Bancha Masudaen

This bancha is another first for me. I’m still waiting for my scale, so these generously offered pre-packed samples are proving to be very helpful (though to be honest, I wish I had more black teas and oolongs). I steeped 5 g of leaf in 150 ml of 160F water for 60, 20, 30, 40, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

With its collection of twigs and leaves, this bancha definitely looks like a rustic stem tea. The dry aroma is of grass, honey, butter, and roast. As another reviewer mentioned, this tea tastes a lot like genmaicha, with grass, roasted grains, honey, hay, and seaweed impressions. It reminds me of something served at a sushi restaurant. The next couple steeps have flavours of toasted rice, saline, spinach, and butter, along with grass and gentle roast. The final steeps have notes of earth, metal, popped rice, and grass.

This is a pleasant tea that I probably steeped too many times. I think it would go well with food and am craving sushi now. :)

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Soothing, light and tasty! Will leave a full review for this one at some point but for now it’s just a pleasant brew to enjoy.

Stems, leaves, twigs. If one were to grab a fistful of this and show it to a nontea drinker they might wonder what tree you grabbed it from nearby. It is very raw in its appearance. More so than any bancha I’ve seen before. The aroma is slightly marine and slightly herbal but both are very minimal in detection. It is not an in-your-face green tea like some are. It has a wildness to it with a bit of nuttiness.

Advent 2023. It’s been a day. I wasn’t enthused to try this tea at first because the aroma was too mineral and metallic. But it’s somewhat calming honestly. A bit nutty, a bit grassy.

Nio Teas Advent Calendar 2022 – Day 9

I haven’t had a ton of bancha, but I find it to be a very cozy and comforting tea.

This has a lovely soft and mellow dry grass and haylike flavor. It makes me think of the warm summer sun shining on tall grass, maybe with a few wildflowers mixed in there too. There’s a nice nutty, grainy note as well, almost like a genmaicha (but obviously not that strong). I love the lingering soft and sweet hay flavor.

Cozy and yummy!