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!
Snowflake Gyokuro Green Tea from 52Teas
Please take a moment to visit my Kickstarter Campaign to Take Over 52Teas! Please help me achieve my goal and make this dream of mine a reality!
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Zoomdweebies
Tea Description:
For our first Fifth Monday blend since we changed our subscription plans, we’ve created a delicately flavored Gyokuro. Gyokuro (or “jade dew”) is one of the highest quality Japanese green teas available. It is grown in the shade for approximately three weeks before harvesting, resulting in a richer, sweeter cup that is unparalleled in flavor. We have given this sacred tea a healthy dose of organic marshmallow root, a little peppermint and spearmint and organic marshmallow, peppermint and spearmint flavors and named our happy creation “Snowflake Gyokuro”.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
On Steepster, the tasters of this tea are comparing it to Graveyard Mist and I get that comparison. The base tea was different – this is a Japanese Gyokuro and the Graveyard Mist was made with a blend of Chinese Sencha and Yun Wu, but this one is less buttery, I think.
The buttery notes of the Chinese green teas gave the Graveyard Mist a creamier sort of flavor that melded quite nicely with the fluffy marshmallow flavors.
Here, the Gyokuro tastes fresher and cleaner, which melds better with the minty notes of the spearmint and peppermint. So this tastes and feels cleaner and crisper.
And the natural sweetness of the Gyokuro plays with the minty notes in a different way, offering a really pleasant sweetness to go along with that crisp, exhilarating flavor. The sweetness of the Gyokuro also brings out the marshmallow in a different way than the Graveyard Mist did. The marshmallow here tastes sweet but not quite as creamy. It’s still creamy – just not quite as creamy as I remember the Graveyard Mist tasting.
By the way, one of the first reblends that we’re going to be creating when we take over 52Teas will be the Graveyard Mist!
The best part about this tea? The second and third infusions! Yeah! The flavors really come alive for the second infusion – so much so that I finished the cup in record time. The third cup is almost as lovely as the second – the minty notes are soft and fluffy from the marshmallow. The Gyokuro is sweet and melds beautifully with the flavors.
Anyway – this is a really lovely tea. I know that some will think that Gyokuro should not be flavored. I don’t know that I’d have the guts to do it myself. It would have to be on day when I’m feeling extra courageous.
But I applaud Frank for having the guts to do it because I really quite enjoyed this. Did I enjoy it as much as I would have enjoyed a straight up cup of Gyokuro? I don’t know. I don’t know that this tea was actually improved by being flavored, but I don’t think that it destroyed the Gyokuro, either. I enjoyed it flavored and I’d happily drink it again. Just as I’d happily drink a straight up Gyokuro again. Both are remarkable in their own way … so, I say, why not?
Gingerbread House Genmaicha Tea from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
With marshmallow root, orange peel and a touch of peppermint blended into our Japanese Genmaicha, we tried to infuse a whole gingerbread house (gingerbread, orange gumdrops and spice drops, creamy frosting and all) into one tea. I think we did pretty well, but you’ll just have to find out for yourself.
Learn more about this blend here.
Learn more about 52Teas’ subscriptions here.
Please check out my campaign to take over 52Teas here! Please help me keep 52Teas alive and kicking out those teas every week!
Taster’s Review:
I really liked that when I opened the pouch – I could smell GINGER! I like my gingerbread to be heavy on the ginger flavor, I like that punch of ginger flavor, but all too often when it comes to gingerbread, I’m of the opinion that there just isn’t enough ginger to call it gingerbread.
So I was happy that I could smell ginger here. The brewed tea smells a bit less like ginger (or gingerbread) and a bit more like brewed genmaicha with it’s nutty, toasty essence. There are some warm notes of ginger, the fragrance of the ginger is just not as strong as it was with the dry leaf. I’m also picking up on some sweet, cakey notes in the scent too. It smells quite yummy.
Even though I like to let the tea cool a bit before I start writing a lot about it, I couldn’t stop myself from taking a little sip while it was still quite hot. Mmm! I have a really good feeling about this tea. It’s going to be a cupful of yum!
And it is! I like that the ginger is dominate, but it isn’t overpowering the other flavors. This tastes the way I want my gingerbread to taste – with a strong ginger note. I can also taste notes of creamy, marshmallow-y icing and notes of orange.
These flavors don’t overwhelm the genmaicha tea which is sweet and nutty with a really nice pleasant roasty-toasty flavor. I like the way these flavor of the genmaicha taste with the gingerbread house flavors. It’s sweet but not too sweet because the nutty flavors add some dimension to it to make it not so candy or cake-y that it ends up tasting cloying.
It’s a really fun flavor.
This one resteeps well too. The flavors are less distinctly “Gingerbread House” and more like a gently spiced cookie. It’s still quite tasty though and definitely worth the effort to resteep it, so hang on to those leaves!
I see that this tea has sold out, so I am hoping that other customers have enjoyed this tea as much as I did so that when it comes time to vote for reblends – this one will eventually get reblended!
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!