Yunomius

Need to get back into these Japanese green samples I haven’t tried! Feeling like a nice mellow green after having several cups of black this morning. This is my first kabusecha, which is a green tea that has been shaded for a short time before picking. This tea was shaded for two weeks according to the website. The leaves look and smell like sencha, though they are maybe a little bit of a richer green color.

This tea is actually surprisingly light, and I am enjoying it a lot. It has the same butternut squash, spinach, and grass notes as other senchas. There is a definite creamy buttery quality to this though, and it’s quite mellow and smooth. Quite tasty, thanks Yunomi! I would absolutely drink this as an everyday green tea, and this may have to be a reorder.

Sipdown!

Finished this off last night while working on some homework due today in my feature writing class. It was less umami than in previous infusions.

On a related note, I no longer have any genmaicha in the house. What are your favourites? I bought this from Yunomi, and although they have great stuff I don’t know if I want to make an order just for this. Any recommendations? I think my favourite genmaicha so far is Sloane’s Grand Genmaicha because it’s got a very brothy taste to it.

I’m almost done this tea – there’s probably enough left for 1 large pot. I’ve been remiss about drinking the brewed tea, because it’s cooled down a lot.

Now for what you’re probably all wondering: how is Gracie?

Better. But she’s not out of the woods yet.

She’s still at the vet and had an ultrasound done, resulting in a diagnosis of “triaditis” – inflammation of the liver, gall bladder, and pancreas. She’s also got a kidney infection. It looks like the crux of all this is a blockage in her gall bladder preventing the flow of bile. Not good, but definitely better than a cancer diagnosis.

She’s on several meds now: antibiotics, an anti-vomiting one that should also help her pancreas, something to help things get flowing in her gall bladder, painkillers, and liver and B12 supplements. They’re also force-feeding her wet food using a syringe.

My husband, mother and I went to visit her this evening. They brought Gracie in hooked up to some sort of IV line. She looked much more alert and responsive compared to yesterday (yay!) but still quite bedraggled and tired. Her pupils were dilated, which I think is related to the painkillers. Once the antibiotics kick in, they’ll also start giving her some steroids to stop the inflammation.

She had gobbets of wet food stuck to the fur along her mouth, jaw, and foreleg, which I guess means she wasn’t that receptive to food. She also disliked it when we tried to pet her anywhere beyond her shoulderblades – the vet technicians were surprised when I pointed this out, but thought that was happening because of residual soreness from the ultrasound.

Gracie will stay at the vet for another few days, after which we hope we can take her home. However, she’ll still need to take medication and it could take 6 weeks for her to fully recover.

Getting low on this tea. Not sure if I’ll restock or if I’ll try one of the other teas that Yunomi has. But this is a good choice for tonight – it’s surprisingly cool out, so the toastiness here is comforting.

Backlog from a few nights ago:

Nice tea, soothing, comforting. What I remember most about drinking it is that I was standing by the kitchen counter across from the stove. My cat Marco wandered in, so I coaxed him over and gave him lots of pettings and rubbings.

Eventually, he flopped down in front of the stove by my feet so I knelt to give him more pettings, coo at him, and rub his belly. I ended up drinking the majority of the cup while petting him. My husband walked in and saw the two of us on the floor together and smiled. I smiled back.

Good tea. Good cat. Good husband. :-D

This one is tasting quite green and grassy this evening. Hm.

Backlog from a few nights ago.

It’s Christmas time, which means that now the hubby and I are rewatching some Christmas movie classics. We started this off a few nights ago with our annual rewatching of Die Hard, cuz that’s how we roll.

(Seriously, it is a Christmas movie.)

I sipped on this while we watched it, but I botched my brewing of this – I not only overleafed but oversteeped, and that combined with the broken-up quality of the leaf made this taste really astringent and umami. I know this tea can be a lot better, but I guess you need to have a much lighter hand with it.

Glad I have this in my cupboard, though.

Sample sipdown!

I had just enough for a 1.5 cups of this, and steeped it twice. Not much more to say here that I haven’t said before. This a really smooth, clean-tasting genmaicha. It’s very well-balanced, and a little bit astringent, but that’s ok. I will most definitely restock this at some point.

Today was a gorgeous summer day, and to cap it all off, I made some strawberry rhubarb crisp, then ate TWO helpings while watching the close of the Brazil/Colombia World Cup match.

This was right after I sipped the Granny’s Cake tea earlier today. By the end of the second helping of rhubarb, I had pretty much experienced Sugar Overload and didn’t think I’d be able to handle any more sweet foods for the rest of the day – which meant that this genmaicha was an excellent choice when I still wanted to drink some tea.

Based on LiberTea’s review, I was expecting little crunchy, salty rice balls in my tea, similar to those really nice Asian rice crackers you can buy at the bulk food store, but what I found instead were little white and matcha-green puffballs that didn’t retain their crunch after being steeped.

Luckily, though, the genmaicha here is pretty good! The taste is extremely smooth and not astringent, only slightly grassy, and overall very satisfying. It’s not quite brothy or soupy, but more just… straight and neutral. It’s hard to describe. But it’s definitely a good enough genmaicha that I am debating getting some more from Yunomi.us once my self-imposed hiatus ends in September.

Thank you KittyLovesTea for sending this a while ago! This is actually similar to the tea I just tried, even though the leaves seem very different even if they are both green. These leaves look like lawn mower clippings. :D There is also two different colors to them, a darker green and a lighter green. The flavor is very similar to the Dragonwell I had yesterday. It’s like creamed or breaded corn and the steep color is very light. The second cup was almost the same. I’m used to these types of greens being much different. Maybe I’m steeping them differently now. To be fair, the package says this expired at the end of February (way after KittyLovesTea sent it) and one sip did have a hint of that “old green tea leave” flavor, so I’m not trying this at its freshest. It’s still very good anyway. I’ll steep up the last teaspoon soon!
Steep #1 // 40 min after boiling // 2 min steep
Steep #2 // 42 min after boiling // 3 min

The unbrewed tea gives off a fresh vibrant savoury aroma with a background of mustard powder. Post brewing it has melon sweetness and a little astringency.

Light aroma on the unsteeped tea. I’ve tried a few different variations on the steep time etc but it still needs playing around with. In anycase, this tea reminds me of toasty tuna oil, minus the viscosity of the oil. The toasted rice seems a bit heavy, perhaps less rice or a tad less toasted.

Another backlog from last night, and another sipdown!

I bought this as part of a sampler pack from Yunomi.us, and so far I’m undecided about whether I like houjichas or not. There’s something about the taste in the background – that sort of “curly” astringent taste I associate with some green oolongs – that I’m not too fond of.

However, I still have 2 more teas in the houjicha sampler pack to try. I really wonder if either the dark or smoky roasts will knock my socks off. One can hope…

This isn’t a sipdown, but now that I’ve made a full pot, it will be soon.

This is a tad astringent, but still quite soothing. The flavour is light, yet still present.

Mainly, though, I figured this would be an easy one to finish off, since it’s already open.

I bought the sampler set of this plus the Basic, Dark, and Smoky roasts from Yunomi.us. I tried the Basic roast a while back, and while I liked it, I had never had any houjicha before to compare it to.

This is the second one I’ve tried, and it’s really really mild. So mild that it’s hard to taste much of anything, but I don’t mind, as I’m just getting a nice cup of warmth rather than a lot of umami taste. I wonder how I’ll like the dark and smoky roasts, though.

I finally get to try another of this tisane type, hurray! It smells so good- like toasted brown rice cakes. The flavour has is a bit roast nutty. Went well with my Thai soup.

A fairly sweet and full bodied houjicha without much umami flavor.

Thank you Yunomi.us for this free sample that added as a nice surprise as I opened my order today.

Nice large leaves and lots of sticks in my 5g sample. Beautiful sweet and toasted scent that I liken to a honey cake I used to make in my automatic bread cooker machine. The more I sniff the more grassy and mineral it becomes but it is a very nice scent.

Since there were no instructions on the website for steeping this or any other bancha (that I can find) I will use Yunomi.us standard steeping method.

Tea – 5g
Water – 80C
Volume – 180ml
Vessel – Kyusu

First Steep – 30 seconds
Yellow green in colour with virtually no scent despite it’s very apparent colour. Flavour is mild with roasted grass tones and sweet honeysuckle that dissipates quickly and you are left with a touch of smoke in the after taste.

Second Steep – 10 seconds
More roasted and less grassy. Honeysuckle and sweetpea tones with a slight smoky after taste. Also a little sour. For the most part it’s sweet and a perfect strength for me personally.

Third Steep – 30 seconds
More toasted than sweet but it does lighten a lot in the after taste. Tastes like raw pea. No smoke this time, instead the after taste is grassy and mineral.

I enjoyed this Bancha much more than I thought I would, though the first steep was nice it was far from ‘special’ compared to others I have tried. It kicked up a gear after that and steep two and three were delicious, so very natural and sweet with light smoke. Plus now my mouth is coated in a delicious roasted sweet pea flavour that reminds me a little of light pea soup. I may get more of this in the future.

Thank you to Yunomi.us for this sample which was included with an order a few months ago.

Crisp dark green needle leaves mixed with a few light yellow green stems. They have a very sweet honeydew scent that is very pure and beautiful.

The steeping instructions are a little different for this tea, it recommends doing one long steep rather than several short ones. So this will be steeped in my Kyusu for 2 minutes. 80ml for 2 minutes seems a little strong but that is what the instructions say on the website.

The resulting tea liquid is medium to dark green and has a sweet yet savoury broth scent. Flavour is strong though not overly so, the umami is rich and lingers into the after taste. Savoury and sweet at the same time with some astringency and rich mineral tones. Like thick cabbage water.

A further steep with the same 2 minute rule reveals more savoury umami but less sweet than previously. It’s still thickly mineral with cabbage and broccoli notes yet it seems toned down as a whole compared to the first steep. Still slightly astringent.

Another 2 minute steep – Severely toned down from what it was but it still has a lot of flavour, only now this is more standard Sencha like. Medium strength, minimum umami and astringency but remains mineral with added grass tones. Has some sweetness once again.

Another 2 minute steep making this number 4 – Extremely mild, all that remains is sweet grass.

This was a pleasant tea that offered lots of umami for the first two steeps which work well as a boost throughout the day. Sent me a little tea drunk.

Another Yunomi.us club sample for me to try. The website description of this Sencha likens it’s flavour to that of coconut milk. I do like the sound of that on this beautiful sunshiny day.

The leaf is dark green with a few hints of light green mixed in, also some stems are present. They are a crisp, long needle like shape and have a sweet yet creamy and floral scent. Very similar to a milk Oolong, not sure about coconut yet but milk is very apparent.

First Steep – 30 seconds
Light green liquid with a sweet milk scent that is light yet pure. Flavour has gentle grassy notes with some sweetness and a hint of milk/cream in the after taste. Also has floral tones that remind me of sweet pea mixed with buttercup.

Second Steep – 10 seconds
Despite the short steep it has tripled in strength and has some astringency. Not as sweet as before or creamy though some is still present. More mineral also like sweet grass or fresh spinach.

Third Steep – 30 seconds
More astringency and again less cream and sweetness. Tastes more like a standard Sencha at this point. Highly sweet grass and sweet pea like, thick flavour but with minimum astringency really overall which makes it a pleasant steep. Offers minimum dryness upon after taste.

Overall – This tea started off with high cream notes but ended up being mineral and more standard Sencha like, almost like it transforms from one tea into another. Quality was good and this would be a splendid every day tea.

I was sat here falling asleep and trying to wake myself up with the promise of Matcha when I remembered I had this sample with me. It’s not Matcha but it is powdered and my intrigue has built up over the months, it’s produced with the same method as Matcha but the leaf itself is different. Matcha = Gyokuro where as this is Tsuyuhikari which is a type of Sencha and is a new cultivar for me.

‘A cross of Shizu7132, known for its Japanese cherry tree fragrance, and Asatsuyu, known for its beautiful green colour and characteristic bean flavour, Tsuyu-hikari, when grown properly, combines the best of its two illustrious parents’. Thanks to Thes Du Japon website.

I am lead to believe that this tea comes in full leaf as standard, yet what I have is powdered and differs from everything else I have seen.

Yunomi.us whom I received the tea from has this on their website.
‘Royal Emerald Tea® is powdered sencha green tea developed by the Fukushima family. High quality green tea leaves are ground into a fine powder using a stone mill like matcha tea powder. The tea is a vivid emerald green in color and has a sweet taste with less astringency than ordinary sencha tea.’.

Royal Emerald Tea must be it’s frequented English name. Well I have two little sachets of powder and two steeping instructions, one for hot and one for cold. I’m sticking with the hot as I wanted traditional Matcha originally.

1 stick = 1g
Water Temp = 80C
Volume = 180ml
Steeping instructions are virtually the same as Matcha.

Runs off to make this interesting tea
Yes bright green is spot on, very beautiful and bright colour with a strong sweet Sencha scent.

Flavour reveals a sweet and floral Sencha with thick grassy tones and a slight astringency. The mixture has separated at the bottom of my cup but it’s nothing that a quick cup swirl can’t fix. It’s a nice strength, I was worried it might be too strong but it’s scent is more than it’s bite. Very creamy too in the after taste after a few sips. No dryness either which can be expected of a powder.

Unusual yet interesting, and strong enough to make me go light headed and on the verge of being tea drunk. Japanese greens, particularly strong greens, tend to go straight to my head. This was no exception. I will be ordering more of this in the future.

http://yunomi.us/shop/17286/tsuyuhikari-green-tea-powder-bulk-1g-sticks/

Sipdown! Well, sorta.

I’ve had this tea for nearly a year and a half, and while it’s good, I also have some buckwheat from Yunnan Sourcing that I need to drink too. So I took the last little bit of this (a few tablespoons worth) and instead of drinking it down, I baked with it!

I blitzed the sobacha in a small food processor until most of the groats had broken down into flour. Then I added some white flour, butter, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt to create a crumble topping, and made an apple crumble with it!

The crumble has a nice, warm, bready, nutty note to it that’s really interesting. A fitting way to let this tea bow out.

Oh, and plus: I saw Civil War last night, and it was awesome. AND I JUST BOUGHT THE NEW RADIOHEAD ALBUM AND I WILL LISTEN TO IT NOW AND EVERYTHING IS AWESOME.

Since I have a bunch of buckwheat from YS, I have less incentive to hoard this now. And it’s tasty – cozy, toasty, nutty. I’ll see if I can get a second steep out of this.

But otherwise, let me tell you about this awesome soup I just made that I’ll have for lunch over the next few days:

- 2 big carrots
- 1/2 head of cauliflower
- 1 acorn squash
- 1 red onion
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1 inch piece of ginger (very thick)
- curry paste
- salt, olive oil
- herbs and spices (whatever works for you)
- cream
- chicken broth

1. Take the cauliflower, squash, and carrots, and cut them into medium-sized chunks/florets. Drizzle them with olive oil, salt, and pepper, along with whatever herbs/spices you have on hand (eg: sage, oregano, garlic powder, whatever).
2. Toss the veggies, oil and spices together to coat, then roast them in a 375°F oven for 50 minutes or so. Make sure to give them a stir every often so they don’t burn.
3. A few minutes before the veggies are done roasting, chop a red onion and finely dice/grate the ginger and garlic.
4. Heat a large soup-pot, put some olive oil in it, and then add the garlic, ginger, and onion. Let them saute for a few minutes and add some salt and pepper to the pot.
5. Once the onions start to brown, add the curry paste (2-4 Tbsp) and stir it all together. If things are clumping up or sticking to the bottom of the pan, add some liquid to deglaze.
6. At this point, the roasted veggies should be done roasting and have had some time to cool outside of the oven. Take those veggies and chuck them into the soup-pot, and give them a stir so they can get coated in the onions and curry paste.
7. Now add the chicken broth in (I dunno, 4-6 cups? I didn’t measure). Let the whole thing boil for about 15 minutes. You can taste the broth as it’s cooking to adjust the seasonings as necessary.
8. After it’s done boiling, turn the heat off and get out an immersion blender (stick blender). Then start blending like crazy until it’s a puree. It doesn’t have to be velvety smooth, but it should definitely be a puree.
9. Now add the cream (1 used a small 1-cup carton of 10% cream) to finish it off.

Then eat it!

Fucking delicious, yo. I’m going to really enjoy lunch tomorrow.

Backlog from last night.

Continuing the Xmas movie extravaganza, hubby and I watched “Arthur Christmas” last night. It’s a cute movie, but I thought it was kind of overstuffed and frenetic, trying too hard for an emotional resolution it didn’t earn. The hubby is far more lenient when it comes to critiquing movies, and he’s pretty happy with this one.

Anyways, the tea. I was so happy to have this tea back in my life that I steeped it twice and kept the soaked buckwheat grains to have for breakfast this morning!

Perhaps I was a bit skimpy with the buckwheat and didn’t add enough in, but the flavour didn’t have the amazing roasty sweetness I experienced when I first had it back in April/May.

Nevertheless, I will hoard this until I can find a source of sobacha that is easier to find or cheaper.