The loose leaf is bancha sprinkled with sesame seeds. It looks pretty lovely, even though it doesn’t smell like anything.
The resulting liquour doesn’t seem to be much more engaging when it comes to the aroma. Actually it smelled like it was going to be very bitter. And there was this other note that I find I dislike in teas – and what I am guessing is caused by the caramel flavoring – that smells to me like old and forgotten socks that you find at the bottom of your laundry basket (Can you tell I was doing spring cleaning today?).
The taste… I really wanted to like this tea. I don’t know why, but I really did. Me and the Tokyo blend, forever. That’s how I imagined it. But it ain’t gonna happen.
Because, lo and behold, it tastes just like some average sencha (or in this case – bancha) with no flavoring whatsoever. It does taste smooth, much smoother than a straight sencha would, so I am guessing that would be the result of the supposed caramel. I think I got more hint of sesame and caramel in the first two or three sips. Then the whole brew just started to turn bitter, although not overwhelmingly so.
Next time I am going to play around with the steeping time – perhaps a minute would be enough? I’ll see how that goes. It is not a bad tea, it just doesn’t deliver what it promises, in my opinion.
