Yunomi

While I’m mostly a black tea gal, I do relish my nightly cup of houjicha. I’ve been wanting to try these flavored houjichas for ages, but they were out of stock for quite some time. And when they came back Yunomius sadly removed the sample option. Cameron B. came to my to my rescue and generously sent me some samples. I’m trying to drink all my swaps/samples in the order I got them, but I decided to cheat and treat myself with one of these.

I’d had a houjicha + mint blend before and wasn’t super fond of it. The mint was too strong and the houjicha wasn’t of the best quality. But it sounded like a promising blend, so I was curious how it would work in this instance. The leaves seem to be a mix of regular hojicha and hoji-kukicha (my favorite!) and there are cute little silver balls hanging out in the mix. Sprinkles? Steeped a tsp for a bit over 2 minutes at 190ºish.

Yum! This is quite nice. The chocolate is creamy and melds right into the roasty houjicha. The mint is thankfully not overwhelming, but it’s barely noticeable. Just a refreshing bit of brightness. Not bad at all, but not really mint chocolate. The website recommends adding milk which sounds odd to me, but why not give it a try.

Added a splash and unsweetened soy and… yum! Surprisingly nice. The chocolate is very creamy and it tastes super nutty. I really like it! Sadly the mint is pretty much completely drown out, but it’s very tasty. Overall I really enjoyed this and will definitely consider picking up a package for myself. I do think it would be improved with more mint, or as a straight chocolate houjicha. But as-is it’s quite nice.

The last of my flavored houjichas from Ocharaka and Yunomi! Well, the last to be tried anyway. Honestly, when I was choosing which flavors to order I was leaning more toward the Orange Osmanthus, but a lot of other people seemed to take particular interest in this one so I figured I would try it instead. I do enjoy apple, but the mention of ginger in here scares me a bit as it’s not my favorite ingredient. There are chunks of dried apple mixed in with the usual roasted stems and leaves. Dry scent is very strong and sharp apple and it almost smells effervescent in a way.

The steeped tea smells mostly of mild roast with a bit of sweet apple mixed in. I like this one quite a bit actually. The flavoring is very mild, and it tastes more like a sweet fresh apple to me than baked, but I actually prefer that. The ginger is extremely subtle, it just makes the apple taste a teeny bit spiced and comes off more as a general “spice” note than ginger itself. The pair work very well with the mildly roasted houjicha base. Lovely! Thanks to everyone who sort of recommended this without realizing it, ha ha. :D

I am a Yunomi affiliate! Please consider using my referral link if you decide to make a purchase: https://yunomi.us/?ref=12

Next one up from Yunomi and Ocharaka! Now, I’m pretty picky when it comes to chocolate teas, so I was unsure whether to order this one at all. In the end, I figured a mint houjicha still sounded pretty tasty, so even if the chocolate isn’t to my liking, I’ll still have that combination. The base is the same mix of roasted stems and leaves, and there are big pieces of peppermint along with a few tiny blue flower petals. Oddly enough, for some reason they felt the need to add tiny silver sphere sprinkles to this tea. I’m not sure what they’re meant to add… Dry scent is mostly roasted with sweet chocolate and a little bit of mint.

For some reason, this cup steeped up much darker than the Grapefruit & Honey version. The aroma is strongly roasted with a tiny bit of chocolate. Hmm, this one is less impressive than the other two flavors I’ve tried so far. I can taste some mint, but even that is quite mild next to the houjicha itself. I honestly don’t think I taste chocolate at all, even if I concentrate on it. So mostly this is just a plain (but high-quality) houjicha with a bit of peppermint added. Not bad, but disappointing nonetheless.

I am a Yunomi affiliate! Please consider using my referral link if you decide to make a purchase: https://yunomi.us/?ref=12

Woo, my Yunomi order came! I’ve been dutifully checking the mailbox every day because since I chose the free economy shipping, I didn’t have any tracking and was unsure when it would show up. Needless to say, I was excited to find it had been delivered today! After trying (and enjoying) Ocharaka’s Houjicha Japanese Pumpkin, I’m looking forward to trying the three other flavors I picked up. This is the one I was most excited for, so it’s going first! It’s a combination of roasted stems (apparently gyokuro stems) and leaves and there are also some flower petals and citrus peel mixed in. Dry scent is lovely sweet citrus with some roasted and rich notes.

Mm, the steeped tea has a lovely sweet and mild grapefruit aroma along with a strong roasted undercurrent. Yum, the grapefruit flavor here is lovely! For some reason, grapefruit is a flavor that tends to be done well in tea, happily for me. I’m not sure I really taste honey, I think it’s melding with the slightly sweet and rich roasted houjicha base. Delish! Ocharaka has done it again with this one.

I am a Yunomi affiliate! Please consider using my referral link if you decide to make a purchase: https://yunomi.us/?ref=12

Finally revisiting my leaves from two weeks ago. They dried nicely in my gaiwan and have been waiting for a resteep.

Steep two is pretty much the same as steep one – the same brothy, savoury, mushroom, zongzi flavours. Maybe not as strong as the first cup.

I really want to make soup or rice with this tea, but I don’t know now much the flavour would come out with stuff added. Maybe I’ll keep the leaves and crumble them up into a pot of rice and see how that goes.

Since Yunomi is offering extra points for reviews right now, I figured I’d dig into my recent order, even though my original plan was to sip down a few other teas before getting into it. As a bonus, I ordered a sample size of this one, which was only 2g, so this is a sipdown.

I’m really into trying new and unusual things, so I knew I had to give this a shot when I saw it. This tea really is unique – I’ve never smelled or tasted a tea that’s even remotely similar to this one.

I followed the steeping directions to the letter – 350ml of boiling water for 4 minutes.

Smell of the liquor distinctly reminds me of zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) with pork and shitake mushroom. It’s a very complex smell, that combines the filling ingredients with soy sauce, sticky rice and bamboo leaf.

On the palate, it’s a bit sour (but not nearly as sour as expected) and intensely savoury. The flavour is well reflected in the smell – shitake mushrooms, pork, soy sauce, umami, bamboo. Very broth like. This has a long finish with mushrooms and soy sauce lingering at the back of the mouth.

One of the recommended methods of prep is to use the tea to make rice porridge. I can definitely see how that would be delicious and a fantastic use of these flavours. I could see using this tea to make congee with dried shredded pork and preserved duck egg.

Drinking this feels more like a meal than a beverage. It tastes and feels like soup, and it’s making me crave my grandma’s cooking pretty badly.

I accidentally took a five hour nap after mu first cup, so I’m going to hang on to my leaves and have something else before I continue steeping these.

I don’t think I would reach for this tea very often, but it’s delicious and unique and I would recommend trying a sample.

This was my other purchase from Yunomi. I’ve been pondering over these flavored houjichas for a while now, and decided this was the most unusual flavor and the one I wanted to try first. The packaging was pretty cute, though not resealable (http://instagram.com/p/wWy1temgAn/). It’s the large kraft packet. I will say, 30 grams is a lot more than I expected, I suppose because this is a very lightweight tea. It also appears to be more of a houji-kukicha than a houjicha – it’s almost all stems. This is actually a good thing, since I prefer the kukicha version personally. Dry scent is extremely rich and creamy, almost as if there’s some kind of dairy element involved.

This is actually quite delicious! I can taste the lovely mildly roasty kukicha base quite clearly. However, I can also taste the lovely and rich Japanese pumpkin flavor, which actually reminds me quite a bit of butternut squash mixed with sweet potato. It’s creamy and decadent. The description recommends this as a milk tea, and I’m sure it would be phenomenal that way. Will definitely try it! :)

Find this tea here: https://yunomi.us/shop/13439/ocharaka-h04-houjicha-japanese-pumpkin-30g-id-13439/?ref=12

You know what is just crazy awesome to me? The tea group that I created back in early 2013 on facebook is 12 members shy of 600. That is mind boggling! I started it at my friend’s insistence as a place for us to babble about our shared obsession and as a place for me to teach them about tea, or at the very least point them to the books and websites I used to learn stuff. It started out pretty slow, just some friends and friends of friends, and then it really took off. Before long I enlisted the help of my mom as an admin, and it was only a couple of weeks ago that I was telling the group how awesome it was that we hit 500 members. It is a labor of love, I get frustrated with it at times but my little tea group is awesome, I have met some amazing people because of it.

So, remember back in June when I reviewed Sencha of the Summer Sun? Well, I am drinking the same tea, except this time it has been roasted into Yunomi: Obubu Tea #14 Houjicha Amber Roast. This is really exciting to me, it is like visiting a new friend who got complete facial reconstruction and is still the same person but is also totally different. Ok, that analogy failed utterly, but I hope the gist of what I am saying comes through. Unlike my experience with Obubu’s Smoky Roast and Dark Roast I did not get to know the tea pre-roasting, so being able to taste and smell the pre-roasted Sencha is pretty amazing. Enough of my tea geeking out, on to the sensory analysis of the tea leaves. Ok, the aroma of this Houjicha is fun, it starts off as sweet roasted marshmallows and a touch of campfire, it then transitions to toasted sesame, burnt grass, and lastly a tiny wisp of distant sea air. I very much so had a vision pop into my mind of roasted marshmallows on a beach, the fire made from driftwood and sea grass. What is it with roasted teas and their ability to send my brain to such wonderful places?

I decided to brew the tea in my trusty basket inside a teacup, I know I am betraying my kyusu, but when I took the tasting notes for this tea it was really close to me leaving to come out to PA and my breakable teapots were packed away, must keep safe from the cats! The nicely steeped tea smells like a seaside campfire, complete with the slight aroma of toasted seaweed. It is not as sweet as the dry leaves, mostly savory and toasty with a distinct umami. The liquid is a blend of soothing toasted sesame, a touch of seaweed (kelp, specifically) and a bit of smoke. As smoky teas go this is pretty mild, none of those strong char and burning things notes, more like a fire in the distance.

Ah, this is a nicely savory Houjicha. There are, at least that I have experienced, two kinds of Houjicha, the ones that taste sweet like roasted marhsmallows, and the ones that are savory and rich. Obviously this greatly depends on the tea, and since Sencha of the Summer Sun was not a sweet Sencha, this totally makes sense. Yunomi uses the word robust to describe this tea, and I agree, it is a good description, the umami mixture of roasted kelp and campfire washes over your tongue, again it reminds me of a seaside bonfire. At the very finish transitioning into the aftertaste you get a touch of toasted marshmallow, this delicate sweetness with a bit of smoke lingers for quite a while. I can see this being the perfect end of summer beginning of autumn tea, it reminds me so much of that last visit to the ocean before summer is over, but you can start feeling the chill in the air at night.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/12/yunomi-obubu-tea-14-houjicha-amber-roast.html

I reviewed this tea 2 years ago and still had some left of it. Brewed it up this morning and it’s still not bad. I am really surprised. Most green teas lose their flavour after 1 year. However, I really have to stop buying so many teas that I can’t drink them all up in time. I resolve to drink down my stash for the next few months.

Still leaving my orginal rating from 2 years ago but of course it’s not really that fantastic after being aged that long.

Backlog – Some of the gyokuro teas and good but just a bit too rich for everyday. I also find the brewing method a bit complex and easy to mess up. I don’t like brewing tea at such a low temperature (even for the first infusion) because I like my teas hot. So I decided I was going to use the sencha brewing guide to brew this gyokuro and see how I like it. I loved it!

It was sweet, grassy, vegetal,seaweed, good umami. I found seaweed was strong but not overly so like in some gyokuro’s . Definitely stronger than a sencha. It was a beautiful emerald green in the cup. I got 3 infusions from it and I think I could have got a bit more at the time but was too busy. I would consider ordering more of this.

Having this tea this morning. Brewed at 185 , 8 oz, almost a min. Meant to go 45 sec but couldn’t get to it in time. Anyway, I’m really surprised with my last review. This morning this tea is pretty good. Not the best sencha I’ve had but still a decent quality one for the morning. I’ve upped my rating.

This tea seems to be falling short for me this morning. It’s a good tea but it seems to be lacking the strong umami , seaweed, & sweetness that’s part of sencha. First & second steeps were fairly week compared to what I like in a sencha. Third steep is nothing more than a generic green tea. Maybe I needed to have less water and more leaves. I used 1 tsp and 8 oz water at 175F first steep for 30 sec. Second steep was 6 oz of water 175F 10 sec. Third steep was 6 oz water 185F for 1 min.

At least I got to try this tea. Not every sencha can be my favourite and I’m a bit relieved this one isn’t.

This is one of a few organic Matcha which I really enjoyed so far.
Suitable as Usucha and Koicha with an intensive scent.
A slightly lighter body with a creamy texture, a sweet flavor, no bitterness at all and a nice taste of umami which was not too overpowering.
Read the full review with photos:
http://matchaenthusiast.blogspot.de/2014/11/matcha-review-cha-ginza-matcha-gold-by.html

This tea has incredible flavor. I was sent two samples of this by Yunomi. They are packaged in little 1 gram foil pouches that are strip-shaped, so the tea could easily be poured into a cup or water bottle or wherever you want to put it really. The first one, I simply dissolved into about 5 ounces of warm water in a cup. The second one I decided to prepare like matcha, whisked in a chawan with just about 2.5 ounces of water.

Of these two methods, I really prefer the second. The result is a beautiful emerald green drink with a seafoam green froth. The mouthfeel is very milky, thick, and full, and not at all drying. The flavor is incredibly rich and green. It’s very nutty with hints of pistachio and edamame. The warm, nutty flavor really fills your mouth and nostrils. I wouldn’t say this tea is sweet. It’s more savory than sweet, but it is definitely mellow. There’s very little bitterness to this tea even mixed so strongly.

I have a lot of difficulty describing green flavors like this, but I think the emphasis is on a rather mellow, nutty kind of flavor more than a vegetal one.

When mixed into more water the first time I had it, the flavor was rather subdued, so I feel I may have used too much water. That time. The packet didn’t say how much water you should use it with. Maybe 3-4 ounces is ideal.

Enjoying this one this morning. I love sencha but it has such a caffeine kick. This morning I need it because I didn’t get enough sleep. This is the last of my sample on this one. It’s a great sencha and I will miss it but I have lots of great teas in my cupboard to sip down.
Not leaving any details on it since I did that on my first review of this tea.

Considering how many senchas there are out there and how many I’ve tried, I am a real newbie to any Japanese tea. Here’s my review anyway.

The dry leaves are a dark green. First bewing was 6 oz, 185F, 30 sec. The first cup was a light green colour. It was very pleasant and I could have had every cup just like the first. It was a sweet, grassy with just a bit of umami. The caffeine level was fairly low on the first brew too.

2nd brew was 6 oz, 185F, 10 sec. Wow, only 10 sec. I tried to get it out of the tea pot fast enough but the leaves had expanded and kept covering the little infuser over the spout. As a result it took a few seconds of shaking the pot and squeezing out all the water. This brew was stronger than the first! Yunomi explains why the second brewing is only 10 sec. The leaves have opened up and there is leftover water clinging to the leaves from the first infusion. This cup was very good too. A much stronger umami note than from the first infusion. Much greener & grassier but this time with a hint of bitterness.

I have a feeling there are probably no bad senchas at Yunomi. I don’t know where this one falls in quality of senchas but it seems to me to be a very high quality one. I can see how sencha could be part of my everyday tea but I still prefer the lighter caffeine from the Chinese greens. Sencha seems to have more infusions than Chinese greens before losing it’s flavour. Will follow up later when I have more infusions.

This houjicha has a really noticeable bitterness in the aftertaste, and seeing that it is made from Sencha of the Summer Sun, it’s understandable. That tea also has a bit of bite to it. It’s hard to describe what sets this houjicha apart from others. It has a bit of that bitter green tea taste that you get from more bitter/robust sencha.

To be honest, I don’t really prefer this to the simplicity of the regular houjicha made from bancha. I like my houjicha to be mild, or maybe just slightly robust, but this one is really robust and smokey/bitter in the finish. The scent has notes of cedar and mustard and the tea itself tastes roasty like a houjicha usually does, but maybe with a bit more of a coffee-like bitterness in the finish. The bitterness really lingers a bit, but it also has a cooling sensation and it is a clean kind of bitterness. It is similar to the subtle bitterness of walnuts.

Not bad stuff, but I think I like the simpler kind more.

Dark green, needle shaped tea leaves which turn into mushy small leaves after steeping. The Fragrance was sweetish vegetal.
The liquor was light cloudy with a vibrant yellowish green. Very rich in umami and amami and smooth like a good Gyokuro. It would be a waste not to enjoy it like a Gyokuro.  So my steeping instructions were: 5g per 80ml water, at 60-75°C for 10sec-2min, 4 Infusions were possible

Before you read my review, just know that I am brewing this the traditional Japanese way, which is very flavor-intense and different than the way most Westerners brew Gyokuro.

Here’s a very short article about what the difference is:
http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2014/02/gyokuro-is-not-something-to-drink.html

And the brewing method is here: http://everyonestea.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-brew-gyokuro.html

It is also the same leaf to water ratio that was recommended in the gyokuro tip sheet Yunomi sent me with the teas… so I guess this is at least a somewhat common method in Japan.

I mention this because my first gyokuro review had a lot of people wondering why my experience with the tea was so much different than theirs. This is primarily why.

That said, on to the review. I drank this prior to writing this review so I don’t have it right in front of me and I didn’t take notes. All I can say is I actually didn’t taste a significant difference between this one and the last one I tried “#04 Standard Gyokuro (Kabusecha)” from Kurihara Tea Farm other than this one was slightly less bitter. The umami flavor is intense, fills your mouth very quickly, and it takes a long time just to sip a tiny 20-30ml cup of it. It’s a really interesting experience. It resteeps okay once, but after that you’re digging into the bitter flavors in the leaf quite a bit so I really only drank two infusions of it.

It made a delicious green tea salad afterward.

I’ve decided not to rate Gyokuro teas unless I find myself really loving one. I believe in trying to appreciate them with the traditional method of brewing instead of diluting it to suit my tastes, and so far the traditional method is just so new and abstract to me that it is very difficult for me to tell if I enjoy it or not. I think the quality of these teas is good, but I cannot particularly evaluate them because the flavor and feeling of this tea is just so unlike anything else I’ve ever had. It can be a little overwhelming, but it is also very savory and enjoyable in some aspects.

If you’ve never used the traditional method to prepare gyokuro, I recommend doing it at least once. It’s a trip.

Got a sample of this tea from the sweet Rie T.!
Another pretty good genmaicha. It’s sweet and toasty. Oh how I do love a good genmaicha! ^^

From Cameron B in a swap!

Brewed with a shudei kyusu. 1st infusion: 160 degrees, 45 seconds. 2nd and 3rd: 170, 30 seconds.

I love the color of the wet leaf – such a deep yet vibrant green! This gyokuro has a citrusy dry aroma. The wet aroma smells of the spinach, almost sugary. The liquor is bright green, full-bodied, thick-textured, and very sweet. The first and third infusions are buttery with a spinach note, and the second tastes more like squash with the slightest hint of bitterness (the good kind).

A good quality gyokuro, but it’s too sweet for me. Thanks for giving me a chance to try it, Cameron B!

This is my second free “press” sample from Yunomi.us last month (I just got an email telling me that my free samples for this month shipped, yay). I’m just going to say it, I don’t have much experience with gyokuro and the last one I tried was a bit too much for me. But onward we go, for science! The leaves of this tea are quite thin and lightweight, and almost needle-like in shape. Their color is a rich jewel-tone evergreen. Dry scent is strongly sweet and vegetal, and almost fruity (pineapple?). I steeped a level teaspoon at 160 degrees for 2 minutes.

Once steeped, the tea has a strong and intense vegetal aroma, with a lovely mixture of sweet and savory tones and a touch of seaweed. Oh wow, I was blown away at first sip! This tea is so amazingly sweet and smooth, and super creamy in texture. Drinking this reminds me of eating a nice hearty, thick soup. The vegetal flavor is deep and luscious, and a mixture of mild steamed greens and silky butternut squash or sweet potato puree. There’s also a lovely rich nutty flavor here, definitely with a touch of roast. It’s a decadent nut, like macadamia or cashew. So delicious and satisfying!

I feel much better today! It is delightfully chilly, my Minecraft Hoodie is out of my trunk, and my cat is nestled in my lap. Pretty sure all my problems were being caused by allergies, after a really scary asthma attack last night I decided to take some allergy meds and oh man, such an improvement. I forget that my allergies go bonkers in Autumn in Kansas City, I am so glad I am escaping to PA, I might avoid the worst of it. Allergies or no, I love this time of year…being under blankets and having a snugly heat-seeking cat make it extra wonderful. I am in an excellent mood.

Today’s tea from Yunomi might have the distinction of being the most interesting tea I have ever reviewed, I cannot tell you how excited I was to try Furyu’s Bancha Goishicha! This rare dark tea from Kochi Prefecture in the town of Otoyo, it is named Goishicha because the chunks of tea are reminiscent of the game of Go. For a while this tea was extremely rare (having only one producer) but recently thanks to the local government there are more producers of this unique tea. One of the things that makes this tea so fancy is the way it is made, using a method called after-fermentation, first the leaves are steamed, stacked, and covered with a mat to allow it to ferment, but wait…there’s more! After that the leaves are stuffed into a barrel with a rock on top to continue fermenting it, lastly the leaves are laid in the sun to try. You can see that a lot of work went into making this tea. Sniffing this hockey puck of tea is awesome, it smells more like food than tea, with notes of old oak wood, soy sauce, salty sea air, a tiny bit of smoke, wet leather, and a bit of a savory meaty finish. I can certainly see why this tea is used to make Chagayu, because it smells like food! I kinda want to eat this tea instead of putting it into my kyusu.

So, after giving the chunk of tea a five minute steep, my kyusu is leaking some powerful aromas, I am not sure the word pungent fits, but wow, that is fascinating! The aroma of the wet leaves is sauce, seriously guys, it smells like sauce, like someone blended soy sauce, Ponzu Sauce, Mirin Sauce, kelp and old wet leather. The liquid smells like food too, the same saucy concoction but with a hint of rice and more of an aged, oak cask aroma.

Wow! Ok that is so weird! It does not taste like any tea I have ever had, and I have had a lot of tea! It starts off very sour, like lemons mixed with soy sauce, a nice dash of kelp, with a finish of leather and mushrooms. It tastes like a mix of my favorite sauces and is really intense, I decided to try it chilled as well so I refreshed my cup and put it in the fridge for a few. Cold takes the edge off the sour, so if you find that lemony sourness is too much for you (I eat salt covered lemons as a stomach soother, so it is totally not too much for me) I suggest chilling it.

Guess who is going for a round two? Yeah, it is me, I want to see what this chunk of aged tea can do! The aroma of this steep has a sweetness to it, along with of a leather tone with a great combo of saucers from the previous steep. This steep is much milder, it is still sour, but instead of tasting like an entire lemon, it is like a little squeeze of lemon with notes of Mirin and Soy sauce. The aftertaste is smoky and leathery with a lemony quality that lingers for a long time. I am amazed at how refreshing this tea is, I feel rather invigorating, but not in a caffeine way, but more of a I just dove into a mountain creek in summer kind of refreshed.

Oh man, the third steep is where it is at! The aroma is pretty much identical to the second steep, so no new observations there. The taste however, well, that is just fun! It is the perfect balance of sourness, sweetness, and savory. The notes of sweet plum wine, leather, mushrooms, soy, lemon, kelp…it is awesome! The lemony sourness lingers along with gentle smokiness, again I feel really refreshed after this steep. I had a great day with this tea, I sat sipping it all day being enamored by the uniqueness of this tea. I certainly want more, I want to make all my tea friends try this, I want to cook with it, I want to have it around when I need a pick-me-up tea. This tea is absolute love.

For photos (including my cat being adorable) and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/10/yunomi-furyu-bancha-goishicha-tea-review.html

First steeping: two heaping teaspoons of leaf in 6 oz of water, at 165 degrees for 90 seconds. VERY intense umami and brine flavors, almost like drinking ocean water. Slightly sweet with no bitterness. Second steeping: 175 degrees for 30 seconds. More vegetal and more balanced. I actually preferred the second steeping, which tasted much like the first steeping of the other gyokuros that I’ve tried. Third steeping: also 175 for 30 sec. Much milder but good, with more sweetness coming through and still no bitterness. It reminds me a little of a kukicha now.