drank Kitsuki First Flush by Creha Tea
2201 tasting notes

Sipdown, 141. Thanks to Yunomi.us for this free sample of a Japanese black tea.

As with my other sample from Yunomi, this sample was composed largely of tiny tea pieces and a lot of dust. I filtered out a lot of the dust before brewing. I also was cautious with my steeping parameters out of fear of it going bitter on me.

Steeped, it smells remarkably like the Taiwanese black tea I had recently. Very fruity, sweet, with a honeyed mead-like note. It smells pretty good considering I am not usually one for fruity black teas. However, I took a sip and you should have seen the horrific face I made. This is perhaps the most bitter tea I have ever had the displeasure of putting in my mouth. The extreme of bitter. It may be the most bitter thing I have ever tried. The bitterness is still lingering in the recesses of my mouth, coating my tongue. As it’s fading it kind of reminds me of grapefruit rind, but worse. I will not be taking another sip. I do think this may be more to do with the low quality of the sample rather than the tea itself, but I will never know.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 2 min, 0 sec
Stephanie

eww, bummer

Dinosara

Yeah I think it was exacerbated by the huge difference in smell versus taste. I feel like I can often “smell” bitterness in a tea, but not in this one!

stellis

I bought a 1.41 oz tin of this same tea and found the same flavors, but no bitterness. It wasn’t that flavorful to me. I liked it well enough, but won’t order again. I think you’re right that the sample was the issue.

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Comments

Stephanie

eww, bummer

Dinosara

Yeah I think it was exacerbated by the huge difference in smell versus taste. I feel like I can often “smell” bitterness in a tea, but not in this one!

stellis

I bought a 1.41 oz tin of this same tea and found the same flavors, but no bitterness. It wasn’t that flavorful to me. I liked it well enough, but won’t order again. I think you’re right that the sample was the issue.

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Bio

I am tea obsessed, with the stash to match. I tend to really enjoy green oolongs, Chinese blacks, and flavored teas with high quality bases, especially florals, bergamot-based teas, and chocolate teas.

In my free time I am a birder, baker, and music/movie/tv addict.

Here are my rating categories, FYI:
100-90: Mind-blowingly good, just right for my palate, and teas that just take me to a happy place.
89-86: I really really like these teas and will keep most of them in the permanent collection, but they’re not quite as spectacular as the top category
85-80: Pretty tasty teas that I enjoy well enough, but definitely won’t rebuy when I run out.
79-70: Teas that I would probably drink again, but only if there were no preferrable options.
69-50: Teas that I don’t really enjoy all that much and wouldn’t drink another cup of.
49 and below: Mega yuck. This tea is just disgusting to me.
Unrated: Usually I feel unqualified to rate these teas because they are types of teas that I tend to not like in general. Sometimes user error or tea brewed under poor conditions.

Location

Ohio, US

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