Den's Tea

I made a 32oz cold brewed green kukicha! Today’s a long day. Just what I needed! A nice fresh and light taste! :)

So I got into my top choice residency program today! WOO!!! So I am celebrating with green kukicha. Yummy! :)

I wanted a stronger flavor so I steeped it longer; however, it became a little bitter. It was still drinkable and the scent was fantastic. There was astringency in the back of my throat, especially while I was finishing up my cup. It was creamy, green, and vegetal. Good tea!

I made onigiri tonight for my boyfriend and me! We drank kukicha with this. Yum! :)

I’ve always been a fan of kukicha. This is delicious and buttery. The color is a neon yellow – green! The taste is vegetal and green and fresh. Very good but pretty mild compared to other kukichas I’ve tried in the past. Good everyday green!

So I tried the rest of the sample today with steeping parameters that I’ve typically used at work, for the Genmaicha from 1TTEN (170 for 30 seconds for the 1st). Because I brew it at work, the hot water I get comes from our water cooler at a steady 170.

This brought out the same flavors in Satsuki as 1TTEN’s version (toastiness, good but somewhat unremarkable, followed by a most sweet, aromatic, mouth-filling aftertaste), further reinforcing that both of these are great teas and very similar in quality.

I’m once again impressed by the sample sizes that Den’s Tea provides. 10 grams— that is nearly half an ounce! This was their sample of the month, and I happened to give in to their year-end sale a couple of days ago. I have enough left now for another few cups.

So, I recently tried the Genmaicha from Obubu, and so I’m comparing this to that one, and also to the Genmaicha from 1TTEN, which up to today had set the bar for this kind of tea.

Well, no longer.
Actually, I should say, this ties; they are both delicious for their own reasons, but I can’t put one over the other. The fact that I enjoyed this tea as much as I did came as a nice surprise, because I was expecting to not really care for it (thinking “why would I’d ever order this, since Genmaicha Extra Green is available and delicious”?), but it holds its own.
I have yet to try a tea from Den’s Tea that I didn’t think was very good (ok actually Rose Sencha, but that’s because I’m not a big fan of that flavor).

The genmai in this isn’t too strong and the toasty flavor doesn’t mask the tea itself. And the tea base is delicious! It is really quite buttery-sweet, and I found it hard to stop taking sips. It was one of those experiences where a tea is so good I can’t stop sipping because it seems to induce thirst, and at the same time, I’m trying to figure out why it’s so good!

I’d say the main difference between Satsuki, and Genmaicha from 1TTEN is that this has a very good initial sweetness followed by the typical toasted rice flavors. Whereas 1TTEN starts with the typical toasted rice flavors and seems unremarkable, but suddenly the aftertaste explodes in your mouth as a sweet, almost irresistible wave.

I prefer brewing this like TG’s Green Coconut. I steep it at 180F for 2 minutes. I taste more pineapple. I have blew through my 2 oz bag QUICK! This is some good tea! :)

Mmm, this is beautifully flavored. It reminds my of overly ripe pineapple, the most golden yellow kind. I brewed it for iced tea. It has a wonderful balance. This bag of tea will go quick.
I prefer this iced. The sencha has slight buttery taste and smell. It can resteep one more time, but probably the steeping guidelines on the bag would produce more resteeping.

I got this as the free sample of the month. Mmm, the dry leaf smell is so yummy. The tea is a chartreuse color. I really love the flavor, though I prefer the extra green flavor. I will easily drink this up today! It went well with spoon bread I ate. It’s has a great roasted vegetable flavor. Its second brew was lighter, but still nice.

I found a local cafe that carries this! They make Japanese style crepes, and I went just to try one of their teas, since I saw they offered Japanese green teas on the menu.

Wasn’t I pleasantly surprised to see that the organic sencha they were offering from the menu was from Den’s Tea!

This is awesome. Citrusy, deep (almost savory) flavor, lovely sweet aftertaste. No bitterness or astringency. I’ve never had an organic sencha (that I know of) before. I always got the impression from things I’ve read that the organic farming methods haven’t yet measured up to the standard ones (in Japan) for making as tasty a tea… well, I was wrong! Or rather, my impressions have now been corrected.

I had a sudden and strong craving for this one and was upset to see there was a lot less in the bottom of the bag than I thought. Then I found a sample floating around my tea corner. The tea gods smile upon me today!

Fancy that; not oversteeping this makes a big difference! It’s a lot more mild this time but really nice.

I love this tea. I haven’t tried genmaicha with matcha from any other companies, but I feel like I probably don’t need to.

This was light but toasty and delicious. I got two equally nice steeps out of it. I prefer this to the genmaicha; the matcha adds such a nice, sweet element!

I’m not feeling so hot today. Kind of dizzy and feverish, kind of feel a cold coming on, kind of upset stomach. I’m at work and have to function at least well enough to answer phones.

So, I chose some of this to help. It is! It’s really helping settle my stomach and, I think, wake me up a little. It’s also going well with the stir fry I’m eating for dinner. I don’t often drink tea while I’m eating, but this is helping me get it down.

This was my first experience with genmaicha. I know I should probably have tried genmaicha before ordering this, but I loved the aspect of the matcha dusting too much.

I love it. This felt like a snack, and the toastiness was a nice, different flavour. The leaves even stayed at the bottom of my cup for the entire duration and never turned bitter.

Half-milk, half-almond milk matcha latte with vanilla. Yum! I would pay $5 for this at Starbucks (or preferably Second Cup!). This is my first time doing anything unorthodox with matcha and I’m enjoying it.

I just drank this in the hopes it would help cure my headache + lethargy combo platter. It was delightful as always. Afterward, I made up a little cup of it in chocolate almond milk, which was quite nice!

Just as good today.

I used a little more matcha and saw a bit more froth, though still very little. Oh well. I’m hoping this will help me prevent the cold I feel coming on!