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I went into a new store they opened in the area, and decided to get some samples. I love being able to try new teas and not pay shipping!

The brewed leaf smelled like some kind of delicious fruit aroma. It really surprised me because I was expecting a more roasted-like smell (I hadn’t read the description of the tea that they have on their website; the store just had the name and the price).
BUT, it tasted like strawberries! This could be called “Strawberry Oolong” (in my opinion) though, there are of course no flavorings. Because of this, it seemed like a really high quality tea, but that wouldn’t matter if it didn’t taste good. Well, it was very good. :-)

How appropriate that this would be my 100th tasting note.
I’ve been looking forward to trying this tea since I got it in May, but the right opportunity never presented itself.

I’ve giving this 100; but this really is higher than any other 100 I’ve given. The award-winning Gyokuro that I got came close, but this was even better. If I could give 110 to this, I would. It is worth every penny at $1.50/gram (though, I wouldn’t want to buy more than what I did, a packet of 10g).

Anyway, this had all the best flavors of Japanese green tea, and none of the things that people don’t like when they avoid it. No bitterness whatsoever, not even a hint. No astringency. No nuclear green-ness. No overpowering vegginess.
I like bitterness and astringency in the right proportions and in the right tea; and I like the fresh vegetable flavor that comes with Japanese greens. No other teas are like them.
But this was the kind of tea even a non-green-tea-drinking individual could love. Or at the very least, appreciate.

The dry leaf was long, full leaves, and smelled sweet and marine/seaweed like. It was rich and intense. Just like the picture above.

The brewed leaf opened up to reveal whole leaves with the a small amount of stem. The color of the liquor was a beautiful, almost bluish-clear-green.
The taste was similar to the award-winning gyokuro, but less intense and marine/seaweed-like, and a lot sweeter. It wasn’t sugary sweet, but sweet in that calming, refreshing, delicious way that Japanese greens are.
And it went for 7 steeps and still had lovely flavor through each. I probably could have kept going.

I heard about hand-rolled Japanese green tea, but it didn’t look like you could find it online here in the U.S. No one carried it – even specialists like Den’s, or Maeda-en, etc. It’s just their ‘Traditional Tea’ that they make and drink for the enjoyment.
I did find it on a Japanese site (Kaburagien) later, but …. I found it!
Sugimoto America offered it for a short time in late April/early May. You can read more about Temomi cha on their blog (Google Sugimoto blogspot). This is the way Japanese green tea used to be made, and this is the way it is supposed to taste!

For any green tea lover, especially Japanese greens, I definitely recommend watching for it next year. You will probably be able to pre-order in April again from Sugimoto. :-)

The best analogy for this tea that I can give is this:
There are fruits and vegetables that you buy at the grocery store; ok they’re good. Then there are the vegetables that you buy organic or high quality from some place like Whole Foods, pretty good, sometimes you can tell the difference.
Then there are those times when you’re at your grandparent’s house and they bring in from their garden fresh _____ (insert favorite fruit or vegetable here). Or maybe you have your own garden. The difference in the taste between food you eat from a garden, and that which you find mass-produced in the grocery store is really significant.
I remember tasting green beans from my grandfather’s garden and thinking, ‘Wow! So sweet, so delicious! I don’t believe I’ve ever REALLY had green beans before until now.’

That’s exactly what this tea is like. It’s like they brought it from their garden to you. The way all tea was meant to be made. Everything else you can get is the mass-produced stuff in the grocery store for everyday living. Or at best maybe a Farmer’s Market.

I imagine that one day, in Heaven, on the New Earth, I’m going to have the privilege of being able to work in a tea garden and learn from some expert how to roll my own temomi-cha and drink the tea I learned to make. Organic, pure, grown in conditions not possible here. I’m so looking forward to it!

I wanted to experiment, and brew this the way a Chinese tea is done in a gaiwan, so instead of the traditional 140 or 160 for 1-2 minutes, I did near-boiling water for 15 seconds.

It came out only sweet, delicious, and just what I would expect from a high quality sencha! I re-steeped it the same, again, just for 15 seconds each time. 4 good steepings all came out, and very little to no bitterness; it really surprised me and I’m going to use this method more often as it seems easier not to do (much less to measure or mess up when I don’t have to check the temperature and I can simply count, rather than using a timer!).

I’m raising this one up, it is really good and the flavors are amazingly blended.

I was pleasantly surprised by this.
I wanted to try it, simply because I like normal rooibos/rooibos blends. I expected the color of the infused tea to be green, but it was mostly orange!
The first few sips I wasn’t sure I liked it; it was decent, but seemed bland. But I kept sipping, and soon, I couldn’t stop! I can’t quite remember the initial taste, but the base/aftertaste was deliciously vanilla. It was almost like vanilla icecream! The texture isn’t creamy in any way, but somehow, it has some distinct flavor that comes in vanilla icream (and not simply vanilla as an ingredient).
For the second brewing, I added fresh mint from the garden and a little vanilla extract; I expected the rooibos to not have as much flavor the 2nd go around. Well, it mostly tasted like mint tea, which is good, but I should have left it alone to see how well it took a 2nd steeping.

Besides curiosity, I got this because I expected it to be a good base (esp. to make decaf chai with)…however, I am going to enjoy this on its own! Thankfully too, I’ve found another source of rooibos (red + green) that’s a lot cheaper than Rishi and also organic (Suffuse Tea — only $9.50 /8oz, as opposed to this, which was $3.00/oz!).

The smell of the loose leaf was very pleasant, sweet, and a little floral.
I brewed around 2 oz water to 1 rounded tsp (mabye a bit more) at near boiling for 30 seconds, increasing each steep by 15 seconds each time.

The first infusion was slightly vegetal (it did have a slight sencha-like vegetal taste), but this was quickly overpowered by the nutty, stir-fry-like chestnut flavor. It was quite a unique taste, and when I imagine how “Chinese” tastes (Chinese anything!), it is THIS flavor. It was really good, and if it ended at that it might have weirded me out, since it wasn’t like any tea I’ve had before.

However, the underlying flavor was such a pleasant, rounded sweetness. It wasn’t sharply sweet like the shinchas I’ve had (sugary), but smooth sweet, like a piece of fruit that is just barely ripe, or flowers. It was very pleasant.
This sweetness became more pronounced with each steeping as well.

Each time I poured the pot into the cup, a really pleasant aroma rose up from the tea as well. This was my first experience with Dragon Well (Long Jing), at least that I know of, and it was a good one. Glad I have more than a sample of this!

Everytime I drink Chrysanthemum tea, it brings back memories of the 3 months that I lived in Hong Kong.

Instead of being able to buy canned soda in machines there (it is available, but not overly abundant like here in the US), you could buy sweetened lemon black tea or chrysanthemum tea in a box (like the juice boxes with the attached mini straw you can get here that’s marketed for kids).

I can’t remember drinking loose leaf chrysanthemum tea, at least, not in a home. I’m sure I drank it in dim sum restaurants. Because of that, when I drank this today, I simply thought, ‘Yep, this is chrysanthemum’ — nothing surprising.

However, it is still really good, really unique. Flowery, honey, very sweet. A pleasing yellow liquor. It’s nice to have this in lieu of the ever present, ever popular chamomile, as it seems very similar in type, but wholly other in taste.

I recommend the tea, but I do have one minor qualm — while I like the tin it came in, the lid is clear (which, is cool in because you can see the loose leaf through it), and therefore lets a lot more light in, but more problematic is that the lid doesn’t snap shut. If it were to turn over, I’m afraid it could come off. Not that I fear the tin turning over, but it simply means it isn’t a strongly sealing lid.

I don’t know if it would be prohibitively expensive for Tea Valley to get tins that had lids that snap tight and keep out all air, but that would definitely feel higher quality and help the tea to last longer.

Other than that, it had the the kinds of flavors were what I expected, but actually, they tasted better!

It wasn’t strong enough at 5 minutes the first time, so I steeped for 9 (2 tsp and 16 oz water). Added sugar and a little milk – WOW amazing. Adding a few points. This is good plain too, though; it doesn’t depend on sweetener to be very flavorful.

I had this again yesterday evening, and I noticed something for the 2nd time that really impressed me.
There is an underlying umami that comes out of this tea, especially in the aftertaste. It is a really unique flavor I’ve only found in green teas, almost marine-like, but it comes through at the roof of the mouth and in the nose at the very end (again, the aftertaste). It is a little sweet, too. Anyway, I was surprised that this came through in a roasted tea, and so wanted to give this one another thumbs up. That doesn’t seem like something that would come through in any roasted green tea….I think it probably has to do with the fact that these are tencha, rather than bancha or some other low quality leaf.

OK, I have to retract (a little) a previous statement I made.
Out of curiosity, I tried the steeping parameters that Maeda-en suggested for this tea. I was sure it was going to be bitter, but I did it anyway.
In my pre-warmed teapot, I put a rounded tsp of leaf. I then poured nearly boiling water (190F) over it (I was planning on doing 2 oz water, but instead didn’t quite even cover the leaf, so it was just around 1 oz water). I waited 30 seconds and then poured into the cup.
(Maeda-en’s suggestion is 190F for 30-40 seconds or so).

The result was nothing less than green tea nectar! Pure, intensely sweet, and fresh cooked asparagus. It really surprised me, especially how very sweet it was. I wished I had used all 2oz of water, just so I’d have had more tea!
So again, my retractment is, don’t necessarily ignore the brewing suggestions given! Try it out once. The very first time I had this tea, I ignored their suggestions thinking it would be bitter; but if you’re careful, this tea works at a big range of temperatures. :-)