Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Tea Licious
Tea Description:
Sencha green tea with safflowers, acai berry and raspberry leaves.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
There are a few teas and/or ingredients (or flavors) in teas that just sort of make me cringe. And for the most part, the cringe is unfounded, because, I end up enjoying the tea. Acai is one of those ingredients. I had a pretty bad experience with the acai berry at one point – it was way too sour and bitter for my liking – and since that one tasting, I find myself cringing when I receive a tea with acai berry. However, since that one tasting, I’ve tasted many different teas with acai berry and really enjoyed them … but that one distasteful moment seems to outweigh the many really tasty ones when it comes to my reaction to acai.
So when I pulled this tea sample out of my stash to try today, I did, indeed, cringe. But I decided to ignore that initial reaction and reminded myself that I have liked more acai berry flavored teas than I’ve disliked. Then I opened the pouch and smelled it – WOW! It smells really good. I smell more raspberry than acai. It smells fresh and vibrant, reminding me of the aroma of one of those berry stands at the side of the road in the summer. Mmm!
This has a stronger raspberry flavor than an acai – and it is far less tart than I expected it to be. Oh sure, it is still a tad tart, but, it is more sweet than it is tart, and that’s the way my taste buds like it. The tartness is most noticeable at the finish and in the aftertaste, when I experience that tingly tart feeling on my tongue. But the sweetness is there from the moment the tea touches my palate, and lingers into the aftertaste as well.
And even though the berry flavor is strong with this tea, I taste the Sencha and it provides a really pleasing creamy note to this – slightly buttery and agreeably sweet. I find that it gets even creamier as the tea cools a bit, the buttery tones really seem to pop after it’s cooled for about five minutes.
A really enjoyable tea – it’s good hot, but even nicer iced! Very thirst-quenching!
Guricha Kama-Tenka by Chado Tea House
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Chado Tea House
Tea Description:
Premium Guricha-‘Kama-Tenka’. The given name of Tenka in Japanese refers ‘the best’ in English. In general, Guricha stays in casual side, does not show luxury feeling like Gyokuro,or Sencha. This premium Gyokuro ‘Kama-Tenka’ proves Guricha is another sophisticated tea. Sweetness as expected and the richness remain in your mouth.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
When I first opened this pouch, I was surprised with just how fresh it smelled. The aroma reminded me of the smell of freshly cut grass … or … imagine mowing the lawn one early spring afternoon, and then that night, it rains. The next morning, the rain has cleared, and the sun is shining brightly. That fresh, spring morning smell with the fragrance of rain and grass still lingering in the air. That’s the smell. It’s vibrantly “green” smelling. Very fresh and exhilarating.
After it’s been brewed, the aroma softens somewhat, but it still smells amazingly fresh and sweet and grassy. One would expect the flavor to be just as grassy as the scent, but it’s not. Sure, I taste a vegetative note here, but it isn’t an overpoweringly bitter grassy taste. This is a lightly grassy, very sweet taste in a delicate broth.
It reminds me a bit of a very high quality Japanese Sencha … just a bit. It has a vaguely similar flavor, but I find this to be somewhat lighter. Not quite as aggressive. Not that I find Sencha to be aggressive, but this one is more nuanced. It is less broth-y, not quite as thick in consistency as a Sencha, but the broth-y quality is still there. It’s just a little lighter and cleaner on the palate.
I love the sweetness to this, it’s very pleasant and it doesn’t overwhelm the palate. It’s really quite refreshing. It’s one of those quiet teas that you can enjoy while reading a good book or enjoying conversation with friends. It doesn’t require much of you except a thirst and this will quench it with lovely flavor.
Another excellent tea from Chado Tea House! They have really impressed me with their selection of Japanese teas!
Sea Breeze Green Tea from 52Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
As for this week’s tea of the week, we have a delicious (I had some with dinner as an iced tea) blend of our sweet Chinese sencha, dried cranberries, marigold petals and natural grapefruit and cranberry flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
As I’ve mentioned before, 52Teas is my favorite tea company. This is mostly because I love that there’s a new flavor every week, and more often than not, it’s a flavor that you’re not likely to find anywhere else. It is the ability to experience the unexpected that I love so much about this company (not to mention the fact that their prices are pretty darned reasonable especially when you factor in the fact that at least within the US the shipping is free!)
However, every once in a while, this “unexpected” element does leave me feeling a little underwhelmed. I felt that way when this Sea Breeze flavor was announced a few weeks ago. Cranberry and Grapefruit? Hmm. OK … well, I love grapefruit green teas (and I have been on somewhat of a quest to find the greatest grapefruit flavored green tea for a while now), and I don’t dislike cranberry… but the combination of the two had me thinking “whoa … that’s going to be TART!” And… I’m not all that into really tart teas.
But, somehow the combination of cranberry and grapefruit works here. Yes, there is tartness, but it isn’t as tart as I expected it to be. And there is a smoothness that has developed between these two fruits, making this a very enjoyable tea to sip. It might actually be more sweet than it is sour, which is what I find most astonishing.
The Sencha seems to be the real star of this tea. It really seems to come to life in this blend. It doesn’t taste grassy or vegetative … instead, it tastes sweet and creamy. Buttery. But the buttery quality here is different from other flavored green teas from 52Teas because of the way the fruit flavors interact with the buttery flavor. It “infringes” upon the buttery notes, but in a way that is really quite acceptable in the opinion of this taster.
Because sometimes those buttery notes seem to deluge the palate … making it almost seem like I need to wipe the palate to get the butter off my tongue. Here, before they can become too much for the palate, the tangy citrus cuts through the buttery tones, as if to only give me a taste of the butter – an amuse bouche of buttery taste? – before cleansing the palate and letting me enjoy the aftertaste that is both sweet and tangy.
I love the contrasts here and how well they play together. This tea is delicious hot, but I have a feeling it’s going to be even better iced!
Strawberry Sencha from Tea Chai Té
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Tea Chai Té
Tea Description:
This Japanese sencha tea is flavored with bits of strawberry, creating a strong aroma reminiscent of frolicking in the buff, hand in hand with your lover, through a strawberry patch.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
On Tuesday, my dear husband took me out for lunch in the Sellwood neighborhood in Portland, and after lunch, he pulled up directions to the new Tea Chai Té in the neighborhood and asked me if I wanted to go. Yes, I proclaimed quite enthusiastically!
I have tried teas from Tea Chai Té, but I haven’t actually been to either location (they have another location on 23rd Street in Portland). So, I was really excited to check out this tea lounge. This establishment is an old, red train caboose turned into a tea lounge. This is not one of those fancy tea houses (although I like those too), this is a lounge, complete with a comfortable, casual atmosphere where people were reading their tablets and browsing the internet on their laptops.
I had ordered a 20 oz. cup of this tea iced, as well as purchased a 1 ounce loose leaf package to take with me. And while I did enjoy the tea that they made for me at Tea Chai Té (and the guy who worked the counter was so pleasant), I have to admit that I’m finding this cup that I made myself to be much better than the one that was made for me. This tastes stronger than that one did, so I suspect that either they should have made a more concentrated brew before icing it.
This is amazing. The Sencha tastes and feels smooth and buttery. The green tea offers a barely-there grassy note in the distance, while allowing the strawberry flavor to be the focus of this cup.
The straberry melds deliciously with the aforementioned buttery tones, giving it an almost berries and cream kind of quality. Sweet, juicy strawberry flavor that tastes very authentic – like someone had liquified a fresh, ripe strawberry and added it to my teacup. YUM!
Sencha Kyoto Cherry Rose Festival Tea from Culinary Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Culinary Teas
Tea Description:
Sencha Kyoto Cherry tea tends light liquoring, fresh and smooth with reasonable depth and body. The cherry flavoring and subtle rose hints give this green tea a wonderful exotic character.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Spring isn’t my favorite season. I have allergies, and while I have learned how to keep them under control for the rest of the year, at the start of the spring season, it would seem that some new strain of pollen has infiltrated my breathing space and for the first few weeks of spring, I’m sneezing, coughing and itchy. But that’s spring for you … or rather, for me.
But, there is one thing that brings a little sunshine into my springtime: cherry flavored Sencha teas. No other tea says “Spring” to me like a cherry Sencha, and this Sencha Kyoto Cherry Rose Festival Tea from Culinary Teas is quite nice, indeed.
The blend starts out as a feast for the eyes with its vivid green tea leaves and the contrasting rose petals. And fortunately, I’ve gotten past the new spring pollen initiation, so I can smell the lovely fragrance that this tea offers as well: sweet cherry and a whisper of rose.
The green tea tastes crisp and fresh, but it doesn’t taste real grassy. It has a light buttery taste and texture, not really creamy, but more of what I’d call “supple.” The rose is a bit of an accent flavor, offering just a hint of sharpness to offset some of the sweeter notes of the cherry. The cherry flavor is light and sweet and has a hint of tartness to it as well, and I like that this doesn’t taste like a cough drop. I’ve had enough of those this season already!
This is one of the best ways to celebrate spring – with a cup of Sencha Kyoto Cherry Rose Festival Tea!