It’s that time once again!
I have taken the (perhaps crazy) task of reviewing even more matcha than I anticipated: Red Leaf Tea has asked me and a handful of skilled bloggers to take on the task of testing and comparing 30 or so different matcha in a large price range. I have been lax on comparing them, with traveling and whatnot, but I need to get cracking. Without further ado, here is the basic criteria in with I will be judging the teas by: Color, Texture, and Sweetness.
Note: All the teas were provided to me for review by Red Leaf Tea. I was not aware of which brands were which beforehand.
- Color: 3
- Sweetness: 5
- Texture: 4
The first sample I had was a light olive drab. The matcha woke up a bit with some hot water, but did not foam very well. Even though this tea was a tad gritty, it was smooth and grassy, in a good way.
- Color: 6
- Sweetness: 5
- Texture: 6
I would recognize RLT’s matcha anywhere, thanks to the last taste test. This floral and sweet matcha this one was an improvement.. A muted grassy color, I got some really nice foam from it, but it may have just been through practice, heh. The mixture was surprisingly tart, but still quite smooth.
JK Tea Shop Ceremony Grade Matcha
- Color: 6
- Sweetness: 5
- Texture: 5
Third one up! This one had a bit of a wet paint smell to it. The powder was a lighter, pastel shade of spring green. Not a favorite.
- Color: 6
- Sweetness: 7
- Texture: 6
Phew. At this time I realized that I had made a grave mistake. I hadn’t eaten before starting testing these, and I sure was feeling the effects. This one was the sweetest so far, with a lemony, acidic finish. It was a happy green color, which was promising.
- Color: 7
- Sweetness: 7
- Texture: 7
This one smelled and tasted just like pistachios! There was some strong marine notes as well, and a smoothness to round it out.
Yunomi Excellent Kitchen Grade Matcha
- Color: 7
- Sweetness: 8
- Texture: 7
A really good one in the bunch. It also has a good color, not as neon as #4, but what this one lacks in color, it makes up in taste.
Thanks for tuning in folks! Will it ever end? Stay tuned next time for another installment of Matcha Madness!
Sencha of the Wind Green Tea from Yunomi
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Yunomi.us
Tea Description:
A tea popular with female customers in Japan, our Sencha of the Wind or 風の煎茶, is a sencha with a soft sweetness. Grown on southeast facing rolling hills at an altitude of 500 meters (1640 feet) and harvested in late May, the cultivation technique is very similar to our Kabuse Sencha. However, in addition to being harvested slightly later than the Kabuse, this tea does not use the Yabukita variety of tea plant (said to be the most suitable for Japanese tea) and is instead cultivated on standard tea plants. The difference is in the leaves as these leaves produce less amino acids than the Kabuse and therefore less bitterness.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I have heard that green tea is perfect for hangovers, and I suppose today is a good day to find out.
I went to an amazing show with my man last night, and one drink led to another, and another… at the end of the night I was somehow dancing on a ladder, my boyfriend trying to get me down before I fell off. Needless to say, I am feeling the effects of it today. I woke up groggily, and googled drinkable hangover cures as I dug through my stash of teas. I read on a couple of random websites that green tea is better than the hair of the dog that bit you. Even if it was a load of hogwash, it never hurts to drink a good sencha.
Sencha of the Wind from Yunomi is one of the teas produced by Kyoto Obubu tea farms. They always have an amazing selection of teas that they produce from year to year. I have the 2014 version that I got in a sampler pack a while back. I used all 10g in my large kuysu, which is (probably?) 16oz. Using warm water, 65C I flash steeped a couple times and then brewed in increments of 30 seconds. I was really surprised at how much I could get out of those leaves! I think I made it to 9 steepings before I had to call it quits.
The smoothness and richness of this brew is simply incredible. Plenty of people new to green tea in general usually say that green tea has no taste, it’s just colored water. This is going to be the tea that I will use to change their mind. All Japanese greens are so strong and flavorful, this is no exception. I love how sweet and smooth this is. I even uttered an audible, ‘wow!’ when taking a sip.
I would highly recommend this to anyone who is a little put off by the astringency of some senchas, this is a very rich and sweet brew, buttery smooth to the last drop!
Morita #02: Sayama Sencha Green Tea from Yunomi
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Yunomi.us
Tea Description:
The Morita family’s quality sencha is a result of 10 generations of tea farming. This Sayama region green tea is can be steeped to be very astringent with a touch of umami (savoriness) using hot water, or with a great balance between astringency (shibumi) and umami savoriness using warm water.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Yes! Green tea season is here! It is in this blogger’s personal preference to drink tea by the seasons. I often find myself craving one specific type of tea throughout a single time frame. And it makes perfect since too, I like higher oxidized teas that require hotter water in the winter, and lower or non-oxidized teas in the spring and summer for their fresh vegetal notes and their lower brewing temperature. With the weather turning warmer I have not even thought about boiling my water for a shou or a black tea, and have turned instead to Japanese greens, Taiwanese jade oolongs and sheng. The Morita family’s Sayama Sencha from Yunomi fits the bill quite nicely.
I love the smell of sencha tea every time I open a package and dive in. It just smells so buttery and fresh… like hot off the bamboo steamer steamed edamame, salty and so hot that it burns my tongue. Except that I use cooler water than I would for steaming the legume… but, I digress.
This tea lays all it’s cards on the table when I pour out the steeped leaves into my yunomi tea cup. The smell is fresh and intense. It’s so vegetal and marine-like, I can almost picture myself sitting on the beach while downing each sip.
Morita Tea Garden’s is a great Japanese green that hits all the right notes. I have yet to be disappointed by any of the farmers’ teas and offerings at Yunomi, and really, anything you choose will surely be a hit. I’d drink this all day everyday if I could! But then all of my other teas would get lonely.
Yamane-en: Sugabou, Gyokuro Karigane Houjicha Green Tea from Yunomi
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Yunomi
Tea Description:
Stems of high grade tea is called karigane 雁音. By roasting these stems in an iron pot, it becomes Karigane Houjicha. This particular product uses gyokuro tea stems from Uji, Kyoto.
This karigane houjicha is roasted in an iron pot over strong heat. Only the surface of the stems are roasted, retaining the flavor of the tea itself, because the inner part of the stem is not roasted. Both the strong aroma and taste of tea can be enjoyed.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
When I first read the name on the package of tea, I was overwhelmed by the name alone. What did any of that mean? The only word I understood was gyokuro and houjicha. I am always into trying a houjicha green tea from Yunomi.
By doing a little deciphering and careful read through the insightful description was I able to discern with little effort what all it meant. Karigane is a form of kukicha, which is stick tea, basically. But the thing about Karigane is that it is a cut above your average run of the mill kukicha because it is made from high grade teas, such as gyokuro. leave it to the Japanese to make the most out of everything they are given! After a good and strong roasting in an iron pot, the core of the tea is still intact, and the delicate nuanced sticks blending together with the roasted flavor I know and love.
The dry leaves (or should I say sticks?) looks quite unlike any other houjicha that I have ever seen. The leaves are a light straw gold. The roasted and slightly smoky aroma reached my nose and I was hooked. Steeping the leaves in my favorite kyusu revealed a comforting toasted cup of roasty goodness. There were some nice coffee notes hidden there somewhere, and it complimented everything in a way that was unsurprisingly lovely.
I have had plenty of houjicha in my time, everything from yama moto yama teabags and flavored kit kats to freshly fired bancha from a cousin on their latest trip and this really is the best I’ve ever had. I sense that this could be that it is from karigane, and I don’t think I’ve had karigane in roasted form in the past. The aftertaste this leaves is amazing. A mix of refreshing roasted sweetness with a slight smoke note at the end. As it cooled, it became sweeter.
I took this tea in a thermos for my most recent hike, and it was the perfect end note to a nice, quiet hike. I was lucky enough to miss the snowstorm during the hike, and sitting in the car and warming up to a big steaming mug of this tea really just hit the spot.
Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club, Volume 17 (Part 2)
For this – part 2 of my review of Yunomi’s Tea Discoveries Club, Volume 17 – I will be reviewing the remaining three tisanes that I received in this month’s package.
The three teas that I’ll be examining a little closer in this article are Hatomugi Tea, Mulberry Leaf Tea and Roasted Barley Tea.
The first tea that I’ll be tasting is the Hatomugi Tea – or Job’s Tears Tea – from Kanazawa Daichi. This tisane was processed in tea bags and when I first opened the pouch, it smelled remarkably like Roasted Barley – that I had to do a double take and make sure I was opening the correct package!
Then I looked closer at the Yunomi website and learned that this is a type of barley. It’s organic and it’s roasted – hence the familiar aroma.
The flavor is very much like I expected after experiencing the fragrance – that is to say that this tastes like roasted barley tea. And it’s YUMMY! Roasty-toasty, nutty and sweet. There is a slight ‘grain’ taste, like … well, like barley. It reminds me of wheat, like Wheat-Hearts cereal.
The second tea that I’m going to review for this article is the Mulberry Leaf Tea from Kesennuma Kuwacha. I’ve actually reviewed this tisane previously, but I don’t mind revisiting it!
I believe I may have brewed this tisane differently this time than I did previously, because when I brewed it before, I think I might have been under the misconception that it was a blend of mulberry leaf and Japanese Sencha because if you look at these leaves – they look like Japanese Sencha leaves!
So, I’m guessing that I went with a lower temperature and a 1 -2 minute steep previously. This time, I’m more ‘in the know’ so I went ahead and increased the temperature to 185°F and the steep time for 3 1/2 minutes.
While the dry leaf looks very much like a Japanese Sencha, the brewed liquid does not! The color is darker, like a forest-y green. But the Japanese Sencha flavor that I expected was there. This tastes very much like a Japanese Sencha and would make an ideal substitute for someone who loves their Japanese green teas but needs to cut back a little on caffeine. It’s a little sweeter than a typical Japanese Sencha – this doesn’t have as much of the savory quality that I’d taste with a Japanese Sencha. This is more fruity and sweet, but it still is very similar to a Sencha to me. Very nice!
My final tea journey with Yunomi this month is with the tisane that I figured would be my favorite from this Tea Discoveries Club package: Roasted Barley tea, which like the Job’s Tears, is also produced by Kanazawa Daichi.
And I was right – this is my favorite. I enjoyed almost all of the tisanes from this month’s package, the only one that I wasn’t all that crazy about was the Japanese Mugwort tea that I reviewed in part one of this series.
But this … ahhh! This is my favorite. I could drink this every day.
This Roasted Barley Tea also came in a tea bag – and yeah, if I’m going to offer any kind of criticism about this tisane at all, it would be that it’s a bagged ‘tea.’ I’d certainly rather it not be bagged.
But other than that, this is so yummy. It’s deliciously roasty-toasty, nutty, sweet and so comforting. It is sweet enough that it could even serve as a dessert substitute. It has a very coffee-ish sort of flavor to it – but without the bitterness of the coffee. If someone were looking for an ideal substitution for coffee – this would be it. It tastes more like coffee to me than chicory (which is an herb often used as a coffee substitute).
So my journey with Yunomi’s Tea Discoveries this month ends on a very high note! A very high – and delicious! – note, indeed.
