Den's Tea

Maybe I’m just not enlightened enough for this guy. Whatever the case, this brew had a very vegetal taste and smell, no matter what temperature or time I tried brewing it at. Just too broccoli-smelling for me, not my cup of tea (literally).

Pretty good for a bagged tea. Very powdery, dust like leaves inside. Brews up vibrant green and a little murky, almost matcha like due to the fine particles. Medium-light body, mossy flavor, not overly grassy or umami heavy. A very serviceable sencha but doesn’t really stand out in any way.

Received this as part of the Otameshi sampler set from Den’s. It comes in one of those pyramid teabags which I cut open and used loose. Right away I could tell this was a step above ordinary bagged genmaicha. The tea smelled and looked very green. The matcha had a vibrant color and freshness.

I didn’t have the nerve to use boiling water as Den’s recommends so instead I steeped it my usual way for 1 minute at 181 F and then 30s at 195 F.

It’s brothy with a sweet matcha flavor and a gentle nuttiness from the toasted rice. Teeming with notes of spinach, grass, and fresh vegetation. This might be too green for some but for me it was perfect.

Random self made theme: A tropical tea

So sometimes I just search keywords in steepster to find my next tea or tea company. Pineapple sencha was my latest craving and search term after having and running out of 52teas’s pineapple sencha from the spring/summer last year. Surprisingly the list of pineapple senchas in the database was pretty short. However, one from a company called Den’s Tea had a pretty high rating. After looking into it a bit, I happily saw they are still around in California! Woo! I definitely cruised through their selection on steepster and their website and found 4-5 teas to start with: Apple sencha, Grape Sencha, Yuzu kukicha, a Yame Fukamushi sencha and obviously the pineapple sencha. These came back in mid January and I had been holding off on them for a bit.

Today was the day though! (I may have naively opened all the flavored ones so I could smell them and decide which was right for the moment). And pineapple definitely won out. All of the teas smelled amazing and the sencha was a really rich dark green- I am very pleased with the quality.

Side note: I read the about me section and some of the articles from Den’s tea and they are also a business in japan. Den Shirakata is a third generation tea business owner and his japan company just turned 100 this year. They source their tea mainly from Shizuoka where he grew up. He went to school in the US and then in late 90s came back to start Den’s Tea in California. Pretty cool that his business is still going in the US 23 years later.

Preparation: Western- poured over ice
Tasting note: first steep 30 secs (after pouring) really sweet, with sugar cane and grass notes. Makes me think of fresh ripe pineapples. The first steep is darker and thicker and richer from the green tea and the pineapple is more syrupy. The green tea aspects remind me a lot of nozomi from the japanese green tea co.

Overall, really great first impression iced. I will have to have it just warm next time to compare.

Light, sweet, and salty. Very easy to drink and comparatively forgiving to brew, but not as complex as some.

Finally managed a sipdown of this sample from 2016! Truly it’s practically criminal to let a decent green tea sit around for so long, even in a sealed packet. Any rating I gave it now would be entirely unfair and not reflective of what this might have tasted like when it was fresh. It’s still ok now – roasty, nutty, excellent for fall. And it counts as a nutty tea for Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge!

oh MY! what a step back into the world of sencha this is for me! i’d been off in a thicket of shou puerhs and fragrant oolongs and then after i broke my kyusu and had to order another i ended up here, with a sample packet of this delightful tea at my disposal. Used the recommended brewing, am just about done with my second cup of delicious spring seasonal grassy lushness. recommend this one!

Being from Alabama, I grew up assuming the only kind of tea was black tea in a bag that you poured boiling water over and then added enough sugar to kill a large cat. I call it liquid diabetes. I am fortunate enough to be a curious soul, so after some research I ordered my first tea from dens tea. At first, I didn’t know how to make it. I was pouring boiling water on sencha, silly me. Eventually, i figured it out. It turns out my favorite is the fukamushi sencha. The extra steaming applied during the fukamushi process creates a tea leaf that requires very little steeping to extract a deep, emerald broth with a vegetal but not overly grassy brew. The umami is there along with seaweed but with a surprising sweetness. I drink it all day. I get three steepings per serving. I use 3/4 teaspoon to 6oz water. I do my first steeping at 170 F, then 175, finishing at 180. That’s a little picky but just don’t use boiling water! Also, the fukamushi type teas only require the shortest steeping. For the 1st steep I go between 30 seconds to a 1 minute. 2nd steeping, 1-2 minutes, 3rd steeping 3-5 minutes. I can even do a 4th steeping! I collect the spent tea for the day in a mason jar with cold water in the fridge and let it sit overnight. It makes a great, light, decaf, iced tea.

Not going to do a rating of this one since the sampler is old and I don’t feel fully fair with the flavor notes. I liked it, but it’s not something I would order more of to drink on a casual basis. Definitely different. First time trying a Genmaicha or with the rice. I like the toasted feel but did not catch more of the green tea flavor enough to really tell. I brewed for the recommended time of 30 seconds with 1 tsp., then brewed slightly more after a few sips.

My favorite weird green tea, though I think my tastes have become kind of boring with regards to tea flavors. It’s super good, not really much I can say beyond that. You’ve got Matcha. You’ve got Genmaicha. Together. Very green. Genmaicha is still my everything so that’s not putting it down, just observational. I love Den’s for really good quality tea, so it’s just a nice good quality tea. :D

This and the Brown Rice Green Tea with Elinor. This one was very good!

2021 Sipdown 34/365!

Second (and final) selection for National Virtual Vacation Day – a (very old but still very good) Japanese tea! I visited Japan back in high school and it’s very high on my list of places to return to.

You would never know that this tea is literally about 10 years old. My sampler order from Den’s was one of my very very first tea orders. However, they packaged their samples in foil envelopes and the flavour retention is incredible. This tea is a very umami, seaweedy, mildly sweet green and just addictive to drink. I’m sad it’s gone, but maybe one day I’ll order more.

More of this. Delicious.

This tea is really fantastic, in spite of being… 7? years old? The packet was unopened, though, and I’m sure that was a contributing factor. I’d have been hard-pressed to tell that it was that old. Deliciously sweet and green beany.

Sipdown! 157/365!

Note: I have a few June sipdowns, but as usual, I’m way behind on writing and reading tasting notes. Tis the season of yardwork. And basketball games, apparently.

Anyways, I’ve had this tea for eons. (We’re talking 6+ years.) It’s from a sampler I purchased waaay back in my early days of tea discovery. Didn’t expect much, as most greens fall pretty flat when this old. However, it ended up actually being rather tasty – almost tasted a bit overleafed/oversteeped (dilution would cure it, though – so not unpleasant, more just strong), but nice beaniness and vegetal flavours. I can only imagine it would have been better when fresh. Not a tea I’d pick up on my own, a) because I dislike teabags and b) because there are other greens I’m fairly sure I prefer, but certainly a pleasant cup!

Computer, green tea, hot.

Captain’s tea log.

Part of a past tea sampler. This tea has a roasted/ nice nutty scent. The flavour is mostly toasted rice, with some other grain notes. It makes me think of the autumn or the woods.

Very glad I was able to try some green teas again.

End log.

Finally caught up! Sipdown no. 1 of 2020 (no. 596 total). And my original note is spot on. Nothing to add here.

4 oz water at 175F, 2 spoons matcha, whisk.

Second to last matcha in the cupboard that needs a tasting and a note. Tomorrow if all goes as planned, I will be able to say I’ve tasted and written notes about all my matchas!

I’ve also been taking matcha to work lately, which has been quietly fueling a very busy time for me. Honestly, it feels like the days are over before they start — my life is speeding by like a bullet train. I would love to trade that in for a little boredom and clock watching for a while.

This matcha is mild and vaguely pea-like. It has a slight bitter downturn at the end of the sip, which is oddly enjoyable. A slight marine note, too. It’s slightly grainy, despite sifting and a thorough whisk. I suspect that is user error.

What other slights can I add? One thing it isn’t: slightly sweet. Pretty much not at all, despite the pea note.

It isn’t my favorite of the matchas I’ve had recently but it’s a solid matcha.

4 oz water at 175F, 2 spoons matcha, whisk.

I’ve gotten my mojo back for sure. I’m getting a nice froth even in a matcha bowl that I’d thought might have become jinxed.

This tastes a lot like what I think of when I think of matcha. It’s mostly seaweed, umami, not particularly sweet or vegetal, note even very grassy. The mouthfeel is full but not overly thick, and a little effervescent because of the froth.

I just really like Den’s matcha. I don’t know whether it is qualitatively better than others, in fact it’s possible it isn’t and it just appeals to me.

Also, I’m very excited to be drinking this before noon. I thought I would never get to sleep last night. I have a ton of shopping to do this afternoon, so I’m excited to have gotten my tea notes done (for the most part) early. One more new tea after this, and then a surprise!

BTW, the only other person to write a note about this was Cofftea. Anyone know how she is doing?

Sipdown no. 1 of October 2019 (no. 100 of 2019 total, no. 588 grand total).

My most recent take it to work tea, using the shake in the thermos method.

It continued to be a mild, creamy matcha with prominent marine notes to the end.

Matcha people, I need your help please.

I am totally sucking at making matcha lately. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.

Today I followed the directions to the letter with a never before opened tin of matcha.

One spoon, sifted. 3 oz water at 180F. Whisk in W motion.

I was unable to get the light green froth. Mine is olive green with just a tiny bit of bubbles at the top.

Am I not using enough matcha?

Apart from my seeming inability to prepare this correctly, I’m enjoying it. It’s creamier than the matcha I’ve been taking to work. I wouldn’t call it sweet, but it’s not sour or particularly bitter — just a tiny down note in the aftertaste.

It tastes very pleasantly of the ocean.

My favorite thing about gyokuro is how it looks. I love the fine leaves that look so soft and richly green. The dry leaves smell nutty, a bit like almonds, and the aroma has a juicy character.

I also like the color of the steeped tea — the green in the liquor, rather than the typical color somewhere on the yellow spectrum. This one is a light greenish yellow, more green than chartreuse.

The steeped tea smells brothy, a bit salty, a bit nutty, a bit vegetal. The flavor is grassier than some, which I like, but also has the seaweed notes that I’ve come to expect, and something a little on the nutty side, like edamame.

I made this at a slightly higher temperature than recommended for a first steep, mostly because the Breville won’t go lower than 160.

The description says this is Den’s best, and it is quite good. I wish I appreciated gyokuro more in general. I enjoy it but I feel as though its greatness is somewhat wasted on me since I’m just as happy to drink a good sencha.

I just cracked this one open today and it smelled divine in the packet. Incredibly juicy-smelling. Vegetal (zucchini?) with a grassy overtone. Yum.

After steeping the aroma is quite savory, with a bit of seaweediness, and a buttery, brothy character. The tea is a clear butter yellow with some suspended particles. It has a thick mouthfeel.

Even though I oversteeped — I didn’t check the Breville setting and went for longer than I usually would have for green tea, and even longer than I should have for this one, and I probably could have gone with cooler water as well, I thought this was excellent. No hint of bitterness, and a really nice nutty aftertaste.

I am looking forward to trying it again with more attention to time and temp — but if this is what it tastes like when done wrong, I’m not sure I want to be right….