Nina's Japon

One of the samples I received from Nina’s Paris. Yay! This smells so deliciously of caramel and popcorn. Kind of like kettle corn but with distinctive caramel notes. It tastes very similar to its smell too. It’s bright with a light roasty flavor. I think the black tea does well in balancing the “greenness” of the sencha. I do wish that there was more puffed rice—the nutty, toasty qualities of the rice are getting lost in the caramel-vanilla flavors (which are very strong). Not bad but just not hitting the spot for me. I think it reminds me too much of this cupcake-scented perfume I wore in junior high, which makes it seem a little artificial.

I have just a little bit of this tea because I took it from the TTTTB after getting a free sample from Nina’s Paris. This tea is good.

I found some steeping directions online that work really well for me. A very low temp that my Hamilton Beach programmable kettle just doesn’t like to do. The directions I found said 158 °F, so I set the kettle for 155 °F, and it goes to like 170°. Ah well. I just have to wait a little bit and it’s closer to where it’s supposed to be.

I wasn’t sure how this tea would be, as it’s a green and black blend, but the lower temp really helps the black. This is just genmaicha-y to me, with vanilla notes. I really don’t get too much caramel this time.

But it’s sooooo tasty.

I’m drinking this by the 50oz glass, but I could really drink this by the giant mugfull. The advantage to the smaller glass is that it stays at the right temp.

Thank you, Laurent and Sophie, for a sample!!

I sure am glad I asked for a sample of this tea and saved it for last. This is a unique genmaicha blend. The combination of the ingredients creates a taste similar to Cracker Jacks, caramel popcorn. When the tea cools a bit the vanilla pokes out and the texture of the liquor becomes a bit creamy.

This was my first experience with a Gen Mai Cha type tea. I had been thinking about trying it for a while. This tea is blended really well. It reminded me a lot of the Soba Cha Deep Roast from Steepster but not as strong. The tea all blends well together and provides a slightly bitter aftertaste.

I’m always worried about teas when they have mixed bases. I worry that I’ll end up ruining the cup somehow. It’s not so much the tea itself, but more of the potential mistakes that I could make. Luckily, I didn’t ruin this cup! It’s very sweet, with soft notes of toasted rice. It reminds me a little bit of the marshmallow treat genmaicha blend, only this one is much smoother, but lacks that nice creamy note. I pick up more on the green tea than the black, but I feel like the black comes in to add a little bit of astringency. Oh no…. where’s the tea? I seem to have finished this cup a little too quickly. I hate when that happens.. You’re enjoying a tea and then poof! You’ve hit the bottom of the mug. Well, I suppose that means that it’s a tasty tea! I would buy this in the future. Big thank you to Laurent for a sample of this tea!

From the queue, written April 5th 2014

Camp NaNoWriMo is having an unforseen good effect on the queue growth, in that it stops it from being too explosive. I’m only doing 15K, so it’s 500 word per day minimum. This has been going well for me so far and I’m nearly a full day ahead. However, that takes priority over writing tea posts, and after I’m done I just want to do something mindless like playing a Facebook game or on Neopets or something like that.

It’s not very good for getting through the yet-to-try box though. The goal is to reach the bottom of it. Try every last thing in it before being allowed to buy new stuff. This is going to take me a very long time, but I reckon I can do it before 2014 is out.

I’ve already done my words this morning, though, so there aren’t any trouble with trying new things today.

This one Courtney shared with me, and it’s another variation on the caramel and vanilla theme. In this version there is also genmaicha in it. I’m not very experienced with that, but I did have a rather nice one that Kitty blended recently, so this makes me quite interested in how it fares in a blend such as this.

The aroma is certainly genmaicha-y. The popped rice has a certain salty aroma and while at first this strikes me as an odd combination with the caramel and vanilla, after having sniffed it for a little while they begin to come together and the sweet ingredients take over. They are very strong at this point, both the caramel and the vanilla. I have to say I’m quite enjoying that hint of salt behind it. It makes the whole thing seem more… what shall we say? Robust, perhaps, is a good word. Sturdy.

At first when I sip, I’m mostly getting a flavour like a roasty-toasty genmaicha, not disimilar to the one that Kitty blended. After a while I’m getting a good strong caramel note, but not until the tea has cooled a bit. The genmaicha-y note of the popped rice is still there, though, and it makes me feel like I’m having grain with toffee sauce on it, which frankly I’m finding a rather peculiar experience.

I know you American lot frequently put all kinds of odd things on popcorn that have no business being there (butter? Seriously? Ew….) and perhaps this is what it’s trying to emulate. Where I come from you get popcorn with salt on them, however. And that’s it. That’s the only option. To be quite honest with you, it is also the only sort of popcorn that I am willing to eat.

Therefore my overall impression of this tea is that it’s mysterious. I like the caramel note in it. Not so much the genmaicha addition.

On an unrelated note, in the 2-3 minutes it took me to steep my current cup I managed to completely forget what I made… It’s flavoured, but seriously, that’s all I’ve got! I think it’s something with vanilla, but that doesn’t really narrow it down at all. This does not bode well from staying awake for the Eurovision finale tonight! O.O

Thank you Nina’s Paris for offering up a few samples on the discussion board.

I had marked this on my wishlist after reading VariaTEA’s review. I was very curious about this one.

This smells like popcorn to me. I don’t know what I expected it to smell like, but definitely I did not expect popcorn! And it reminds me of carmel corn. The taste at the front is a nice sweetness from the carmel, and then it starts to taste buttery, and the finish and aftertaste and the same as if I just ate popcorn.

It’s tasty and different from anything I own, but probably not something I would stock in my cupboard. Grateful that I got to try it though!

I’ve just raided my stash to pack a tea parcel for my hapatite swapping buddy. A great excuse to send a ton of teas that are just not to my taste. Not sure if my buddy is on Steepster but if you’re reading this then know you will have a large package shortly :)

Reading the ingredients I am lead to believe this is a Genmaicha with a difference, with the toffee and vanilla I’m expecting it to be sweet and toasty which sounds like a nice combination. The blend certainly smells sweet and toasty, vanilla is strong but so is the toffee/caramel and without any green tea likeness. It is a nice scent though and strong at that.

Steeped it takes on a different scent, still sweet but also toasty, like vanilla and toffee popcorn (which sounds amazing and is now my new craving).

Flavour is toasty at first though light before creamy vanilla and sweet caramel ooze into the after taste and cover the slight grassy green tea. It tastes like a mild Genmaicha at first but it develops into a sort of Genmaicha ice cream with toffee sprinkles. I’m making myself drool as I write this. I never thought vanilla in Genmaicha would taste this good, it’s revolutionary.

I need more of this in my life. Don’t think it’s possible unless I visit France as they don’t sell online. :(

My first genmaicha…I don’t know how I feel about it yet, so I’m not going to rate it just yet. I love the caramel and vanilla notes in this tea! I am not sure, however, if I care for the ricey aftertaste…

I am going to try again in a few days, and see how I feel about it then…

Thank you to cavocorax for the sample!

I’ve heard so much about this tea that I really had high expectations. However, this brewed up really weak, and I’m not getting the interplay of caramel, rice, and vanilla that others are experiencing. Because it was a green/black blend, I lowered the steeping temperature to avoid the green becoming astringent. But even after 3 minutes of steeping, it wasn’t very strong.

I’m going to pack up half of what I have left remaining to give to Jude. I don’t know what it is, but I can never get Nina’s teas to turn out just right. Really frustrating! Reserving a rating for now.