Den's Tea

I love this tea. The loose leaf smells wonderful.
This tea reminds me of why I started loving Japanese green tea in the first place!

4g, 4oz water

Well, after the first trial, I wasn’t sure this was any different than Sencha Zuiko.
This time, I’m positive it is better . . . at least, I thought it way more delicious!

That could be attributed to the fact that it is aged, or, more likely, it could be because when I bought Sencha Zuiko earlier this summer, I got it on sale because it was the 2009 harvest being phased out to give way to the 2010. Even though it is kept in cold storage, it still is older than this ‘aged’ sencha by a year, and that might explain the difference.

Anyway, it had a lot of flavors going on that were really good. Slightly vegetal, lots of pine, slight (but yet very good) bitterness…
That flavor of pine (or something like that, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it) was really good. But this had a new flavor in sencha that I’ve never tasted before… as I exhaled, it filled my mouth with lemon! It came out of nowhere and was unexpected. I just kept exhaling to taste the lemon to see if it was really there…wow. Yep!

: )

I’m not sure I can quite tell the difference between this and Sencha Zuiko by Den’s (I know it is the same tea essentially, but this one is the aged version).
However, my initial impression was that it was slightly creamy, a tinge bitter (in a very good way), and delicious!

If you’ve considered trying a high quality Sencha from Den’s, this one is a good deal… $16 for 80g (nearly 3oz)…. his regular high quality Sencha is actually more expensive ($19.50 for 2oz). I don’t know why this one is cheaper, but it might even be better. I’ll have to compare the two side by side at some point and see…

Very nice, really enjoyable. Good punch and depth – fair bit of sweetness. Aromas very attractive.

Price: $15.50 for 56g.
Buy Again: Yes

I find the tea rather rich and thick with a somewhat gamey quality. Lots of spinach without much sweetness. Somewhat nutty. Very full-bodied and heavy-textured but mild flavours overall.

Love the stuff. Would definitely buy.

Not bad, fairly neutral profile. Only lasted three steeps.

Price: $11.50 for 56g.
Buy Again: No

The roast on this one is quite apparent, yet doesn’t interfere with the teas character all that much. Comes off as a rather mild and nice sencha with too little leaf. Increasing the leaf really makes this tea dominate, though. Pleasant enough.

I love this tea-just had another cup, it is refreshing and you makes you feel like you have just had a cup of health! It especially tastes great in my new tea cup with strainer and lid! The leaves are a deep green and this is of course a first flush, which I could tell as I sipped away…

It was indeed much sweeter than I expected. Very refreshing, smooth and sweet.

Similar to most of the other Den “unusuals” which I’ll call the Gurichas, kukichas, banchas and others. I really would be hard-pressed in a blind tasting to be able to tell the difference between quite a few of them, but they all are delicious. I am a complete convert to Japanese teas now, the ones from China sit forlornly in my pantry and considering how much more economical the Japanese teas are…thats a good thing. This tea is bright green, sweet vegetables with no bitterness. It will be another I buy regularly.

I will have to add an additional tasting note to this since I mixed it with the last of my Genmaicha Extra Green (GEG), but from what I can tell, I like this even better than GEG. It smells like popcorn and vegetables in your cup, tastes like a very soothing, delicious, buttery mix of bancha, vegetable broth, and rice. The second steep was not quite as strong, but still worth the second go. Definitely a repurchase and since the sale ends on Halloween will be ordering in the next few days.

I finally got my sampler in today! If anyone hasn’t gotten around to getting one of these yet, I highly recommend it. It is so excellently packaged, and just made me feel like opening a Christmas present!

This was the first tea of the sampler I tried, and I must say I enjoy it….I think. It’s one of those teas that doesn’t exactly hit the “I want to drink every ounce of this tea that I can” spot, but it is of such good quality and left such a good mouthfeel with me….gotta give props.

The tase almost reminds me of Rice Krispies mixed with an amazing green. It is really neat, and I bet this would be even better with some sushi drool

One of the first ones I have had from Den’s that I don’t particularly care to buy again. Its taste is like a cross between sencha and the bancha suruga, it is not bad, but the taste was just a little too “strong”. Worth a try if you’ve never had it before because the taste is so unique it is hard for me to describe….almost a vegetable broth, but not quite. Definitely full of taste and caffeine.

Nom nom nom. I’m pretty sure that I could drink this tea for the rest of my life and be happy.

This tea reminds me of beaches and salt water and is more or less what I expect tea that comes from an island to taste like. Rich, vegetal green tea taste that is quite sweet, backed with a saltiness that reminds me of dried seaweed. The taste stays solid for three infusions and then starts to water down.

The bright green color, the smell of roasted rice filling the room on a dreary morning, it must be Genmaicha time again.

This tea is the perfect way to start the day. The vibrant color will wake your eyes up with its brilliant green and the super aromatic rice will knock you off your feet.

This tea is a great replacement for that morning cup of Joe and more than likely will cost you less than Joe as well.

All in all, a great tea for the masses.

Tried a very successful experiment today with this. I’d say this way of brewing can make any good quality green a ‘100’. :-)

I used 1 TB leaf, 2 TB water, cooled to nearly 32F, and dumped it to the side of the leaves in the pot, so that they weren’t completely covered, and soaked up most of the water. After about 9 minutes, I poured out the, perhaps 2 tsp worth of ice cold, pale green “syrup” into my cup. By the way, the wet leaves smelled peppery, fresh, and strongly marine (like nori or seaweed), and even like salty ocean air.

The tea was like a soup. Like the most warming, comforting soup you’ve ever had. It had the most irresistable savoriness that you can imagine, coupled with a soft sweetness. I took the tiniest sips and the flavor filled my mouth. It was gone very quickly. Excellent.

The subsequent three steepings retained nearly full flavor (as it tastes with normal brewing), and produced a very dark (nearly as dark as matcha) liquor. The 2nd and 3rd were a nice balance of marine/savory and sweet, while the 4th was pure sweetness.
They were done as follows: 2oz water/100F/4 mins, 4oz water/140F/2 mins, 4 oz/140F/ 1min.

I realized this morning I hadn’t tried this according to the exact suggested parameters…so I decided I needed to try them.
2g, 2oz water, 140 for 2.5mins.

I have a bit of a cold, so that may have softened the flavor a bit, but nonetheless it was great! Again, a little less sweet than Bird Pick’s Gyokuro, but maybe that’s a good thing. I like this almost as much. I’ve upped the rating.

So after the first 2 steepings yesterday, I filled the 12oz kyusu with ice and let it sit all day. The resulting (room temperature by the time I got to drink it) infusion was delicious!
A little creamy, not overly sweet, just right!
I tried another steeping (4th) afterwards, 180 for 30 seconds. It was more subdued but good. I’m going to give it an initial rating, but perhaps I’ll adjust it up or down after more trials.

More vegetal and a little less sweet than the “Kotobuki no Tsuyu” Gyokuro by Bird Pick Tea. I enjoyed it more than the Bird Pick, but I need to try both a few more times before rating.

This was yummy though, especially after I increased the amount of water to 3oz (the 1st steep was good, but a little intense for me at 2g for 2oz water).

With the exception of the Award Winning Gyokuro that Den’s Tea had earlier this year, I’m actually having to learn to taste Gyokuro. I like it, but it hasn’t been the same eye-opening taste that my first Sencha and Shincha were. However, I’m still new to it, so I’m going to wait until I’ve experimented a bit more. I look forward to doing a real comparison between this and the Bird Pick one.

Yum! I have enough leaves for another tea session! Woo! So good and grassy!

Bravo! Another good one from Den’s Tea! I opened this small sample today. I love the GREEN smell! I steeped it according to Den’s Tea recommendations. The liquid is a pale yellow color. The scent is mild, very fresh, and vegetal (is that a word?). I have tried old sencha’s from Asian supermarkets. This is FRESH! The taste is delicious. It goes down very smoothly. There is no bitterness to it. It is mildly and naturally sweet and grassy. The taste is Yum! I’m going for my second steep!

I used my Ingenuitea teapot by Adagio Teas for brewing. I had a sample of the loose leaf format of this particular tea. It tastes like any other Japanese green tea with all of the familiar tasting notes.

Aroma: Vegetal, grassy, spinach and bright.

Taste: Vegetal and spinach. It taste of soaked grapeleaves; very vegetal and spinach. There was a sweetness and an astringency to this tea. The astringency came only because of the steeping time, since I like strong tea, I steeped it for five minutes rather than for three; if steeped for three, then this tea would be sweet, bright (not too astringent) grassy and vegetal with a clean, bright finish.

Aftertaste: Spinach (with none of the grassy, vegetal “full-thickness” mouth feel), sweet (doesn’t linger), clean and bright (the little astringency clears the palate).

I would recommend this tea. It is a cleaner, brighter, palate cleansing tea for after a meal. This is a very nice everyday green tea. It is more vegetal than grassy. Bancha is a little more vibrant than it’s older siblings, Gyokuro or Sencha. I really enjoy this tea. To me, it has all the combined characteristics of Sencha (brightness and a little astringent), Kukicha (sweetness), and Dragonwell (cleansing).

Once again, an enjoyable everyday green tea!

I used 3 teaspons for 9-10 ounces water, which is approximately what Den’s called for in the instructions. Incredibly sweet stuff. I have had Gyokuru before from other vendors, but nothing this powerful. Smells like the sea and freshly mowed fields. The liqour is greenish yellow and cloudy. It has a touch of umami, but an amazing blast of sweetness too. Thick on the tongue, but with no astringency. Each sip from the first steep was really a pleasure. I did a second steep at 180F for 30 seconds. This steep was about the same color, but I could taste some bitter, probably due to the higher water temperature. Still has a thick mouthfeel (I like that word) and a sweetness though that make it worth the second steep. Strangely, on sips of the second steep, I could taste almost a minty-ness at the end of the swallow. An interesting tea that I shall purchase again, but sparingly, since you do use a lot per serving and it is fairly expensive.