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“2023 An Ode to Tea – A Since I have mostly finished the prompts for February, yet feel I’m behind on sipdowns so far for the year, I thought I’d do an alphabet challenge for a lightning round of...” Read full tasting note
“Been looking forward to trying this one! Trying to look up more information about amacha keeps turning up results for matcha…but finally got some guidelines, and threw a few leaves of this into the...” Read full tasting note
甘茶
A truly unique herbal from Japan, Amacha, or “Buddha’s Tears” is a naturally sweet (nothing added) leaf of a special varietal of Hydrangea. Harvested just before flowering, the leaf captures the sweetness of this famously fragrant plant.
This tea can both be ceremonial in nature, as it is traditionally used in Japan for the Buddha’s birthday on April 8, and also an every day caffeine-free tea. A little goes a long way, as just a few of this delicately curled full leaf will sweeten your cup. Great on its own, as well as added to other teas to sweeten them up!
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2023 An Ode to Tea – A
Since I have mostly finished the prompts for February, yet feel I’m behind on sipdowns so far for the year, I thought I’d do an alphabet challenge for a lightning round of sipdowns (despite needing to get other things done, but oh well.) I’m also behind on reading tasting notes again. Here we go!
I received this in a teabox long ago. So I THOUGHT this would be a sipdown but I’m very happy I didn’t shove all of the leaves into the infuser because WOW these leaves are like sugar! They really mean to only use a couple leaves! They look like a wiry oolong but the flavor is simply sugar. Almost cloying. No, definitely cloying. But that was from using more than the recommended amount. The second steep was also very sweet, with a touch of “green” flavor to the leaves. Supposedly no caffeine in these leaves. I wish tea companies would use this to sweeten their tea once in a while, rather than fake sugars. Honestly, it would only need probably one leaf in a teaspoon, though I’m not sure if the issue would then be the even dispersal of ingredients in a pouch of tea. (How about these big leaves finely chopped to get an even dispersal? hmm.) I’m glad I got to try this weird leaf!
Steep #1 // around 1 teaspoon for full mug // 10 minutes after boiling // 2-3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 min steep
Been looking forward to trying this one! Trying to look up more information about amacha keeps turning up results for matcha…but finally got some guidelines, and threw a few leaves of this into the steeper. Smell is quite sweet, which is what is to be expected.
Aaaaaand it’s sweet. It tastes almost like…what I would imagine nectar to taste like. rhinkle thinks it tastes like stevia, which I don’t quite agree with, but I can see how one would find it to be similar. I could see myself blending this with something that I wanted to sweeten, especially something that I would drink while sick, like a homemade ginger tisane.
This would also be perfect for having first thing in the morning for me when I’m just cold and want something to warm up before moving on to the sessions that carry me throughout the day.
Flavors: Sweet
Fascinating! I had never heard of this. I would love to try it for sweetening lattes someday.
Apparently amacha might have many health benefits, too!
It literally means “sweet tea” in Japanese (though it is herbal, not tea leaf) and it is often served at shrines on Buddha’s Birthday. I reviewed one from Yunomi some time ago: https://steepster.com/mastressalita/posts/418115
It is seriously sweet! (The natural sweetener in the leaf is 400-800 times stronger than sugar). I accidentally “overleafed” my first cup not knowing how strong it was and felt stomach sick after a few sips, like I’d just binged a whole bag of Candy Corn. But it is AMAZING as a sweetener for other teas. I use a mere 2g for a whole litre of strong black breakfast brew style tea bags, steeped coldbrew, to create quick and easy sweet tea.
ha, I actually had candy corn yesterday :X
I’m surprised amacha isn’t around Steepster more, as I can’t think of a tea or tisane this leaf couldn’t be steeped with!
Also, I don’t think the age of this leaf has lessened the sweetness AT ALL.
Whoa, this is neat!