Den's Tea

There is something about the roasted rice flavors and the grassy green tea that just make this the perfect breakfast tea on a rainy day. Its almost like a liquid porridge or oatmeal. A sushi place where I live serves a genmaicha that has been dusted in matcha which I think makes an excellent addition to any genmaicha. I have been adding about one scoop to this tea when steeping.

So it seems that the disgustingly humid New York summer has officially begun. For that reason, I currently have two different teas cold brewing in the fridge. I had a liter of Swampwater in the fridge two days ago. Most of it was consumed in one day. Now I’m looking for a more traditional flavor. Mmmm gyokuro to the rescue. So delicious. So unbelievably refreshing and quick to cold brew. It might be because the leaves are a bit cut up but this was ready for drinking in less than an hour of cold brewing. The leaves had turned a lovely bright green. Sniffing the wet leaves, you’d swear you’re holding a handful of fresh bruised leaves. So green and vibrant! And the color! Japanese tea makers know how to make tea beautiful!

And even though this was a cold brew steeped for under an hour, the flavor was all there! Green and sweet and and smooth. It’s a bit vegetal and slightly oceanic.

My husband, drawn in by the bright green liquid, eagerly took a sip and made a disgusted face. “Is this Japanese green tea? Why are they always so seaweedy?” haha I happen to love the oceanic aspect but he pretty much hates all Japanese greens. So while I think this tea is lovely, it’s not for those who aren’t fond of oceanic flavors. :)

Also, since the first glass was cold brewed so quickly, I used the same leaves for another glass of cold brewing. This second glass is lightly flavored and more of a yellow green but the taste is still refreshing and delicious. I get more of a minerally/vitaminy flavor now. I love this!

Next cold brew in my fridge: a pitcher of 52 Teas’ Cantaloupe White tea. Can’t wait to get to that one!

And thus I reach the reason for my swap with Amy oh – my desire to try mugicha! Thanks for passing the huge, heavily filled teabags along!

So I followed the instructions (kind of) for this one, and brewed one teabag in 1L of water (in a Pyrex measuring cup!) I used cold Brita-filtered water, but instead of “cold-steeping”, I steeped it at room temperature, for probably an hour and a half to two hours. The teabag exploded a bit, which was annoying, but just means I have to filter the tea before I drink it.

Anyways! So the smell is earthy and a little bit fishy, almost. Kind of reminds me of pu’erh, which seems odd. The taste though… is very interestingly much like cold coffee! Not wonderful coffee, but there’s no astringency or bitterness, it’s just the roasted coffee flavour. This isn’t what I was expecting – I was expecting more like a genmaicha, as Azzrian had talked about, but this is intriguing. Will this make a good coffee substitute, flavour-wise? Iced coffee substitute??! This is exciting!! I’ll have to try it. I’m not sure this is something I’d drink plain too often (although I finished my cup last night; there are 3 more in the fridge), but it was definitely worth the experience, and I am hoping to experiment with milk and sweetener this evening and see how that goes!

Thanks again, Amy!

Ultra mega steep failure. Life got in the way and I completely forgot that I put this to steep, so this got a horrifying ten-minute steep. So down the drain that went and I just redid is properly.

Back to business. The second this touched my lips, I thought, “Wow, that’s buttery!” However, the aftertaste is a little on the vegetal side. It’s not bitter at all and leans towards the sweet side. With each sip, the butteriness subsides and the vegetal side of this takes over (and I personally don’t care for that).

It is nevertheless very well-balanced and excellent quality. I can see why this is a bestseller.

The postal carrier delivered this to my doorstep this morning, and I wasted no time in preparing a cup in my new kyusu. I’ll write more later, but my first impressions are:
-This is a very GREEN, green tea. The liquor, the scent, the taste, everything.
-Thick, rich, savory, vegetable broth-like flavor
-Lots of umami.
-Sweet/tingly sort of aftertaste that lingers
-No bitterness, but a strong vegetal flavor.
-In comparison with the Hashiri shincha, this one is stronger and has more umami. Hashiri was flavorful but had a more delicate, hard-to-pin down sort of flavor. I like them both, and I think anyone who likes sencha and gyokuro would like both of these teas.

I will write more after the second steep….

I got this in sample from from one of my good buddies here – I think either Indigobloom or Mercuryhime … I think Mercuryhime. Im sorry ladies … age settling in – not sure which end is up anymore. This is some good tea though! I love Den’s iced teas but never bought the mint – which is odd – I love mint tea! I am going to get some of this for sure! So easy to brew – cold steeps in one hour in the fridge, great mint flavor without being over done and of course a good green base I have come to love from Den’s.
Thank you to whomever shared this with me!

I have been doing badly with drinking this lovely tea, it got put in my refrigerator and I keep forgetting about it. I’m having some this morning and it is so sweet and delicate. I will definitely get more next year if I can manage to finish this off before then. :)

see previous notes for more info.

This is the first year I decided to pre-order any shincha (a first flush sencha tea). My curiosity got the better of me and like the true tea addict I am, I had to see what the fuss was all about. There are several places to order shincha from, but I decided to go with Den’s because I have been very happy with the quality of all their products.

First of all, the dry leaves are incredible. Vivid green and vegetal with a bit of sweetness, the aroma is very fresh and delightful.

I steeped this is a Japanese style teapot which I believe is called a Tokoname kyusu – at least it looks like this one on Rishi’s website:

http://www.rishi-tea.com/product/fukugata-tokoname-teapot/teapots.

Mine is white and petite – it holds about 10 oz. of tea.

This tea liquor is much lighter than I thought it would be. I am getting lots of sweet vegetal notes like buttery cooked peas. It’s a bit brothy and a bit fruity at the same time. I’m thinking light notes of berries, perhaps? This is really nice, absolutely no bitterness involved at all. Just a delicate cup of tea. I can see why shincha is so highly prized but ack, it is expensive! This is the only shincha I am planning to buy this year and I’m sure I will enjoy it very much.

Just finished off the last of this. Still love it. I’m going to buy more when it comes around again in March.

This review is for the newly-released 2012 Hashiri Shincha, which I just received from Den’s. I’m so glad I pre-ordered this. For some reason it really tickles me that the leaves I am brewing in Chicago today were still on the tree in Japan so recently.

Upon opening the bag, there is the unmistakable, intoxicating scent of fresh, grassy, sweet sencha. I followed the brewing instructions (160 F for 90 seconds) and was rewarded with a yellowish-greenish liquor. My first impressions upon sipping it were of buttered green vegetables, but the “buttery” sensation soon dissipates and shifts to a sweet vegetal sort of flavor. Grassy, but not bitter. Brothy. Savory and sweet at the same time — how does it manage that? The flavors are really strong and keep shifting from vegetal and grassy to sweet and almost herbal, and the flavors are long lasting; I can still taste this tea (in a good way) several minutes after drinking it. It’s delicious; like springtime in a cup.

The first time I brewed this I let it sit for just one minute too long and it came out a tad astringent, so I would say this is a tea that is, indeed, fussy about brew times. But if you follow the directions on the package, you’ll be rewarded with a remarkably sweet and flavorful cup.

This review is for the bagged version that I received in my sampler, not the loose leaf version.

After all these flavoured teas tonight, I felt like I needed something straight and reliably delicious. I was going to go upstairs and grab something from my Verdant stuff, but as it happened, my Den’s sampler was downstairs (I was weighing potential mailable cardboard boxes), so I was lazy and selected two teas from it! Not regretting that decision at all!

So opening up the lovely foil-wrapped package, I’m greeting by green powder everywhere and a lovely toasty rice/green tea aroma. Mmmmmmm. I was a bit sad that the matcha had come out of the bag, until I realized that had it not come out, that would indicate that the teabag was entirely non-porous and therefore useless for brewing tea. So I guess it’s inevitable. Haha.

I wasn’t really sure what parameters to use for the teabag, so went with boiling water for a minute, resulting in tea of a cloudy yellowish colour. The aroma is typical of genmaicha: toasty rice.

Taste-wise I’m finding this to be a very smooth genmaicha. I can’t really say that the matcha is at all apparent. The tea is slightly sweetish, with a lovely toasty rice cake flavour.

Not bad, but I prefer my unbranded years-old genmaicha, probably because it has more flavour. I have higher hopes for the loose leaf version of this tea, which I’ll try another day. I think this entry was really meant for the loose leaf version, so I’m reserving a rating until then. This tea bag version would probably rate about a 72 on my scale.

To start, the liquor of this tea is the most beautiful bright green. When it comes to the aroma, it’s quite grassy too. Very clean and purifying.

It also tastes on the grassier side. Probably the stongest Japanese green that I’ve had thus far, but granted, I haven’t had a whole lot.

Drinking this is an interesting experience because I’m so used to green teas like Genmaicha and Houjicha. Now, I do enjoy Sencha, but my palate isn’t quite accustomed to these rather grassier varieties of Japanese greens, but it is still refreshing.

Another interesting observation I have made about this tea is the appearance and feel of the steeped leaves. They’re so fine and mushy, and rather difficult to get out of my tea ball!

Overall, a fine tea but I can’t see myself purchasing this in the future. Another reason why the sample kit is a good idea.

This is my first purchase of gyokuro, but it is lovely. No bitterness. Grassy, but fresh. My first brewing session was not very successful. For tonight’s brewing I cooled the water wayyyyy down and used a little less tea leaves (4 grams) for about 120 ml of water. I also let the first steeping go longer. Great tea for a Spring evening.

Wow this tea smell strongly of seaweed when I open the pouch! It’s a very fine-textured tea, with litrle dark-green pieces that would probably be called Fannings in an Indian-style tea. It brews up a murky, green cup that looks a bit like over-diluted matcha. The flavour is full and complex – a mix of savory, sweetness and grassy bitterness, though the bitterness is less pronounced than it would be in another tea like a sencha. I’ve always liked the high-quality Japanese greens Den’s Tea carries, and this one is no exception.

Sipdown! This tea makes an excellent case for drinking greens when they are fresh, because, uh… it kind of tastes juuuuuuust a bit like cat pee :P Not that I know what it tastes like, but just the smell… you know? So now I get why my dad made the same comment about a green tea I once gave him :)

Anyhow, I will hopefully try more teas of this type in the future, as my previous note indicates that I was pretty impressed, and for the most part, I’m enjoying the chewy, vegetal flavour. It just goes a teensy bit too far into a funny flavour, for me.

I’ve logged this one before, and it’s delicious. Trying to drink it up before it goes stale, since the sample packet doesn’t re-seal!

First infusion (160F/45s):
Agh, so green and delicious! I think I used too much water/not enough leaf though – I want more concentrated delicious vegetalness. My bad though. Need to remember that for next time. Seriously though, I adore this flavour. I wish I could put a name to it, but I guess lightly steamed veggie will have to do. Perhaps asparagus-y. There’s almost a spiciness to it today. Don’t know where that’s coming from. It’s also a bit cloudy/murky today and as I reached the end of the cup, I got a throatful of fine particles which made me cough. Odd, I used likely my finest infuser. I can deal though.

Second infusion (185F/30s):
Upped this infusion 10 seconds from the last time I tried, but unfortunately I think I made the mistake of too much water for this infusion too. Sigh. Still good, just too weak. More tea aftertaste though, which is appreciated, but less on the vegetal side. Green teas really don’t last for more than a couple infusions, do they.

squee

This is my sort of green tea! Gahhhh!! The smell is so juicily vegetal like Treasuregreen’s Emerald (Silver). I nearly died when I smelled the wet leaf post-infusion, because I definitely wasn’t expecting this, and it’s going to be a wonderful treat (I expect).

Ahhhhhhh, heavenly. I can’t pick out the flavours very well, it’s just so, so good. I think I could drink this sort of tea all the time and not get bored or sick of it. It’s refreshing and cleansing with a lovely aftertaste, but unlike the green oolongs that I like, it’s not quite so…. rich. I don’t know how to describe it. Looooove it.

I’ll have to see how this holds up to multiple infusions, and try it with shorter ones to see if I can get different flavours (e.g. Emerald (Silver) had a sweet, honey-like first infusion that was incredible and I didn’t know about until I tried 25-30s infusions!)

I’m finding it rather amusing that here I am, drinking caffeinated tea to the point of my stomach screaming ‘NO MORE!’, and I’m literally almost asleep typing this. Caffeine and I have an odd relationship.

(What’s the worst part? Knowing that even if I fall asleep right now, I am guaranteed to be up again in half an hour, then again a half hour later, and probably a third time before morning, because I have just consumed a silly amount of tea. Siiiigh.)

ETA: Second infusion, 20 sec at 185. Pretty tasty. Not that in-your-face vegetal taste anymore (it’s a little muted), but still lovely. I might infuse a little longer the next time to bring out a bit more. No astringency whatsoever though.

Third infusion, 45s at 185. Ok, getting an off-flavour here. A staleness, almost? Actually, it tastes kind of plasticky. Like how water tastes when it’s been sitting in a plastic waterbottle in the sun in your car for a day or two. Still no astringency or bitterness, but I’m not fond of this weird flavour. No ratings decrease, because they only recommend two infusions, and both were quite good. Perhaps I should have stuck with 15 seconds for this one. Maybe I’ll try that next time. There are still hints of tasty flavour, but they are overshadowed by plastic flavour.

Side note: I love that with their tasting kit, Den’s gives you a guide to the specific parameters for each individual tea. Unlike some companies who have just given general guidelines, I love how exact they are. No guesswork. Makes me confident about trying their teas without ruining them the first time!

Very nice … again like the peach, not an IN YOUR FACE flavor but its quite refreshing and just the right flavor for a hot summer day!

This stuff is the BOMB but my husband does not like it – oh well more for me! LOL
Its just like a barley genmaicha!
SO GOOD!

Got my green tea sampler a few days ago and am on round two of this. This is my first houjicha so I wasn’t sure what to expect. It brewed up a more earthy colour and the smell is reminiscent of genmaicha, a favourite of mine. Even the taste reminds me of that. It’s mild and roasted. Not as bright-tasting, but toasty and soothing.

The second steeping is almost as flavourful, and the colour is a little lighter than before. I’m excited to try the rest of my samples and am delighted to say that I am a houjicha fan!