?

This is slight sweet with a somewhat hay-like flavor. It’s moderately dark and has a short finish. It’s a light tea, not strongly flavored but pleasant.

Just tried this at 185 degrees, 10 seconds. It was Very green and Very savory. There was a almost-not-there sweetness, too, but as said it was barely there. I like it much better than last try.

Second steep, 15 sec: bitterness is coming out strong, but it’s still good.

Third steep, 15 sec: The bitterness is lighter and I’m mostly getting the vegetal flavor.

Fourth, 15 sec: This one is a much gentler steeping. The flavors are more muted and lighter on the tongue.

And so on as I keep trying it! Fiddling with it this way I like it MUCH more than I did the first way I tried it. I’m learning to not follow the website’s steeping instructions and follow my “standard Japanese greens steeping” method of trials and errors.

This isn’t a favorite but I AM glad I got so much of it from my Club membership shipment. I can try it all sorts of temps and steeps and not worry about running out. A good tasting tea to play with!

Wow this tasted horrible. Just green bitterness, no sweetness at all.

I just received this sample as part of the Owners Club Gift. I don’t like it at all. Very green and bitter. I tried it using the warm and then standard methods of steeping and didn’t care for either outcome.

Another from my Steepster Selects box!

I was hesitant with this one because of the smokiness. I’ve smelled a few off-puttingly strong smoky black teas before and didn’t like that at all, so I was wary of a smoky Houjicha. I really shouldn’t have been. This is delicious. Absolutely delicious. It is perfect on a dreary cold afternoon (we get a lot of those in Halifax this time of year), and the roasting takes the caffeine out so that makes it great in the evenings as well. It steeps up beautifully and with no bitterness that can sometimes happen with other greens. The smoky flavors are muted in the steeped tea, but are still there in a sweet delicious way.

I think this one might be one of my new favourite greens. SUPER glad to have received this one since I know I would have by-passed it simply because of the smoky roast if I had come across it in a tea shop.

The final of the three teas from the December Steepster Select Box. A very good Houjicha, I’ve tried a couple of the Houjicha teas from Obubu but this is my first experience with the smoky roast. I am not usually fond of strong smoky flavors, but it works very well with the roasty toasty flavor of the houjicha, and I am enjoying this quite a bit. The smokiness really stands out.

Im not really getting smoke some from this. It reminds me of charcoal roasted Tung Ting. I was expecting something else I guess.It might also be me. My allergies are flaring up a bit so I can’t really smell. I will probably have to try this again when I feel a little better. I just could not wait to try it…

Smoky with a faint sweetness in the back of the throat. Toasty tasty. Not a favorite, but very glad I received enough for several cups. Might buy more!

This was the second piece of my December Obubu CSA shipment. Fresh from the minute I opened the pouch to the instant I whisked and drank it. It’s got the trademark bitter leaf taste that is, well, matcha, but it’s not so bitter or flat that it makes you want to set your cup or bowl down. Sweetest variety of matcha I’ve yet tried that wasn’t labeled as ceremonial grade. Nice emerald color, not as chalky as restaurant grades. Love it.
I was able to put some pics and more thoughts on my blog, with a picture of the yanagi bancha leaves as they were steeping (the other part of the shipment). http://bit.ly/ufFqKX
I actually brought my tin of Gokou Matcha with me to the office to enjoy as a mid-afternoon pick-me-up. It’s that refreshing, at least for this matcha fan.

This was part of my December Obubu CSA Club shipment, along with a sample of Gokou matcha (which smells fantastic). This is a lovely everyday green, the flavor is much sweeter than I was expecting from a tea grade described as being “low” – not as buttery as the other grades of sencha, but still that vegetal “hearty” green tea flavor that steeps into a pleasing bright yellow. I got two great steeps out of my first pot.

The dry leaf is also fun, light greens and dark greens and twigs here and there – a sign that it’s fresh. Reminds me of childhood when my grandfather farmed hay and made handmade brooms. Will hopefully get a pic on my blog up soon.

Once again, a well-crafted tea, even if it’s just a ‘lowly’ bancha. Very grateful that Obubu has made their teas available via the CSA club.

Very light tea. Rebrews 3 times. It has a nice sweetness. Not as complex as I usually like, just straightforward tasting. I used up my whole sample, I might have liked the boiling brewing, since I think the warm water method didn’t make it strong enough for my tastebuds. It has a white tea lightness.

I made this gongfu style so take that into account. I wanted to try it this way as I was trying other teas today like so.

It’s good. I like it. The taste is hard to describe. It’s pleasantly sweet and reminds me of barley. It’s light but with a lingering finish, mostly on the front of the tongue.

While I am trading most of my ITFA teas (not that they’re bad, they have all been great quality! Just not favorites for me), I think I’m going to keep this one. Thankfully the sample is huge in this tea club and it’ll last me near forever :D

I definitely suggest trying it if you get the chance!

On first sip I don’t think I like this at all. The smell is very much a burnt smell. A sweet light burnt taste with it.

I can see how others may like it but I cannot stand it.

I prefer this brewed with the Standard method, not so think on the tongue. GREAT WITH SUSHI!