Den's Tea

Tried this tonight with Superanna. This was so fresh and grassy, vibrant tasting, with salty seaweed aroma and lovely smooth seaweed flavor. One person tasted it and said it smelled like cooked eggs, but I mostly think of brothy and the briny aspect of seaweed.

The resteep is nice and full of flavor as well. Both steeps had a rich, broth-like appearance as well. You can almost feel the antioxidants coursing through your veins…

Den’s is killing it with their sencha selection. This is yet another excellent tea from the sampler.

It’s a grassy-sweet-umami bomb in my mouth. And I mean that in the best possible way. Light-medium body with bright green color and fresh taste. It has pretty much everything I seek in deep steamed sencha except it doesn’t resteep well.

This is the loose leaf version of Den’s bagged genmaicha. Smells quite similar but differs in appearance. Unlike the bagged version which is practically powder, this one is full leaf and includes popped rice along with toasted rice.

When steeped, it’s vibrant green and cloudy thanks to the dusting of matcha. The toasted rice flavor is more prominent here than the bagged tea which is sweeter and more matcha forward. Both are delicious but head to head, I actually prefer the bagged one when it comes to flavor. Go figure.

Prepared this as an iced matcha latte using tepid water, a little sweetener, and oat milk. Used the entire 1.5g packet for a 10oz latte. Whisked everything together using a handheld milk frother before adding ice.

The matcha powder was bright green and aromatic. One thing I like about Den’s is all of their green teas smell and taste very fresh even the ones that are a bit older. The latte was foamy, rich, and totally delicious. Nicely satisfied my matcha craving.

It may seem like a waste to adulterate ceremonial grade matcha with sugar and creamer but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Much like coffee, matcha is one of those drinks I need to be creamy and a little sweet.

Omggg. Something I probably wouldn’t have purchased on my own but absolutely LOVED from the TTB. I am a total sucker for pretty much all citrus, so it’s a pleasure to experience a new-to-me flavor (yuzu). It’s sweet and creamy, yet also just a bit pithy and zesty? With a lovely gentle grassy kukicha base. I really should’ve taken better notes while sipping this tea yesterday, but it was a ridiculously hectic work + school day. :( Regardless, I’ll be keeping at least some of this from the TTB.

Smells incredible but has a very basic flavor. It has a smooth, toasty genmaicha-like taste and less grassiness than sencha. Lacks the complexity of better Japanese greens but also the murkiness or astringency they can sometimes have. A very approachable and straightforward tea. Flavorless when resteeped so it’s a one and done kind of tea.

A fun one from the TTB. It smells like grape Jolly Ranchers! Grape is a divisive flavor… I know avowed grape lovers and avowed grape haters. I’m in the middle, leaning toward “love it.”

Anyway, the bag recommends steeping this for 30 seconds with boiling water, which… seems odd? Regardless, I tried it, and it was fine. But then I tried again this morning with cooler water (175˚F) for a slightly longer steep (around a minute), and, whoa, yum! Sweet, smooth, buttery, grape candy deliciousness, with just a hint of bitterness toward the end (but in a good way). I appreciate that the artificial grape flavor is pretty muted; it mostly comes through in the scent.

Enjoying this one quite a lot on this rainy morning.

Another lovely sencha from the Den’s sampler. This was an asamushi with a fair amount of broken leaf. Fresh, pistachio cream aroma. Light green liquor. Once steeped, it has a warm grassy flavor with vegetal and umami undertones. Resteep was even better. Deeper green taste and lasting oceanic sweetness.

This was a sample included by Den’s from their tea of the month club. It’s the first green tea I’ve ever had that actually tastes best with boiling water. It’s fairly insipid when steeped using normal green tea water temperature but with boiling water its bright, grassy, and fresh without a hint of bitterness. Go figure. The downside is boiling water zaps most of its goodness so it doesn’t have much to offer on resteep. The best it can do is 2 infusions.

Last teabag from the Den’s sampler. Once again I ripped open the teabag to inspect the contents. I immediately understood why they used a teabag when I saw how powdery the tea was. But looks can be deceiving. Despite the homely appearance, it tasted better than more expensive hojichas.

The tea has a sweet, milky chocolatey aroma and when brewed, is smooth and delicious with just the right amount of roast. A tad light, could have used a little more leaf. The mellow flavor is perfect for leisurely sipping away in the evening.

Maybe I’m just not enlightened enough for this guy, or I’m discovering I like oolongs more than green tea. Whatever the case, this brew had a very vegetal taste and smell, no matter what temperature or time I tried brewing it at. Just too broccoli-smelling for me, not my cup of tea (literally).

Pretty good for a bagged tea. Very powdery, dust like leaves inside. Brews up vibrant green and a little murky, almost matcha like due to the fine particles. Medium-light body, mossy flavor, not overly grassy or umami heavy. A very serviceable sencha but doesn’t really stand out in any way.

Received this as part of the Otameshi sampler set from Den’s. It comes in one of those pyramid teabags which I cut open and used loose. Right away I could tell this was a step above ordinary bagged genmaicha. The tea smelled and looked very green. The matcha had a vibrant color and freshness.

I didn’t have the nerve to use boiling water as Den’s recommends so instead I steeped it my usual way for 1 minute at 181 F and then 30s at 195 F.

It’s brothy with a sweet matcha flavor and a gentle nuttiness from the toasted rice. Teeming with notes of spinach, grass, and fresh vegetation. This might be too green for some but for me it was perfect.

Random self made theme: A tropical tea

So sometimes I just search keywords in steepster to find my next tea or tea company. Pineapple sencha was my latest craving and search term after having and running out of 52teas’s pineapple sencha from the spring/summer last year. Surprisingly the list of pineapple senchas in the database was pretty short. However, one from a company called Den’s Tea had a pretty high rating. After looking into it a bit, I happily saw they are still around in California! Woo! I definitely cruised through their selection on steepster and their website and found 4-5 teas to start with: Apple sencha, Grape Sencha, Yuzu kukicha, a Yame Fukamushi sencha and obviously the pineapple sencha. These came back in mid January and I had been holding off on them for a bit.

Today was the day though! (I may have naively opened all the flavored ones so I could smell them and decide which was right for the moment). And pineapple definitely won out. All of the teas smelled amazing and the sencha was a really rich dark green- I am very pleased with the quality.

Side note: I read the about me section and some of the articles from Den’s tea and they are also a business in japan. Den Shirakata is a third generation tea business owner and his japan company just turned 100 this year. They source their tea mainly from Shizuoka where he grew up. He went to school in the US and then in late 90s came back to start Den’s Tea in California. Pretty cool that his business is still going in the US 23 years later.

Preparation: Western- poured over ice
Tasting note: first steep 30 secs (after pouring) really sweet, with sugar cane and grass notes. Makes me think of fresh ripe pineapples. The first steep is darker and thicker and richer from the green tea and the pineapple is more syrupy. The green tea aspects remind me a lot of nozomi from the japanese green tea co.

Overall, really great first impression iced. I will have to have it just warm next time to compare.

Light, sweet, and salty. Very easy to drink and comparatively forgiving to brew, but not as complex as some.

Finally managed a sipdown of this sample from 2016! Truly it’s practically criminal to let a decent green tea sit around for so long, even in a sealed packet. Any rating I gave it now would be entirely unfair and not reflective of what this might have tasted like when it was fresh. It’s still ok now – roasty, nutty, excellent for fall. And it counts as a nutty tea for Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge!