As I mentioned in yesterday’s article – I’m back with “Part 2” of the Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club review of February’s shipment! Today’s article will highlight my experiences with two more Hojicha teas as well as another Japanese Oolong – I’m excited to get started, so let’s not dilly-dally! Let’s jump right in!
The first tea that I’ll be discussing is Autumn Hojicha Roasted Green Tea from Takeo Tea Farm. The first thing I noticed about this tea is that it starts out delicately. My first few sips were very softly flavored. I could taste light notes of sweet, toasty nut flavor, but they were quite subtle. It wasn’t until the third or fourth sip that the flavors started to become more focused. Now that I’m about halfway through the cup, the flavors are sweet, roasty-toasty, and nutty … and very well defined!
With those initial first couple of sips, I was starting to think that this tea was much more delicate than the Hojicha I had tasted for yesterday’s article, but now, I’m thinking twice about that. These two Hojicha are very similar though, but I think that this one might taste a little more ‘roasted.’ Both are spectacular varieties of Hojicha, though, and I’d heartily recommend either, but this is the one I’d point you toward if you were looking for a stronger roasted flavor.
The next tea that I’m tasting from Yunomi’s Tea Discoveries February package is #03 Black Oolong Tea from Kaneban Higuchi Tea Factory. I found myself wondering as I brewed this tea in my gaiwan how much different it would be from last night’s experience with the Oolong tea from Takeo.
And there are some distinct differences in the two. This has more of a sweet potato flavor to it! I love that I’m tasting sweet potato! There are hints of smoke to the flavor. This reminds me more of a black tea than an Oolong. It doesn’t have the same texture as I experienced with the Oolong from Takeo.
If I were to attempt to describe this tea in one sentence, it might go something like this: this tea is what I’d imagine the love child of a Japanese black tea and Formosa Oolong tea would taste like. I’m getting that rich flavor that I remember from the few Japanese black teas that I’ve tried, and I’m tasting notes of peach that I’d taste in a Formosa Oolong. Along with the softest hint of smoke.
Quite lovely!
The final tea in this month’s Tea Discoveries package is Superior Hojicha Roasted Green Tea from NaturaliTea. When I opened this pouch, the roasty-toasty aroma filled the air. This tea seems to have more roasty-toasty-ness to it.
And that’s evident in the flavor too. The flavor here is much stronger, right from the very first sip. The roasted flavors are intense. I can almost taste the charred wood notes of the wood that was used to roast this tea. Most Hojicha – including the previous two teas that I tasted from this month’s Tea Discoveries Club – tend to have a delicate flavor. This tea is more in your face. Very roasty. Very toasty! Very nutty and sweet. I’m getting mineral notes and a distinct charcoal-y flavor from it too.
And smoke! I don’t usually taste smoke from a Hojicha. I taste the roasty-toasty, nutty flavors, but the smoke? No, not always. I might have noticed smoke on an occasion or two, but here, the smoke is evident, particularly in the aftertaste. Nice!
This is the tea for those who liked Hojicha but wanted a stronger flavor to it. This tea delivers that! It’s warm and cozy and comforting, but it’s also offers a bold flavor that is not common in your average Hojicha.
This month’s Tea Discoveries Club just reaffirms to me that YOU should be joining me on these discoveries! The teas are remarkable and it’s really interesting for me to see how teas – like Hojicha – can differ from producer to producer. You should never judge your like/dislike of a particular tea type based only on one sampling. You should give yourself a chance to explore the teas – even those you may not have enjoyed from other tea companies – because you never know what you might be missing.
The Tea Discoveries Club gives you the unique opportunity to really explore Japanese Teas!
Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club, February Review (Part 1)
As with last month’s review of the Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club (You can check out part 1 of that review here), I’ll be doing the review of this month’s package in two parts. This first article will feature the review of two teas and the second article, published tomorrow at the same time, will feature three teas.
This month, we received five teas featuring Hojicha Roasted Green teas as well as Japanese-made Oolong teas. Exciting! I haven’t tried a lot of Japanese Oolong teas – most of my Oolong experiences have been with Taiwanese Oolongs and to a slightly lesser extent, Chinese Oolongs. Japanese Oolong teas aren’t as common a tea to find – another reason that this Tea Discoveries Club from Yunomi is a GREAT deal!
The teas featured in this month’s package are: three Hojicha teas (Hojicha Roasted Green Tea, Autumn Hojicha Roasted Green Tea and Superior Hojicha Roasted Green Tea) and two Japanese Oolong teas (Oolong Tea and Black Oolong Tea). I’m so excited to try these! I love Hojicha and I love Oolong and am especially excited to try something rare like Japanese Oolong!
Also included in this month’s package is a pamphlet that offers steeping and tasting notes as well as some other interesting information including tea-related Japanese phrases and terms and the cutest little origami Crane!
So let’s jump right in and get started with the Hojicha Roasted Green Tea from NaturaliTea.
This Hojicha delivers all the flavors that you’d expect from a Hojicha. It’s got that wonderfully cozy, roasty-toasty flavor. It’s lightly sweet and nutty. It’s a very autumnal type of flavor – it evokes thoughts of autumn for me. I think of the cooler weather, the crispness in the air and the smell of smoke from the neighborhood chimneys. It’s the kind of flavor that you want to curl up to.
I like that this particular Hojicha is light. It doesn’t have a heavy flavor to it. It’s the kind of drink that you want after you’ve had a heavy meal. It’s soothing and gentle.
The second tea that I’ll be examining in this article is Organic Oolong Tea from Takeo Tea Farm. This is a tea that I explored previously in another review (read that review here).
Dry, this tea looks a lot like a black tea. It reminds me of a black tea with its dark, slender leaves. If I were given the dry leaves ‘blindly’ (without knowing that it was an Oolong) I would not have guessed it was an Oolong by the appearance of the dry leaf.
The tea brews up dark too. The only real “Oolong-like” indication I started to recognize is after the rinse and first infusion, I noticed how much the leaves had expanded and it was very “Oolong-esque.” (Oolong teas tend to expand quite a bit during the brewing process!)
Now the flavor … this does taste like an Oolong. It reminds me a lot of a darker Oolong, like perhaps a Formosa Oolong or a Oriental Beauty Oolong. It has that deep, fruity flavor and the really lovely, full texture of an Oolong. It’s sweet and really quite pleasant.
It has an almost ‘wine-like’ quality to it too, much more so than teas that I often call ‘wine-like.’ I can really taste a fermented grape flavor here. The tea has a very rich, full and satisfying flavor. This is truly a unique Oolong tea – one that should be experienced to be understood fully. (In other words – try this tea as soon as you can!)
My first cup (infusions 1 and 2) was probably the most intensely flavored cup of the three that I enjoyed. I found that with my second cup, the flavors were beginning to mellow slightly. The tea was still very strongly flavored and I still got a very distinct fermented grape-like flavor to the cup. But the flavors in the cups that would follow were a little less focused. (Still quite enjoyable though – it’s well worth the effort to keep on steeping!)
With the third cup, I started to notice that the fruit notes were becoming sweeter. It wasn’t as ‘fermented’ a taste as I noticed in the first two cups. Floral notes began to emerge as did a sweet note that evoked thoughts of honey. A really lovely cup!
I can’t wait to explore the other three teas! Read about them in tomorrow’s article!
Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club, January Review (Part 2)
As promised, this is part 2 of my review of January’s Tea Discoveries Club package from Yunomi.
We’re going to start off where we left off last night, moving on to the third tea I tried from January’s collection of teas: Bancha Green Tea from Onocha Tea Factory & Shop. Similarly to the other teas in this collection, this tea is not available for purchase from Yunomi. That’s part of what makes the Discovery Club a MUST for tea lovers. It will expose you to teas that you might never have tried! What a unique and wonderful opportunity!
This is a really pleasant Bancha. It has a crisp, uplifting flavor: fresh, vegetative and clean. There is a nice contrast between sweet and savory. It has a nice, brothy sort of texture and taste. Nutty, sweet, hints of bitter to offset the sweetness. Nicely smooth.
It’s a soothing tea that reminds me a bit of sipping broth. That warm, nourishing sort of feeling that I get when I sip broth, that’s what I get when I sip this Bancha. It’s not too sweet, not too bitter – just really pleasant.
This is the kind of green tea that I like to have on hand for “every day” sort of drinking. It is a great tea to drink with meals because it’s not an aggressive tasting tea – it’s really smooth and satisfying.
The next tea that I tried was the Sencha Suiho. Immediately, I found myself curious as to how it would differ from the other Sencha I enjoyed from this month’s Discovery Club package: Sencha Suiren.
Upon first sip, I got my answer! These are really two very different Sencha teas! This Sencha Suiho is sweet, buttery and smooth. Very little bitterness. Very little astringency. I noticed more bitterness and astringency with the Suiren – and that wasn’t even a really strongly bitter or aggressively astringent tea!
This is beautifully buttery and pleasantly mellow. Nice! The resteep is almost as nice as the first cup – still really beautifully creamy and sweet!
I saved the Hojicha for last as Hojicha is one of my favorite types of Japanese green teas! Hojicha Soybean Blend to be exact. I think of all the teas that I received this month, this was the one I was the most excited about, mostly because I found myself curious about the ‘soybean.’
Unfortunately, I’m not able to provide a picture of the tea itself because the battery in my camera thought it was the right time to die. So, I just have a picture of the package. 
The dry leaf looks a lot like … well, it looks like dried, chopped up leaves and stems. The first thought that went through my head when I saw it was “mulch.” I’m hoping it tastes better than I can only imagine mulch tasting. Since I’m not planning on brewing mulch and drinking it any time soon, I’ll have to imagine what it would taste like.
Ah … yeah! Yum! There’s that lovely sweet, nutty flavor that I’ve come to love when it comes to Hojicha. That delicious roasty-toasty flavor that evokes thoughts of autumn.
It has a smooth texture to it and it’s not an astringent tea. It’s not bitter. It’s sweet and a very soothing, calming sort of drink. Really lovely. However, I don’t know that I taste any ‘soybean’ in this tea, I just taste sweet, nutty flavor, very much like I’d experience with a top-quality Hojicha.
Overall, I found this adventure with the Discoveries Club from Yunomi to be really enjoyable. Spectacular teas – I love that these teas are exclusive to the Discovery Club. It’s certainly well worth it to take part in this adventure and discover some amazing Japanese Teas!
Hojicha Green Tea from Simple Loose Leaf
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf here.
Tea Description:
Green tea from Japan that is rendered brown by roasting Bancha (a summer crop tea, harvested after Sencha) tea leaves. Comes with a toasty nutty flavor and slightly mesquite note. Earthy and warm quality, soothing, clean finish.
Ingredients: Roasted Bancha Tea
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Simple Loose Leaf’s Co-Op program here.
Taster’s Review:
Nice! I think that Hojicha is one tea type that I don’t offer enough praise to but I should! I love that roasty-toasty flavor of Hojicha, it’s so warm and cozy and it’s the perfect drink for autumn evenings. It’s not quite as caffeinated as some other teas – well, actually, I don’t know if that’s true or not. I’m not an expert when it comes to how much caffeine is (or isn’t) in a tea. What I do know is that after I’ve consumed Hojicha, I don’t feel as stimulated as I do after consuming an Assam black tea, for example.
So, what I’m driving at is that because I don’t feel as “charged with caffeine” after drinking Hojicha as I do after I’ve had black tea, I am of the opinion that Hojicha is a ‘safe’ evening tea.
Anyway, the warm, toasty flavor of a Hojicha has a very autumnal feel to it. The texture of the tea is smooth and light. And while Hojicha is a “green tea” it tastes quite different from just about any other green tea that’s out there because the roasting process of the bancha tea changes the characteristics of the tea.
So, instead of tasting “vegetal” … it tastes nutty and sweet. Like freshly roasted nuts. There is a delicate creaminess to it. It’s “comfort” tea much the same way that mashed potatoes or homemade macaroni and cheese (not that stuff from the box) is comfort food. It’s something that I turn to when I want a “hug”. This tea gives me a great big hug and makes me feel better about the world.
So – THANK YOU to Simple Loose Leaf for this hug!
Organic Hojicha Roasted Green Tea from Shi Zen
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Shi Zen
Tea Description:
Houjicha is a roasted green tea that has a smooth and mellow roasted nut flavor. Our houjicha is grown on the family farms in the foothills of Mount Fuji and roasted by a tea artisan that has the top quality roasting technique in Japan. Houjicha’s refreshing taste will be suitable when served with a meal, and of course great for after meals and simply for tea time too.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Sweet! I just adore the sweet, roasty-toasty flavor of a Japanese Houjicha. And I love that this Houjicha from Shi Zen is organic! The flavor is sweet, nutty and smooth. It is a comforting flavor, evoking thoughts of a warm, fluffy blanket in wintertime … but in a teacup!
But of course, it’s summertime right now, and it would seem that we’re having an uncomfortably hot time of it at the moment. Not exactly the time that I want to be thinking of a warm, fluffy blanket. So instead, I brought this cup into my bedroom where the AC is on full-blast, and I sipped the wondrous liquid as the cool air enveloped me.
And even though it’s terribly hot, I’m finding that a warm cup of Organic Houjicha from Shi Zen is quite relaxing to sip. The sweet, toasted nut flavor is so tasty! Not grassy or vegetal – these leaves have been toasted and the flavors transformed from the usual vegetal tasting green to a sweeter, mellower, roasted flavor. The sweetness is like a warm caramel flavor. Mmm!
I enjoy a flavorful Houjicha any time of day, but I find it to be most satisfying after I’ve had a meal that I’d normally want to follow up with a sweet dessert-y treat. I find that the sweet, caramel notes of the tea satiate that craving while the tea soothes and relaxes me so I don’t need to indulge in something heavier.
A really lovely treat, this Organic Houjicha from Shi Zen!