Tea Boutique

Honestly i liked this. At first, until i looked at the ingredients. 25% matcha powder and 75% cane sugar! I am sorry, maybe i am wrong however I don’t want a drink that is 75% sweetener when i rarely add anything sweet to my teas

Grabbed this teabag from the last TTB. With milk and sugar, it’s pretty pleasant. The base is toasty, but not overly burnt. The sakura shows up as a somewhat fake fruitiness. It all worked for me though. I’d drink it again.

Teabag from the last TTB. I was really hoping to taste the yuzu or really anything fresh and fruity at all. Sadly, I just tasted grassy green tea. It wasn’t terrible, but plain tasting green tea is not my thing.

TTB

Didn’t love this- I couldn’t taste any yuzu, only a very seaweedy green tea.

Not a lot of cherry blossom flavor, which is subtle as-is. Tried this both hot and cold and it is better hot with a little honey. I thought this was just pretty lackluster overall.

I purchased two different kinds of this tea, and since there seem to be reviews on the various types under this one name, I’ll do the same and make notes for both under this.

BLACK: Purchased from Mitsuwa marketplace in NJ awhile back, and it was extremely inexpensive. I want to say, like 3 bucks for a box of eight bags or so. I’ve never had a sakura black, but it was displayed along with the sakura green and blossom-only teas so I decided to pick it up at the same time. It’s obviously floral, but with a light, mellow flavor that at first didn’t impress me much, but then grew on me. The black tea isn’t really recognizable, but I do like it better than the blossom-only tea. Nice to relax with on a spring evening, since it’s such a gentle taste. I’m enjoying it, but I probably won’t get it again since there are so many other sakura options out there. Very nice tea to try, though!

BLOSSOM-ONLY: To be reviewed.

Feeling ill and decided to try the plain version of this tea. (I’m guessing at this since it seems my version varied from some of the other reviews.) Surprisingly subtle yet requires no sweeteners to make it drinkable. I accidentally boiled the water and forgot to take my tea holder out and this tea was extremely forgiving as there was no bitter flavor for over brewing.

The tea leaves were wet, which surprised me, thinking, initially, the leaves were compromised.

This tea will become part of my rotation of teas, especially when my stomach is upset. There is a “soft” texture while drinking, for lack of my ability to think of better terminology at this point in time. Something I figured I should mention for anyone that is sensitive to textures.

First brew was boiling with 10+ minutes steeping. Second brew was 190 degrees with 5 minutes steeping. I preferred the 190 degrees but a longer steep and will do so for any future brews.

I was skeptical when I got this tea as a gift, convinced that I couldn’t liked it . I usually don’t like flavored teas and I expected something strong and astringent . That was wrong: it is a flavored japanese black tea with delicate floral and sweet notes of cherry petals . I taked a bag in infusion for 1-2 minutes and around 100 ° C; even if you slightly bit lower with time you will not taste notes of astringency . I will not buy this tea after finishing all bags ’cause for my tastings , but it was a real pleasure trying this particular flavored tea made ​​in Japan . I recommend this one for who can really appreciate flavored teas. ____

Water: 8oz

Leaves: Tea Bag

Steep: 1m, 2m

Aroma: Sweet

Color: medium yellow

Taste: I’m sooo excited to have a few samples of this tea in my collection! Sakura is something I’ve been wanting to try for a little while now. The packet is made of foil with a green backdrop & a cherry blossom in the middle. The aroma of this tea was more so lightly sweet than the usual vegetable scent i get from green teas. When removing it from the pack & looking closely at the tea bag I could see tiny pink bits of the sakura flower. When brewing I followed my regular tea technique allowing the water to cool before use. In the past i never thought about letting my water cool before using a tea bag but now that I know more, the results have been better than before. I first let this tea steep for 1 minute taking my fist sip the aroma was quite faint & the tea was very lightly flavored. The great thing about this tea there was no bitterness as i experienced with other bagged greens & it felt quite smooth when drinking. Clarity wise it was great clearly being able to see the bottom of my cup. The second 2m steep was also good.Overall I found this to be a nice light green tea bag.

Special thanks to my friend for this sample

YES! This is the stuff dreams are made of. I mean that in a “the kind of dreams that come out of a tea bag” kind of way. I am so into loose teas these days that I rarely buy bagged ones. This tea is amazing though. I picked it up at a local Asian grocer on a whim. When you open up a pouch, it smells really heavily of sakura, a scent and flavor I’ve become very familiar with lately from drinking pickled sakura tea from Japan, which is made from only the cherry blossoms; they’ve been preserved in salt and plum vinegar, but you rinse the salt off before brewing. I also purchased a kanzan varietal sakura tree that I found at Lowe’s for $25 on some lucky day. I preserved the flowers it had on it and have been drinking them too.

The aroma and flavor of this sweet sakura tea is a lot stronger than actual sakura flowers, because it has an added essence/extract of sakura leaves (which have just as much of a cherry/floral taste and scent as the flowers do). The ingredients list green tea, pickled sakura flowers and leaves, and essence of sakura leaves. If you brew this too strong it has a bit of an alcohol flavor to it from the extract. If that happens, just add some more water.

The green tea flavor is light and savory. It accompanies the sakura flavor well without overpowering it. The taste and aroma of the sakura are really abundant, and if you aren’t familiar with sakura, the taste is a lot more like cherries than you might expect from a tree that doesn’t actually produce cherries, just cherry flowers. It has a hint of creamy floral tones to it that make it lighter than the taste of a cherry fruit, and some similarities with the aroma and taste of plum as well.

I will be buying this stuff for years to come… I can tell. It really fills in the gap on lazy days when I don’t want to bust out a teapot or gongfu set but want to sit down and drink some tasty tea. I would highly recommend pairing this with sushi or Japanese cuisine, or drink it as a dessert. Of course, it’s even better on its own.

Happy New Year Steepster!

I got this yuzu citron and a cherry blossom by the same vendor (Tea Boutique) in San Francisco’s Japantown. I gave most of these to my BF who wants to drink more green tea but doesn’t want to be bothered with loose leaf.

I brought one of these teabags with me on my trip and thought I’d have it this morning. My first tea of 2015. This steeps up to be a light green color and is vaguely vegetal but the yuzu flavor is very strong. I don’t think I’ve ever had a fresh yuzu before, but the flavor of this reminds me of a lemon-y grapefruit. As such, I imagine this would be a very good cold brewed tea but I’m also enjoying it hot. I probably won’t buy this again since it comes in a paper teabag, but it’s fairly enjoyable on this chilly morning.

I tried Lavender tea yesterday. It was not my thing. I found it kind of bitter tasting, and had to sweeten it. I loved the smell though, and sipped away at the cup over a couple hours while knitting. It was very relaxing. I actually found the taste improved once the tea had cooled to slightly warmer than room temperature.

Recommended of only because of how excellent it smells. Might just steep a cup and set it on the counter during bath time because of the relaxing smell.

Was saving this little treat from TeaBrat for an afternoon I could really enjoy it. This is one—feet up after a day’s worth of “get-to” puttering around the house (as opposed to “got-to” trudging through chores in the evening when I’m exhausted to start with).

My favorite lemon teas are those that have a lemon tart (pastry) personality instead of a tart lemon (painful) personality. This bagged tea fits Category A quite nicely; very light, very fresh, makes me crave lemon pie.

Teabrat sweetly sent this succulent sample to savor (OK, enough alliteration) and it was (well, maybe just one more) superb.

I carefully stuck to low temp and short time and in return, got a sensory road trip down memory lane: I was responsible for helping pick and pit the cherries from my favorite reading tree. (What? You didn’t climb up to the first V-branch with a book you’d memorized because you’d read it so many times you could recite it?) Anyway, this tea tastes like what those fresh pitted cherries smelled like. Cherry perfection.

This morning I was walking through Japantown on an errand and decided to stop in a little shop that had Japanese tea and candy. This sounded really nice to me. It comes in a paper cube with 10 individually wrapped paper teabags. I would prefer mesh for obvious reasons but beggars can’t be choosers. :-P

I steeped this for 1.5 minutes using the green tea setting on my variable temp water kettle. This is a ryokucha tea. The aroma is slightly flowery and the tea has a mild vegetal flavor. I’d say the cherry blossom flavor is fairly subtle and natural. I don’t think I’ve had another cherry blossom tea so I’m not sure what to compare this with. It is a very pleasant cuppa however, fresh and elegant are two words that come to mind. There’s an underlying sweetness in the finish of the tea but I don’t think any sugar was added to this. I’m not disappointed I bought this and the teabags will be good for travel or at the office.

Nice discovery for a Monday…

I absolutely love cherry blossoms, especially in tea! This is a delightful tea. It is sweet and not astringent. I love the slight cherry and floral tones in this tea. It is a good blend.

I finished this up today. I cannot tell what type of black tea this is at all. I can’t put a finger on it. Good tea overall. It tastes almost like the Keurig’s English Breakfast tea… I like this with some sugar and milk.

I have 2 bags of this tea left. I am also trying to drink this tea up. I am not a fan of this tea.

I wanted a warm beverage tonight. I went to my parents’ house and am planning on staying here for 1-2 weeks while I am on nightfloat. I brought a variety of teas and tisanes. However, I forgot to bring a filter :( I hope the Wegman’s closeby has something. I opted for this one since this is a bagged tea, and it is nighttime here. This tea is really mild, but does well with milk and some sugar. This tea reminds me of a black assam that has been steeped twice, and this would be the third time I’m steeping it. The brew was a honey brown color, and it was light. Okay tea overall. I am not overly impressed. After I am done with the 5 tea bags that I have left, I am not buying this again.