I actually bought a yuzu in preparation for this tea. After all, how can I comment on a flavored tea if I don’t know what the flavor is supposed to taste like? I ate my yuzu early this morning so thought today was a great time to try this one. I enjoyed the fruit so I hope to enjoy this tea. The tea doesn’t smell quite like fresh yuzu, but it is still noticeably yuzu. The brewed tea smells even less like yuzu – the initial smell is of fresh, vegetal sencha and there’s a little tingle of yuzu underneath.
The taste is intriguing. I didn’t get a noticeable yuzu flavor until I took a few sips one after the other. It seems like the yuzu taste builds but seems to come through the most in the aftertaste. But now I’m getting it some on the very tip of my tongue as I begin to sip. It’s a surprisingly good counterpoint to the sencha. I wouldn’t have thought the yuzu would go well with the sweet, buttery and vegetal taste of the sencha, but it does. It adds a subtle citrus sharpness that keeps the sencha from being too rich or thick.
I’m not quite sure how to rate this. I keep expecting this to taste rich and thick but each sip surprises me with a clean, refreshing citrus flavor. So I can’t quite figure out how high I want to rate this. Somewhere in between the two green smileys but not sure where… Though a big point it this teas favor is the aftertaste – sweet, citrus and buttery. Good stuff.
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I don’t know if I commented on this in my log, but I had the same initial experience as you – I didn’t get the yuzu until I’d had a few sips. I’ve never had yuzu straight, but I’ve had things that are “infused” with yuzu or maybe have bits of it, so that’s the only reason I’m familiar with it. Anyhow, I agree with you that’s an enjoyable overall tea experience.
Iv’e always wanted to try the Rishi Sencha Yuzu, http://www.rishi-tea.com/store/yuzucha-japanese-green-tea.html but I don’t want to spend 15 dollars my supermarket charges for the 2 oz can and not like the tea.
OK, I’m showing my hick-ness: what is yuzu, please and thank you kindly?
@gmathis Yuzu is a citrus fruit that is [or at least was] primarily used in Asian cuisine. It tastes distinctly citrusy, but also distinctly…different. I say this never having had it raw or even more generally, plain, so maybe Auggy or someone else can speak to that a little more eloquently. Here are some images: http://bit.ly/7KQhdh
takgoti pretty much hit it… it’s like a wrinkly, sticky tangerine (I’m guessing there is more oil in the peel or something?) with HUGE seeds in the segments. The one I had wasn’t overly meaty (but then the segments were clementine sized and had 2 – 3 seeds the size of a pencil eraser so there wasn’t a lot of room for the fruit flesh either) but I’m not 100% sure if what I had was a great representation of the fruit as my grocery store only had a small section of them ($9.99/lbs!) but it tasted good so I figure it was an okay example at the very least. If it weren’t so freakin expensive I’d probably have yuzu again… but with one fruit costing about $4, I’m okay having tangerines.
@Auggy Yuzu’s just sliding out of season now for the U.S., as specialty growers tend to wind down in late December. What’s interesting about this fruit too is that the flavour changes over the course of each season, as does the external colour of the fruit. So you might taste one at the beginning of the season that’s totally ripe, but tastes differently than one eaten later in the season. Related, but different. It also depends on how cold it’s gotten wherever it is that your yuzu came from. They’re extremely cold-weather-hardy trees, so many people all over the US have attempted to grow them (cold-weather-hardy citrus is not that common). Unfortunately, there’s a compromise—-just because the trees will withstand the cold weather doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily produce the best examples of the fruit. Fruits from cold-ravaged trees are often more bitter than fruits from trees that haven’t been treated so harshly by Mother nature. FWIW, I hope this helps. :)
Wow! That’s fascinating. And it pretty much guarantees that I’ll have to try yuzu again to see what differences I can taste. Thanks!
I don’t know if I commented on this in my log, but I had the same initial experience as you – I didn’t get the yuzu until I’d had a few sips. I’ve never had yuzu straight, but I’ve had things that are “infused” with yuzu or maybe have bits of it, so that’s the only reason I’m familiar with it. Anyhow, I agree with you that’s an enjoyable overall tea experience.
Iv’e always wanted to try the Rishi Sencha Yuzu, http://www.rishi-tea.com/store/yuzucha-japanese-green-tea.html but I don’t want to spend 15 dollars my supermarket charges for the 2 oz can and not like the tea.
OK, I’m showing my hick-ness: what is yuzu, please and thank you kindly?
@gmathis Yuzu is a citrus fruit that is [or at least was] primarily used in Asian cuisine. It tastes distinctly citrusy, but also distinctly…different. I say this never having had it raw or even more generally, plain, so maybe Auggy or someone else can speak to that a little more eloquently. Here are some images: http://bit.ly/7KQhdh
takgoti pretty much hit it… it’s like a wrinkly, sticky tangerine (I’m guessing there is more oil in the peel or something?) with HUGE seeds in the segments. The one I had wasn’t overly meaty (but then the segments were clementine sized and had 2 – 3 seeds the size of a pencil eraser so there wasn’t a lot of room for the fruit flesh either) but I’m not 100% sure if what I had was a great representation of the fruit as my grocery store only had a small section of them ($9.99/lbs!) but it tasted good so I figure it was an okay example at the very least. If it weren’t so freakin expensive I’d probably have yuzu again… but with one fruit costing about $4, I’m okay having tangerines.
@Auggy Yuzu’s just sliding out of season now for the U.S., as specialty growers tend to wind down in late December. What’s interesting about this fruit too is that the flavour changes over the course of each season, as does the external colour of the fruit. So you might taste one at the beginning of the season that’s totally ripe, but tastes differently than one eaten later in the season. Related, but different. It also depends on how cold it’s gotten wherever it is that your yuzu came from. They’re extremely cold-weather-hardy trees, so many people all over the US have attempted to grow them (cold-weather-hardy citrus is not that common). Unfortunately, there’s a compromise—-just because the trees will withstand the cold weather doesn’t mean they’ll necessarily produce the best examples of the fruit. Fruits from cold-ravaged trees are often more bitter than fruits from trees that haven’t been treated so harshly by Mother nature. FWIW, I hope this helps. :)
Wow! That’s fascinating. And it pretty much guarantees that I’ll have to try yuzu again to see what differences I can taste. Thanks!