Ryokucha

Last night I didn’t really fall asleep until around 12:30. This was as much because I was reading something interesting than anything else. And it really wouldn’t have been a big deal. But then, The Pregnancy woke me around 4:15, and it kept me up for the rest of the morning. I finally threw in the towel a little before six, and went to read until it was a reasonable time to get ready to go into work.

So, I felt totally justified in making a big cup of ryokucha to take into work this morning. That, and Spoon’s The Underdog, has made this morning less overwhelming.

So the tasting note? It’s really good tea. My favorite genmaicha at this point, is Den’s, and though this is really, Really good, I’m not sure it beats out Den’s. I think I prefer the extra roastiness of Den’s, though now I really want to make a small cup of each and try them side by side.

However, if I were in the mood for a genmaicha, but wanted something on more of the tea side of the spectrum than the toasty side, I’d definitely go with this. And I’m super pleased to have gotten a tin of this to keep coming back to it over the next few weeks/months. Good stuff!

Backlog…
I had this tea last night along with Samovar’s Japanese tea service. That included brown rice, tempeh, beets, seaweed salad and kale with a cup of butternut squash soup. This is a bit reminiscent of Den’s Super Green genmaicha because the color is just such a bright vivid green. Definitely has a kelpy/savory flavor with the warm flavor of toasted rice. That seaweedy flavor does not bother me, but I love japanese green teas. It went great with my food too. I could see wanting to have some of this around to make tea soup with or just to have I thought about buying some of this but I have a few genmaichas already that I should focus on drinking first. So much tea, so little time.

I have no idea how they prepared this so I’m just guessing… Their nishi sencha 1st flush is definitely worth checking out too.

Finally trying out my Ryokucha sample from Samovar. The toasted rice is the most powerful flavor (no, I haven’t had genmaicha before, why do you ask?), though I get more creamy green tea if I swirl before sipping (so the matcha isn’t all settled to the bottom). This is really nice, though not very… green, in taste. Very green in color! A lovely pale sea/spring green.

This has a serious caffeine kick, by the way. I can feel it going to my head, and incidentally, taking care of the headache I woke up with today!

Will update with steeps 2 and 3.
Steep 2, at 185°F, is almost identical to the first: a little less toasted rice and a little more green tea, but otherwise very similar. Pale green color, and still some matcha settling to the bottom of my cup.
Steep 3 had less matcha :( but was still pretty good

Genmaicha is one of my favorite teas there is. But there’s something about the genmaicha in Samovar’s that makes their ryokucha super addicting. I always try to convince my budget to let me restock this one whenever Samovar has a sale. Delicious, but not too friendly for a college student budget.

Backlog. Let’s call this one Sipdown no. 2 of November 2019 (no. 107 of 2019 total, no. 595 grand total).

This was the last tea I sipped down before I fell off of tea for a while.

Three observations. One: I did ok in sipdowns for 2019, but I am a bit annoyed with myself for not making my goals each month. Also annoyed that I got all the way to November and then didn’t finish out the year. As it is already the third month of 2020, I’m not going to count sipdowns monthly this year, but I’ll count them as they occur (if any do — at this rate who knows).

Second, this tea didn’t age well at all. I usually don’t notice a lot of difference over time with teas. I have great storage capabilities and live in a climate that allows me to avoid humidity. But this one — no.

That sweetness that I remarked upon when I first tried this was totally gone, and all I could taste was a ricy flavor which, without the sweet green to offset it, was like drinking dissolved rice krispies and not wonderful. At least I have the memory of it when it was fresh recorded. I think the fact that this was not pleasant was what led me to an off tea period in the first place, which is surprising as I do love my Samovar teas.

Third, with this sipdown I am now at 17 cupboard pages. WOOT!

Enjoying the nutty, toasty blend that is Samovar’s Ryokucha this Thanksgiving morning. What’s in your Turkeyday cup?

This has got to be one of my favorite Samovar teas.

Just got home from a long day at work, feet are killing me, I’m just beat. I ended up having stir fry for dinner, and this tea makes a great after meal tea. It really helped offset the oily tastes from this stir fry. After eating a bowl of the stir fry, I was fairly full, but after drinking this tea, I now feel much more satisfied as far as fullness is concerned. This tea could definitely be a meal on it’s own.

The first sip, this tea has a nice nuttiness to it, like most genmaicha. But a couple sips after that the nuttiness gets a bit sweeter, and for some reason brings thoughts of Cracker Jacks, just with a little less caramel flavor. With the following sips, intertwined with the sweet/roasted nut/popcorn-like flavor from the genmai, are nice hints of mildly sweet grass-like flavors from the sencha.

I really enjoy genmaicha, I probably drank it almost half the time that I was visiting my girlfriend (she is a JET) in Japan (which wasn’t too long, about a week and a half, but what an amazing week and a half). So drinking this always kind of brings back nice memories. But with this tea, there is one thing that sets it apart from the others. There is an amazing full bodied milkiness to this tea due to the matcha. The sweet, toasty, creaminess is just amazing.

The color and aroma of this are both amazing. The deep green color is just amazing, I guess from the matcha. I can definitely relate the smell to brine with hints of grass. Almost reminds me of opening a jar of lotus root in brine that you would get from an international food market. While not one of the most amazing of smells, it is definitely recognizable.

2nd Steep: 5 minutes – Still nutty and a bit creamy. There is a little bit of residual matcha in this steeping. The color comparison of the first and second steep are like night and day. Second steep gives off a slightly green/amber color.

3rd Steep: 8 minutes – Pretty much tastes like a typical genmaicha, which is not a problem at all with me since I like genmaicha.

Wow. Long week and even worse one coming up. Three exams in 2 days is never fun. Within these stressful days I was looking forward to getting my Samovar bundle of samples. Surprisingly they shipped within a day of ordering and I actually got it within 2 days of shipping. A+ service in my opinion. Delivery estimate was the 22-25th.. and I received it yesterday.

Anyway, I was eager to try the first of my tea samples, and what a better tea to kick it off with the ever popular Ryokucha. With all the ranting and raving I knew this stuff had to be good. I mean, if your going to call it “tea crack”, then I guess it’s got some serious credibility.

I followed the steeping instructions on the bag it came in. When I first opened it, the smell of Genmaicha hit me; very similar to the Adagio blend which I’ve been drinking for a couple weeks. The matcha was clearly visible; the pieces of brown rice were a vivid green and overall the smell was somewhat different that the Adagio Genmaicha. I’ll have to credit this to the matcha powder. I heated my water, poured the contents of the baggie into my infuser, poured my water in, and let it steep for a full 3 minutes. It brewed a bright green color. It looked quite delicious.

IMPRESSIONS:
When it first hits your palette, the brown rice flavor is definitely there. It stands out strong and lasts throughout the first sips. In terms of after-taste, I wasn’t getting the sweet, matcha flavor a lot of people were talking about. It was vegetative, but not so sweet. Then again, it was smooth; there was no harshness at all. The taste of Genmaicha was certainly there, although the matcha seemed to be a little hidden. I was a little disappointed in this regard. I did experience the “milkiness” towards the end of my cup, and then a noticed the matcha powder was sitting on the bottom. Maybe I needed to stir the tea around a bit before drinking. I ended up steeping a second and final time, although not much changed. I tasted the brown rice and vegetativeness of the tea but the milkiness was pretty masked by the other flavors. I will say however that between steeps I did have a sweet taste in my mouth. And this did make me want more :)

I guess my only gripe is that this didn’t taste much different than Adagio’s Genmaicha; maybe my sample wasn’t too great or perhaps I steeped it too long or too little. Other than that, it is a great genmaicha. I can see myself reordering.

Consistently tasty, and always a nice evening treat. I guess I’m kind of backwards from most people… I drink black/darker teas in the morning, and then when the evening comes I drink green tea before bed. Am I weird?

Anyway, I love the aroma and taste of this tea. It’s so complete and well rounded. The first time I drank this tea (a long while ago) my mom took notice and now we enjoy this tea together a few nights a week. She loves the stuff.

My only gripe is that I have to keep a spoon around to stir around the resting matcha powder on the bottom once in a while.

Nice creamy tea with a good mouth feel. It has a delightfully roasty aroma that carries through to the taste, but gently. It has the vegetal of the sencha and the beautiful thick green liquid of the matcha all combined with the sweet roastiness and not a lick of bitterness or astringency. It’s very yum! Much thanks to Takgoti for this lovely tea.