Yunomi

Backlog. I had this tea yesterday because my stomach was feeling a bit queasy and sensitive, so I had to go for my favorite roasty comfort tea. I have to say that it really did help. I even resteeped a couple of times but had to stop myself because it was getting a little late in the evening. My stomach is feeling a bit better today, so perhaps I will venture out to other teas…

Previously, I had only thought to cold brew my fruity teas, but since I have so much of this particular houjicha (and houjichas in general), I figured why not try it as a cold brew? It maintained the same dried anchovy and roasted almost smoky taste as it does when it is hot, yet something about having it as an iced tea made it seem more refreshing. I’m thinking that less smokier houjichas will probably fare better, so I may use up some of my dwindling samples of other houjichas to experiment with cold brewing. Yay, I’m excited! :)

Backlog. After an uncharacteristically unpleasant experience with a sencha earlier in the day, I needed a palate cleanser of sorts. I love this tea with all my heart, so I decided to steep this one after dinner. It also is supposedly lower in caffeine, so I felt okay about drinking it later at night. I’m bumping this tea up to a full 100 since I always seem to reach for it when I need something reliably delicious and roasty.

Today’s biostats lecture was particularly heavy on notation and derivations, so I’m glad that I brought this tea with me to simultaneously calm me down and keep me focused. It’s definitely become one of my go-to teas for comfort, convenience, or anything else. I’m glad that I have so much of it to last me a long while!

After standing in line for hours at the airport and having a flight cancelled on me, I came home exhausted and quite frustrated. I thought I ought to make a cup of tea to calm me down, so I reached for my reliable hojicha. Unfortunately, I only had a little of this left that I brought with me, so it was a bit weak this time around. Now let’s just hope that my rebooked flights aren’t cancelled, too.

Yesterday, I impulse bought a cast iron set of a teapot, two teacups, and a wooden trivet at World Market. I went there to pick up some tea tins, saw this set, fell in love, couldn’t believe the price, and somehow found myself at the cash register buying it, haha. Anyway, I wanted to break it in with a less picky tea, so I went for this hojicha. Delicious as always!

After getting really into Japanese greens, I tasted a bunch of different houjichas and this is one that I decided to reorder. I think I have like 4 oz of this stuff now, so I took this morning as an opportunity to start drinking up! Just enough roasted taste without being overwhelming and resteeps well. I have a feeling it won’t take me too long to go through this batch :)

Ok, so I didn’t exactly do a side by side comparison with the smoky roast because I’ve been swamped, but I will say that based on memory and multiple tastings now of both teas, I think I prefer this one overall. It has just the right amount of roasted intensity and flavor for a more everyday kind of tea. The smoky one was just a tad over the top to be drinking all the time for me. Now that I’m fully obsessed with houjichas, I now need to compare this one to the one I got from Den’s for my final final decision on which one to heavily stock up on. Or maybe I’ll just do both, haha.

So far, I have tried the light and basic roast houjicha from Yunomi and enjoyed them. However, I felt like the flavors could have been stronger in those two in particular. When I tried this tea, I felt like I had finally found that intensity of flavor that I had wanted from the previous two. This may sound strange, but the smoky flavor almost reminds me of roasted dried seaweed. My tasting notes on houjichas always make them seem so weird and unappetizing, but I swear that I love them! I think that houjichas have officially taken over genmaichas in my book. Anyway, I have the smoky roast left to try, so I’m thinking I’ll either prefer it to this one or it will be a little too intense for my taste. I’m excited to find out!

I received this as part of my Yunomi monthly club package. I enjoy playing Japanese RPG’s and drinking authentic Japanese tea :) So that is my plan for this lazy Sunday.

The loose blend is rather large in size and whilst raw smells dry and herbal but nicely so. In other words it’s not too strong like herbal teas can be.

Steeped with the 10 minute recommended guide line and using boiling water. My sample was 10g so I only had one pot worth of this.

Once steeped it’s brown in colour with a mild herbal, ricey and earthen spicy aroma.

It’s very aromatic and Japanese in flavour. Medium strength with a refreshing taste similar to mint but more herbal based and milder. It also tastes toasted with a slight sour after taste.

A very interesting herbal blend that I’m considering purchasing more of. Would make a nice bedtime tea, or even morning tea.

Sipdown (126)! I took the rest of this sample (a heaping tablespoon) and cold brewed in one of my water bottles. It’s probably more leaf than I would’ve used and I left it in there for quite a while on accident (maybe 12 hours or so?), so it had a pretty strong roasty taste by the time I tried it out. I did enjoy it, though, and I think it was the right idea to try a less roasty houjicha for cold brewing. I will miss this one, but not too much because I still have tons of it’s sister (dark roast) lying around waiting to be sipped on.

I only have a couple servings left of this, and the rest of the leaves are started to resemble coffee grounds a bit. I think the sample packet just got a bit crushed, oops! That in combination with accidentally letting it steep for quite a few minutes made the tea pretty strong today. It actually didn’t get bitter, but it was more roasted tasting than usual. Anyway, was loving this as usual, but I have a bunch of the dark roast houjicha, so I won’t be reordering any houjichas for a while.

Backlog. Last night, I wanted something really light because it was getting a bit late, so I opted to reach for this one. I also resteeped the leaves in the morning when I rolled out of bed. This is a nice, reliable houjicha, but I normally prefer something a little roastier.

I needed more of a gentle wake up tea this morning, so I went for this houjicha. I was also very groggy, so I knew that this tea would not be as finicky to steep. I overleafed a little and it was roastier than usual, but I liked that.

I wanted to have something a little less caffeinated for the afternoon since I’ve been having some sleeping issues lately. This nice, roasty houjicha fit the bill! It has a slightly fishy taste like dried anchovies or dried seaweed, but I like that. I prefer the dark roast (which I recently ordered a ton of) because this one does not have as strong of a roasted taste, but I’m enjoying what I have left of this!

I’m rapidly falling in love with Japanese green teas and hojicha in particular. This hojicha had a lighter color than the others that I’ve tried. It also had a slightly less roasty taste and was closer to other Japanese greens in my opinion. I drank this while eating something spicy and a little sweet, so the roasted, savory taste went well with the food. I’m starting to realize that all the Japanese green teas I’ve tried so far have been good for drinking while eating food.

I got this in the post a few days. Since I had gotten into green teas again. My kitchen smells like chocolate cake, except the tea mug which smells like rice cakes. Which is a pleasant scent.

This is only my second time having genmaicha. I like the toasted rice flavour. And I’ve always enjoyed matcha. I still feel like I should be having this in a tea house with onigiri. Thanks to Yunomi for letting me try this.

Sipdown (116)! I brought the remaining bit of this to school today. I overleafed a bit, so it was roastier than usual, which was a pleasant surprise. All in all, a very nice tea to have had in my cupboard. It will be missed (but not too much because I have so many other houjichas!).

I know I’m probably getting repetitive about houjichas, but I needed this one today to really re-set myself tea-wise. For the past couple days, I just haven’t been in the mood for tea, so it’s nice to come back to a reliable, comforting tea to get me excited again. Like I have said in previous tasting notes, this particular houjicha is a bit less roasty than I prefer, but it’s still very delicious!

I’ve fallen into a pattern of drinking houjichas after I have an unpleasant tea experience to re-set my palate. I guess it’s because houjichas have never failed me so far. This houjicha in particular has more of a pronounced dried anchovy taste. Sounds weird, but that’s what it reminds me of, and I do like it. My little sample has gone lasted quite a while, and I still have some left, thankfully.

Backlog from yesterday. Has slightly fishy taste to it, but I liked it. I recently reordered a bunch of the dark roast houjicha from Yunomi because this tea is a little light on the roasted taste than I’d like.

I wanted something a little more delicate but still comforting this evening, and this is what I came up with. It has that nice roasted houjicha flavor without being completely overwhelming. When my sample runs out, though, I think I will opt to restock on a houjicha with a stronger flavor (like the dark roast). Enjoying it while it lasts, though!

I’m finding out that all these hojichas that I’ve been drinking have the same dried anchovy smell when I open up the packets. This one has a lighter roasted taste than hojichas that I’ve had before, which makes sense given its name. I think this is a good one for the evening but overall, I would prefer to have a slightly stronger roasted taste. The texture is very clean with no bitterness or astringency. A very comforting cup of tea, especially since I feel like I might be getting sick.