Narien Teas

Not as good as other Sencha I’ve had before. Kind of dark, as opposed to the bright, vegetal color of others I’ve had. It also lacks that wonderful leafy taste I love about Sencha. Its OK in a pinch, but I won’t be buying it again.

This may considered a treat in Japan, but it yielded a murky brew, that I found a bit odd tasting. It’s not a bad tea, but the description of an iodine hint is definitely true. Supposedly, you can incorporate this tea when cooking breads and cookies, and that’s probably what I’m going to do with it. I think it would go nicely in a Zucchini bread.

The more Oolong teas I drank, the more I think I’m starting to prefer them as part of my daily regimen. This is a light tea, both in color and flavor, but is oh so pleasant on the tongue. Hints of Spinach, Bok Choy and Asparagus are easily detectable, with a slight floral aroma to accompany.

This is an absolutely wonderful tea. It has a strong floral aroma and flavor which lasts for several 2 minute brews. There is no grassy or bitter taste at all and the virtual absence of caffeine makes it a great evening drink which will not disturb your sleep. It is also a high grade tea at a good price.

This is a nice berry tea, and I can tend to be picky with the berry-flavoured blacks. Subtle and natural-tasting strawberry.

This came out a bit bitter, quite smokey, and a little bit sweet. Not bad, but I had to add milk to enjoy it. That’s not really a bad thing. It made a good breakfast tea.

I wanted to do some black tea sampling and ordered several samples from Narien Teas. They arrived this morning, and I was surprised at the generous sample portions. I even weighed it, and I got about 27 g of this for $2. Awesome.

This is a nice, solid Assam. Bold and rich and malty, quite peppery/spicy but also a little bit sweet.

This was actually better than expected. To be fair, I’m not a fan of nutty or grassy teas and I did steep this a little bit too long, but I will definitely give credit where credit is due. Although slightly bitter, it is very forgiving and clean despite the error. I don’t really get the hint of pine or sandalwood though. Overall, it’s not bad.

Hmm… I can’t say I’m a big fan of this hojicha. The toasty flavoring is weaker than I anticipated from my previous experience with hojicha. I find this to be a mild tea with a little body and smoothness. While the finish lingered, it was weak.

I’m highly disappointed with this tea. I’ve steeped this as many ways as I could think of with varying times and temperatures, but this tea never shows anything interesting. In fact, it produces more bad than good in the cup. It tastes like burnt wood, smoke, and roasted nuts, and has no balance to it. The flavor is pretty one-dimensional and only gets less intense throughout subsequent steeps. It’s overly bitter, and this never goes away no matter how many steeps its been through. The liquor’s texture is heavy and leaves a thick aftertaste. It has nearly no sweetness to it, and if it comes out at all, it’s not until at least the seventh steep gong fu style. While the taste can become overly potent even with the shortest steep, the aroma of the wet leaves is even more so. They’re extremely pungent, piney, and smell as though the leaves were roasted and fired for far too long. Finally, I can’t help but notice the careless misinformation in Narien’s description: “ferment.” Unless I’m mistaken, I’m pretty sure they mean “oxidize.”

I’m pretty happy with this sencha. It’s very sweet, vegetal with undertones of soy beans and a smooth and mellow liquor with a pleasant astringency and a tad bit of bitterness in the first steep or two. However, the flavor is quite one-dimensional, and doesn’t evolve much between steeps, although it does grant several. Compared with the poetic description on Narien’s site, the flavor of the tea I received did not add up. The aroma is of fresh steamed greens and has a subtle acorn-like scent as well. My largest complaint is the amount of tea dust. After steeping, the liquor appears murky and looks as though it was infused with saw dust, and causes the liquor to have a thick and heavy, and almost milk-like mouthfeel. However, the wet leaves appears very even, are of a bright green coloration, and seem quite healthy. They also have a nice delicate, silky feel to them. It’s a nice tea to sip with a snack for a very cheap price, but if you’re looking for a unique tea experience, I would look elsewhere.