Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Steepster Select
Tea Description:
Cold aged until the New Year, this sencha is a reminder of the year that has passed and the upcoming spring just around the corner.
Read other Steepster thoughts on this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I took a few sips of this Obukucha Green Tea from Steepster before I read the above description and before I even read it, the first word that came to my mind after the first one or two sips was “spring.” This indeed tastes like spring to me with it’s fresh, vibrant flavor.
This tea brews up a beautiful bright, light green color that tells of its invigorating, spring-like taste. It is sweet and has a pleasant texture that reminds me of a light broth. The flavor is delicate. The vegetative notes here fall somewhere between grassy and seaweed-like.
There is a good balance between savory and sweet with this tea. It has a very satisfying flavor to it. Quite often with sencha teas, I find the flavor to either be very strong or to be so soft that I feel like I need to eat something with the tea to help bring out the flavors a little bit. But as I drink this tea, the best way I can think of to explain how the flavor of this tea is different is that it’s a “well balanced meal.” That is to say, this tea doesn’t need anything else to improve or accentuate the flavor or to help to bring out the delicate nuances.
One of the better Sencha teas I’ve tasted.
Organic Kukicha Green Tea from Aiya
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Aiya
Tea Description:
Nothing is wasted as the stems are thoroughly removed from organically grown Gyokuro and Sencha. Not only will you enjoy the sweet aroma and crisp flavor with refreshing aftertaste, you will also be drinking the most environmentally friendly tea.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Having previously tried and reviewed Aiya’s conventionally grown Kukicha – and loving that – I was pretty sure I’d like this Organic Kukicha Green Tea from Aiya as well. I have enough confidence in this company to know that whatever I try from them, I’m probably going to like. All the teas I’ve tried from them thus far have been stellar.
And this is a REALLY good Kukicha. It might very well be the best Kukicha that I’ve tried to date. It has a really fresh, lush taste to it. It tastes to me like it was just picked! Not that I’ve had experience with “just picked” tea, so when I say this, I mean to say that the flavor tastes extraordinarily fresh.
The aroma of the dry leaf reminds me of the first grass cutting in spring. After a long, cold winter, the new buds of grass offer such a fresh, sweet fragrance, and after that first mowing … the air is so exhilarating! That’s what I experienced when I opened my package of this tea. The bouquet does taper after brewing, but I can still smell some of that fresh, grassy scent.
I love the flavor of this. It tastes so vibrant and yet it casts a calming effect over me as I sip it. It is a very relaxing tea to drink. It tastes light, sweet, and grassy, and it has a slightly astringent tail. Similarly to the previously reviewed Kukicha from Aiya, I find this to be more savory than sweet.
However, unlike the previously reviewed Kukicha, I notice fewer nutty tones here and more floral and even some fruity tones to this. The fruit and flower notes are somewhat distant and do not intrude upon the sweet yet savory grassy tones, instead, they peek through the grass and hint at their flavors, teasing the palate.
It is very refreshing as it washes over the palate. I can feel my palate feeling renewed as I sip this. It’s an excellent kukicha – and I love that its organic!
Madame Butterfly Flavored Green Tea from Gurman’s Tea & Coffee
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
About this tea:
Green Japanese tea Sencha with peach bits, sunflower petals and flavour.
Learn more about Gurman’s Tea and Coffee here.
This tea can be purchased here.
Taster’s Review:
It’s a cold winter’s day here in the Pacific Northwest, but the tea that’s in my teacup right now reminds me of warm summer days when I can find fresh, ripe, juicy peaches at my local produce market. This Madame Butterfly Flavored Green Tea from Gurman’s Tea & Coffee tastes (and smells!) just like summer!
What I like best about this particular peach flavored green tea is that it’s not overdone. Occasionally, I’ll come across a peach flavored tea that has been flavored with a heavy hand and the peach notes completely overwhelm the flavor of the green tea, and what’s worse, because the peach is such a prominent flavor, it often tastes artificial and chemical-y. But that isn’t the case with this tea from Gurman’s.
Here, the flavor is just right. It tastes delicately of peaches, and the green tea is the prominent flavor in the cup. I taste the lush flavor of the Sencha green tea: sweet with contrasting savory tones, and a backdrop of buttered vegetable flavor. Then the flavor of sweet peaches comes through, and the peach notes taste true to the fruit. Sweet and juicy, tasting as though someone pureed a fresh, ripe peach and strained the juices into my teacup.
A really wonderful peach flavored green tea, this Madame Butterfly from Gurman’s. It’s a nice way to celebrate the splendor of summer even when the weather is chilly outside.
Cherry Buds Green Tea from Kally Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Kally Tea
Tea Description:
Sencha Green teas, Rose Petals, Natural Flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
It’s cold outside! I’m sure that some of you probably are experiencing even colder temperatures than we are here in the Pacific Northwest, but, when I go outside and I can feel the chill in my nostrils and I can see my breath turn into white mists in front of me – that’s cold.
But what is in my teacup right now is taking my mind off the freezing winter weather outside and is inspiring thoughts of spring. This Cherry Buds Green Tea from Kally Tea evokes memories of spring, when the trees begin to show signs of life and this is especially true of the cherry blossom trees with their beautiful pink foliage.
That’s what I think of every time I sip on a cherry flavored Sencha tea like this one. The sweet, lush flavor of the Sencha tea melds in such a delicious way with the sweet-tart notes of cherry and the sweet floral notes of rose that dance around in the background.
It tastes mildly sweet, fruity and it has an invigorating quality that helps me shake the winter blues. A lovely tea served hot that is also quite good iced too.
Hojicha Green Tea from Aiya
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Aiya
Tea Description:
Known for its unique, strong, roasted flavor, Hojicha is made by roasting lower grade Sencha and Bancha. Although Hojicha is from the green tea family, the roasting process turns its leaves to an autumn brown. Hojicha has a very distinct, mild and nutty flavor. It also contains less caffeine and tannins, resulting in a less astringent flavor.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I love the toasty, cozy taste of this Hojicha Green Tea from Aiya. The roasting of the Sencha and Bancha leaves creates such a lovely, nutty flavor that has a hint of caramel undertones.
Aiya has delivered another excellent tea! This tea is just exactly what I’ve come to expect from a good Hojicha. The leaves are a beautiful shade of tan that smell warm and toasty, like freshly roasted nuts. When brewed, the liquid is golden tan and fragrant.
The cup tastes smooth with a light astringency. There is no bitterness. The usual “vegetal” notes that you’d experience with Sencha and Bancha teas have become a sweet, warmly roasted flavor that is not grassy or vegetative. Instead, it reminds me vaguely of almonds that have just come out of the oven after being lightly toasted. The aftertaste is delicate and sweet.
The flavor is so soothing. It’s the kind of tea that I like to curl up to on chilly days like this one. When it’s cold and blustery out there, I like to be inside with my hands wrapped around a warm, porcelain mug of hot Hojicha like this one.