Houjicha (Basic Roast) - Obubu

I love a good Houjicha and this one is definitely good. Sweet and toasty and soothing too. The toasty notes give this a very autumnal feel. Nutty, sweet and delicious. There is very little astringency to this. I don’t really notice much of a smoky note, but more of a roasty-toasty kind of taste to it. The smokiness seems to arrive toward the end of the sip, and linger into the aftertaste.

Overall, a very enjoyable cup of tea – I love the teas from the Obubu Plantation and I’m glad to learn that Tealet has started to offer them.

I was in NEED for a GREEN…so…here goes!

This isn’t as roasty or toasty as some Houjicha’s I have had but I’m ok with that! There is always a place and a time for a more gentle Houjicha.

This is that time.

Equal parts woodsy and nutty – this is satisfying and soothing.

A delight!

Me (sniffing the tea as it steeps): Well, this smells a lot more like green tea than I expected from something that’s been toasted.
Me (tasting the tea): Why on earth is it so sweet? This doesn’t taste like green tea at all. Except when it does.

Yes, this tea does have an inexplicable sweetness. It also has a warm brownish color, very fine leaf particles that like to escape the steeper thingy (just like green tea), and a nice toasted flavor. I shall now put some milk into it because low blood sugar is a thing that I’ve got right now.

ETA: It tastes very strange with milk. (As I suspected it might.) It masks most of the flavor so that mostly only the sweetness and the green-tea-esque seaweed notes show through, with a hint of toastedness. So it’s like sweet, creamy seaweed that’s been dried over the fire a bit too long lol. (I don’t normally like green tea with milk though, so I’m not too disappointed.)

I’m expecting some shipments to come in tomorrow & Tuesday, at which point I’ll have a fair amount of tea in the cupboard again. This has spurred me to dig into the dark corners of my collection and evaluate what I have already. In hindsight, it seems like I would have done this weeks ago, when I was actually low on tea. But no. It felt too depressing then. So it is happening now.

I really thought I hated this one, but it is actually not bad. Maybe I was steeping it wrong before. Earthy and mushroomy, it has a kind of medicinal vibe, but I do have times when I’m in the mood for that sort of thing, so I guess I won’t chuck it after all.