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!
Organic Sencha Superior Green Tea from Shi Zen
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Shi Zen
Tea Description:
Our organic green tea are from the family farms in the foothills of Mount Fuji. From the farm that has been practicing organic plantation for more than 2 decades. This organic green tea superior will be the teas that are harvested in spring, which is the very first pick that is evaluated as the highest quality in Japan. You will taste the deep umami (savory) from this tea, which can only be tasted from the spring harvested organic teas.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
When Shi Zen contacted us recently to inform us of their new line of loose leaf Japanese green teas, I was excited to try them. I really enjoyed their powdered green teas, and I figured that if these new teas were up to the standards that I experienced with Shi Zen’s powdered tea products, then I knew that I was in for a treat.
And I was right! This Organic Sencha Superior Green Tea from Shi Zen is an excellent Japanese Sencha! First of all, I LOVE that it’s an organic product. The flavor here is so crisp and vibrant! As the tea washes over the palate, it feels energized and I feel my body revitalize. I love how a good green tea does this to me … and this is a really good green tea.
The flavor is sweet with a savory bitter tone toward mid-sip. This Sencha has a sweeter flavor than most Japanese Sencha teas that I’ve encountered, and the bitterness is more subdued. Normally, I expect the sip to start off sweet and the hint of bitterness to arrive right around mid-sip, as it does with this tea. But the sweetness was longer lasting with this Sencha Superior, and the bitterness is more restrained.
It is vegetative, of course, and I find that the vegetal notes here are more like a mild vegetable that’s been lightly steamed with delicate notes of butter than it is a grassy vegetal flavor. There are underlying notes of a kelp-like, salty note that brings forth a savory flavor, giving this a balance between sweet and savory notes.
A really, really good Sencha!