Den's Tea

Oooh yum yum yum, this is a wonderful sencha. It’s very savory and light/refreshing at the same time. It’s astringency is right on, enough to have that refreshing bite and remind you it’s tea and not some sort of magic butter grass water.. Okay but in all seriousness this is a wonderful green tea. I would not tire of this easily.
I also love the little pamphlets of info that game with the Dens tea sampler, I lowered the temp of my water before brewing to 160 very easily. First infusion, 169 for 45’ second infusion was 180 for 29 second. The second infusions color was soo vibrant, very pretty.
I will be buying this with that tea pot I’ve been eyeing.

Today was one of THOSE days. The kind where things keep going wrong and you start wondering what you did to piss off the universe. So it was clear that I would need two things when I got home: a piece of dark chocolate, and some good green tea.

1/3 of the cup in and I already feel so much better and relaxed. I love Japanese green tea. This sencha is a gorgeous dark green similar to the color of a gyokuro. I put two teaspoons in my steeper, filled it with water and watched all the beautiful leaves float up to the top. The liquor came out an almost dark olive green with a strong grassy scent. The tea tastes vegetal with a bit of sweetness and is getting more bitter as it cools. Mmmm.

Sipdown! 805.

I think this one has sadly lost some flavour… not all that surprising. It tastes a bit rock sugary and vegetal, but nothing like I described it the first time. Ah well. Still drinkable, but a lesson not to leave such teas for so long!

I received a sample of this from Mercuryhime , thank you! I can’t believe I’ve waited so long to brew this one up – it’s such an appealing dark green, and I’m fairly certain that gyokuros have that intense vegetal, beany flavour that I adore (like Laoshan green!)

Sure enough, the aroma from this one brewed is absolutely delightful! Potent and like steamed green beans, I feel like I could almost chew the tea! The colour of the brew is also a fantastic bright green (although the colour fades as the tea sits). Mmmm, yup, this one is delicious. Beany yet grassy and strong. Unfortunately, I think I gave it 15 seconds too long, which has caused some bitterness :( but it’s still pretty good.

Thanks Mercuryhime! This one’s totally up my alley! :D

I got this tea in the $3.00 sampler pack from Den’s. First pot of this I did according to directions from Den’s, 30 second steep. This yielded a much “greener” flavored Genmaicha than I am used to, mainly due to the added Matcha but partly due to a shorter steeping time than I am used to. I didn’t find the nutty notes from the roasted rice coming through as much as I would have liked.

Second go around I steeped it how I usually do Genmaicha, for about 3 minutes. This second time was a better cup of tea for me with a bolder, nuttier flavor.

Not sure how I feel about the Matcha being in there. Most will go into your cup the first steep, so if doing multiple infusions of this expect a much different cup the second time.

This is a much lighter, more vegetal Genmaicha than I am accustomed to, I feel I prefer something a bit heartier, like the Genmaicha from Frontier that I usually keep in stock.

This is a beautiful Japanese tea. I got this in my sampler from Den’s (yay!) and I have just enough left to share a pot, so the s.o. can tell me I am right. I followed the ‘traditional’ parameters as best I could, but doubling the volume of water and tea to accommodate the Americanness of my current teaware.

This tea has a humid vegetal, roasted seaweed nose that I can’t get enough of. Humid seems like a crazy thing to say about a smell, but I know what I mean! ;) It smells how I always thought rainy Japanese coasts would smell when I was a kid, based solely on National Geographic photos. It smells actually quite close to the roasted seaweed snack it just inspired me to open, though without the sesame oil.

HAH! Oh yeah, and it tastes good too. Three steepings in and I am quite happy, pleasantly buzzed, and still trying to figure out how this can have a little bitterness in the finish without being unpleasant. It actually adds quite a bit to the overall character of the tea, just a touch of bitter, a touch of sweet, and a richness to the mouthfeel that I associate with umami.

Oh, and ignore the prep details at the bottom, they are wrong. I am on my iPad and it refuses to play nice with the sliders on here.

High on price and weak on flavor. For me the rich nutty roasted rice flavor is the indication of a good quality Genmaicha. Here I can barely taste it, with the astringency and grassy notes from the tea leaf being quite overwhelming. I stick to Genmaicha Satsuki instead which is usually much better balanced.

Like others I got this as part of the sampler pack which is very well put together and contains 4 loose green teas with bags, 2 pyramids, and instruction books that contain interesting info on tea. Absolutely loved it especially for $3. Even set aside the tea manual to keep.
Bear in mind this is my first loose leaf green tea so we have a limited sample problem.
1st infusion – boiling 30 seconds. Very flavorful. Nutty earthy taste.
2nd infusion – boiling 15 seconds. Less strong and sweeter liquor
I also did 3rd and 4th infusions which my tea buddy and I both enjoyed as much as the others.

Oh my gosh this is a weird Sencha! At least compared to the ones I’ve had so far.

I made it 2g to 2oz, 180 degrees, 10 sec

It is VERY strong. There is a bitter green taste to it, kind of like brussel sprouts or the peel of a zucchini. Usually I find bitter to be bad, most senchas I’ve have a bitterness that puts me off to some extent… This isn’t that type of bitter. It is in the roof of the mouth and back half of the tongue. I gives the sip a wow factor

It’s strong and very dark green in flavor, and it has a silky nature to it. A light amount of astringency. A refreshing factor.

This, after their Sakura Sencha, is my favorite Sencha I’ve had yet.

Sip-down on this great shincha!

I never got to write a good detailed note on this one due to a long busy (and extremely hot) summer. I’m drinking my last cup, trying to clear it out of my cupboard to make room for a new asamushi sencha I’m eyeing.

Anyways, this was very light and subtly sweet with fresh grassy notes. No astringency or any bitterness when brewed correctly, just a light, sweet, and fresh green cup. I remember when I first opened the bag the smell of was very fresh and sweet.

Good Shincha, I ended up enjoying more the other shincha I got aside from this one, but this was still pretty good.

Not bad for a bagged tea! Sweet, with a creamy mouthfeel. On another note, I love the little notch in the teabag tab thing at the end of the string! I hooked it over the edge of my mug to prevent the whole string from falling in. Nice little touch there.

On a totally random note, does anyone know how to lure a wasp into a trap without using chemicals? One wasp decided to divebomb my face as I was getting ready to go to class and it made its way into my room. I’ve got a cup with juice in it and have duct taped most of the top (leaving a hole small enough for the wasp to get in but hopefully not find its way out), but I was wondering whether anyone had any other ideas/methods of getting rid of them.

I cold-brewed this last night. Really nice. This is a bit more vegetative than the other cold-brewed iced teas from Den’s, but, that’s alright. I taste a good amount of Mango too – not overly strong … a nice melding of the flavors.

Refreshing and nice palate cleaner after eating pizza.

Mmmmm. Just what I needed. Nutty, buttery, and green.
My 2 year old is a little tea stealer! If I look away she grabs my cup and gulps it down. When I get my tea back, she just smiles and says, ‘Tea. Hot. Good!’ I like the fact that she likes it, but believe me, she doesn’t need the caffeine! And I don’t want her accidentally scalding herself either.

I really like this one. Of course, I enjoyed the previous two cold-brew iced teas from Dens (so far I’ve tried the pear and the peach, and I still have one left – Mango!) but I really am enjoying how refreshing this mint green tea tastes. There is an exceptionally good balance between the flavor of the green tea and the flavor of the mint blend (peppermint and spearmint). It is sweet and cool and delicious.

This is my first Sencha. I am excited to try it out!
I thought I would try this out western style first. It brewed up to a pretty grass green color. There are a lot of tiny leaf fragments in this tea that made it through the filter, so my cup has a lot of floaties; doesn’t bother me though. I’m hoping I didn’t get the water too hot, as my digital thermometer died.
:(
My first sips are pleasantly ‘green’ and sweet. That’s about all the flavor I’m getting. I like it but I’m assuming I need to add more leaf, like Dens has kindly suggested in their brewing instructions. I will save that for next time; for now I like it the way it is! I was craving Japanese tea after lunch today. My two sisters and I went to a local sushi and grill place. I ordered tea, and they brought me this really pretty cup ; at first sip I knew it was genmaicha! Anyplace that serves genmaicha as their signature tea is my new favorite! :-)
I will rate this now but may change it when I try it with more leaves next time.

Yummmm! I cold-brewed a few of these bags in my half-gallon pitcher last night, and it is so yummy and refreshing today. Sweet, the pear flavor is really quite good. Sweet, juicy pear. The Sencha is more forward than the pear, and I like that. Very enjoyable … very nice on such a hot day (and evening).

YUM! Now that I’ve brewed all of the teas from Southern Boy Teas/52Teas, I have decided to turn my attention to some of the iced green teas from Den’s.

I cold-brewed this tea, and it is marvelous. Sweet, fruity, and I love that the green tea does not hide behind the strong peach flavor… they are pretty evenly matched. It’s very refreshing!

This is one of my favorite senchas and that’s saying a lot. I got this in a generous sampler from Den’s Tea. Sadly it’s already gone. The tea is rich and brothy with a wonderful vegetal flavor that isn’t too dry or dusty. It’s sweet too with an almost brown sugar quality. Most senchas are nice but rarely are they robust enough to interest me. This one however really stands on its own without tasting like a salad. It’s like a cooked salad with something caramelized on top. Very nice.

I received my order from Den’s Tea yesterday afternoon, and they were nice and included this tea as a sample (I requested it, but, they still didn’t have to! It was very nice of them to do so!) This is one that I’ve been wanting to try, but, I really wanted to focus on the iced teas with my order since it’s summer … so I’m grateful that they sent me a sample of it.

This is really good! The flavor is sweet and light, like it’s been flavored with apple juice or cider without the spices. It has a very crisp, fresh kind of taste to it.

Very good. I might have to get more of this when the weather gets cooler – it has a very autumnal feel to it.