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“Current cuppa! I was feeling roasty and toasty tea, and this jumped out at me. It’s certainly not bad and those houjicha notes are hitting me so good right now, but I find I’m missing some more...” Read full tasting note
“(52teas (Anne) 2022: 76) 2022 Sipdown 41/365! Mastress Alita’s Sipdown Challenge February 2022: Tea I could happily drink every day Darn, I thought I had another, larger packet of this around so...” Read full tasting note
Tea of the Week for September 11, 2017!
The first time I brewed this tea for a taste test – I got distracted and so into it that I forgot to write my description of it. Alas – I was forced to brew another cup so that I could write my review and description. Such a tough job – this.
And if it wasn’t obvious the previous article was dripping in sarcasm, you obviously don’t know me or my love for caramel and tea!
For the last year or so, I’ve created several different of these Houjicha/white tea blends. The first few were Shou Mei white tea, the more recent creations have been crafted with Bai Mu Dan. The main reason for this is that I prefer Bai Mu Dan to Shou Mei in just about every instance and I find that to be true in this instance as well. Bai Mu Dan just proves to be a better tea – at least it proves to be to my palate.
And I do like these blends – the Houjicha and White Tea blends – because I enjoy how the light, crisp flavor of the white tea lightens the deep, roasty-toasty flavor of the Houjicha. What I’ve learned in my time getting re-acquainted with the ‘artisan tea blend’ business is that the rather strong, deeply roasted flavor of the Houjicha is just a little bit too much for the flavoring process and the strength of the tea tends to overpower the flavoring. The addition of the white tea softens up the roasted green tea flavor and allows those flavors to come forward. So you still get that awesome roasty-toasty-ness of the Houjicha, but you also get the delightful flavorings that have been added.
Which brings me to this week’s tea: Caramel Houjicha/White Tea Blend. I absolutely LOVE the way the toasted nutty flavor of the Houjicha melds with the caramel notes – giving it a sort of ‘candied nut’ flavor – which would have made a pretty good name for this tea, something like ‘caramel nut’ or ‘candied nut’ – but I do know that some might take that a bit too literally and since the only “nut” contribution to this tea blend is the tea itself, I didn’t want to mislead anyone into thinking that this is a caramel nut flavored tea. It is instead a nutty tasting tea that’s been enhanced with caramel essence.
And it is delightful!
organic ingredients: green tea, white tea & natural flavors
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Current cuppa!
I was feeling roasty and toasty tea, and this jumped out at me. It’s certainly not bad and those houjicha notes are hitting me so good right now, but I find I’m missing some more distinct caramel notes. I get creaminess and sweetness, for sure, but there’s a richness that’s lacking. Caramel is such an incredibly difficult flavour to nail down though, and the tea is a bit older so it’s not really unexpected that it’s missing…
I should buy a caramel syrup, like for ice cream, or something along those lines so I can amp up the caramel in some of my teas.
(52teas (Anne) 2022: 76)
2022 Sipdown 41/365!
Mastress Alita’s Sipdown Challenge February 2022: Tea I could happily drink every day
Darn, I thought I had another, larger packet of this around so this would only be a technical sipdown. But, according to my spreadsheet, this was it. Sigh. This was a tasty tea – I just really love the houjicha/white combo as a base, and there was a nice caramel flavour paired with it. A treat without being sweet, and forgiving to brew because of the base. Definitely a tea I could have every day, although honestly I thrive on the variety and not having the same thing each day – even teas I love, I don’t usually drink more than a couple times in a row!
There is also the caramel syrups like what Starbucks uses which could be nice for that purpose.