Yunomius

Today we are reviewing the other tea that I received from Yunomi, Blue Oolong by Masami Higuchi of the Kaneban Higuchi Tea Factory. Awesome fact, this tea comes from the Shiga Prefecture, home of the beautiful Lake Biwa, and I love knowing this because visualizing where the tea I am drinking comes from just makes the experience even more enjoyable. The aroma of the Blue Oolong is delightfully earthy and mild, it reminds me of the piney, earthy, mineral, aroma of mushrooming in the forest. I swear that is an incredible compliment! There is also a tanginess to the aroma that vaguely reminds me of chrysanthemum flowers which blends very well with the initial aroma of earthiness and pine resin. The finishing notes are green like freshly unfurled oak leaves. A very intriguing aroma for an Oolong.

The steeping brings out some very fascinating notes of sweetness which really accentuates the earthiness. While enjoying the steam wafting into my nose from the steeping leaves I get this wonderful feeling of brightness flicker through my whole body, I cannot help but sigh in contentment. The liquid still retains the pine aroma but has more of the pine needle than pine resin and is pleasantly sweet, there is an interesting undertone of kelp which just made my mouth water.

Something new and exciting! This Oolong is tart and refreshing, very surprising and new to me, which I like. It mixes the tartness with a smooth, creaminess that vaguely reminds me of Greek Yogurt. The aftertaste brings in notes of sweetness and a hint of floral that fades into kelp. I love how complex this tea’s flavor is, it is certainly unlike any Oolong I have ever had (possibly any tea) and I had to suppress a giggle at how enjoyably new this flavor is.

The second steep takes away some of the tart astringency and replaces it with a smooth floral taste with hints of vegetal green. I am surprised how much the second steep mellows the tea out to tasting more like a ‘traditional’ green Oolong with orchid notes, but there is still the aftertaste of kelp which I adore. Thank you Yunomi for giving me the chance to try some of your teas! I cannot wait to get my tea obsessed hands on some more.

I got a free sample of this tea with my recent Yunomi.us order. MAN I love me some Japanese greens. This is very tasty Shincha :)

Oh gyokuro how I miss you when you are away, hehe. I got my package from yunomi.us yesterday! 4 gyokuros for sampling and some salted Sakura blossoms. Can’t wait to try them all!

This was a really interesting tea.

Mulberry leaf tea is supposedly very similar to sencha, but without the caffeine. The process of making this tea is the same as well as the preparation. Heck, the appearance looks similar (I could be fooled this was a gyokuro) but smells slightly olivey.

Anyways, I found if sencha was a raw vegetable, mulberry leaf tea would be the sencha cooked. The tea is grassy, savory, buttery, with cooked green bean and squash notes. But unlike sencha, this tea isn’t crisp and fresh. It’s different yet similar at the same time.

Cool, interest and practical factor of this tea is high for me, but on a taste level for me, meh. I like tea tasting fresh and crisp. But don’t let that stop you from trying a mulberry leaf tea – it is sooo different than what caffeine free teas that are more popular like rooibos and herbals.

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/2013/08/26/kuwacha-sencha-mulberry-leaf-from-kesennuma-kuwacha-eitoku-via-yunomi-tea-review/

So, second steep, a mere 10 seconds. See, I knew my tastebuds would start to change their ideas pretty quick – (I wish they’d do that with olives, I really would like to like olives…).

The smell is still not really my, erm, cup of tea, but the taste is really growing on me. All the positive things you would expect from something that still does remind me an awful lot of spinach. A zinc tang, an earthiness. And it’s really green.

Not my favourite yet, but I did rather enjoy that.

In the last month I’ve been lucky enough to win two competitions run by Yunomi.us.

Each time I’ve won one main prize, and then they’ve sent me a 5gm sample of something else as well. This was one of those samples.

I wanted to try the warm water steeping method, but I have no means of testing my water temperature yet and I was less keen to wing it when I only have a 5g sample, so I went for standard (both of which are recommended). That’s 30secs in boiling water. The very first thing that strikes me when I’ve steeped it is that it looks like spinach. The second thing is that it smells like spinach.

I mean, really smells like it. I’m not talking ‘spinachy notes’. I’m talking what the water in the pan after your mum has overcooked the sunday dinner smells like.

Now, I think me and this tea have got off to a bad start. By the time I was getting to the end of my first cup I was thinking ‘Mmm, maybe…’. But at first all I could think was ‘This is weird, I’m drinking spinach water’.

I don’t want to dismiss this straight away, because I know even after this short amount of time my tastes are changing and I could end up absolutely loving this. But for a first time Sencha drinker – undecided.

Mmmm, my second gyokuro! This one was even better! My first gykuro was from Den’s Tea, but this one from Yunomi.us / Kurihara Tea was more balanced and buttery.

I followed these steeping instructions http://yunomi.us/4832/gyokuro-steeping-technique/ which was kind of annoying getting my water to 120F / 50C as my kettle only goes as low at 160F. However, the result was really good! My gyokuro was syrupy, buttery, creamy and spinachy! I got a handful of resteepings out of my tea too! The astringency was actually good too!

Uggg, I think I need to acquire more gyokuro (maybe one of the higher quality ones off Yunomi) but I know my cash flow will be pissed off!

Full Review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/gyokuro-standard-kurihara-tea-via-yunomi-us-tea-review/