Simple Loose Leaf

Tastes like toasted rice. Good flavor, but generic green tea taste.

I love red robes, always a perfect blend of boldness and resfreshing flavor.

Rich vanilla taste and smell, moderate spice.

Summer Vacation! So, this is a gyokuro that was left in the Here’s Hoping Teabox (thank you kindly to tea-sipper for organizing, and all who contributed to that box!). I had never tried a gyokuro, so I decided to keep a sample. Though, knowing nothing about gyokuro, I kept the same sampler size I always keep — about a teaspoon. Researching more into them now, they require a much higher leaf-to-water ratio than most teas, so to prepare this with the amount of leaf I kept for myself, I was basically left with about half a shot glass worth of tea. Err… bottoms up?

The aroma is very salty, and reminds me a lot of apple cider vinegar? Strange, I know. The taste had some faint seaweed vegetal notes, and a little of that warm fermented pickle juice flavor that I get from the Awa Bancha tea. The aftertaste is quite salty. Overall, the flavor felt quite weak, but that could be a result of the age of the tea plus having so little leaf to work with. I basically had a thimble worth of water and had to flash-steep as a result in order to avoid getting ZOMG-DEATH-BY-GREEN-TEA-ASTRINGENCY! (it did work, though…)

It certainly makes me think more of my Awa Bancha (aka my “try it if you dare” pickle juice tea) than my mind’s own vision of gyokuro, which has always been something deeply vegetal/umami; my Kabusecha certainly had a flavor profile that struck me as being what I imagine to be quite “gyokuro-like” when I tried that in the past (that tea was so umami rich I actually preferred drinking it in a shot glass amount at a time, much like one drinks wheatgrass juice…). I do have another gyokuro sampler in my collection with a fair bit of leaf to play with, so I’ll definitely have to try that this week and see how it compares, and if my own mental perceptions have any credence here…

Bottom line, though… I didn’t really like this particular tea.

Had it iced, satisfied my hot day thirst.

Ive had bad luck with citrus-centric herbal tea in the past, but this one is pretty good.

Not very much flavor, smells pleasant though

Smooth and great smell.

Wonderful smell, mild flavor, feels good on back of throat.

Very well balanced between tea and fruit flavors!

Unpleasant menthol taste, although I don’t usually like these kind of teas.

Tasty and very smooth. Citrus is a little artificial.

Light and refreshing, very smooth

Pretty good, although this really isn’t sencha at all (which I don’t typically care for). The label says it is “Chinese Sencha”, but I’m pretty sure sencha is a Japanese kind of tea where they steam the leaves rather than pan fire them. Also I usually think sencha is reasonably bitter and buttery, while this is tastes light and flowery like most usual Chinese green tea.

Might be better iced tbh, citrus-y

Tastes like a mildly sweet assam.

First tealog entry in a couple years, now with a shiny new college degree!

I gotta say, I’m just not a fan of genmaicha. It’s incredibly strong, and I wouldn’t drink more than one cup of it.

A tea at work for a stressful day. The lavender is tasty and soothing, and the green tea is pretty nice, at least for a green

Gifted to me by SuperStarling!, this oolong is a nice entry into the Formosa oolong arena. It is very drinkable. A wallflower of a tea. Nothing that stands out and says look at me but it is definitely there with a consistent and dependable flavor.

Earthy, roasty, a bit of raisin flavor. A smooth every day drinker.

Sipdown! I think this was better when it was fresh two years ago. It’s still quite decent though. The floral jasmine scent carries over into the flavor, present but not overwhelming, floral but not perfume-y. I have a vague memory of cold brewing this over the summer and finding it quite enjoyable.

Thank you to SuperStarling! for this sample.

This is definitely a SMOKY tea. The scent out of the bag is like fire place ashes smoky. I was a little nervous brewing this up that it would be too much in the mouth.

My worries are slowly dissipating. Don’t get me wrong. This tea tastes smoky. There is no getting around that. But there are other flavors there as well. Specifically a sweet malt, and a bright black tea flavor. I’ll state this once again. You need to like smoky teas in order to even consider trying this. If you don’t like smoky teas and you try this, you’re not going to have a good time. But it is a flavorful smoke.

Here’s Hoping TTB.

I used the last of this sample. I quite enjoyed it. It had a smooth, mild creamy vanilla flavor. Nothing spectacular, but the sort of flavor I’d be happy to drink every day.