Den's Tea

Very good Sencha.

Hmmm, I guess I never tea logged this tea?
I did a blog post on this tea when my crazy tea blog was new http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/02/07/houji-genmaicha-from-dens-tea-tea-review/

I’m on a Houjicha run today, this being the 3rd type to drink. Thankfully this tea has little in caffeine.

I didn’t follow Den’s steeping instructions, but Yunomi’s http://yunomi.us/713/standard-steeping-technique/

Anyways, I’m thinking I’m preferring Yunomi’s teas as they seem more intense in flavor. Den’s, though this is a genmaicha, is light and has a vegetal brothyness to it with a peep of roasty flavor. The resteep does have a nice buttery flavor, which I enjoyed. Overall, I’d probably not buy more of this and go with a straight smokey strong houjicha instead.

A lower and slightly longer steeping time really brings out the sencha base which gave the tea a slightly grassy taste but it’s too light to really be astringent and it has a nice savory undertone that goes nicely with the toasted rice.

I’d say this is a fairly standard genmaicha, though on the upper end of the quality scale. I’ve grown to like drinking it with supper actually, as it goes very well with savory foods (I guess that why they serve it at all the sushi places). It have a nice roasted, slightly malted flavour that melds well with the grassy, green base.

So one of my main tea goals has been to find “The Perfect Japanese Green Tea”, or in my head any tea that tasted as good as the green tea they serve at my local sushi restaurant. I asked one time if they knew what kind of tea and the brand, and all they could tell me was it was genmaicha. I figured it was, but now the hunt was on.

I’ve tried genmaicha from adagio, davidstea, and several other places but they all just taste like burnt rice to me. None of them have come even close to the green tea at the sushi place.

I finally searched on steepster for the highest rated genmaicha, which happened to come from den’s tea. On a whim I bought 2oz each of this and their genmaicha w/matcha (will review soon)

Yes. This is exactly what I was looking for. My tastebuds are singing! This tea is fantastic. It’s perfectly nutty and sweet and has NO burnt smell or taste at all (though my mom would disagree). It’s roasty and has the perfect ratio of nutty to green flavor. This tastes just like the tea at my sushi place.

I can’t explain how happy I am. On to my fifth cup…

Very savory and vegetal (mainly spinach), almost broth-like; somewhat astringent. Beautiful green color. A nice tea, if a bit strong on the spinach notes for my tastes.

Meeka Sent me such a wonderful selection of pure unflavored tea samples in a mystery swap. Flavored teas and dessert teas are a lot of fun sometimes, but I began my tea journey with a love for the pure, rich flavors of unadulterated teas and I am so happy to find the rare swap partner who has such a variety of these to share.

I’ve never had or heard of Mecha before. It looks like coarsely ground sencha, but I don’t know how it is produced other than it comes from the youngest tea buds. I followed Den’s instructions and steeped for 45 seconds, but with slightly less than the recommended 180F water. It brews up a very heavy green color and there is much leaf debris at the bottom of my cup that fell through the infuser. It’s claimed to be bitter and astringent, but I find my cup to be much less so than Sencha, at least in bitterness. It is more astringent than bitter.

It’s a good tea and I will definitely be finishing off the rest of the generous-sized sample, but it’s not my favorite japanese green. It has a muddied over-cooked vegetable flavor rather than the bright and slightly bitter fresh vegetal flavor that I prefer.

This is another tea I just don’t love as much as everyone else does. I was excited to try it after reading all the rave reviews. Plus, I had no idea what to expect – I’d never had sakura-flavored anything before – and I enjoy trying new and (to me) unusual flavors.

As others have mentioned, this is an absolutely gorgeous tea. And the flavor is perfectly pleasant. The sencha dominates, and it’s quite vegetal. Depending on how the tea is prepared, the cherry blossom can come through reasonably well or hardly at all – more on this below. The cherry blossom flavor, when present, is light and sweet, a combination of fruit and floral (although I find it veers more toward the floral side of things). It’s nothing like cherries, or like cherry flavoring. It tastes quite natural. It’s by no means bad, although it’s not as mind-blowing as I’d expected it to be. I thought it would be more strongly floral, and perhaps less sweet – more along the lines of a jasmine or elderflower, both of which are floral flavors I adore in teas.

I feel like I’d probably enjoy the sencha base more on its own, minus the cherry blossom flavoring. In addition to the qualms voiced in the paragraph above, I’m just not sure I like the combination of vegetal green teas and fruity/floral/sweet flavors. I like to keep sweet and salty/savory flavors separate when it comes to food, so I suppose it’s not surprising that my preferences on this carry over to tea.

I’ve tried preparing this tea several different ways. The first time I made it, I followed the instructions Den’s provides. Subsequently, I’ve made many cups’ worth of this tea western style; I’ve also tried it as a cold brew (my first!). I think my least favorite of the three methods was, surprisingly, the official one. This is partly due to my bias toward quick and easy tea preparation – I like to keep tea relaxing, and all the timing and measuring involved in gongfu brewing just doesn’t do that for me. But it’s also partly due to the differing flavor profiles – I found that the western and cold brews both gave me stronger flavors (in terms of both the sencha and the cherry blossom) than did the official method, and I like strong flavors. I found the western hot brew (which I drink hot) and the cold brew (drunk cold, obviously) to taste pretty similar, although I haven’t done a side-by-side comparison.

This was much lighter in flavor than I expected. No bitterness, and it’s really smooth. Some sweetness, not overly grassy. The brewed tea is murky, and a few bits escaped the tea bag but that’s fine with me. I would have preferred a little more flavor, but overall it’s a good green tea! Especially for a bagged one!

This is wonderful; light and sweet, with a very natural pineapple flavor. I drank it hot this morning but cannot wait to have it iced this weekend.

This came as part of my sampler and for some reason I was a little afraid of it. For some reason I thought it would have a strong, funky flavor (I knew from others’ notes that this was not the case but my brain was refusing to believe it).

But my brain was wrong and Steepsterites were right. It’s like a more mellow genmaicha; less green tea-ness and more roasty-toastyness. But not in a ricey way; this roastiness has another layer of flavor, almost a creaminess. I’m quite enjoying this and can see myself purchasing it as a relaxing tea after a meal or in the evening. I’m glad I finally put my reservations aside and gave it a try. But now I’m also sad that there’s no more!

First time trying Houjicha and I am enjoying it very much. I like roasty teas. This also has some sweetness. It’s actually reminding me of ginseng oolong a little bit. I haven’t had that tea for a while in my steeper, so I don’t think there’s any lingering flavor that’s causing it. But it has the same seaweedy sweetness that I like.
I brewed this as suggested; heaping teaspoon, boiling water, 30 seconds. Yummm!

I really really love using my new glass tea pot and I want to brew everything in it! It could be my imagination or pure coincidence, but this tea has consistently tasted better when brewed in my (glazed) kyusu than when brewed in my glass pot. I suppose it makes sense, after all, a Japanese tea in a Japanese pot :D

Happy New Year everyone!

This is my first cup of tea this year. It’s a pinch more bitter than usual, but getting Senchas just right is a tricky thing. Still tasty though!

Tea #12 from the HHTTB

Yes, I know I’ve had this before, but I wanted to try it again just to confirm my opinion. It’s still sweet and vegetal and not too bitter just as I remember. The debris in the bottom wasn’t so severe this time and if I don’t let it sit around too long before finishing my cup, the last sip bitterness shouldn’t be a problem.

My cupboard is painfully lacking in greens at the moment so I’m going to keep this one.

I can see why this is Den’s best selling Sencha. It’s sweet, vegetal, and not too bitter or astringent (when brewed according to Den’s instructions). I absolutely love a good green tea, but I’ve had trouble working with Sencha in the past. It’s so easy to over steep or to steep with the wrong temperature. Even following guidelines have given me mediocre results in the past. This one has a very slight bitterness, but it is a welcome addition to the sweetness. My husband really likes it too :)

ETA: This tea does leave a lot of powdered debris in my cup with lend to more bitterness as I near the bottom. It seems that Dens has a thing for powdery greens.

One of those indecisive mornings, so I finally chose a tea that never disappoints. Like dipping fresh tea leaves in hot salty brine and sucking down the juice.

I don’t often drink green teas, but I have a fondness for Senchas, especially these first flush ones from Den’s tea. The broth looks like lemon-lime Gatorade and smells like fresh grass, Miso and seaweed. I probably brewed this a little hot; nonetheless, this is such a pure, essential tea, so reminiscent of the terroir from which it springs; drinking it is akin to hauling oysters out of the cold Gulf of Maine, shucking them and pouring the icy cold meat down your throat. There are some elemental tastes that should never be diluted. This tremendously fresh and energizing tea is one of them.

After some playing around, I got the right taste ( thanks Stephanie and moraiwe) and I do like it very much. It is nutty and slightly sweet, although it has that distinctly japanese green mouthfeel/taste that is not my favorite, although not a bad thing either (is it the astringency?). I think I will have to keep on having this one, but it’s definitely a grower.

Well, I guess I will add to the rave reviews of this tea. It is perfectly balanced, and the pineapple taste is so perfect. It is the best iced tea I’ve had!

I got this as a sample with my Shincha, and was pleasantly surprised with it! It’s not a super lively green tea (think fireplaces and snowflakes), but it has a fair amount of natural sweetness and a nice hay-like flavor. I’m actually curious about cold water and allergy easing potential here. Probably enough to snag some on my next order.

I love genmaïcha. This one is very tasty, but I feel like the added matcha doesn’t add as much flavour as I was expecting. I’d have to compare it side by side with a “normal” genmaïcha. Still, I like it a lot and it has a balanced flavour between the green tea and the toasted rice.

The matcha gives this genmaicha a little kick! I did not see any popcorn in my bag, just popped rice. I of course could not taste it either. The roasted rice had a nice flavor, though.

After my disappointing tea this morning I was looking for something a little simpler and with quieter flavors. My Tower of London made the whole room smell like cherries, which I actually did not enjoy. The smell was a little like artificial candy or cough syrup. I wanted something green and nice after that!

This was a good tea. I think perhaps I steeped it too long, but it did not seem to matter. Still delicious and roasty! Yum, just right on this chilly morning.