Den's Tea

I got this as part of the Den’s Tea Novice sampler. My tea experience isn’t very wide but I thought this was a decent tea. I wouldn’t purchase it for myself, however, as I’m not very fond of the mixture of matcha and sencha.

Such a good drink for the summer! Really inexpensive & easy to make, too!

If you like Houjicha, this shares that nutty taste (Den’s Houjicha is great iced, too).

I have to thank Coftea for the suggestion to try this according to high quality Sencha parameters.

The apple flavor seemed a bit more subdued, but the natural sweetness of the sencha came through in such a good way, that it almost seemed to have a stronger apple flavor than when boiling water is used!
Besides, the sencha base has such a nice flavor anyway, you hardly need to have the apple for it to be enjoyable… though, the mix of the two together is what this tea is all about.

I’m glad Den’s uses high quality sencha as the base; it makes a big difference!

Had it iced – I think perhaps even better than hot! :-)
Den’s suggests using boiling water for their flavored senchas…I’ve found I enjoy them more a bit lower (maybe 180 – 200?).

This should be called “Fuji Apple Sencha”, as the smell is just like fuji apples (when they are good, they can smell and taste just like that delicious green apple candy flavor, without the fake sweetness). The smell really is scrumptious.

The taste was more subdued than I expected after inhaling the aroma, but I shouldn’t have been surprised, since it was a Den’s flavored. The sencha and apple were really well balanced. This reminds me of a fuji apple-flavored sake I had once (iced) that was incredibly delicious. I’ll have to try this iced, too. For flavored senchas, Sakura is still my favorite, but I’m glad I have more than just a sample of Apple.

This is AWESOME iced.
10g, 12oz water, brewed for 1.5 mins. Then I poured into a pot with probably 8 ice cubes (ended up being about 18-20oz water).
The second infusion (also iced, same parameters) I shorted the steeping time to maybe 20 seconds. It was even better than the first.

Rather than duplicate what has already been said, please just refer to TeaEqualsBliss’ review — I think she described it exactly.

This was my first experience with Gyokuro. I felt pretty overwhelmed by the flavor, it was a little powerful for me (but I loved it…it was just a lot stronger than I expected).
I did the steepings as follows: 5g loose leaf: 1) 2oz water @ 35F for 7 mins, 2) 2oz @ 120F for 2 mins, 3) 2oz water @ 160 for 1 min, 4) 2oz water @ 180F for 30 seconds, and 5) 2oz water @ 200F for 15 seconds.

For the first steeping, I poured the water to the side of the kyusu, instead of directly on top of the leaves, so that not all of the leaf was covered in water (there was a good little pile on top of dry leaf). Closed the lid, and waited. After a few minutes I opened the lid to smelled; the aroma was like seaweed or ocean, salty and a hint of sweet, and there was something present I’ve not yet encountered in a Japanese green (I assume that is because I haven’t had gyokuro before).
I sipped it very slowly, because every drop was FULL of flavor. It didn’t have the typical taste I have come to expect from the other Japanese greens I’ve had… but it was a combination of seaweed (almost salty in an almost irresistible way…so hard to describe because it didn’t taste like drinking salt either) a melon-like fruitiness, and a creamy-sweet that was at first very pleasant, and then ended up being very rich. This tea is VERY rich. If one were lucky enough to have an English pot full of several 8oz cups of this, I doubt one could finish it (though you’d want to!), it is THAT rich.

Subsequent steepings brought out further the overpowering seaweed/salty, melon/fruity, sweet/creaminess in different proportions (with the sweet/creamy and melon coming out more as the temp went up). There was so much going on, and I’m not really that good at describing it.

Like I said, this was a little overwhelming for my tastebuds, but was crazy good. I wonder how much 2oz would cost, if it were for sale?
I hope to get another chance to taste gyokuro like this, and I hope I haven’t ruined my taste for others by trying (I can only guess) one of the best out there!

Yum! Finished this off last night and shared it with my man :) Delicious. Farewell houjicha!

Sooo delicious! One of the best Houjichas I’ve tried! I love Den’s brewing instructions – it was perfect! Toasty, roasted and warm. There was no hint of bitterness at all. My boyfriend enjoyed it as well :)

Trying a sample of this tea again, as it has been quite a long time since I last had it (again, the previous times were small samples). I think I enjoyed it a lot more this go around!

Sweet snap peas, soft veggy-quality, and a little less of the intensity of the sweet+bitter that Den’s Sencha Zuiko has (both come from the same tea farm).

Some people will certainly enjoy this one more than the Zuiko, especially if they favor a ‘softer’ sencha (less potential for intense sweet and bitter). It’s just a matter of personal preference.

Compared a sample of this directly in a blind tasting against Den’s Zuiko.
I think as others have reported, it must be very temperature sensitive. The first brewing had a lot of bitterness and was also fairly astringent. I still liked it, actually; I can tolerate a lot of bitterness and still enjoy it. However, I don’t remember much else in terms of flavor, though I’m sure my memory isn’t serving me well here. I did like it, but I knew that the other I had tried (at the time I didn’t know which was which, as it was a blind tasting) was better.

Also, I steeped each 3 times, and by the third this one was already spent (tasted mostly watery).

For only one shot, I’m going to give this a little benefit of the doubt, because I did like it, in spite of it having more bitterness/astringency than I expected.

I wanted to experiment, and brew this the way a Chinese tea is done in a gaiwan, so instead of the traditional 140 or 160 for 1-2 minutes, I did near-boiling water for 15 seconds.

It came out only sweet, delicious, and just what I would expect from a high quality sencha! I re-steeped it the same, again, just for 15 seconds each time. 4 good steepings all came out, and very little to no bitterness; it really surprised me and I’m going to use this method more often as it seems easier not to do (much less to measure or mess up when I don’t have to check the temperature and I can simply count, rather than using a timer!).

Had a sampler of this and compared it directly to Shin-ryoku. I don’t always like giving a review after just a sample, because if I messed up the brewing parameters (or more likely, if I haven’t found brewing parameters that I like with that particular tea through experimentation, which I can’t obviously do with a sample), I won’t get a very accurate idea of how I like the tea and how it compares to others.

In order to compare this and Shin-ryoku fairly, I did a blind test, and used the same parameters (3 oz @160 F, 2 grams tea, 90 seconds).

This came out with hints of sweetness, a little (just a little) bitterness, creaminess (yes, like delicious whipped cream without the sugaryness), and a little astringency. I think this would do even better at a lower temperature for the first brewing, so I’m going to try it (when I get a full bag) at 140 or iced-brewing and report back.

Months later, am still congratulating myself on my incredible foresight, giving tea pots and tea cups as gifts to my closest friends. heh-heh. pats back To be honest, the tea itself is alright but not spectacular. A good everyday green. But I had the best session of this tea today with a friend, after lunch at his house. Most probably because I didn’t brew it myself. :)

I love it!!! convenience and tasty …

I got a free sample of this with a recent Den’s Tea order, and decided to try it.

I put the bag in a mason jar (32 oz) and then filled it with filtered water, put a cap on and stuck it in the fridge. I shook the jar a little once about half way through the 1 hour brewing. When I first opened the package, I though “this smells like toast bread” and then after it brewed and I tried a cup, it tasted almost exactly like having buttered toast and coffee.

The flavor is good, you don’t really taste it until after you swallow. Because of this, it’s a little weird to drink it…sort of tastes like drinking a cold cup of coffee. The flavor is good though, and it is quite refreshing. Couldn’t be simpler to make, and quite fast too.

I don’t drink iced tea to often but this summer I have been finding myself preparing or ordering it more when I’m out. I always thought iced tea tasted very different from hot tea and it never really suited me so it seems things are changing with my palette!

This iced tea appealed to me because of the ease of making it. I simply had to place the tea bag in a bottle of water for an hour, take it out and I had iced tea. I put my water bottle with the tea bag in the fridge while I was getting ready this morning to test this out. Right before I left I discarded the bag and my water bottle went with me for the morning events. The tea definitely tastes green. Very green actually. The mint peeks in underneath giving the green taste a little extra something special. I quite like this and am glad to have found a cold brew iced tea for an on the go water bottle!

I received this in the sampler package from Den’s Tea. I love the extra matcha in here. It was powdery when I opened the wrapping. This was excellent but I still prefer the whole leaf tea. The leaves in this pyramid bag were a tad crushed up. Not bad for a bagged tea :) Convenient to take around too.

It has been quite a while since I drank a Houjicha and I had forgotten how comforting they can be. After a busy day I made myself a cup of this and relished in the toasted goodness that came over me. There was no bitterness or odd flavors sticking out. I have had a not-so-nice Houjicha before and I am thankful this one was not a repeat experience! I found this tea had a roasty toasty flavor that was simply yummy. It helped to relax me after an eventful day and I just might have to add this to my list of teas to keep around!

Had this w/ lunch- a REALLY crappy tv dinner. It’s ok. Very matcha-esque especially the aroma before steeping. Both sweet and bitter.