Ito En

very refreshing and the flavor is fairly natural for a RTD tea. Wouldn’t buy a whole case, but would buy a bottle or two again.

Went to Mitsuwa today and got some lunch. I got this tea with it too.

The dry leaf smells like hay, very sweet hay. And plums? Something fruity, sweet yet tart. Once put in a heated pot, the leaves smell dark and heavy, almost (but not quite) musky. After brewing, the tea smells sweet and tangy. The taste is slightly astringent and peppery. Yes, peppery. How strange.

Slurping brings out a sweet, fresh cut sweet grass taste and the aftertaste has a fresh floral note. There is a bitterness to it but not an unpleasant bitterness – more like the bitterness that comes with dark, leafy greens (collards, kale, that sort of thing). The mouthfeel is thin with a little of that peppery taste coming through on the texture – little dashes of roughness.

This isn’t as sweet as I am normally go for but I’m finding it very attractive. Will wait on the rating to see how this romance develops.

This doesn’t exactly taste like jasmine tea… must be the ascorbic acid. but pretty good if you need to pick up a bottle of tea at the store.

not as bitter/smoky as I expected/feared. It actually reminds me a lot of Ito En’s “Oi Ocha” minus the buttery/floral aspect. I like the Oi Ocha better because it has that extra dimension, but this wasn’t bad.

As with their “Tea Apple,” I found this one to be juicy, natural tasting. However, the tea is definitely secondary to the pear flavor. Very refreshing, and worth buying a bottle to try, but not something I would specifically seek out in the future.

HisGirlOona is right: this tastes surprisingly like biting into a juicy red apple! They somehow bottled that “crisp” taste that bottled apple juice never seems to capture.

I can’t say much for the tea itself because I was too wowed by the apple. Not an everyday drink for me, but I’m glad I tried it. It was refreshing and would certainly fulfill an apple craving if you don’t have an apple handy!

Smooth, with a strong jasmine finish that is floral, but tastes more fresh than fake/perfumey. Probably not the best choice with my lunch of roast beef and welsh rarebit over rye toast, but enjoyable nonetheless.

This advertises a “bolder taste” but to me it tastes bitter (overbrewed?), with a strong honey note onteh finish. I actually looked to see if it’s sweetened (it’s not.) I definitely prefer the more subtle, yet more complex taste of their regular brew. In fact I bought a whole case of it. I can taste a bit of woody/roasty something behind this if I strain, but the bitterness is primary on my palate. It’s drinkable, but I don’t enjoy it like their other green.

I had been thinking about this tea since passing it over during a trip to Ito En’s New York store back in April. When I was there again last week, I made it a point to pick some up. After all, how could you go wrong with a blend of Chinese Silver Needle white tea and Japanese Uji Gyokuro green?

Sadly, the first infusion definitely did not live up to my expectations. The gentleness of the white was overwhelmed by the green, leading me to think the ratio of the blend isn’t optimal. The second and third infusions, though, were better and seemed more even.

The jury’s still out, overall, though.