Yunomi

It’s my time to try the infamous pickle tea. The vinegar smell was obvious upon opening the bag. I was worried it would be overpowering in the cup, but with a steep on the shorter side I found it to be somewhat enjoyable. I don’t think I’d buy more of this tea, but I’ve enjoyed the few cups I had, possibly more due to it’s uniqueness than a particularly pleasant taste.

Have to disagree with LiquidProust on this one, I and three co-workers smelled it and we all thought it smelled (lightly) of dill pickles—which is definitely strange and different but not an awful smell.

We brewed three cups western style, 1 minute, 2 minute, 3 minutes (starting with 3g and adding 1g to each redrew for a total of 5g).

Brewed, it tastes like it smelled, hot tea with a bit of pickle. I love pickles and all things sour so it hit the spot for me. My two coworkers also enjoyed their cups.

This is one I’d throw some in again if I were ordering something else from Yunomi but probably wouldn’t do an order just for it.

Sipdown (138)!

I know I said that I thought this would be best served hot, but something about the hot mug I made last night didn’t sit well with me. I think it was the apple? It was just sort of tart which was a little funky next to the roasty profile of the houjicha and the warming ginger flavour. If I ever cross pathes with this again I think I need to go back to drinking it cold…

This is a queued tasting note.

Thank you Liquid Proust for the sample!

- Cold brewed…
- Lovely roasty notes typical of hojicha
- Touch of ginger, which complimented the base
- Somewhat fruity/apple-y but fairly mild/nondescript
- While pleasant, I feel this would be best served hot

Sadly, I oversteeped or used water that was too hot. I could still enjoy the brothy, seaweed and nutty characteristics of this tea.

So I am finally getting around to getting the mouthpiece and valve oil for my thrift store French Horn, took me long enough, and I find myself in a bit of a pickle. A lot has changed in the world since I played my little heart out 15 years ago, mainly I have no idea where to find sheet music…or really how to read music (I gotta start over from scratch, I hope the knowledge comes back quickly) so that is going to be a fun search. I definitely think one of the things I will look for is the Jurassic Park theme, that piece is wonderful for the horn and was a favorite of mine years ago…well that and Bolero!

Today is a lazy day, meaning I lack the brain power to write about a tea with many many steeps, instead I want something relaxing…so I turn to an old classic relaxation tea, a Hojicha! Looking at Yunomi’s Ocharaka’s Hojicha Mint Chocolate Flavored Roasted Green Tea, a blend of Hojicha , black tea, peppermint, cornflowers, flavoring, and my favorite part…silver sparkles! Edible ones of course. The aroma of this tea is like a piece of toast with chocolate sauce and a very distant mint. Like chocolate mints for someone who wants more chocolate than mint and I am totally ok with that!

I was gifted this tea from a tea friend and thought it was just chocolate hojicha, so it was quite the surprise when it had mint and the silver sparkles, it was kinda epic steeping it and seeing the sparkle. The aroma of toasty chocolate (reminds me of the smell of the edge of a pan of brownies, actually) with gentle cooling mint notes as an afterthought. The liquid is pretty balanced with chocolate and mint with a finish of roasty toasty notes that are quite pleasant, like blending autumn warmth and the crispness of winter.

I found myself really torn, was this a winter tea or an autumn tea? On the one hand the gentle sweet mint and chocolate remind me of winter, with cooling mint notes and my favorite holiday indulgence (so many chocolate mints get devoured that time of year.) On the other hand the notes of pine sap, burning autumn leaves, and woody leaf notes remind me of autumn. This tea is a perfect relaxing cup of sweetness that feels like a warm blanket and afternoon naps, which is something I was much in need of.

for photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/03/yunomi-ocharaka-hojicha-mint-chocolate.html

Well I did it, I finally saw The Force Awakens, took me long enough. I might lose all of my nerd cred, but I am not much of a Star Wars fan, it has always been a franchise I enjoyed but could not really get into, so that is why it took me so long. That and I hate theaters, crowds, going out in public, and of course being in a car for very long…so other factors. I did enjoy it though, it was predictable and nostalgia laden, but these things made it enjoyable, plus laughing at Kylo Ren’s emo self was immensely entertaining. Reminded me of my goth phase in high school, when I wore a mask and had a lightsaber.

Today’s tea is from Yunomi, a company who I have not visited on this blog in a while, so I thought it was time to change that. Looking at their Ocharaka: Hojicha Baked Apple Flavored Roasted Green Tea, a different take on one of my favorite teas, Houjicha! I am not a big fan of flavored teas anymore, I still drink them on occasion but usually I got for pure leaf or a blend, but once in a while I am craving a taste and don’t have access to it, usually that craving is food related and imitated in tea, so I reach for it to satisfy a craving. This time I was craving apple pie, so it seemed a perfect time to try this tea I had in my stash. Blending Houjicha, Ginger, Apple and Flavorings, this tea smells like tart apples and ginger with a strong caramel undertone. It kinda reminds me of the apple pie caramel lollipops they gave with the apple pie blizzards at Dairy Queen where I worked, hated the blizzards but man did I love those lollipops! There is also a toasted note that vaguely reminds me of crust, but mostly this tea’s aroma is all ginger and apple.

Into my little kyusu the leaves go for steeping, this pot is the perfect sized for a single me sized cup, I like small cups and I cannot lie! The aroma is a lot less tart and more baked sweet apples, toasted crust, and ginger. It does not exactly remind me of pie, but does remind me of cobbler which works for me! The liquid is very sweet with just a hint of tart apples and pie crust. Ok this tea officially smells like pie now.

Mmmm pie, in fact it tastes like slightly burnt pie, where the crust is burnt and the sugar has caramelized a bit. It is quite sweet and smooth with strong toast and ginger notes with light apples, luckily the apple tastes like apple and not apple candy, which I was a bit worried about from the aroma of the dried leaves. I found the apple notes to be strongest in the aftertaste or when the tea had cooled a bit. It is not an exact pie match, but it was close enough to ease my craving!

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2016/02/yunomi-ocharaka-hojicha-baked-apple.html

I drink matcha 4x a week and somehow the last stuff I had from Yunomi lasted a few months which was surprising to me. This is the other matcha I bought during Cyber Monday and I think it works well as a morning matcha. Out of all the matcha I’ve had before, this one whisk the easiest. The color is bit brighter than the last stuff I had and the taste has some more depth to it with a sweet after taste. The texture isn’t as thin as the last stuff; not in comparison for how much powder is used, but for the same amount.
Price wise: I think this will be roughly $13 a month if it last two months for me which means I’m at under $1 per session/morning breakfast. I’ll be looking at Azuma for other products because this one seems to be solid. The can it is in is more appealing as well as the plastic top isn’t so flimsy like other products.

From the Herbal TTB. Amount taken is actually 1.5 tsp. There is some left for another 8oz cup if anyone was wants to try.

18 herbs?!? Wowee. Here they are from the website: Barley tea, job’s tears, sicklepod seeds, cat’s whiskers (herb), dokudami (herb), oolong tea, tumeric, guava leaves, biwa (loquat) leaves, mikan (Japanese mandarin) peels, brown rice, pine leaves, ohbako, benibana, persimmon leaves, amachazuru, sarunokoshikake (fungi), cinnamon.

Oolong. OK. This is not a purely herbal blend then. Considering the number of ingredients and that I’m taking them from a sample packet, there wouldn’t be much of each, including the oolong. Still. This is under the herbal section.

That aside, I have never tasted practically every single one of these ingredients. This blend is difficult to evaluate. I thought I smelled and tasted a solid note of juniper berries. No barley – it wasn’t something I grabbed a lot of. That may have been the sicklepod seeds.

Pleasant cup, but I’m not hooked. You might get something else out of this, so go for it. It is something I’ve never seen before.

Thank heavens Andrew sent me a green tea. I’ve had so much oolongs, blacks, and pu-erhs that I’ve started to get a bit overwhelmed. That is especially true this morning. That Wu Yi varietal was starting to give me a massive headache. The astringency started to follow really badly too.

This green goodness saved my palette. Super fresh, green, and yummy. It distinctly tastes like spinach, asparagus, umami, avocado, and sea weed in a really nice way. Plus I’m personally getting a bit of a creamy, almost oily mouth feel. My stomach is starting to settle. That could just be psychological-veggies can have the tendency to do that to me. It’s so GREEN. I especially like the later steeps. All of them were incredibly short, the longest being 30 sec toward the end. 5-10 sec was the average.

Not bad (Certainly won’t complain for the $3 I spent on 100g of it). With quicker steep times the main flavor I get is one of toasted nuts, especially for the first few steeps. The nuttiness drops off after around 3 steeps, replaced by a light corn-like sweetness. The dry leaves smell strangely of the inside of a pumpkin, and the wet leaves smell like roasted pumpkin seeds. At first I thought this tea was roasted, but I now believe that was simply because I was using too hot of water at first. Not really good enough that I’d go and buy any more of it.

Was planning on waiting until I had a chance to gongfu this. I decided to give up waiting and brewed it western style this morning. It’s quite taste with a sweet fruity note off the bat. This looks and tastes like a black tea, ,not on oolong. The sweet note might be described as plums, perhaps cherries. It hard to pin down. There is little in the way of bitterness or astringency here and I detect no malt.

I brewed this one time in a 16oz teavana glass perfect tea maker/gravity steeper withi 7.2g leaf and 190 degree water for 3 min after a 10 second rinse.

At first sip I didn’t like this tea that much. But as I drink it it is improving. The main note is a kind of a burnt note from the brown rice, not sure how else to describe it. There is a secondary note from the green tea, barely perceptible and somewhat grassy. Overall I like this tea.

I steeped this tea one time with 10g leaf and 190 degree water in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper for 1 min. 10g seems like a lot but those were the Yunomi directions.

Well I’m in the reviewing mood today but have no new teas to review. Ho-hum. I did find this sample from Yunomi which was unopened but past its suggested “drink by” date, so I will leave my impressions gingerly.

I haven’t particularly given much love to my beautiful Tokoname-yaki kyusu lately. I really need to sift through old emails and see if I can figure out who made this thing because it is handmade and is easily the most beautiful and precisely-crafted teaware in my collection.

Anyway, these bancha leaves are the big yellowish green leaves I’m used to seeing. The scent of the leaves after the first infusion is mildly floral and nutty with a bit of the scent of prairie grass in late summer. Most people would use the word hay here, but I like the more idyllic descriptor of golden grasses drying out with splashes of living growth and wildflowers in the mix. It’s a distinct smell. If you’ve gotten to visit any tall prairies you know it, and I grew up among them, so I cant depart it from my memory. The scent of the leaves is also slightly herbal and reminds me of the scent of dry matcha.

The flavor is more enjoyable than I expected, especially from expired tea. It tastes like yellow apple peels and walnuts and packs a pretty decent umami for a bancha. It’s very clean and crisp, quite rich in flavor too. There’s a tart black currant kind of note late in the sip and it lingers. There is a hint of bitterness but I think the tartness and the richness of flavor work together pretty well in hiding it. It has a slightly dry finish as well but a bit of lingering sweetness too.

This tea was relaxing. Good by me. :3

EDIT: I found the aforementioned email and it is made by Shoji Umehara. If you see any of his works, I highly recommend them. My kyusu has the most immaculate lid fit I’ve seen on a teaware (zero wiggle room, but can be rotated smoothly), and the shape and glazing of this kyusu are just perfect.

EDIT EDIT: I found the old Amazon page with pictures of it, though this one I ordered from Chado Tea House (they are the ones who were selling it on Amazon too) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CD8NPTU?tag=tystoyboxpair-20

This was probably the worst smelling tea I’ve had in awhile; reminded me of a dead tree that was once a human but turned into a plant and then died a plant.

While it may not be that strong and what not, but the smell… what the heck?

This is a tasty black tea. There is little malt, bitterness, or astringency. It’s got a nice somewhat sweet, barely perceptible spicy note to it. I’m not sure what to call the sweet note. The website just describes it as mild and fragrant. This is accurate but I’m not sure how to describe the fragrance involved. The dry leaves had an odd smell to them but I didn’t get any of that in the brew.

I brewed this once in a Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 2 min.

This is an interesting black tea. It’s got something of a spicy note to it that I almost mistook for wet storage taste. But this tea is I think a 2015 black tea so it shouldn’t have any storage taste. The spicy taste has something of a bitter character to it I guess. Not sure if I would buy this one again but it is an interesting tea.

I steeped this tea once in a Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 min.

This is a very tasty tea with little bitterness or astringency. The sakura cherry flavor profile is quite nice, if a little muted. I added sugar to this one and it really brings out the flavors nicely. I see Yunomi is now out of stock on this item. I would definitely buy this one again, I only bought 50g of it. It came in a can marked only in Japanese. There was a plastic bag around the can, that was marked. I wrote on the bottom of the can to identify it in the future. While the Japanese aren’t known for their black teas I have found the black teas I get from them to be excellent.

I brewed this once in a 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 mini.

The third and final tencha sample… so sad to not have any more.

The first one I had was the best by far, the sweet tender taste… so good.
This leaf however would out preform it in regards to being matcha. Why is that? Simple: This leaf keeps the vegetable integrity while having a slight sweetness to it. A combination like that is key for a matcha, but for a loose leaf tea I like my sweets so this ranks in #2. I really like the Yunomi series based teas that are put together. I think I might get suckered into getting the aged green Japanese tea leaf one which is 2014 and 2015 side by side.

Green tea season is over for me due to the weather change, but Yunomi had recently put up this spring harvest sencha with the name dragon in it… I’m a sucker for such things so I picked it up with my banchas for the winter.

Here’s the thing: This leaf is small and ugly, but after trying this… I can safely say that the price was worth it. At something like $20 an ounce (for the sample price) that’s steep. This is the second best Japanese green tea I’ve had, behind the Okinawa shincha which was mind blowing good. The long lingering mouth feel is slimely with a taste of vegetable goodness. What confuses me about this tea is it’s overall taste and aftertaste. I’ve used three cups to taste this because each time I get the sensation that I just ate a cooked vegetable. I’m not sure if I like that or not, but it’s pretty dang cool. The leaf once brewed is still small and ugly, but I’m after taste and it is giving me a wonderful taste with an interesting experience.

First, I need to just point out that Yunomi is growing to be something much bigger and better than what it was when I had the group buy earlier this year. Their new site, the new cultivators, and just… everything! I’m impressed and excited to see what is to come.

Anyways, I was very excited when I saw a tencha sampler. A must buy for me :)
https://instagram.com/p/89qYYRRYGq/
This is one very interesting experience. The taste is pure Japanese tea freshness. The odd part though is how it taste like matcha which is probably the way everyone has always tencha, rather than loose leaf. It’s somewhat hard to explain without sounding nasty, but to tencha taste like a non thick version of matcha. Smooth with an ending velvety vegetable taste that lingers briefly. This was the first of the three that I have drank and I have no negative remarks beside the pricing of tencha which is understandable.

I think I have an obsession with Liches (who Ben swears the plural is Lichen, and I am not sure I want to agree with that or not) I just absolutely love them! To me, painting a magical armor wearing or magic slinging skeleton glowing with undead magical energy is just the best thing, I might like painting them more than I do monsters. There are currently more Liches (my blue banshee totally counts) on my tea table then elves and monsters, and I am in the market for more…yep, I totally have an obsession. I blame Tolkien, since I am pretty sure my love for them started with the Nazgul and Barrow Wights…or maybe it came from the creepy Horned King from The Black Cauldron?

Today we are taking a trip to Japan for something beautiful and green, Yunomi’s Obubu #5 Kirameki No Sencha, Shaded Summer Green Tea. From the Kyoto Obubu Tea Farm in, you guessed it, Kyoto, this Sencha is shaded for two weeks before harvesting, giving it a lightness after its strong summer sunlight. The name, Kirameki no Sencha is evocative of shimmering light dancing on water, and that sounds beautiful, and I am a little sad I am drinking this so late in the year, it sounds like the perfect summer drink. Now, before I get into the way these leaves smell, I have to say wow, these are some big leaves! Very large, especially for a Sencha, I was very impressed by their pine needle like appearance and color. Ok, that aside, sniffing time! The leaves are at first nutty and sweet, notes of sesame seeds and a gentle honey sweetness, then it starts to get an umami note of toasted nori which blends really well with the sesame seed notes. The finishing notes are freshly mown grass and a sharp bell pepper greenness which lingers in the nose.

Into my tiny kyusu the leaves go, and the aroma coming of the now wet leaves is quite green! Fresh kelp and toasted nori blended with asparagus and cooked bell peppers. Undertones of fresh grass and a touch of sweet hay cut through the mostly savory notes. The liquid is sweet and warm, like sunlight on a summer day, where it has warmed the grass and hay, blending the aromas of nature. Underneath that is a gentle nuttiness and just the tiniest hint of kelp and sea air.

The first steeping is clean and smooth, the mouthfeel is very light, I can see why this tea is described as one that is good for a summer day, a combination of a lower brewing temperature and lightness would be very refreshing when it is hot. It starts with notes of lettuce and fresh kelp, cut grass and a touch of sea air. Then it moves to gentle sesame seeds and builds to a gentle sweetness that lingers into the aftertaste. The transition between umami and sweet is gradual and not jarring, which I always find quite nice.

Second steeping, the aroma is sweeter, no sea air or kelp to be found, just honey, sesame seeds, and grass. This steeping was smooth like the first, but the mouthfeel is more buttery than light, giving it a bit more depth. It is greener this time around, and not just in color, notes of kelp and spinach with a touch of grass and a finish of sesame seeds at the finish. Usually Sencha makes me feel energized, hilariously right after drinking this one I fell asleep, that was a first!

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2015/11/yunomi-obubu-05-kirameki-no-sencha.html

This is one of the teas Liquid Proust donated to the Herbal and Decaf TTB. Thank you!

I used half of this sample, since it said it made two cups. It tasted mostly like a light barley tea. I could tell there were other flavors in there giving it a bit more depth, but they were so light I could barely tell they were there, and couldn’t really place them. I really like barley tea, so I would definitely drink this again.

This is a very umami-rich gyokuro with deep seaweed and vegetal notes. I first brewed it according to package directions, 5 grams per 6 oz, at 122 F for 5 minutes and then 155 F for 15 seconds. That produced a rich broth with an intense savory flavor. A little too rich for me though.

So I dialed down the leaf quantity and brewed it like sencha: 1 tsp per 4 oz steeped in 160 F for 45 seconds. The resultant cup had the same savory flavor as before, but less intense and balanced with a smooth buttery flavor and a hint of sweetness. No astringency whatsoever. Subsequent infusions for 25 and 60 seconds respectively were good but didn’t have the same fullness of flavor as the first.