280 Tasting Notes
Had a small one-serving pack from them. I may have not gotten to see how good the flavor could have been because I made cups for me and my wife (12 oz, when this teabag was probably made for 6oz or so).
I couldn’t tell Matcha was added because it was a very light color (usually the tea I’ve seen with Matcha added is a neon glowing green color). Anyway, it was very smooth, good…seemed like a typical Genmaicha, with apparently some Matcha added.
However, after 3 steepings (the first two had the most flavor), I squeezed out the teabag (the sample wasn’t loose tea), and a small amount of very dark green water came out. I tried that and it was so sweet and very delicious. If the whole tea had tasted like that it would have been amazing.
I’m going to refrain from giving this a number, since this one try I may have skewed things by ignoring the amount of water. But like I said, if the whole tea had been dark like the small sip I squeezed out of the bag, and had tasted like that…it would have been some incredible stuff.
Preparation
When I compare this with Hashiri Sencha, I have to raise the latter up to at least equal it. In terms of flavor itself and personal preference, this is still my favorite tea right now.
However, the quality, value (5+ steepings for Hashiri, as opposed to maybe 2-3 for Sakura), and taste range of Hashiri is amazing; so really, it’s a “better” tea than the Sakura.
Even though I had “steeped” this yesterday twice, I filled up my bottle with water a third time and left it in the fridge. Its not very strong, but the flavor is definitely coming through; it still tastes like pear, but the best words I can think of are blended and refreshing.
Another good value (3 steeps of around 20 oz each and still flavorful?)!
When I came home from work today, the leaves from the mornings 4 steepings were still in the pot. I decided to experiment and brew them again, so I did so (8oz water…original amount of dry leaf was 2 heaping tsp) at boiling for one minute.
The initial taste was, for just a moment, watery (though you can feel the tea and the color was still light green), but then gave way to very nice sweetness and umami. I was surprised and impressed. It was delicious.
I went ahead and brewed it a 6th time, with the same parameters, and though the sweetness/umami was weaker, it was still there.
This tea is REALLY good. And if you can get 5+ steepings from it, with developing flavor (each of which was positive for different reasons), then it is very good value too.
If you like green tea and are in the middle of deciding what to get, I recommend this while it’s still available this year.
Can someone who has tried this review it? I honestly think, based on the origin, description, and picture, that this is the same as Den’s Sakura Sencha, but I am not sure. (The same, meaning, they either buy from Den, or from the parent company in Japan…)
Makes sense…Tea Trekker is owned by the Heiss couple which mentioned their appreciations of Den’s Tea in their latest book. Had it not been for the book, I would still not have known how delicious Den’s teas were and reasonably priced.
So we wanted to try it with a little less briskness, to see if we could bring out more sweetness or umami. I brewed it more like a gyokuro, at 140 for 2 mins (as opposed to 160 for 1.5). It was milder, had a fuller (I guess umami) flavor, and was definitely less bitter/astringent than the first trial (when I say bitter, this tea was not so bitter that I did not like it, it is really more of a young flavor that, to me, is very good and not the kind of bitter you want to avoid).
I re-steeped this 4 times – the 2nd time was 160 for 1 min, 3rd was 180 for 1 min, and 4th was boiling for 1 min.
The 2nd time brought out more of the astringent/bitter/young flavor. It was cool to get two different flavors from this tea in such a short period of time (as the first brew was more mild).
I don’t recall the 3rd steeping having a lot of flavor. I was actually a bit disappointed thinking that perhaps it was already done after 2 steepings. However, I tried once more with boiling water and a whole minute.
The last steeping was delicious! There was no bitterness whatsoever, it brought out a new flavor, which I almost think was sweet and umami as well.
Really cool to see so many flavors come out of this tea and it to hold up to this many steepings.
Preparation
So after 3 steepings, the tea STILL smelled good. And we had the leftover leaves (only steeped once) of Florence (Harney & Sons). My wife had a good idea – we mixed the two teas together, covered them with ice, and let them sit the rest of the day.
That evening we had a nice, cool cup of chocolately, semi-hazelnutty, semi-toasty/roasted tea. The two flavors actually went pretty well together, though I’m afraid the tencha-kuki probably wouldn’t have come through if it had been our first steeping of the Florence.
I am curious to try these two together hot though. Definitely a fun experiment, and another testimony to the quality of this tea (Tencha-kuki), as we got 3 hot steeps and one iced out of it and had flavor every time.
Preparation
I am very impressed by this tea.
I read the descriptions, and was kind of expecting something like hot chocolate with hazelnut flavor. However, this is definitely TEA that tastes like a chocolate belgian praline, or somewhat like nutella.
I don’t know what they did to flavor it like this, but it even has just the right hint of sweetness. In no way does it taste fake, and it is very smooth.
Makes me want another cup!
This is very good. I don’t have anything new to add to what others have said. After trying once, I recommend it.
I steeped it 3 times, always boiling, but a little longer each time, and a little less water. It barely lost any flavor, so it seems like a good deal; sometimes it’s disappointing or feels wasteful if a (loose leaf) tea only stands up to one good steeping.
Preparation
I brewed this for a large group at a friend’s house, but didn’t have any proper things to do it with (just a thermometer and a kettle). So once the water was the right temp, I put in all the leaf directly in the kettle, and once steeped poured it into the cups.
For some reason, it almost tasted like genmaicha…very strong, toasty, very good. Not really what I expected from fukamushi.