Ito En

As far as bottled teas go, this is by far my favorite. It’s absolutely delicious and refreshing when served ice cold. Although it’s little expensive, I always keep a couple in the fridge at work for convenience. In my opinion, this tea tastes exactly as it smells (easiest way to describe it); the jasmine is very prominent with almost a nectar-like sweetness. I only start to pick up on the green tea aspect when the beverage starts to warm up.

While this tea can’t really compete with the loose leaf variety, I would definitely recommend picking up a bottle or two if you can find it.

I bought this on a whim at my local Japanese store. I was needing some caffeine for my ride home. It says it’s the #1 Japanese green tea. I agree with what another person said, it tastes like a Chinese green tea. I was surprised to see it’s a product of Thailand. It is refreshing, but I don’t think I would buy again.

This is one of the few Teas’ Tea varieties that I haven’t tried (that I would want to) so when I saw it here at JFK I grabbed it for the flight. I wasn’t expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised. This tea is not for the floral faint of heart… it’s really jasminey, which means I’m a fan. The jasmine’s fresh though and not soapy or perfumey, with that flavor of honeysuckle sweetness (even though it’s unsweetened). There’s a bit of a bite from the green tea, which provides a nice, slightly grassy background. Definitely a tea I would readily buy again. (No rating because I dictated this review to my iPhone and the sliders don’t work.)

First steep has a fairly strong spinach flavor, vegetal and a bit tongue-coating. Second and third still have milder hints of that flavor, but with a more balanced grassy note.

Tasting Notes:
Steeped Tea Smell: a very strong vegetal odor, sharp
Flavor: smooth, vegetal
Body: Full
Aftertaste: very astringent, bitter this needs a chaser

I don’t like greens, and no surprise, I did not like this canned sencha.

I purchased this while grocery shopping, I want to have ready to drink teas at work in my lunch. I had this at lunch, so it was cold as my lunch was kept refrigerated.

Rating: 1/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2011/09/ito-en-can-green-tea-sencha-shot.html

Last month I was lucky enough to try Teas’ Tea Mango Oolong Tea, a delicious lightly sweetened bottled tea. And don’t take my word for it – if you read the company’s June press release, you’ll discover that this tea won “first place at the 2011 North American Tea Championship in the Ready-to-Drink Flavored Oolong Tea category”. So yeah, it’s that good.

Here’s a little more about the taste (in my personal…oh heck, professional, opinion): it’s, um, amazing. I don’t hesitate to call this the best Oolong tea I’ve tried, and this is coming from someone that normally wants their tea hot and unsweetened. It has about 80 calories per bottle, and each bottle contains 160% of your daily Vitamin C allotment. When drinking this tea I immediately detected a wonderful mango/orangey (sure, that’s a word) taste, but the aftertaste is almost peach-like. The aroma is fruity and pleasant, and the tea is packed with antioxidants.

Loved it!

I thought it was funny to see Kirkland Signature brand Japanese matcha/green tea until I noticed that it was actually Ito En rebranded for Costco. I’ve been very happy with most Ito En products in the past so I was excited to try it.

All in all, it isn’t that impressive, but it is still hard to beat for the convenience and price. The taste is a little bitter but I’ve rarely seen anything better in a bag or pouch.

Iced jasmine tea is a bit of a rare bird, but I think it is underrated and this is a great example. I find it crisp and refreshing, and not overly floral or sweet. Easy to pound on a sunny day.

A little expensive, but worth it compared to the over-sweetened crap that fills the aisles.

Probably my favorite bottled tea. Typically I don’t expect much from bottled teas but I’m a big fan of all Ito En’s white and green bottled teas in the Teas’ Tea line.

Vegetal notes of seaweed, grass, and spinach like a mild cold-brewed sencha. Crisp finish, noticeably free of any additives or sweeteners. I could drink this all the time, hot or cold weather. They are a little bit expensive (and hard to find) here in the US, but they are worth it over the syrupy sugar water that passes for bottled tea everywhere.

Very impressed in this tea. I generally have very low expectations for bottled teas, but I loved this. Gotta be one of the very best bottled teas I’ve ever had. Light and delicate flavor is well preserved and not muted with additives or sweetness. Crisp and refreshing on a hot day, my only real complaint is that it is kind of expensive for something that I always drink down so fast. I also think it is kind of bold to offer a Chinese white blended with a Japanese green, which it seems isn’t commonly sold but I enjoy nonetheless.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I loved these. Very strong, but not like oversteeped sencha, it was more like a super-concentrated taste. Some astringency, but not really too bitter. Definite strong vegetal flavor typical of sencha.

I really like these as a quick pick-me-up on warm afternoons or mornings (I lived in Florida for a while where it is too hot out for hot tea by 7am). It is nice to just pound a cold shot really fast, much better than an acidic and sweet energy drink. It’s not world-class tea but what do you expect out of a tiny can?

I found these at Big Lots for $.50/can and I wish I had bought out their entire supply while they were still available.

Back in June, I ordered an Ito En Matcha Gift set from Amazon.com for about $30, that included a chawan (tea bowl), chashaku (bamboo scoop/spoon), chasen (tea whisk) and some matcha tea. I had no idea that the Tea’s Tea ceremonial grade matcha would be so good, and has quickly become my matcha of choice for usucha — or “thin/light tea.” I just checked out Ito En’s website (https://www.itoen.com/matcha-teas-tea-7-oz-can.html) and now they even have it on sale for less than $10 for a tin. A great deal, and now I see they even won an award for this Tea — I am not surprised!

I bought a can of this the other day and finally tried it after lunch! Does it count as a different tea because the vessel is not a bottle? Hmmm.
Anyhow, the tea itself was ho-hum. It would have done much better with my tastebuds if it’d been just slightly sweet. I don’t mean Nestea sweet… maybe a third of that!
This was a little bitter, and roasted which I didn’t mind. The part that really threw me off though, was the eggy flavour!! So odd. I’ve never come across “egg” in a tea. Cooked, sweet egg- the kind one sees in sushi etc (Tamago)
I doubt I’ll purchase this again, but if someone offered it to me no charge… I’d drink up no problem!
It was refreshing and satisfying, if nothing else. I’m still curious to try the other flavours they have, but rarely do I see any of them at our local Asian grocery

LOVE this tea! Actually tried it for the first time in Disney World in the Japan Pavilion in Epcot. It is so crisp tasting. Trying to find it in a local store because I find Amazon a bit pricey for it. My favorite iced tea!

I picked this up today at Whole Foods and I like it! It has a roasty oolong flavor with a bit of thickness to the body. This chilled shot is quite refreshing – I would definitely buy this again.

I was going to dive into a multi-steeping oolong tea this afternoon, but then I had to walk across campus and decided to stop at the shop that carries the Teas’ Tea teas (heh). Of the ones they carry, this is the last of the bottled teas that I was really interested in trying, so I went ahead and picked it up.

It’s definitely seriously rosey. Even though it’s unsweetened, it almost seems a bit sweet from the florals. The green is a light base, which isn’t really the best green; it’s a little bitter at times, and at others it’s just plain. Still, it’s pretty tasty and I like that it’s unsweetened as a bottled tea. I think I prefer rose blacks because the black tea tends to keep the rose from getting out of control, and I’d like to try some of my rose blacks iced I think!

Really suprisingly wonderful! I grew up in Japan and was very pleased to find Ito En at costco- I was very skeptical at first, but the excellent quality of this tea really won me over, and the bags (silk-like [nylon perhaps?] pyramid bags) were so convenient! Before this I had lost all faith in bagged tea, and I have Ito En to thank for restoring it. Also, the matcha in each pouch is really awesome, and the plastic pouches are perfect for purses- totally airtight! I would highly recommend this tea, especially if you’re a busy person as well as a tea aficionado reluctant to go back to bagged tea. I usually steep for 30 seconds after letting boiled water cool for 2~5 min.

This is my second bottle of Teas’ Tea iced tea; since I liked the Mango Oolong I had last time, I decided to try this Crispy Apple Black this time. A big difference here though is that the Mango Oolong was “Low Calorie”, i.e., only lightly sweetened, whereas this one is “Classic”, which means lots of sugar. It’s sweet enough to basically taste like somewhat thin apple juice (though not quite as sweet as actual apple juice). I can’t really taste the black tea at all, but at least the apple is actually well done; it’s juicy and full flavored like eating an actual apple (perhaps a Gala), not like some apple juices which can be fairly bland. I would like it if they offered this one in the lightly sweetened category, because I feel like with less sugar the tea might come through more.

I’ve never been an iced tea person, and I’ve always preferred my teas hot to cold. As I’ve started exploring tea more, though, I’ve come to realize that this is probably because I’m not much on plain black or plain green tea, which is what most of the iced teas I have had are. I have always liked juice/tea blends that seem to pop up in the stores around summertime, so when grabbing a bottle of something to drink at a store I usually go for those. Also, a lot of bottled iced teas tend to be over-sweetened for my tastes. A restaurant on campus has started carrying the Teas’ Tea line, so I grabbed this bottle the other day to try.

I have to say, I’m impressed! I’m actually very much enjoying the mango flavor to the light oolong base. This isn’t a super complex tea, but you still know you’re drinking tea and not flavored sugar water. It’s only lightly sweetened, so while still pretty sweet (to my taste) it isn’t overwhelming. This is marketed as “Low Calorie”, but thankfully they still sweeten it with cane sugar (just not as much!), not weird artificial sweeteners which always taste bad to me.

One of the better bottled iced teas I’ve tried, and I’ll definitely be trying more of the line!

I drank so much of this when I was in Cali, I started to get worried that the net waste of all my empties would overcome the net benefit of my years with vegetarianism, bike-riding and yoga. Then I got back to Texas and couldn’t get it any more, which is just as well because I’ve gone back to eating meat, driving my car and not doing yoga. Maybe if I reform my life, Ito En will start selling it here. #cosmicbalance

I got stuck in California on work for some extended stays. This was my favorite discovery out there. Every time I see somebody sneak a batch in to Texas, I buy it up.

As a guilo trying to figure out how to plug into world tea culture, Ito En is a great place to start. As Ryan notes, their NYC store is off the hook. Makinohara Sencha is a great baseline to acculturating this Texan’s taste buds to the finer things in life. I have no doubt there are better teas out there, but as the first step in a lifelong journey, this is a good place to start.

Since I’d tried the oolong shot recently, I thought I’d give this a go. It’s good, too! This one seemed less necessary to be so cold, but still ideal that way. It was a rare canned tea that actually tasted exactly as I would hope it should taste. If anything, it was on the toasty end of sencha, which is awesome for me. I’m glad to have tried these Ito En shots!