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“Picked up a packet of this tea to split with Indigobloom and Sil, as it sounded interesting. And interesting it is! First off, it looks like a CTC tea. No long, thin, wiry leaves here; the leaves...” Read full tasting note
“Uncooked, stringy, starchy squash!! You called it Kittenna, yep, that’s what I taste. In the first infusion anyhow. At first I didn’t like it at all, but as the cup cooled I would enjoy one sip,...” Read full tasting note
“Sipdown! So I totally understand why kittenna and Indigobloom don’t like this as much as me. This is a black that I actually find nice. It’s not overly strong, and there are notes of sweetness...” Read full tasting note
“1 tablespoon for 375 ml Brewed tea aroma smells of squash. Smooth (almost creamy) nutty squash and slightly pumpkin flavour. Savoury tone. Very little astringency. Thanks to Indigobloom for sharing.” Read full tasting note
A premium quality 100% handpicked first flush organic Japanese black tea cultivated by a very long established, award winning, organic black tea grower in the famed black tea production area known as Makurazaki which is in Kagoshima prefecture Made from the tea bush variety known as “Hatsumomiji” which was bred in Japan for black tea. An organic koucha with a unique sweet taste and aroma, soft rich mouthfeel, and a lovely clean aftertaste.
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Picked up a packet of this tea to split with Indigobloom and Sil, as it sounded interesting.
And interesting it is! First off, it looks like a CTC tea. No long, thin, wiry leaves here; the leaves aren’t even as intact as they are in crappy flavoured loose blacks. Nope, it’s practically powder. Naturally, that made me super wary of bitterness/astringency. A sniff of the tea, which smells fairly mild, made me brave enough to actually use nearly 1.5 tsp for my ~8 oz. mug, which I wouldn’t have done for a CTC (but at the same time, I didn’t want it to be too weak!)
The second interesting thing – while this tea was brewing up, I sniffed at the brewing basket, and it smelled exactly like squash! Like my cup was filled with cooked squash. I’m not entirely sure which type of squash, but not a particularly sweet one. Just kind of… nutty. So squashy, though – it was strange!
Third, the flavour. Of course, a tea that smells so strongly of squash… yes, also tastes of squash. And it actually quite a bit milder than I would have expected. It’s fairly smooth, and the squashy flavour ends with a black tea sweetness which is quite nice. Not being a huge black tea fan (nor always a huge squash fan), I’m rather glad that this is a sneaky sort of sipdown for me (in that the packet of tea only has enough for about 4 cups, and I’ve had my one!) Super interesting to have tried, though!
Uncooked, stringy, starchy squash!! You called it Kittenna, yep, that’s what I taste. In the first infusion anyhow. At first I didn’t like it at all, but as the cup cooled I would enjoy one sip, and then not so much on the next one and so forth. So it’d get a 60.
Second steep is sweeter, a little more on the yam side, and mellower. The aftertaste lingers a little more as well. Rating: 72
Interesting indeed. Also, it reminds me of the Imperial Lotus rosettes I bought from Teavana last year, in the mouthfeel and aroma. I’ll have to make another cup soon and see if it’s as I remember.
Sipdown!
So I totally understand why kittenna and Indigobloom don’t like this as much as me. This is a black that I actually find nice. It’s not overly strong, and there are notes of sweetness hiding in the tea. It’s not a must have for my cupboard but I wouldn’t be opposed to picking up more. If I had more than a sipdown, I totally would have sent some to terriharplady :) overall a really nice afternoon cup of tea.
Squash… interesting!?
Sad to see you got tea dust :(
Yes – you’ll have to let me know if you agree! :) And about the “tea dust” – I’m pretty sure the tea is meant to be like this; I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it whatsoever! It’s like how matcha is supposed to be a powder, and how gyokuro is in smaller pieces as well. It certainly wasn’t astringent; I just was wary because often greater surface area causes that sort of thing.
Either way I’m looking forward to trying it out!
while this doesn’t surprise me about the ‘squashy’ flavor…I am still intrigued and appreciate you sharing