Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club, February Review (Part 2)

yunomi2As I mentioned in yesterday’s article – I’m back with “Part 2” of the Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club review of February’s shipment!  Today’s article will highlight my experiences with two more Hojicha teas as well as another Japanese Oolong – I’m excited to get started, so let’s not dilly-dally!  Let’s jump right in!

autumnhojichaThe first tea that I’ll be discussing is Autumn Hojicha Roasted Green Tea from Takeo Tea Farm.  The first thing I noticed about this tea is that it starts out delicately.  My first few sips were very softly flavored.  I could taste light notes of sweet, toasty nut flavor, but they were quite subtle.  It wasn’t until the third or fourth sip that the flavors started to become more focused.  Now that I’m about halfway through the cup, the flavors are sweet, roasty-toasty, and nutty … and very well defined!

With those initial first couple of sips, I was starting to think that this tea was much more delicate than the Hojicha I had tasted for yesterday’s article, but now, I’m thinking twice about that.  These two Hojicha are very similar though, but I think that this one might taste a little more ‘roasted.’  Both are spectacular varieties of Hojicha, though, and I’d heartily recommend either, but this is the one I’d point you toward if you were looking for a stronger roasted flavor.

SONY DSCThe next tea that I’m tasting from Yunomi’s Tea Discoveries February package is #03 Black Oolong Tea from Kaneban Higuchi Tea Factory.  I found myself wondering as I brewed this tea in my gaiwan how much different it would be from last night’s experience with the Oolong tea from Takeo.

And there are some distinct differences in the two.  This has more of a sweet potato flavor to it!  I love that I’m tasting sweet potato!  There are hints of smoke to the flavor.  This reminds me more of a black tea than an Oolong.  It doesn’t have the same texture as I experienced with the Oolong from Takeo.

If I were to attempt to describe this tea in one sentence, it might go something like this:  this tea is what I’d imagine the love child of a Japanese black tea and Formosa Oolong tea would taste like.  I’m getting that rich flavor that I remember from the few Japanese black teas that I’ve tried, and I’m tasting notes of peach that I’d taste in a Formosa Oolong.  Along with the softest hint of smoke.

Quite lovely!

premium-houjicha1The final tea in this month’s Tea Discoveries package is Superior Hojicha Roasted Green Tea from NaturaliTea.  When I opened this pouch, the roasty-toasty aroma filled the air.  This tea seems to have more roasty-toasty-ness to it.

And that’s evident in the flavor too.  The flavor here is much stronger, right from the very first sip.  The roasted flavors are intense.  I can almost taste the charred wood notes of the wood that was used to roast this tea.   Most Hojicha – including the previous two teas that I tasted from this month’s Tea Discoveries Club – tend to have a delicate flavor.  This tea is more in your face.  Very roasty.  Very toasty!  Very nutty and sweet.  I’m getting mineral notes and a distinct charcoal-y flavor from it too.

And smoke!  I don’t usually taste smoke from a Hojicha.  I taste the roasty-toasty, nutty flavors, but the smoke?  No, not always.  I might have noticed smoke on an occasion or two, but here, the smoke is evident, particularly in the aftertaste.  Nice!

This is the tea for those who liked Hojicha but wanted a stronger flavor to it.  This tea delivers that!  It’s warm and cozy and comforting, but it’s also offers a bold flavor that is not common in your average Hojicha.

This month’s Tea Discoveries Club just reaffirms to me that YOU should be joining me on these discoveries!  The teas are remarkable and it’s really interesting for me to see how teas – like Hojicha – can differ from producer to producer.  You should never judge your like/dislike of a particular tea type based only on one sampling.  You should give yourself a chance to explore the teas – even those you may not have enjoyed from other tea companies – because you never know what you might be missing.

The Tea Discoveries Club gives you the unique opportunity to really explore Japanese Teas!

Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club, February Review (Part 1)

As with last month’s review of the Yunomi Tea Discoveries Club  (You can check out part 1 of that review here), I’ll be doing the review of this month’s package in two parts.  This first article will feature the review of two teas and the second article, published tomorrow at the same time, will feature three teas.  

yunomi2This month, we received five teas featuring Hojicha Roasted Green teas as well as Japanese-made Oolong teas.  Exciting!  I haven’t tried a lot of Japanese Oolong teas – most of my Oolong experiences have been with Taiwanese Oolongs and to a slightly lesser extent, Chinese Oolongs.  Japanese Oolong teas aren’t as common a tea to find – another reason that this Tea Discoveries Club from Yunomi is a GREAT deal!

The teas featured in this month’s package are:  three Hojicha teas (Hojicha Roasted Green Tea, Autumn Hojicha Roasted Green Tea and Superior Hojicha Roasted Green Tea) and two Japanese Oolong teas (Oolong Tea and Black Oolong Tea).  I’m so excited to try these!  I love Hojicha and I love Oolong and am especially excited to try something rare like Japanese Oolong!

Also included in this month’s package is a pamphlet that offers steeping and tasting notes as well as some other interesting information including tea-related Japanese phrases and terms and the cutest little origami Crane!

HojichaRoastedGreenSo let’s jump right in and get started with the Hojicha Roasted Green Tea from NaturaliTea.

This Hojicha delivers all the flavors that you’d expect from a Hojicha.  It’s got that wonderfully cozy, roasty-toasty flavor.  It’s lightly sweet and nutty.  It’s a very autumnal type of flavor – it evokes thoughts of autumn for me.  I think of the cooler weather, the crispness in the air and the smell of smoke from the neighborhood chimneys.  It’s the kind of flavor that you want to curl up to.

I like that this particular Hojicha is light.  It doesn’t have a heavy flavor to it.  It’s the kind of drink that you want after you’ve had a heavy meal.  It’s soothing and gentle.

SONY DSCThe second tea that I’ll be examining in this article is Organic Oolong Tea from Takeo Tea Farm.  This is a tea that I explored previously in another review (read that review here).

Dry, this tea looks a lot like a black tea.  It reminds me of a black tea with its dark, slender leaves.  If I were given the dry leaves ‘blindly’ (without knowing that it was an Oolong) I would not have guessed it was an Oolong by the appearance of the dry leaf.

The tea brews up dark too.  The only real “Oolong-like” indication I started to recognize is after the rinse and first infusion, I noticed how much the leaves had expanded and it was very “Oolong-esque.”  (Oolong teas tend to expand quite a bit during the brewing process!)

Now the flavor … this does taste like an Oolong.  It reminds me a lot of a darker Oolong, like perhaps a Formosa Oolong or a Oriental Beauty Oolong.  It has that deep, fruity flavor and the really lovely, full texture of an Oolong.  It’s sweet and really quite pleasant.

It has an almost ‘wine-like’ quality to it too, much more so than teas that I often call ‘wine-like.’  I can really taste a fermented grape flavor here.  The tea has a very rich, full and satisfying flavor.  This is truly a unique Oolong tea – one that should be experienced to be understood fully.  (In other words – try this tea as soon as you can!)

My first cup (infusions 1 and 2) was probably the most intensely flavored cup of the three that I enjoyed.  I found that with my second cup, the flavors were beginning to mellow slightly.  The tea was still very strongly flavored and I still got a very distinct fermented grape-like flavor to the cup.  But the flavors in the cups that would follow were a little less focused.  (Still quite enjoyable though – it’s well worth the effort to keep on steeping!)

With the third cup, I started to notice that the fruit notes were becoming sweeter.  It wasn’t as ‘fermented’ a taste as I noticed in the first two cups.  Floral notes began to emerge as did a sweet note that evoked thoughts of honey.  A really lovely cup!

I can’t wait to explore the other three teas!  Read about them in tomorrow’s article!

Certified Organic Oolong Tea by the Takeo Family from Yunomi

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Tea Information:

Leaf Type:  Oolong

Where to Buy:  Yunomi

Learn more about this tea here.

About Yunomi:

Matcha Latte Media KK was launched in January 2012 as a result of founder Ian Chun’s work with Kyoto Obubu Tea Plantations (see Starting a Tea Business – Background). Our mission was to put Japanese culture into the hands of consumers around the world. We feel that many products, including Japanese tea, gain much of their value from an understanding of the culture and society behind them, not simply from their physical qualities. Many of these cultural products in Japan are produced by small-scale producers, and we had hoped to bring them to global markets by providing an e-commerce marketing service.

However, the Japanese tea industry called to us, and as a product so central to Japanese culture, we fell in love. 2013 marks our pivot from a consultancy into a tea business with the Yunomi.us website. We hope you will support us and follow along as we build a paradigm changing business.

Taster’s Review:

This Certified Organic Oolong Tea by the Takeo Family from Yunomi is quite unique … different from any Oolong that I’ve ever tried!  And in this case … different is definitely GOOD!

The flavor is mild, sweet, and fruity.  There is a sort of tangy note that tickles the tip of the tongue toward the finish, and that tingly sensation lasts into the aftertaste.  Almost like a “sweet and sour” note!  Quite intriguing…

This tea hints at floral notes in the distance … although I would not call this tea a floral tea.  These are mere hints … like a whisper of a breeze that has passed through a field of flowers and picked up on just a hint of the floral essence … that’s what I detect here.  This is much more fruity than floral, tasting of stone fruit, with hints of toasted nuts and a slight earthy tone and notes of mellow spice.

I brewed this tea in my gaiwan (as I do with most Oolong teas) and this allowed me to re-steep the leaves several times with very positive results.  The flavor changed with each new cup of tea … the fruity notes became sweeter and more mild as I reached my third cup.  By this time, those hints of flower in the distance have subsided, but there is still this lovely, sort of exotic sweet and sour note that keeps me captivated.

A really enjoyable Oolong … one I’d recommend to all Oolong enthusiasts … especially if you’re looking for something a little out of the ordinary!  This is truly a unique Oolong – one that deserves discovery!