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Very solid sencha with a more mellow, less “stand out” flavor. I guess in coffee terms, this feels is a very nice blend as opposed to a very opinionated single origin. Very nice for a daily drinker.

Almost the perfect tea brewer! Very easy to use and a godsend for brewing that first cup of tea in the morning. Only notes are that I haven’t found the best way to clean this yet. I usually just toss it in the dishwasher and give it an extra rinse when it comes out, but sometimes I still get lingering notes of the previous tea (I’m looking at you Earl Grey).

Beautiful glassware – Used this + the included steeper as my daily brewer for years.

Sometimes local stores will carry the glass for cheaper than on Amazon. Dropping this useful hint here since it’s hard to have just one!

Great electric kettle that I’ve owned for over 10yrs now. Slight deduction in points since the top handle to remove the lid rusted off sometime in 2019, but I ended up just instantly buying another one.

Great Rooibos Earl Grey! Begamont note is very fragrant, but not overpowering. Great for drinking after dinner or in the evenings.

My go to decaf tea for night. I usually enjoy this in the evenings with a Stroopwafel or some other light snack.

The begamont note is fairly strong, but blends well enough with the rooibos for me. Maybe not the trickiest/most complex rooibos out there, but good enough to savor late at night.

I imagine this would be a hit among other guests who want something warm to drink at night, but without the caffeine to keep them up.

Would rate the tea itself like a 78-83, but it’s just such a versatile decaf that I’m bumping it higher – I pretty much always keep this in stock at home now.

Nice light gyokuro. Gentle enough to be a daily drinker, but complex enough to savor every day.

I believe this is what they serve at Ippodo retail locations if you order a standard Gyokuro.

Not for the faint of heart. Iribancha is a traditional Japanese specialty tea from the Kyoto region. It is VERY heavily smoked, with an intense “smokey/burned” smell reminiscent almost of cigarettes.

I’d say it’s an acquired taste that definitely grows on you over time. I used this as a daily drinker for a couple of weeks and definitely grew to appreciate it more over that time.

I will note that transporting this tea is pretty tricky, because it has an extremely smokey aroma that is not really contained by the paper-based bag it’s sold in. Expect your whole luggage to smell like it’s been in a smoker’s house. (I will say that the smell doesn’t stay and just airing out your luggage for a bit will be fine).

A single ziplock bag is insufficient to contain the smell of this tea. I currently have this stored in a ziplock bag within a large airtight Ikea plastic container. Even then, my cupboard smelled like this tea for about a week before the smell fully dissipated.

Nice genmaicha, but is less rich than the Ippodo Obukucha.

Great hojicha, but too strongly roasted / intense to be a daily drinker.