Nio Teas

The first sample I grabbed today was a matcha, but I have no tools for preparing it so I put it back in the bag. I’m glad that my second pick was a gyokuro. I steeped 5 g of leaf in a 120 ml kyusu using 140F water for 2 minutes, followed by several steeps of 20 seconds.

The dry aroma is of spinach, grass, and earth. The first steep has notes of spinach, brussels sprouts, broccoli, umami, grass, herbs, butter, and earth. I get very little sweetness and lots of bitter veggies. The next steep features edamame and umami and is still quite bitter. The final steeps have somewhat sweet grassy notes with other veggies.

I didn’t enjoy this gyokuro as much as the Gyokuro Cha Musume I had a couple days ago. It lacked sweetness and fruitiness and was quite vegetal and bitter. I was happy to try it, but it’s not the type of flavour profile I gravitate toward.

These Advent calendar samples also contain a lot of matcha. It seems dumb to buy a $60 matcha kit to make free tea, especially since I’ve never had matcha before and don’t know if I even like it. I don’t have a milk frother or blender, so those options are out, too. Hmm.

This was my first ever deep-steamed sencha and I wrecked it with an inadequate strainer. Suspecting it would have more bitterness than yesterday’s gyokuro, I steeped it in my 150 ml porcelain pot using a strainer from a bigger pot that I thought would filter out the tiny leaf bits. I used 160F water and steeped it for 1 minute, followed by several 20 second steeps.

The dry aroma of the leaves was of spinach, edamame, and corn. My first indication that something had gone wrong was the dark green colour of the tea in the pot caused by all the leaf fragments at the bottom. What a mess! The first steep packed a wallop of bitter spinach and grass, followed by notes of edamame and sweet corn. The next couple steeps were actually a bit less bitter, with notes of spinach, grass, edamame, corn, butter, asparagus, and kale. Hints of florality and a thicker texture came out near the end of the session.

Though my steeping didn’t help, to say the least, I think this flavour profile would have been too bitter for me anyway. I won’t rate the tea, but I’d say my brewing was about a 40. Next time, I’ll have to use my Finum infuser.

Nio Teas kindly sent me their Advent calendar in December, and sent samples again when that package failed to arrive. Thank you for your persistence and generosity! I have minimal experience with Japanese teas, so this should be interesting!

Since I enjoy gyokuro, I was happy to grab this first from my pile of samples. I have a 120 ml kyusu instead of a 150 ml one, which means I had to deviate from their instructions slightly. I steeped 5 g of leaf in 120 ml of 140F water for 2 minutes, then three more times for 20 seconds.

The dry leaf has aromas of spinach, seaweed, and grass. The first steep has notes of spinach, squash, umami, kale, butter, and grass, with slight but noticeable bitterness. I also get the creamy hazelnut mentioned in the description. The next steeps are a bit sweeter, with more of that hazelnut, umami, and grass. As Cameron noted, it does taste more like a sencha as the session goes on. By the fourth steep, I was able to taste squash, apple, and sweet grass as the vegetal bitterness diminished.

This is a nice tea, though it doesn’t have the fruitiness I’ve found in other gyokuro. I particularly appreciate the comparative lack of bitterness.

Soothing, light and tasty! Will leave a full review for this one at some point but for now it’s just a pleasant brew to enjoy.

I think I need to relearn how to make matcha. Yikes.

Woke up from a long nap after a long night at work, and thought this would be a perfect preface to a smoothie and a gongfu session. I think I maybe went too heavy on my ratio at 6g:9oz. I also was sad to find I’d chucked my matcha whisk at some point, after not having used it for several years. I used an electric frother, which maybe contributed to bitterness?

Anyway, I didn’t get the lovely spinach and edamame and hay that I was expecting. It was kinda sour, kinda bitter. I finished it because I felt like I should, but I didn’t enjoy it. I’ll come back and try to use less powder and less aggressive frothing.

No rating, I’m sure this was user error.

So good, I dialed in the brewing parameters here. No bitterness at all and a smooth savory chilled tea experience. Woody, a little sweet, lots of body, and a thirst-quenching element all its’ own. This is a 90+ point tea for me,all day.

One of two teas I had with my mom in the park, chilled. It was refreshing and delicious. Previous notes include wood, charcoal roast, and a smooth amber liquor.

This time I brewed multiple gongfu infusions and collected them together for a liter of chilled tea. It’s quite savory and refreshing.

There is a woody almost mineral note that sticks to the tongue, but with a great roasty body full of flavor and mouthfeel. Definitely the best kukicha/hojicha I have ever tried. Looking forward to chilling this in the summer and having a low-caffeine option for evening consumption.

So good chilled after brewing! Deep, roasty, and refreshing.

I chilled a batch of this after brewing Gongfu, what a taste sensation! It’s very hard to describe: but it does taste like a nice roasty kukicha tea. Looking forward to making a larger chilled batch for later consumption.

Will leave a full review once I have time to digest what I am tasting with this one.

Dry Aroma: Sweetgrass. One of my favorite tea scents. The aroma changes very quickly as it moves from freshly opened to mixing with the air.
Appearance: Dark green with a few light greens. A few long needles but mostly smaller pieces.
Liquor aroma: Mouth watering. Slightly brothy. Some what grassy.
Wet leaf: Mushy. Green.
Flavor: This tea is like a 2-year-old. Watch it or you’re going to have a mess. Within 10 seconds it quickly switches from this creamy sweet grass with a silky mouthfeel to a raging toddler with astringency and strong grass notes.

NIO Advent 2023: Quick brewing in a shiboridashi is a thing of art. And I am an amateur. The amount of water is very small so the steep time is quite quick. Many of the same notes. Though I do think this one shines brighter with a higher amount of water. Could also be the 3 canker sores speaking…

Vegetal and savory. I’m watching a documentary on Japanese green teas so this just felt right.