Inoki Bathhouse

Day 3 of the Inoki calendar! This was a more elaborate blooming tea than I expected. It gave me fond memories of the first time I visited my partner when he was living in Taiwan – I drank so much blooming jasmine tea when I was there. I was just starting to get into tea and I would drink the bloom grandpa-style, just topping it off periodically. This is obviously a different floral note, but it has that same balance of floral note to vegetal green. Three solid steeps from this. The rose is definitely present but it’s not overwhelming the base. This was such a nice stroll down memory lane!

Day 2 of the Inoki advent calendar. Made this gong fu, currently on steep 6 and still going strong. I’m going to have to stop after this and hope I can still sleep tonight XD

This is incredibly buttery, creamy with floral undertones and no harshness at all. Even this late steep still has a butter cookie quality to it. I’m inclined to agree with Roswell Strange that this might be flavored given how rich it is. That’s ok, this tea is delicious and I am finding it hard to care about whether it’s flavored right now.

Bonus advent calendar! Roswell Strange made this calendar sound so appealing that I asked for it as a birthday present. It was so pricy that I couldn’t quite bring myself to buy it myself, but that’s what birthday presents are for :-)

So, day 1! This is a surprisingly large flower. The only other time I’ve seen a chrysanthemum tisane this big is The Qi’s royal chrysanthemum. I’m more used to seeing it as small flowers. Since it is so big and beautiful, I brewed it in a glass mug for maximum prettiness. This flower isn’t just pretty, though. It’s delicious, too – earthy and gently floral. I got a bunch of resteeps out of it too. Feeling optimistic that this will be a good calendar!

Adventageddon Day 25

Gongfu!

Merry Christmas to everyone here on Steepster who celebrates. It seems like every year there’s at least one advent calendar with a bonus day on the 25th, and this year, it’s Inoki!! Most Wuyi Oolong that I typically drink are much more oxidized or roasted rock oolongs, but this one is greener and more soft, buttery, and floral. I’m not complaining, though, as the lighter bodied and aromatic notes of lilacs, orchid, sweet peas, coconut oil, and freshly whipped cream are so tender and fresh that they almost evoke that soft, fluffy and magical feeling of a heavy snowfall on a still Christmas morning – it’s a very peaceful way to close out this advent season, and one I was more than happy to get to sit with throughout the day.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DEBHXLrBitn/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqUMdfXEhCY&ab_channel=RumJungle-Topic

Adventageddon Day 24

This is the only advent today that it’s finishing up – I’ll have one last day tomorrow. Part of me is kind of glad that we’re not closing things out on pure rose, but not because I have anything against the rose petals. I actually love rose as a flavour and I thought this was really lovely tasting, but it just doesn’t feel right as the last tea.

I brewed these straight in a glass teacup and it was REALLY interesting watching the pigment rapidly steep out of the petals. The liquor in the cup were from an initial blue to more of a grey-ish purple before finally landing at a soft, rose-y pink with the petals having virtually no colour left at all. My photo for this one was taken somewhere in the middle of all that.

The flavour was surprisingly sweet, and definitely very smooth and aromatic. If, like me, you like rose then you would have loved this because it was pure and pretty potent without going into hardcore perfume land. However, because it was so straight forward and authentic there’s nothing for those notes to “hide” with if you’re not a floral tea kind of person.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD-iurcyqIK/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe-PWjYOSfU&ab_channel=UMOVEVO

Adventageddon Day 23

Turns out my DAVIDsTEA matcha wasn’t the only matcha in the cards for me because Inoki surprised me by including a matcha right at the end here when all of the other teas have been loose leaf. Not a complaint! It’s also fitting timing to get doubled up matchas because today is Matcha Monday.

I whisked this up a bit strong and thick, but it was very good. Smooth and deeply creamy in both taste and texture with really fresh, umami and sort of brothy notes to it. At times it made me think of split pea soup? A bit sweet and a bit savory. I paired it with a white peach mochi puff and though the fruit element was maybe a touch at odds with all the unctuousness of the matcha I thought the whipped, creamy filling played very well texturally and did a lot to elevate the more creamy and fresh feeling of the matcha.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD79dBPyeuo/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdTXYXZi8Xk&ab_channel=TheWonderlands

Adventageddon Day 22

I was super unexcited to see this one in the advent this morning because as pretty as butterfly pea flower may be it’s also quite unpleasant tasting on its own and I really view it more as an ingredient over something you’d drink on its own. So, that’s exactly how I approached this one.

I’ve had a lemon in my fridge set aside for a week or so now in case any of the advent teas that I’ve gotten would be good as a lemonade or with some lemon wedges, so I used that today to essentially make this into a bit of a lemonade. Though, I did drink it hot so not really a proper lemonade. Something I also did differently was make a charred lemonade. I don’t really know how I thought of the idea, but I was just feeling like I wanted something with a bit more depth and flavour complexity…

So, I cut my lemon into slices and grilled them so that they started to caramelize in places and burn in others – and then I finished them by bruleeing a bit of sugar on top. From there I “juiced” a few straight into the butterfly pea flower (I only steeped two or three buds – just enough to get a rich starting colour) which turned the liquor into a rich purple from the colour changing effect. Then I garnished with half a lemon slice that was prepped the same way but hadn’t been used for the juicing.

It was actually quite good! I’ve had a roasted peach lemonade before that was wonderfully complex from all those darker char and maillard notes and this was very similar tasting to me. Still has brightness and sweetness, of course, but is just a more full feeling drink with a little less acidity to it. I’d totally make it again, even without the butterfly pea.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD5YtkaSoDn/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z81vNSdV3fs&ab_channel=StillWoozy

Adventaggedon Day 21

Gongfu!

Every black tea that Inoki has included in this advent so far has totally slapped so my expectations were high. They were also met, though, as the dry aroma smelled richly of leatherbound antique books, fudge, and cigar smoke. Steeped up it was so thick and dense with a taste like a cross between dark chocolate dipped espresso beans, flame-licked rye bread, bourbon, and just a hint of campfire smoke. Really complex but dark and dense with a fleeting bitter top note before plunging into some of those richer notes.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD2z0qQS4Nm/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS9InmJ0es4&ab_channel=JessieReyez

Adventageddon Day 20

Gongfu!

Honestly, I didn’t notice until I was writing up my instagram recap that every tea I drank today was a green tea. How I didn’t notice is kind of baffling to me, because I guess maybe that speaks to how nice the teas all were?? If nothing else, this was a very nice genmaicha. Now, was gongfu the smartest way to steep it? Almost certainly not. But I was just really craving a gongfu session and I did like that it let me stretch out my time spent with this tea…

I think what impressed me so much with this one was how simultaneously fresh and buttery the green tea was while having a nutty, mineral and almost cocoa-like flavour from the genmai/rice. Really great balance between those two components that made this genmaicha seem so much more flavourful and full of like. Bad genmaicha isn’t usually really off tasting but it can be quite considerably flat and his was DEFINITELY not a flat tasting tea. Of course it steeped out quickly, so my three steeps were pushing it.

(Snacking on the rice out of the gaiwan afterwards was also a really nice experience.)

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD0PAQWSm53/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.instagram.com/p/DD0PAQWSm53/?img_index=1

Adventageddon Day 19

A love a good Nepalese black tea, but unfortunately I REALLY badly over steeped this mug because I got distracted by Marika dropping by the apartment to deliver some tea mail from an order we’d split. Well, and to just say hi and wish me a happy holiday before she leaves the province for her holiday break.

So I think this tea steeped for like forty minutes, and it was very cold when I got to it. Also very, very bitter and astringent. If you’ve ever chewed an advil it was kind of like that but with a hint of muscat that somehow fought its way past the medicinal taste. I think this is the first tea this advent season that I’ve just totally botched the brewing of, and it’s a shitty feeling because there’s no do-over with this tea. But I guess one in, like, 70 cups of tea isn’t that bad of a success rate??

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDxqOyIyeMK/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qgafLCLWkA&ab_channel=CherryBlonde-Topic

Adventageddon Day 18

Deciding what to do with this hojicha was really tough because I love it so much and knew that with today’s weather I was reaaalllyyyy going to want to lean into that toasty and snuggly feeling. I almost did a giant Western teapot since I’ve been loving doing that in the afternoons the last few days, but I was also craving a latté and none of my other teas today made sense to be made that way. So hojicha latte with strawberry marshmallows it was! Very delish.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDvFf6my37O/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyzGdNHypkU&ab_channel=TomWebber-Topic

Adventageddon Day 17

Back to back black tea days from Inoki made me quite happy today – I feel like they’ve really consistently knocked it out of the park with their black sections. I had no time for gongfu today though, so this was a Western style teapot that I brewed up at work and shared with my “pod” of desk mates.

I think I could have pushed the steep time a minute or two longer, but I’m still really happy with how this one tasted. Very bold, brisk and woody with near perfect undertones of smoke and bittersweet dark cocoa.

The coworker I shared this with doesn’t drink a ton of straight teas. Though, I mean, way more than the “average” person given that we work at a tea company and she’s been here for nearly a decade – her preference just happens to usually be blends. However, straight black teas are probably what she leans towards the most when it comes to traditional teas and though she’s modest and would deny it I think she has a pretty discerning palate. I’ve yet to find a more smoky tea that she likes, so I was very pleased that she enjoyed this one as much as she did. Made sharing it all the worthwhile!

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDsgx80yZkj/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5BfciHOUrc&ab_channel=ZBerg

Adventageddon Day 16

Gongfu!

I was a little rushed this morning and only had time for one gongfu session and I was told between this and the Tea Thoughts tea, but I went with this one and I’m glad I did. The dry leaf was so interesting smelling for a Golden Monkey too! Chocolatey as expected, but also surprisingly quite citrusy with a distinct lemon note.

The steeped up tea was very full-bodied and intense with brisk, tannic backbone with thick sweeping layers of malt, bittersweet chocolate, and different dark woods on top of it. I did actually get just a bit of that citrus note I was picking up in the dry aroma – mostly in the undertones. But it was largely covered up by just a really decadent and dense, saturated chocolate flavour though. Unsweet, though! I really appreciate when a black tea packs that kind of chocolate punch without too much sweetness.

So far I think all the black teas from Inoki have been quite strong. I hope we get a few more before the advent is done!!

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDp8zy5SWRb/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGSPec19IVg&ab_channel=MICHELLE

Adventaggedon Day 15

Gongfu!

I adore a really good Moonlight White, so this tea session was quite special. That tea had a surprisingly quite high resteep value and the infusions were soft and creamy with crisp vegetal notes of snow peas, cucumber skins along with fresh linens, honeydew, peach skins, and just a touch of wintergreen. I’m really glad this one popped up on the weekend so I was able to take time brewing it up. I would have felt really sad if this had been a day where I was busier and more rushed.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDnXG-LSVmP/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30NiaDUiemA&ab_channel=MichaelMorella

Adventageddon Day 14

I don’t know if this is my favourite tea (well, tisane) from Inoki so far, but it’s definitely high up there. Obviously the lotus blossoms are absolutely stunning to look at in the cup but I thought this was also really educational for me too. I’ve had lotus before in different blends, but I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve ever steeped it up on its own and I thought the flavour was very pleasant. Soft and just a little bit sweet with a very clean earthiness to it that made me think a little bit of petrichor and the smell of my grandma’s garden after watering the flowerbeds during summer mornings. However, it also had this sort of pleasantly powdery cocoa note to it that I wasn’t expecting. Very raw/unrefined but quite lovely in its simplicity.

Inoki doesn’t actually sell any of these teas straight yet – I have a sneaking suspicion that might change after the advent depending on what the overall reception is like. This is one of a small handful of things I’ve tried that I would easily purchase again though.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDkyWWISpLo/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdcbB7KNKYc&ab_channel=JoyAgain-Topic

Adventageddon Day 13

To be honest I probably did have time today to brew this one up gongfu, but I just really wasn’t feeling it so I just went with a Western style mug. Personally, this was a little too oceanic tasting to me. Though the mouthfeel was pleasantly buttery I couldn’t get past the almost spirulina-like flavour of the brew. Though, it had undertones that made me think of alfalfa, which were a bit more neutral to my palate. Nothing against the tea though – I think it was a nice quality sencha. It’s just a style of tea that is a personal dislike.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDiNdwYye3L/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMD-R70Lnhw&ab_channel=WaxJackets-Topic

Adventageddon Day 12

This is the second flowering tea to come up in this advent. I didn’t mind the first one despite not generally loving blooming teas, so I wasn’t as disappointed to see it this morning. However, I am hoping it will be the last one.

As far as aesthetics go this was fairly pretty for a bloom! It had a nice long string of white flowers that made a bit of an arch, which was a semi-unique shape. Not quite as pretty as the rose, but close enough. The taste was fine. It tasted floral but much more softly and in a more generic way – wouldn’t say it was distinctly lily or anything like that. However, the overall profile was smooth and silky with fresh grassy notes. It didn’t dip into the bitter/astringent zone so many flowering teas seem to wind up in.

I drank the pot over the course of my afternoon while working and it was good background tea during a busy afternoon. Just a little grounding/soothing too.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDfpFk7ptSS/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU2sHhl3eK4&ab_channel=FIG

Adventageddon Day 11

Today’s tea is just straight up ginger, which I really wasn’t very enthused about at all. I really struggled with trying to think about how I’d brew this in a way that would be palatable to me. At one point I considered a hot tea just packed with honey, but in the end I decided to go with something a bit more “fun”.

What I did was brew the whole packet in a couple of ounces of boiling water along with a little sweetener until I had a super ginger-y concentrate. Like, super gingery. I think I steeped it for maybe two or three hours. Then I dumped that in a mug and topped it with sparkling water. Basically, my own version of a ginger beer or ginger ale. More like a ginger beer though, I suppose, because it definitely had that earthy and spicy kick to it and wasn’t quite as sweet as a ginger ale even with my modest sweetener addition.

It was, in my opinion, a pretty good way to salvage what was a pretty disappointing sight when opening up the advents this morning.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDdEnRYpD_0/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5GYPTj9xXI&ab_channel=TessaRae

Adventageddon Day 10

I would have loved to either brew this gongfu or make it into a big pot of tea, but I just didn’t have the time today for either. However, it was a pretty generous portion of pearls included today so I was able to make my Western mug of it and still have enough pearls left over to do a gongfu session in the future!

I personally find it’s hard to produce a bad jasmine green tea. Boring or just sort of mediocre for sure – but even a lower quality jasmine is pretty serviceable. Similar to how it’s hard to have a truly bad chamomile or peppermint. This wasn’t that, though. It was very, very smooth and round feeling on the palate with highly lush and fragrant jasmine notes on a really pleasant, naturally sweet tasting green tea. It was such a nice moment of calm and to just treat myself midday during what was a pretty busy afternoon for me.

We’re getting really close to the holiday break at work (majority of the company has a week off), but I took extra time before and after that break so I’m REALLY feeling the crunch of having to wrap up a lot of bigger projects. A soothing jasmine tea? Yeah, exactly what was needed today.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDagOvsyYMf/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0PxUvTUrEc&ab_channel=ANTENOCH

Adventageddon Day 9

Honestly not the nicest spearmint I’ve had but even lower quality spearmint is still good tasting, y’know? It did have that up front kind of sweetness that I like a lot about spearmint but I found the overall cup a little too earthy and muddled in the finish. Not quite as crisp/clean and well rounded as it maybe could have been? But it wasn’t like it was very coarse either. I still happily finished my mug, and I’d definitely drink it again. I just know I’ve been spoiled by better…

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDX7CdLyJ4E/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNrAPKRSIYA&ab_channel=niina

Adventageddon Day 8

Gongfu!

This might be my favourite tea from Inoki so far! It’s a black tea from Yunnan, and the dry leaf was both visually quite lovely with golden tips scattered throughout along with amazingly rich and chocolate-y smelling. My mouth was watering before even brewing it up.

Steeped up this was very, very full-bodied and intense but in a really nice way. Quite fudge-y with incredibly strong notes of dark baker’s chocolate complete with a pleasantly bittersweet quality. The undertones were a little bit more woody and earthy, with hints of beetroot and smoke to go alongside that intense cocoa profile. It was a bit astringent, but a welcome astringency that suited this very unsweet but heavily truffle-esque profile. As soon as I’d steeped out the leaf it was very much the kind of black tea I immediately just wanted more of. I’m hoping we see more teas like this as the advent continues!

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDVVeu3SUWV/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpNsGfmLmGM&ab_channel=ClubHalifax

Adventageddon Day 7

Gongfu!

I feel like it’s a tough act for this chrysanthemum tisane to have to follow the absolutely stunning and higher grade “Royal Chrysanthemum” that we started the Inoki advent with. However, I was certainly very surprised and impressed with that tea despite not thinking of chrysanthemum as a flavour I enjoy, so I did go into this cautiously optimistic.

It’s definitely not as nice as the Royal Chrysanthemum, but honestly not half bad either. I could have probably stopped brewing it after a steep or two but I kept going with the session until it was totally steeped out. Mind you, that was still only an extra couple of steeps since this isn’t a tisane with a whole lot of flavour payoff after the initial brews. But still. More of an effort was made than I think I’d have made if I had been presented with this tea, say, last month.

It was peppery and I think that was probably the strongest/most clear tasting note but overall much less intense/strong as the Royal. The tiny little flower buds were still pretty, though. Definitely light, refreshing, and smooth with a less “typical” floral composition.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDSws7ry2bL/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VepmXdGVB0k&ab_channel=CharlieHouston

Adventageddon Day 6

Not gonna sugar coat it – this one was rough. Ginseng is such an intensely strong and polarizing flavour, and I don’t even mind it usually either as part of a ginseng oolong or in different blends. However, straight ginseng was A LOT. It was so, so incredibly and uncomfortably sweet. I actually ended up adding in an orange and ginger flavoured honey which, of course, didn’t do much for how cloying the brew was but at least introducing other flavours helped break up the medicinal and woody notes that accompanied the mouth coating sweetness.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDQMGQsSJFF/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNueNm-m8YI&ab_channel=ModestOda

Adventageddon Day 5

Two days of back to back straight green teas is not super fun for me personally, but I did enjoy this one a lot more than yesterday’s bancha. I didn’t time to make it gongfu, so it was a larger Western style mug for the day. Definitely more medium bodied and quite smooth with strong notes of chestnut, edamame, and both corn silk and grilled corn. Not something I’d typically reach for, but all the other teas today were kind of decadent and sweet in one way or the other so it actually was a nice break up from that.

(As an aside, I’m not sure what makes this particular dragonwell “ceremonial”. It didn’t seem like an especially high quality/grade to me.)

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DDNnFftS3pU/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULk3-fmFScI&ab_channel=TommyNewport