Sakao Enterprise

Gongfu!

This roasted green tea also contains flakes of ichimi togashi peppers, which give it a really great fiery kick of heat on the backend of the sip. Especially in the first couple steeps. While I acknowledge this probably wasn’t a blend intended to be brewed gongfu, I actually really loved the balance of flavours and thought it brought out an interesting brassy tasting abd autumnal feeling brightness and minerality of the hojicha alongside toastier notes of grains and roasted nuts.

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/DCkS-RHh3iy/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REV2-PuHnrY&ab_channel=DavidDeanBurkhart

Gongfu!

Steeped this while reading the latest issue of Eighty Degrees magazine!! It was tough to gauge from the dry tea leaf visual how much heat this blend would have, but it definitely has a bit of a kick to it! Nothing unpleasant, though – far from it, in fact. The smooth, gentle flavours of roasted grains and nuts from the hojicha marry perfectly to the peppery heat to create a profile that wraps you up in a hug and warms from the inside out. I also really liked that the more umami and oceanic notes of the hojicha were still present on the backend of each sip. I’m certainly guilty of fixating on the roasted elements of hojicha to the point where I often neglect the more characteristically “green” tasting notes, so I appreciated the presence of them here!

Like a lot of the teas I’ve been drinking, this is one of the teas from my Toronto Tea Festival haul. I have such a fondness for hojicha that I simply couldn’t resist and, though I enjoy the matcha that I’m more used to seeing them sell, it was nice to see the new and arguably more playful offerings that Tea Sakao was carrying for the festival!

Tea Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/C3BSJmcORhT/?img_index=1

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t9NyKROIRQ

A little bit lighter in both body and taste than I remembered, but that might have been a steeping thing? I was pretty nervous about over brewing the green tea so I kept my steep time much shorter than I usually would make a Western mug of tea, but in the moment I did think it was pretty in line with what would be normal for a Japanese green tea based blend. Who knows. Otherwise, the flavours were very nice and true to name. Zesty yuzu, and a whole lot of pepper to sort of balance it out. Savory leaning, but not unpleasantly so.

Another Toronto Tea Festival pick!

I recognized Tea Sakao from how present they are at different markets here in Montreal, but this was the first time I’ve seen them carrying any tea other than matcha. I bought both of their festival exclusive teas, which included this one.

It’s the second tea in the past year that I’ve seen which has sechuan peppercorns in it and that definitely caught my eye. I love the blend I have from Westholme that uses them, and I think it just makes a whole lot of sense with the yuzu since yuzu already had a bit of a peppery note to it.

Steeped this tea was enjoyable! The yuzu flavour is really, really authentic. Very aromatic with a lot of those fresh essential oils, but also very dense and citrusy with so much nuance. It was peppery, but less than I expected given the sheer volume of peppercorns in the blend. As expected, those two flavours compliment really well and create something that has a strong “foodie” vibe and sophistication to it.

Now, was it something I personally loved in terms of taste? Ehhhh…

I think ultimately I just so much more impressed from a flavour pairing and technicality side of things. Not to say it was bad or anything! But I like my other sechuan peppercorn blend a lot more, and I think to reach for this type of green tea I’d need to be in a more specific mood/mindset.

Sipdown (798)!

Hot, straight, and very frothy! This was a free sample in the door bag from the Montreal Tea Festival, and it took me a while but I finally had the chance to whisk it up. I even did so in the matcha bowl I bought at the festival!

I don’t really _love_the taste of straight matcha unless it’s very smooth and creamy, and this matcha definitely is quite smooth but the flavour is a bit more of that cooked asparagus/seaweed kind of taste that I’m not a huge fan of. I actually finished the matcha bowl because I didn’t want to waste the matcha since it was perfectly good – just not a flavour profile that resonates particularly well with me. Even if it had been half as oceanic, I think I could have appreciated it a lot more.

Still, it’s always good to get out of my comfort zone. Plus, with this being a free sample anyway I’m especially glad to have tried it!

I’ve had very little experience with Konacha like I have with other greens, it seems.

This was very very fine and plumped up quite a bit once infused. It smells like cooked spinach and celery. The taste is a little bitter but slightly creamy and brothy, too.

The more I sip the more I realize it’s pretty thick, too.

This is satisfying and meal-like. A delight!

Ahhhhh! Wonderfully smelling roasted and popped rice. Very veggie-like with the green tea and matcha. a gorgeous lime color. Absolutely delicious genmai with matcha! Brothy and soup like. The flavor is exceptional! This is a fantastic genmai with matcha! Awesome!

I grabbed a small cup of this and will pass on the rest to Liberteas and Azzrian

I do like the Hojicha in this! It’s it’s woodsy yet green tasting. It’s nutty and toasty. The popped rice is wonderful too! Larger than most popped rice I have seen in genmai.

This is much like soup! Quite brothy! I really REALLY like it!