236 Tasting Notes
Another single-sourced tea from The Simple Leaf, this one brews into a fragrant floral and musky liquor without much bitterness. It is really an excellent assam tea. I can’t really identify the notes, but it combines into a wonderful taste. It is supposedly malty, which is why I bought it. I’d hoped to learn what a malty taste was. But I can’t really find the malt well enough to educate my palate. Either way, it is a stellar morning tea.
Preparation
Th dry dark green leaves express a strong pineapple fragrance. It smells like a fresh ripe pineapple, as opposed to the candy pineapple fragrance that is so common. The beautiful yellow liquor produced by the leaves smells like nuts, butter, and lightly of pineapple. The pineapple comes out more strongly in the taste, but it is still quite light. This is a very nice tea. I think I will definitely be buying more of this.
Preparation
A sweet fragrance of vanilla and strawberries rises from this enticing reddish brown brew. The taste carries the strawberries and cream through, though there is additionally a strong black tea underneath with some bitterness and astringency. The sweet taste lingers in the mouth like good cream. From sniffing the dry leaves I’d thought it might be too powerfully sweet for a morning tea and might be better in the afternoon, but the strong tea is a good enough contrast and the sweetness is subtle enough that this is not an issue.
Preparation
This is one that’s on my to-buy list. Glad you enjoyed it, Carolyn!
I found it at the Williams-Sonoma Outlet store. I was suprised as I didn’t expect to be able to find this tea at all.
I’ve seen it at Williams-Sonoma and Dean + Deluca, but I just haven’t had enough information on Mariage Freres at all to make an educated guess as to what to buy!
Beautiful long dark green leaves give off a smoky fragrance when dry. Steeped it has an even stronger smoky smell which also dominates the taste. There is a very slight bitter edge. Overall, this isn’t really my sort of tea.
Preparation
I had a week where Shanti was the only tea I would drink in the afternoons. This reminds me that I need to revisit it. If memory serves me correctly, though, it was definitely unique and an acquired taste.
It may be that another day would have been a better one to try to acquire this taste. Today’s been pretty difficult and I was longing for a light, sweet tea.
It brews into a pretty copper tea scented with mint and pineapple. The mint is somewhat overpowering in the brew and there is a slight bitterness. Overall it smells better than it tastes. Another tea that must be re-homed. My kitchen is the Home for Wayward Teas.
Preparation
Mmmm! Matcha! I’ve been sent home early with a hearty Happy Holidays and orders to take some time to go shopping. I have no holiday shopping to do and so I decided to make myself a wonderful cup of matcha and sit cozily at home and write. I prepared it thick this afternoon and its lovely grassy sweetness is making a good day even better. No bitterness. No astringency. Just sweet, lovely matcha. Mmmmm!
Preparation
CAROLYN! You just had to rub in that you had matcha didn’t you. You’re lucky mine should be here tomorrow. LOL J/K ;) I wonder why companies suggested different amounts of water. Rishi suggests 4-5oz. Isn’t there a standard?
I don’t think there is. It is up to personal preference as to how thick it should be. Also, different kinds of matcha can tolerate different amounts of water. So it is a trial and error sort of process. (A yummy trial and error sort of process.) I use a half teaspoon and then fill the matcha cup half-way up with water before wisking.
Since there’s a matcha tea ceremony I would think there would be standards, there seems to be standards for everything else related to tea:) What’s the difference between this and their matcha kaze?
I just noticed you have a steeping time listed… how does that work when the tea gets whisked in?
I couldn’t really figure out how to do that, so I just estimated my wisking time and listed that as steeping time.
As to tea ceremony standards, I don’t know. I’ve been to exactly two tea ceremonies in my life and those were years ago. My memory of them boils down to “Hurts to kneel” and “Good sweets. Bitter tea.” and “I need a kimono!” Not very sophisticated, I’m afraid.
I do not know the difference between the two matchas. I bought this one because it guaranteed to be free of bitterness and astringency and I wanted my first experience making matcha to be successful. My tea ceremony experiences both featured bitter matcha and little Japanese sweets to make it better. So I wanted to be careful. I’ll probably get the other once I’ve finished the miyabi matcha.
Try Rishi, not bitter at all:)
you obviously like this matcha, but how do you feel about Den’s in general? I’ve been thinking about purchasing some tea from Den’s, but I wanted to see what everyone thinks of that site.
@Cofftea: Thanks for the recommendation! I’ll put it on my list.
@teafreak: I’ve been impressed by them. I loved the matcha supplies I bought from them. I loved the Apple Sencha tea (as did my partner). I loved the genmaicha. I still have more to try, but so far I’m impressed by them. Also, I feel comfortable with them for reasons I cannot explain. It’s kind of a gut feeling of comfort. I grew up in Denver, which has a sizeable Japanese community and it may just be that it reminds me of my early experiences with Japanese shops, but whatever it is, my gut is saying nice things.
@teafreak- I second the apple sencha. That’s the only one I’ve tried so far. I got their $3 sampler so I’ll have lots more to report about soon.
@Carolyn, where were these ceremonies? That sounds fun!
@Cofftea: One was at a special event in Sakura Square in Denver and the other was at the Teahouse in the Japanese Gardens in Denver’s Botanic Gardens. (It was fun and I eventually got my much longed for Japanese kimono. Only later did it occur to me that I had nowhere to wear it.)
Note to self: Go to Denver. Got it:) THANKS!
If you go to Denver and are interested in Japanese culture, the very, very place to go is Domo, which is a restaurant that serves Japanese country food. It is the only restuarant serving this in the United States. Both the restaurant (which has its own museum) and the food are an enlightening and delightful experience.
After that, visit the shops and restaurants in Sakura Square.
also makes notes on her travel list ;)
@Carolyn: Thanks, I’ll give them a shot next time I buy Japanese tea!
@teafreak, I just tried their genmaicha (1st experience w/ it) and it was good. I didn’t care for it (NOT because it was bad, just personal taste), but it was very good in that it tasted EXACTLY how it sounds lol.
This tea from takgoti has beautiful long light green leaves fragrant with the smell of light fruit. They seem light enough to float away on any passing breeze. Once the leaves are submerged in hot water they develop a stronger fruit fragrance coupled with a light nuttiness. The taste is slightly tart with a nice apricot flavor.
Much thanks to takgoti!
I don’t really get the malt taste concept either… but I think it is if a tea feels like guiness in your mouth…
I think…
If you really want to know what malt tastes like you could try Whoppers or other malted milk balls. You should be able to identify the chocolate and what’s left is malt.
shudder I hate malt. I can’t drink any beer because of malt.