Tokyo

Time to tackle this sample. The dry leaf kind of reminds me of 52 teas Marshmallow Treat Genmaicha! Probably get the similar roasted nuances from the sesame seeds, and the caramel is stepping in as the gooey factor. But it’s not nearly as sweet as 52 teas.

Steeped, the sweetness mellows out even more. When it comes to the flavour, there is a slight vegetal note in there but it’s not overbearing. The caramel is very subtle but just enough for me. And it doesn’t taste as roasted as I had hoped. But it’s still pretty good!

Was kind of hoping for this to taste more like sesame snaps but it’s a very subtle, beautiful version of it. Wouldn’t purchase a tin but wouldn’t mind having it again either.

I really felt like a green tea today, and this just arrived from my swap with Courtney. Woot! This is a delicious green tea. It’s just the right mix of grassy and vegetal. Overall, it has a mild flavor with a natural sweetness. Very yummy and hitting the spot perfectly for my current mood. Thanks, Courtney!

The taste of this has grown on me, I do enjoy it more. The first steep has a very noticeable caramel flavor (as expected); but after that it fades a bit and blends with/gives way to a nice green butteriness.

This is a very unusual green tea. The fragrance is a cross between raisins, figs and dates and a little cereal.

This brewed to a champagne color. The flavor was close to a genmaicha with a full body and a bit of a cereal taste, but was much lighter and sweeter. The difference between toasted rice and sesame seeds is obvious. I didn’t really pick up any caramel in the flavor, but in a green tea, that would actually be my preference.

I received a sample of this from MirandaGou in our most recent swap! Thank you for letting me try this one.

I wasn’t sure what to expect. I am just starting to try green teas. I could taste the vegital of the green base, as well as a toasty and caramely taste. This was such a great cup for my afternoon tea. Almost makes me wish I would have tried this before my order to H&S on Friday.

What in the world is Bancha? I don’t know anything about green tea, but Nxtdoor was generous enough to send me some of this so here goes.
I was pleasantly surprised by this. I didn’t find it bitter at all, it was sweet and toasty nutty. I didn’t really get caramel specifically, but it was sweet. I’m not sure if I would have been able to say sesame seed, but it is nutty – reminds me of genmaicha.
This is better hot, not as good when it cools. This will never be on my favorite list but am glead to have tried it. Thanks Nxtdoor for sending me this sample.

Ohhh, I love this tea. I think it’s the best green I’ve tried so far. It has a light flavor; I sweeten it so I didn’t realize it was sweet on its own. Tokyo is wonderful to drink after the evening meal for a palate refresher and to set you in the mood for the rest of the night. The flavors of caramel and sesame are exotic and delicious. The flavor of the green tea comes through nicely. All around great tea.

Drinking this after a dinner of Mitchell Davis’ pan-charred salmon with a marinade of fresh squeezed orange juice, white wine, and soy sauce and Italian-style sauteed spinach cooked with slivers of the heirloom purple garlic my mom sent me in the mail. A dear friend sent this tea to me a while back when she was concerned about us with all the husband’s-job-issue stress, what a sweetheart. I wonder if it will ever stop being 95F in the evening here for good for the rest of the year (we got teased one evening and one evening alone, last Saturday, with cooler dinner weather), ugh.

Don’t know that I’ve had bancha in quite a long time. This is nice! It indeed reminds me a lot of the sesame-garnished dessert I had at Pok Pok this summer when we were in Portland, the way it’s toasty and subtly, cleanly sweet but not nearly as sugary as standard American dessert flavors. In particular, fresh subtle sweet notes gives way to a rounded, almost vanilla-like sweetness at the end of the sip that is a nice foil to the toasty bancha and sesame. I like that this is a tea you could have as a sweet ending to dinner or to just plain treat yourself, it falls in that in category, but doesn’t have the warmly spiced heavy dimension nearly all dessert teas possess. That makes it a good choice when it’s scorching hot but you still want sweet treat hot tea, and it goes better with the bright, fresh flavors of warm weather meals too.

Going to cold steep some of it tonight I think; I hope the toasty sesame element doesn’t get lost (I looooove sesame seeds and toasted sesame oil, yum).

Wow! This may just be my favorite green tea yet!! (excluding matcha of course). One of my many new years resolutions was to drink more green tea, and I don’t think I’ll have any problem with that if it’s Tokyo blend! A million thanks to ScottTeaMan for the recommendation, it’s right up my alley! Subtle, grassy sweetness, with the complexity of the sesame seeds to give it enough character, this is a treat.

I recently converted my sister (a longtime exclusively coffee-drinker) to tea. As I have a habit of forcing things I love upon my friends and family I have been thrilled with this feat , and taken it upon myself to introduce her to as many different teas that I thought she’d like as possible. She started calling me her tea mentor, so I thought I owed it to her to take her on a round of tea shopping this past Saturday. We stopped at the David’s tea on Bleecker, Porto Rico Importing and Harney’s Soho store, of course. All were insanely busy but I’d have to mark it as a success as we were both encumbered with large packages by the time we made it to the bar to watch my 49ers’ magnificent victory!

Now that I’ve rambled off the backstory at length, this was one of the many purchases made that day. I was indecisive and looking for something different, and when I had one whiff of this I knew it’d be perfect! It’s sweet florals are the perfect cure to this rainy/snowy day!

A jagged bancha blended with sesame seeds provides a visual more natural than I thought at first. The aroma is roasty and sweet with hints of a more savory flavor profile.

When brewed the leaves produce light yellow liquor partially clouded by some dusting from the loose blend. The steeped aroma is lighter, slightly sweeter with more prominent nutty tones and a more subdued roasted profile.

On the palate everything comes alive. Clear spinach and artichoke flavors pair with the roastiness of the sesame and the nutty flavors to create a well balanced and nuanced flavor profile.

While there is a slight bit of vegetal astringency it’s only on the initial part of the sip and is quickly balanced by the other pieces of this teas’ profile.