Aiya

137/365

I didn’t have the highest hopes for this one when I opened the sample, primarily because the leaf is really finely shredded, and in that past that’s not yielded good results for me. I was expecting it to brew up very strongly very quickly, and while I like a green with depth of flavour, there’s a line.

Fortunately, I was wrong. It’s actually fairly slow to infuse, although I had to put it in a bag because the leaf was too fine for the holes on my infuser. Possibly that had some effect, because the bags I use are pretty thick. If it did slow things down, it was only for the good.

In the end, I gave this one 2 minutes in water cooled to around 175. It brews up a clear green, and is very vegetal in terms of scent. It’s pretty similar flavour-wise – deeply vegetal in the way of wilted spinach and asparagus, with a mild pepperiness. What I love about this one is how smooth and buttery it tastes. There’s absolutely no bitterness, even though it sits firmly on the savoury side.

If you like a buttery, vegetal green with a lot of flavour, this one’s for you.

Long ago, I found out that my neighbor was using his 30 minute lunch break to come home and let his dog out. Since he lives more than ten minutes from work, well, you get where I am going. I told him that I would be happy to let his dog out to play with my dog so neighbor can have an actual lunch break with actual lunch since I work from home and have more flexibility. For this service that I perform, my neighbor blesses me now and then with something from the store where he works. (I also make home made yogurt for his dog to take her supplements in.)

This week he gave me matcha and a portable essential oil diffuser! What fun!

I wouldn’t have had high hopes for matcha like this, but I saw that the only review was a good one.

Pouring it into my matcha bowl, the powder is deep army green, not as bright and vibrant as my favorites have been. The aroma is quite good, though! When I whisked it up, it did froth, but not as much as Harney’s or DoMatcha. But that isnt surprising since it is really designed to mix without frothing.

Now it is deep green liquor. And the taste is good! Again, it isn’t at the level of Harney’s best but it is easy to drink and I enjoyed it. I imagine that prepared as a cold, shaken matcha it can hold its own with any out there. I will easily finish this over the next couple of weeks.

Ceremonial matcha is always a winner for lattes during the winter

This. Is. Awesome. It’s everything I love about green tea — that seemingly disparate flavors and scents harmonize. Here, a the vegetal quality gets smoothed out by both a velvet mouthfeel and the “sweetness” that good matchas are purported to have. It’s really its own variety of green — lush, wet grass and moss, a hint of seaweed, faint butterscotch, and what I imagine to be dewy tea leaves on the branch. For reference, Aiya says that its Premium Matcha is made from the same gyokuro. The result of processing the tea into matcha powder brings out robust spinach-like aspects, while retaining the sweetness. (I do a “thin” unfroth-y preparation.)

I love both, depending on my mood, but the whole leaves yield such an amazing, bright green liquor and silky smoothness that I reach for this more. It’s expensive, but well worth it. I brew it according to the instructions, which uses a very low temperature and 4 minutes brewing time. I no longer have the tin, so I can’t remember which temp it is, so I recommend following Aiya’s instructions. Hotter temps (165˚F +) ruin this tea with bitterness. And shorter brewing times (1.5-2 mins, as with Aiya’s sencha and genmaitcha) do not bring out the qualities of this precious leaf.

My past experiences with Genmaicha were never really good. I always thought the rice grains were too strong of a taste. But I was really surprised at how good this blend was. First, the matcha makes the liquor a beautiful very vibrant green color. I think the matcha smooths the taste of the rice grains out and turns this blend to have a very light and nutty aroma.

sample 1 of tea samples i got from Amanda ‘SoggyEnderman’ Wilson

an amazing tea!

little glass pitchure. method, grandpa style:

when i smell the leaves dry, they smell green like freshly cut grass.

when i smell the leaves wet, the smell is intensified and has hints of sweetness! :D

when i smell the brewed tea, i smell grass, sweetness and green.

when i taste the brewed tea, i taste green, grass, sweetness and strong pepper! :)

i rate this tea a 100 because i love the taste and pepperyness! many thanks !

My first pure Matcha, and one of my favorites of all time. Deceptively expensive, but worth the cost considering how long this little tin lasts. It smell like sea mist and forest to me, also very close to Dragonwell and Sencha. The taste is Green personified, if that were ever possible. Umami, seaweed, grass, bits of cream, and sea mist again fill the cup and linger on my tongue. I’ve had it for over a year and have just gone through half of it, still enjoying it day to day. Also, nearly impossible to make without a Matcha whisk.

My sweetie and I drank several bowls of this last night, whisked into hot water. Perfectly sweet, creamy and grassy – not a hint of bitterness. This is ground very fine, so there’s not gritty mouth feel or clumps.

Made this last night but with not enough matcha. Tasty still, but a little on the weak side.

Mmmm so creamy, sweet and grassy, with just a pleasant hint of bitterness. I forgot to sift it this time, and it still blended up smooth and beautiful.

My sweetie got me this matcha, as well as a chasen, scoop and bowl for Xmas this year, and I’m so pleased. This is slightly bitter, a bit grassy, a bit umami and creamy. Superfine powder stays suspended and it’s very pleasant and easy to drink.

I’m excited to finally have the means to drink matcha straight, as I’ve really been enjoying it in latte form, and till now didn’t have the tools to prepare it nicely otherwise.

Backlog:

When it comes to Matcha, I’d be hard-pressed to name a company that offers better Matcha than Aiya. Theirs is always of the finest quality so when they offered me these Matcha To-Go sticks to review, I was very happy!

This is a great product … the small, pixie pouch is ideal to take with you when you’re on the go. Just pour one of the pouches into a small size water bottle (16.9 ounce) and give it a vigorous shake. No clumps, no lumps and it doesn’t settle to the bottom instantly. It stays incorporated a good, long while so that you can enjoy the tea without having to shake the bottle every three seconds.

But what’s best about this product is that you can taste the quality of the Aiya Matcha here. This isn’t bottom of the barrel Matcha – this is top-notch stuff. It’s sweet and silky and not bittersweet. Just sweet. This is the good stuff!

It’s also good hot.

Here’s my full-length review that gives more details of both hot and cold tea experiences: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/10/06/matcha-to-go-stick-packs-from-aiya/

Sipdown! This is a wonderful sencha. It’s smooth with almost no bitterness and lots of sweet vegetal flavors. I shared this with a friend who was so impressed she said it was the best green tea she’d ever had, and I think I may surprise her with some for her birthday. It definitely seems fitting as a gift!

Sencha always reminds me of grass clippings, if grass were as green as grass could get. I love it – this one is very good. It is super fresh, which makes it ideal for late spring/early summer drinking. It is vegetal with a bit of citrus that helps to keep things light.

From round one of the Teeny Tiny Tea Box!

I remember loving this tea so much the first time I drank it, but sadly today, I let it steep for too long!
Roommate stepped on a piece of glass sooooo yeah. I kinda had other pressing matters to tend to!

But it’s still a lovely tea. I won’t let it slip my mind when I steep it again!

Took this from the TTTTB!

This was actually one that I didn’t sample, but I smelled it and it smelled sooo good so I just took it, hoping that my nose wasn’t playing with me. Crossing my fingers that this is a great tea!
Smells very green. Much like nori. Reminds me of that one green tea from December’s Steepster Select box; Karigace #22.
Opaque, light green liquor.
Slight vegetal taste, not as vegetal as other straight greens I’ve had and I really like this tea! Good job, nose. You’ve done well :)

Received a sample when I ordered their matcha. It has a nice nutty quality, not as seaweed/briny as I was expecting it to be. Has a leafy green and vegetal taste after the nuttiness abates. Nice.

This is a unique tasting matcha to the other straight varieties I’ve tried so far. Has the vegetal, slightly leafy green taste, and then I get hit with a warm savory taste. Perhaps this is the umami taste I’ve read about? It’s hard to describe except as just savory on the tongue. Much more earthy tasting than the KaiMatcha I recently finished.

2 chasaku scoops dissolved in 175F water in a chawan, then whisked with more water.

This is a damn fine green tea…it’s light and delicate, but oddly accepting of a little bit of sweetener. There’s a fine grassiness to it that makes me think of haylofts and fresh-cut grass without the bitterness that I often find hiding in the greens I drink.

The mouthfeel is surprisingly silky – with a bit of an astringent bite at the end – and I’d be willing to bet this one will wind up in my rotation right alongside a lot of my heartier black staples.

Backlog:

Previously, I reviewed their conventionally grown Kukicha, and then I got the opportunity to try their Organic variety. I love both teas, but I do have a special appreciation for this one because it is organic. That said … you really can’t go wrong with Aiya … all of the teas that I’ve tried from them have been really remarkable.

This is a really good Kukicha. Very fresh tasting. One of the best Kukicha teas I’ve tried.

A vibrant, energizing flavor, and yet it is very calming to sip. Light, sweet, slightly grassy, with a hint of astringency at the tail. Not quite as nutty as some of the kukicha I’ve tasted. This has more of a fruit and floral taste.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2014/02/06/organic-kukicha-green-tea-aiya/

All-around excellent matcha! I’ve been drinking this usucha style, heated chawan, two almond-sized chashaku mounds of matcha finely sifted, bamboo chasen pre-moistened, 175F water around 75-85ml I’m guessing, added about 10ml first to mix up the paste then added the rest of the water to froth. Creamy, frothy, that perfect deep jade color underneath the foam, and very easy to form that smooth froth of uniformly small bubbles.

The aroma first hits you a bit like the first infusion of a gyokuro — that warm briny ocean smell, but nowhere as strong and quickly joined by a lot of deep vegetal aromas… it’s that special note my favorite matchas have in the aroma, and lets me know the leaves would have made a fine gyokuro if processed differently. But also like I enjoy my matcha, it doesn’t translate into the flavor — this tastes very vegetal with a sweet finish, and I find myself going through the whole process 2-3 times a day now just to enjoy a good bowl of this stuff more than once. I know it is a bit blasphemous, but some cream & stevia (not enough to make it a real latte, maybe a tsp of each) makes it oh-so-rich and oh-so-enjoyable.

Good quality for the price point.

Backlog:

A really delicious, roasty-toasty Hojicha! The leaves are sencha and bancha leaves that have been roasted. The flavor is sweet, warm and toasty with nutty notes. A beautifully soothing cuppa.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/12/27/hojicha-green-tea-aiya/