Yunomi

Its interesting. Tastes like my other fuka from o-cha (Sae midori) but more sour and has a distinctive citrus flavor. It tastes like… someone dropped some citrus powder in my tea. its ok, but i don’t think I would buy it. the gyo i tried was good and I’ll probably buy that :)
If you like astringency this one is for you~!

Today we are reviewing the other tea that I received from Yunomi, Blue Oolong by Masami Higuchi of the Kaneban Higuchi Tea Factory. Awesome fact, this tea comes from the Shiga Prefecture, home of the beautiful Lake Biwa, and I love knowing this because visualizing where the tea I am drinking comes from just makes the experience even more enjoyable. The aroma of the Blue Oolong is delightfully earthy and mild, it reminds me of the piney, earthy, mineral, aroma of mushrooming in the forest. I swear that is an incredible compliment! There is also a tanginess to the aroma that vaguely reminds me of chrysanthemum flowers which blends very well with the initial aroma of earthiness and pine resin. The finishing notes are green like freshly unfurled oak leaves. A very intriguing aroma for an Oolong.

The steeping brings out some very fascinating notes of sweetness which really accentuates the earthiness. While enjoying the steam wafting into my nose from the steeping leaves I get this wonderful feeling of brightness flicker through my whole body, I cannot help but sigh in contentment. The liquid still retains the pine aroma but has more of the pine needle than pine resin and is pleasantly sweet, there is an interesting undertone of kelp which just made my mouth water.

Something new and exciting! This Oolong is tart and refreshing, very surprising and new to me, which I like. It mixes the tartness with a smooth, creaminess that vaguely reminds me of Greek Yogurt. The aftertaste brings in notes of sweetness and a hint of floral that fades into kelp. I love how complex this tea’s flavor is, it is certainly unlike any Oolong I have ever had (possibly any tea) and I had to suppress a giggle at how enjoyably new this flavor is.

The second steep takes away some of the tart astringency and replaces it with a smooth floral taste with hints of vegetal green. I am surprised how much the second steep mellows the tea out to tasting more like a ‘traditional’ green Oolong with orchid notes, but there is still the aftertaste of kelp which I adore. Thank you Yunomi for giving me the chance to try some of your teas! I cannot wait to get my tea obsessed hands on some more.

I got some lovely samples from Yunomi yesterday. decided to celebrate by first week of work at new job with a Shiboridashi of gyokuro.
The first infusion I did at 120* F for 30 seconds, It was light flavorless and only slightly green.
The second infusion I did around 140* for 30 seconds to a minute. This one reminded me of the Fuka sae midori from o-cha.
Third infusion was around 140-150* and i think I did 1 minute. Tasted like a kabusecha but grassier, and no strong cucumber peel flavor. Very well rounded. super green in color.
Fourth infusion probably 140-150* very green in color. and very sweet like powdered sugar.
I got 5 and 6th infusions but they were more sweet and weak green flavored.

I still have some left and will try another round of brewing. I probably made some mistakes with this first round, but all in all it is good and the flavor changes were both surprising and lovely.

In general most of the infusions were very sweet, no astringency.
Later note: I took the used tea leaves and tried to eat one. the flavor was over powering. Next time I will use the leftover infused leaves to make fridge green tea. or maybe mix with rice.

As my tea drinking day starts drawing to a close, I thought a cup of this tasty gyokuro that I kept from the HHTTB would be nice. Sweet & vegetal, it’s almost like a thin spring greens soup.

Another tea from the Here’s Hoping TTB.
It’s been awhile since I had a Gyokuro. I do enjoy them. It’s a very pale infusion, a very sweet spring green color. The tea is like a thin Matcha, very green & delicious.

I got a free sample of this tea with my recent Yunomi.us order. MAN I love me some Japanese greens. This is very tasty Shincha :)

Oh gyokuro how I miss you when you are away, hehe. I got my package from yunomi.us yesterday! 4 gyokuros for sampling and some salted Sakura blossoms. Can’t wait to try them all!

This was a really interesting tea.

Mulberry leaf tea is supposedly very similar to sencha, but without the caffeine. The process of making this tea is the same as well as the preparation. Heck, the appearance looks similar (I could be fooled this was a gyokuro) but smells slightly olivey.

Anyways, I found if sencha was a raw vegetable, mulberry leaf tea would be the sencha cooked. The tea is grassy, savory, buttery, with cooked green bean and squash notes. But unlike sencha, this tea isn’t crisp and fresh. It’s different yet similar at the same time.

Cool, interest and practical factor of this tea is high for me, but on a taste level for me, meh. I like tea tasting fresh and crisp. But don’t let that stop you from trying a mulberry leaf tea – it is sooo different than what caffeine free teas that are more popular like rooibos and herbals.

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/2013/08/26/kuwacha-sencha-mulberry-leaf-from-kesennuma-kuwacha-eitoku-via-yunomi-tea-review/

Somewhat sweet but still brothy, too! This is very delicious! I’ve noticed it can get grassier tasting if infused for longer than a minute. On the other hand 2nd infusions and possible 3rd infusions are somewhat lemony…which I enjoyed, too! A versatile cuppa. Yum!

So, second steep, a mere 10 seconds. See, I knew my tastebuds would start to change their ideas pretty quick – (I wish they’d do that with olives, I really would like to like olives…).

The smell is still not really my, erm, cup of tea, but the taste is really growing on me. All the positive things you would expect from something that still does remind me an awful lot of spinach. A zinc tang, an earthiness. And it’s really green.

Not my favourite yet, but I did rather enjoy that.

In the last month I’ve been lucky enough to win two competitions run by Yunomi.us.

Each time I’ve won one main prize, and then they’ve sent me a 5gm sample of something else as well. This was one of those samples.

I wanted to try the warm water steeping method, but I have no means of testing my water temperature yet and I was less keen to wing it when I only have a 5g sample, so I went for standard (both of which are recommended). That’s 30secs in boiling water. The very first thing that strikes me when I’ve steeped it is that it looks like spinach. The second thing is that it smells like spinach.

I mean, really smells like it. I’m not talking ‘spinachy notes’. I’m talking what the water in the pan after your mum has overcooked the sunday dinner smells like.

Now, I think me and this tea have got off to a bad start. By the time I was getting to the end of my first cup I was thinking ‘Mmm, maybe…’. But at first all I could think was ‘This is weird, I’m drinking spinach water’.

I don’t want to dismiss this straight away, because I know even after this short amount of time my tastes are changing and I could end up absolutely loving this. But for a first time Sencha drinker – undecided.

You can read the full review here:
http://tunesntea.wordpress.com/2013/06/26/tea-morita-sayama-sencha/

I fallowed the steeping instructions for the most part from the site. My first steep was brewed at 160F, while all the others were brewed at 185F. All steeps were steeped for 45sec.

Steep 1: Very savory; strong unami flavor. Slight pleasant grassy flavor and buttery. Light sweet matcha after taste. Very mild astringency

Steep 2: Grass is more present. Not really any unami any more. Never mind it taste it now. Still slight match sweetness. Astringency is stronger, but not bad. Has a strong tea flavor.

Steep 3: More astringency now; but still pleasant. Strong green tea flavor (DUH) some unami now. In the beginning there was a stronger matcha flavor. This tea seems to change profile as it cools. Interesting. This is a very savory steep. Not as grassy as before. Mild astringency now. Cooler: more matcha flavor and a smidgen more astringency.

Steep 4: The prevailing flavor is match. Very sweet with just a touch of savory to ground it. YUM!

Overall this was a very interesting and pleasant tea. I had a rich and dynamic flavor. I love how depending how you steep it greatly changes it’s flavor profile.It seems to change flavors as it cools as well; making each sip different. I am sad to see my sample gone I would have loved to have some more of this on another day.

Mmmm, my second gyokuro! This one was even better! My first gykuro was from Den’s Tea, but this one from Yunomi.us / Kurihara Tea was more balanced and buttery.

I followed these steeping instructions http://yunomi.us/4832/gyokuro-steeping-technique/ which was kind of annoying getting my water to 120F / 50C as my kettle only goes as low at 160F. However, the result was really good! My gyokuro was syrupy, buttery, creamy and spinachy! I got a handful of resteepings out of my tea too! The astringency was actually good too!

Uggg, I think I need to acquire more gyokuro (maybe one of the higher quality ones off Yunomi) but I know my cash flow will be pissed off!

Full Review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/gyokuro-standard-kurihara-tea-via-yunomi-us-tea-review/

Full review tomorrow on http://www.sororiteasisters.com but here are the snippets:

I have to say this is one of the freshest cups of sencha I have experienced to date. The taste of this tea reminds me of the aroma of fresh cut grass in the summertime. The flavor is so natural, and in a way light and refreshing, yet the body is so deep and complex that I can’t decide which way to describe it. Can it possibly be both light and rich at the same time? Indeed it can!

I would absolutely order more of this tea and am happy to have discovered Yunomi! I think it is wonderful that they support small tea farmers in Japan and are supporters of Tsunami Recovery.

I am also in love with their tea selection and selection of other items from tea ware, to tea candy, fashions, furnishings, and so much more! I will be stalking their website until I can afford a hefty order with them!

Muppetlove THANKS for this!

This is a mighty fine Houjicha but it’s a tad different than your standard Houjicha…it just has that little extra something-something.

Sure – it has that robust roasted flavor and notes of woodsy/nutty goodness but it has a sweet-mineral type flavor to it too! I like it!

Additional notes: Recently, I saw a tasting note that said cream houjicha! Well, I don’t have a cream houjicha but it sounds delicious. I had to try this with some cream… some Bailey’s Cheesecake cream!! What?! I decided to forgo the higher caffiene tea today, just because I wanted to try this with cream. I have learned since the last time I had this one that all tea except rooibos and herbals have caffiene in them. Even though I only slept 4 hours last night, I wasn’t that sleepy. I think the steep time must be boiling and you can’t really hurt it with the steep time, especially if you love more of the roasted toasty flavor. The cream is delicious, of course. It tastes like a cheesecake, and the toasty houjicha is the delicious crust (otherwise, I think the cream flavor is just cheesecake filling without the crust.) It is reminding me of the milky coffee my parents gave me when I was three years old… which isn’t good because I only put a bit of cream in it. I assumed the coffee was mostly milk, but now I think there was only a little milk added! Yikes! I love this tea.

Despite always wanting a roasted tea, I didn’t really have any in my stash. Rumpus Parable sent me some tea (thank you!) and this happened to be one of them! I really like it! I wonder if it has caffiene though? The steep color IS a beautiful amber color. I like it for the steep color alone! The flavor is roasty, toasty and surprisingly sweet (and I steeped it hot and for a while). Good stuff!