Ito En

perfect w. spicy shrimp roll!

backlogging from earlier this week –
wow! this is the most complex bottled tea I’ve ever had! Definitely not your typical american-style green tea. It is a bit sweet, a bit grassy, and bit roasty. It reminds me of both matcha and gemaicha, but obvioulsy much lighter than either. I will def be buying this again, and will try the more intense “dark” variety next time.

Grabbed this at the store last weekend and decided to have it today as part of my post-lunch tea ritual. Tastes very jasmine-y. It’s pretty strong, even when directly from the refrigerator. As it warms up, I start getting hints of green tea in there but oddly enough, it’s making me think of cookie dough. Jasmine flavored cookie dough. It’s something about the sweetness of it that gives me that feel, I think. Getting warmer now and the green tea is coming through in a less cookie dough way and a more astringent whoosh at the end. Not bitter or tart but kind of fresh feeling. And I’ve either gotten used to the strong jasmine or the green is countering it a bit. It’s not the most sophisticated jasmine I’ve had but it’s certainly not the worst. Much more of a natural jasmine floral than a perfumed jasmine floral. I think this ends up being a pretty nice RTD tea.

Okay, so I know this is a bottled cold tea, but it was so good I felt I needed to spread the word. It’s light, a little sweet, and very apple-y. Almost like biting into a fresh apple and taking a sip of tea at the same time. Absolutly loved it!

Strong taste – imagine the “Red Bull” of teas.
I’m having it over ice, great for after a brisk walk.

I picked this up yesterday at Shaws. Its in a different bottle than the Teas tea. It just says Ito En Golden Oolong tea. This is a delicious unsweetened Oolong ice tea. It tastes Oolong. The tea has a very robust clean taste and I will buy it again. I just wish it wasn’t 1.99 a bottle.

This is my absolute favorite tea in Japan. It’s the first thing I grab whenever I go to a convenience store. I usually have to add sugar or honey to my tea if it’s unsweetened, but the flavor of this tea is so amazing that I don’t even feel the need to sweeten it!

This bottle went delightfully with my left over Easter ham sandwich. My absolute favorite bottled/pre-made tea. Mmmm!

I picked a few of these up at Whole Foods the other day. I was a smidge leary, but I had a hunch I would like it. Man, am I impressed! This tastes so nice and clean…so oolong-y and nom! It’s great with food or by itself. I wish they weren’t $1.99 a pop, because I could casually drink a lot of this. I drank the majority of the bottle ice cold with lunch. Yum! Now, I’m finishing up the bottle and it’s kind of luke-warm. STILL really good! I love that this was totally unsweetened and natural.

I guess $1.99 isn’t too bad if I only pick up 3 or 4 every now and then. It’s totally worth it!

Grabbed this while I was out and about today. Sharply grassy with a tart astringency that was not unpleasant. The last sip had some bitterness, but for as bright and sharp tasting as this was, it was remarkably unbitter. Not something that I’d want in my pantry (I prefer sweeter senchas) but really good for grabbing while at the grocery store.

This tea has been sitting around in my collection for awhile now in it’s airtight bag from Ito En. I decided to open some of it up this morning and try it out. The leaves are beautiful, consistent, and very floral. They brew up a nice light yellow liquor that is mildly sweet and interestingly, less floral than I had expected. The other silver needle I have on hand, Octavia, is definitely more floral/earthy than this. No complaints here…

Traveled to Whole Foods yesterday and wanted to go through their tea selection. Bought some dried and bagged teas, but also got this bottle. Very delicious. The tea is a refreshing oolong tea, unsweetened so you get the natural taste of the tea.

I dig this. Normally when I have a hot oolong, I don’t go for amber colored ones. But this one is super toasty and delicious chilled. It’s that one canned beverage vice that I have that can’t be replaced with anything else. They know how to steep – and I am stoked that it is unsweetened. If you ever find me in whole foods (I hate shopping), I probably have at least 4 cans of this and 22 oz. hoppy beer.

This stuff is so refreshing on a hot day. Definitely my favorite Tea’s Tea product and I’m so happy they sell at the campus convenience store!

Vegetal Central. . . loving this Sencha and for some reason Sencha always makes me crave apples. . is it just me?

Under steeped this tea, as I do with most Sencha’s (personal preference) but maybe I should have left it a bit longer. . . the New Year is coming up folks!! Gotta get ready to party…any suggestion for some pre-gaming tea for tomorrow (some tea nerd better suggest one).

Until then………thank you Ito-En for a good start to my day.

Nothing more refreshing than an Ito-En Sencha Shot. . . yummmmmy. Now, what should i have for lunch?

I quite liked this one. It is light to the taste. I found that a longer steeping time made for a better first steep.

Ti Kuan Yin (Iron Goddess of Mercy) is an oolong grown in Fujian Province and is designated as one of China’s “10 Famous Teas” and may be the best-known oolong in the world.

The batch I’m reviewing, Iron Goddess Superior, was purchased straight from Ito En’s Madison Avenue store in Manhattan, but it can also be purchased from the company’s less-than-user friendly website. On the website, the loose-leaf teas can be found on the homepage nav bar under “Ito En Brands,” which strikes me as a little weird, but whatever. Or go straight to the tea selections from this link. http://www.itoen.com/leaf/

This Ti Kuan Yin is lightly oxidized, much less oxidized than more traditional Ti Kuan Yins, such as those I’ve purchased from Porto Rico Importing. The infusion (or, as they say in my neighborhood, “da wet leaves”) are olive green, as opposed to the medium brown I’ve seen on other Ti Kuan Yins. And the liquor was light green, as opposed to medium amber.

I did a four-minute steep, which in some circles would be considered a long steeping time for this tea, but I’ve found most oolongs can go three or four minutes. This tea can also be served using what’s called the gung fu (or kung fu) method, using large amounts of tea for very short steeping periods -as short as 30 seconds - and steeping it multiple times, which enables you to bring out the tea’s different nuances with each successive infusion. However, all I was interested in was a cup of tea, not to make a whole afternoon of it.

Anyway, this tea had that typical Iron Goddess roasted flavor, but not quite as intensely as other variations of this tea I’ve tried. The tea wasn’t bad, but given my penchant for black teas and more oxidized oolongs, this seemed just a tad thin to me or maybe too green. Hey, if you’re going to all that trouble to process an oolong, which may be the most complicated teas for growers to make and involves bruising the leaves, sweating them to stimulate the tannins, and other complicated steps, you’d think they at least oxidize the leaves more to make it more distinctive from a straight pan-fired green.

I give this tea neither a thumbs up or a thumbs down. If you’re normally a green-tea sort of person, you might appreciate this Ti Kuan Yin’s green leanings. If you’re coming to oolongs from the dark side, black teas that is, no George Lucus reference intended, you might prefer a darker Iron Goddess, like what they have at Porto Rico Importing. http://www.portorico.com/store/page30.html

At $1.40 an ounce for Porto Rico’s Iron Goddess, as opposed to Ito En’s $5.60 an ounce, you might also appreciate the price savings. Porto Rico also has a pricier superior grade Ti Kuan Yin at $3.31 an ounce (still cheaper than Ito En’s), but I haven’t tried that one yet.

If you’re in New York, you should definitely check out both stores, arguably the two best tea purveyors in the city, although completely different experiences. Ito En, Madison near 69th, is a zen-like Japanese experience, complete with the salespeople presenting the tea to you to sniff like a fine wine. Porto Rico is unmistakably New Yawk. (Go to Porto Rico’s main store on Bleeker, just east of Sixth Avenue.)

In bagged form, this is a decent jasmine green for the price.