Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Starglory on Amazon
Tea Description:
Green Tea is also known as health tea . Rich in antioxidants green tea helps in fighting and controlling many human diseases. Regular consumptions Green tea helps in keeping body fit and slim. This best Assam Green Tea is sourced from Upper Assam Garden.
Learn more about Starglory Tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Nice!
The aroma of the dry leaf is distinctly grassy/vegetal. The brewed tea has a much softer scent and I pick up on very few of those strong grassy and vegetal tones that I noticed in the dry leaf.
To brew this tea, I used my Breville One-Touch. I measured out 2 bamboo scoops of tea into the basket of the tea maker and then poured fresh, cool water into the jug. The settings: 175°F for 1 1/2 minutes.
The results: The liquid is quite pale. A very pale, clear green. The aroma is soft, as I already mentioned. The flavor is really quite pleasant.
It’s sweet and smooth. There is very little astringency to it. It’s an energizing drink but it is also soothing and relaxing to sip. It’s as if it revitalizes you from the inside out. It doesn’t get you jumping but gives you that gentle nudge to get through the rest of the day.
The sip starts out sweet with hints of a honey-like note. I then notice a slight buttery/nutty note. It’s vegetal but not bitter. The vegetal tones are something between sweet grass and mild steamed veggies. The aftertaste has a light, citrusy note.
This is the kind of green tea that I would like to have in my pantry regularly for everyday drinking. It’s a smooth, sweet and even flavor, something that tastes great before, during or after meals, and all those moments in between. It’s a really enjoyable tea. I found it to be a really refreshing iced tea as well.
Temomi Shin Cha Green Tea from Sugimoto America
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Sugimoto America
Tea Description:
Temomi Shin Cha is one of the rarest and highest quality Japanese green teas. The word temomi means “hand-rolled”. From the meticulous picking of the best young tea leaves to the final process of kneading the leaves to fine needles, the whole practice is done by the hands of elite temomi artisans. A method used in Japan centuries ago, the temomi technique is vanishing due to the adoption of today’s machines to produce tea. Temomi Shin Cha is offered to the Japanese Emperor each year in a ceremony celebrating the first tea of spring.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have tried Shin Cha teas in the past, but I have never had this very rare Temomi Shin Cha tea before. What an amazing opportunity to try it!
This is one of the finest green teas I’ve yet to try.
The dry leaf is long and elegant. The photo above almost suggests an appearance of a Japanese Sencha, and … it does look a little bit like that, except that the leaves are longer. These aren’t a finely cut leaf, they’re the tender, young leaves – whole – that have been assiduously rolled by hand. Each tiny, beautiful leaf has been rolled into a long, very slender, sleek “needles.” They’re gorgeous.
Since I do not own a kyusu, I steeped these leaves in my gaiwan. My gaiwan is not the “standard” gaiwan, it has a fairly wide, shallow chamber and it is the perfect size to accommodate these precious leaves. How this tea is brewed is very important. The temperature should be only 100°F – yeah! I did a double take on that temperature too. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a tea where such a low temperature was required!
Fortunately, my Breville One-Touch doubles as a variable tea kettle as well, and while it doesn’t have a setting for a temperature so low, it does show the temperature as it builds and I was able to pull the kettle at 100°F. The steep time is 2 minutes. After two minutes, look at the leaves and see if they’ve opened. They were beginning to open at this point, but not fully open, so I gave the tea one more minute. After the extra minute, I strained the tea and sat back to enjoy my this rare tea experience!
The color of the tea is very pale. But even though there isn’t a lot of color to the liquid, there is a LOT of flavor and texture. It is sweet and the texture is thick. Thicker than any other Japanese green tea I’ve ever tried (Matcha is not included in that statement.) It is rich and buttery with a strong vegetative taste that is somewhat grassy. Sweet and grassy.
In the literature that comes along with this tea, it says:
Temomi Shincha is consumed in small amounts, very much akin to enjoying a rich and strong flavored espresso.
And I get that. No, I’m not tasting espresso here. But it does have a very strong and forward flavor, just like you might experience if you were to be sipping on an espresso – but without being brash like espresso can be. Hey, what can I say, I’m not into espresso … I’m a tea drinker through and through.
For the second infusion, I used 130°F water and steeped for only 1 minute. This cup is not quite as thick as the first was, but it maintains the same level of flavor and the same sweet, grassy, rich taste that I enjoyed in the first cup. Still buttery, but because it isn’t as thick, it doesn’t seem quite as buttery or creamy as the first cup was. It still has a really luscious texture though, it’s just a little lighter. I notice a bit of astringency to this cup.
I brewed my third infusion the same way, but I added 15 seconds onto the infusion time, steeping for 1 minute 15 seconds. The extra 15 seconds made a difference, and I’m getting that same soft, thick texture that I experienced in the first cup with this cup. It’s thick and buttery and delightful.
This third cup may be my favorite of the three. It has the same rich, brothy texture of the first cup, but with a softer vegetative presentation, the flavor is a little softer and this accentuates the creamy texture.
And because I wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye to this tea just yet, I decided to do something that I don’t ordinarily do: eat the leaves! I brought the kettle to a boil, and poured the boiling water over the leaves to soak them for five minutes to remove any tannic qualities of the leaves. So after I finished drinking this tea, I enjoyed a warm salad of tea leaves and a light dressing of sesame oil and orange. It was tasty!
This is – unquestionably – an exceptional tea and offers not just a journey that’s well worth taking but also represents an opportunity to taste a rare tea that is available only in limited quantities. I highly, highly recommend this tea to all those who truly love tea.
High Mountain Red Tea from Foxfire Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: Foxfire Teas
Tea Description:
This beautiful black tea from the Yunnan Province in China has a beautiful dried leaf appearance and once steeped it has a wonderful robust aroma with slight fruit notes. This tea is part of the Limited Collection, so we have a very small quantity available and once it is sold out, we may not see it again until it is next harvested.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Oh. My. Goodness!
This is soooo good.
Once upon a time … (Once upon a tea?) I tasted Dawn from Simple Leaf. Dawn is one of the very best teas I’ve ever had the privilege to sample, and of the pure black teas I’ve sampled, it is definitely in the top three if not at the #1 spot. Unfortunately, Simple Leaf is no longer in business. (sob) But every once in a while, I will encounter a tea that reminds me so much of that amazing experience that I had with Dawn.
This moment with High Mountain Red Tea from Foxfire Teas is one such experience.
The dry leaf is beautiful – long, curly, wiry leaves of dark chocolate brown that smell of sweet fruit, notes of chocolate and hints of caramel. And after the tea brews, that is the fragrance that surrounds my olfactory nerves when I take a deep whiff of this magical brew.
And that’s what I taste too. The flavor is sweet, rich and smooth. Well-rounded. Notes of cacao. Undertones of sweet, luscious caramel. Sweet fruit notes that are reminiscent of apple, plum and currant – but with no tartness. Just the sweet tones of those fruits! There is a pleasant … what I’m going to call “savory” quality … toward mid-sip. This “savory” quality is not bitterness, it is not sweetness, it is not tart or tangy … it’s just … smooth and robust and … well, savory.
There is no bitterness to this cup … and virtually nothing that resembles astringency. There might be the slightest twang of a tangy pucker towards the finish. But this is so slight that if you’re not paying very strict attention, you’ll miss it.
Easily one of the best cups of tea that I’ve had in a very long time – and I’ve had a lot of really, really good tea lately!
Green Papaya Matcha from Red Leaf Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green (Matcha)
Where to Buy: Red Leaf Tea
Tea Description:
Green Papaya powder is made from Raw Wild-Harvested Green Papaya. This is because, important nutrients are contained in this fruit which eventually dissolve as the fruit begins to ripen. In its raw form, green papaya powder includes chymonpapain and papain. These are very crucial in helping the body to work down proteins and also assist the digestive system.
Learn more about this flavored Matcha here.
Taster’s Review:
This is a very timely review because we will be hosting a giveaway of this EXACT Matcha in two weeks! That’s right, a full 30g package – all shiny and new! – filled with this Green Papaya flavored Matcha. The specifics for this particular Matcha is: Imperial Quality Matcha with Distinctive Flavoring level. A value of $27.98!
But, let’s get on with the review, shall we?
This tea represents the first flavored Matcha that I ordered with the Imperial quality Matcha specification. I chose it because Green Papaya tends to be a sour fruit flavor, and I thought that the Imperial Matcha would soften the acidic note just enough to make it palatable for me. I tend to have a rather sensitive palate when it comes to sour flavors, but, this combination is really nicely balanced. Tart? For sure. But, not too tart. The tartness hits the palate toward the finish and lingers on the tip and sides of the tongue for quite a while in the aftertaste.
The Matcha powder is noticeably a brighter shade of green than the Classic Matcha grade that I’m used to with these flavored Matcha from Red Leaf Tea. It also whisks up frothier. I’ve got to tell you, I’m quickly becoming an Imperial Grade convert here … I might just start changing how I order my flavored Matcha from Red Leaf Tea…
It also tastes sweeter and richer than the Classic Matcha, and the vegetative tones are smoother and more chocolate-y than they are kelp-y or vegetal.
The green papaya flavor is indeed tart … sour even. But as I said before, there is a good balance between tart and sweet with the Imperial Matcha. I don’t know that the Classic Grade of Matcha could have pulled this off with quite as much finesse.
The overall bowl of Matcha is really quite a delight to sip. I admit that when I first ordered this flavor, I doubted my choice after I placed it, but now I am very glad I did. This is excellent! And don’t forget to watch for our giveaway of this product – starting in just a couple of weeks!
Premium Sencha Fuji Green Tea from shizuokatea.com
Tea Type: Green Tea
Where To Buy:
shizuokatea.com
Product Description:
TEA BAGS – PREMIUM SENCHA
100 PREMIUM SENCHA TEA BAGS
WITHOUT THE BOX
PRICE: $36.00
Purchase 100 Premium Sencha tea bags without the box and save 20%. Each tea bag is individually packaged in a foil wrapper to insure freshness. Packed in a cellophane bag for convenient storage
Tasters Review:
I have never had premium Sencha of quality in a bag like this before! I mean, it’s really good quality, and it’s very fine, but it’s in a bag and puffs out like nothing I have ever seen! It even has a loose leaf type look to it once steeped…you know with that powdery texture to it. This truly IS in a class of it’s own and it very much intrigues me!
The taste is good…a nice sturdy green tea and I’m amazed this was a bagged version! There is a bit of a grassy aftertaste – but nothing I can’t handle…I DO like it and think it’s very nice! Very convenient – perfect for on-the-go!
