Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: ArtfulTea or ArtfulTea on Etsy
Tea Description:
A festive blend of almond and orange with a strong pine-like flavor. Chinese sencha and Japanese bancha combine beautifully with refreshing orange and nutty almonds for a lift in any season!
Ingredients: green tea, orange slices, almonds, pink peppercorns, safflower and natural flavors.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Yeah, I know that it’s the middle of summer right now and we shouldn’t be thinking about winter right now, but, when I read the description of this tea, I just couldn’t resist ordering it as part of my ArtfulTea Sampler. The idea of almond and orange in a green tea was definitely enough to spark my interest, but then when I read “pine” in the description, I was sold! I needed to try it!
And this is totally yum! I’m so glad I decided to give this one a try.
The green tea base is a combination of Japanese Bancha and Chinese Sencha, and these two teas impart a sweet, slightly grassy, slightly buttery taste to the cup. The mouthfeel is thick and soft, evoking thoughts of a rich broth, but it tastes more sweet than a savory broth would. There is no bitterness to the cup and very little astringency. The astringency is something that I pick up on when I focus on the sip. Just after the sip is finished, I start to notice a slight dryness. It’s very slight – so slight that those who are sensitive to astringency would most likely not even notice it unless they’re actually trying to find it.
The buttery notes of the tea seem to marry well with the almond notes. I suspect that the green tea has some nutty tones to it that accentuate the almond flavors, elevating them into a strong focal point of the sip.
The orange is a little less dominate than the almond. The orange is nice though, because it brightens the cup, adding just the right zesty flavor where it’s needed.
And I do taste a subtle pine note to this too. I’m not sure where it comes from, unless it’s part of the “natural flavors.” It’s not an overwhelming note, but it is there. I like it, it adds a certain crispness to the cup, like the sensation of the cool, invigorating air in winter just after the snow has fallen.
If I had to describe this in a couple of words, I would say that this tastes like a winter dessert. Like an almond cake or pastry with a drizzle of orange icing, eaten on a winter evening just after the holiday tree (a fresh, real tree!) has been decorated. It’s quite nice!
Hojicha Green Tea from Aiya
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Aiya
Tea Description:
Known for its unique, strong, roasted flavor, Hojicha is made by roasting lower grade Sencha and Bancha. Although Hojicha is from the green tea family, the roasting process turns its leaves to an autumn brown. Hojicha has a very distinct, mild and nutty flavor. It also contains less caffeine and tannins, resulting in a less astringent flavor.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I love the toasty, cozy taste of this Hojicha Green Tea from Aiya. The roasting of the Sencha and Bancha leaves creates such a lovely, nutty flavor that has a hint of caramel undertones.
Aiya has delivered another excellent tea! This tea is just exactly what I’ve come to expect from a good Hojicha. The leaves are a beautiful shade of tan that smell warm and toasty, like freshly roasted nuts. When brewed, the liquid is golden tan and fragrant.
The cup tastes smooth with a light astringency. There is no bitterness. The usual “vegetal” notes that you’d experience with Sencha and Bancha teas have become a sweet, warmly roasted flavor that is not grassy or vegetative. Instead, it reminds me vaguely of almonds that have just come out of the oven after being lightly toasted. The aftertaste is delicate and sweet.
The flavor is so soothing. It’s the kind of tea that I like to curl up to on chilly days like this one. When it’s cold and blustery out there, I like to be inside with my hands wrapped around a warm, porcelain mug of hot Hojicha like this one.
Pan Asia Green Tea Blend from Harney & Sons
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Harney & Sons
Tea Description:
A delightful blend of Chinese Bancha and big Chrysanthemum flowers that create a light, clean tasting delight.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? We haven’t yet celebrated our Thanksgiving because my husband works every Thursday, and it’s next to impossible for him to get the day off, especially if Thursday happens to fall on a holiday. So, we always postpone our Thanksgiving for a day when the whole family can come together, and this year, it happens to be this coming Tuesday.
But as I sit here, contemplating my Thanksgiving feast menu, I am sipping on this Pan Asia Green Tea Blend from Harney & Sons. It’s sweet and light, with a refreshing floral note. The background is slightly grassy. It’s a delightful tea to drink as I’m trying not to get stressed out over holiday plans. It’s keeping my nerves in check!
Overall, the flavor reminds me of springtime, and that’s certainly a welcome memory as it is quite cold outside right now. Brrrrr! I am finding this tea – served warm – to be very soothing and calming and helping me to forget that chill outside, and the stress that I’m feeling on my insides!
Of course, this tea would be splendid served iced too. The texture is soft and the flavor sweet, and the chrysanthemum adds just a hint of sharpness to the buttery smooth notes of the Chinese Bancha.
It’s not too floral and not too grassy. There’s a really enjoyable balance of tastes. A nice, relaxing cuppa.
Yunomi Monthly Mystery Tea Sampler’s Club: NaturaliTea #11: Organic Autumn Bancha Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Yunomi
Tea Description:
Grown under the strong summer sun and harvested in autumn, this bancha tea has stronger astringency and less caffeine than sencha.
Learn more about this tea here.
Learn more about Yunomi’s Monthly Mystery Tea Sampler’s Club here.
Taster’s Review:
The Monthly Mystery Tea Sampler’s Club package from Yunomi promises to be FUN! In addition to this Organic Autumn Bancha from NaturaliTea, there is also a package of Genmai … which is just the toasted rice! I get to custom blend my own Genmaicha! Yay! I look forward to that … so, that review will be coming later. (I’ll probably be using some of this Bancha to make my first cup of custom Genmaicha!)
Before I do that though, I think I’d like to sample this Bancha on it’s own and give you my thoughts on the tea. And my thoughts? This is a really nice Bancha! The dry leaf is cut small, and I noticed a couple of stems in with the leaves.
I like Bancha … it’s less celebrated than Sencha tea, but, I find that the two are really quite similar. It is as the description above implies, though, it does have a bit more astringency than a typical Japanese Sencha. But here’s what else I’m noticing … this is deliciously sweet, vegetative, and has less noticeable bitterness – at least to this taster’s palate – than a typical Japanese Sencha. This is perhaps a little less sweet than a Japanese Sencha, but it has a nice, buttery taste and texture to it that I quite enjoy.
It’s a smooth, delicious green tea with a brothy mouthfeel – reminiscent of the broth of a soup that might have been crafted with mild green vegetables. It has a sweet yet savory taste to it … and I find that the sweet and the savory notes are well-balanced. It’s a mellow, lovely cuppa, and I look forward to blending this Bancha with the Genmai that was provided in this month’s Mystery Tea sampler’s Club package for a tasty Genmaicha!
Tokyo from Harney and Sons
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Bancha, Green
Where to Buy: Harney and Sons
Tea Description:
Japan’s capital is the inspiration of this tea. Green Bancha is blended with toasted sesame seeds and caramel flavors. The delightful flavor is reminiscent of some of Tokyo’s best desserts.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I really enjoy this tea although I find it interesting that many I have shared it with and myself can’t quite seem to figure out if we all agree on its flavor. It states that it is a toasted sesame/caramel flavored tea, and I do detect both flavors. The sesame however is very light and difficult to detect. The caramel is more present to me, although others have said they can not detect it at all. What most of us agree on however, is a fruity flavor! I can only determine that somehow, this wonderful Bancha, along with the mixture of caramel and toasted sesame somehow create this wonderful fruity flavor simply by being blended together!
Regardless of wether the flavor that is the overall outcome is true to the ingredients or not, what we do have here is a tea everyone seems to agree tastes wonderful! Even though we do not all tend to agree on the flavors we pick out from the blend, everyone seems to enjoy it quite much!
I absolutely love the Bancha base tea in this blend, its a good quality that comes through marvelously! The caramel is natural tasting and not over done, and the sesame could be a bit stronger because I adore sesame! Keep in mind however when I prepare asian food my plate is so covered in sesame you can’t see any of the food underneath it! So with that said I am sure this tastes like sesame just fine, it is my personal issue that I desire so much of it!
What matters in the end however is if a tea blends into something we want to sip again and again, and this for me does! I even pick up those fruity notes in the aroma of the tea!
I think what it comes down to is simply my own lack of understanding what “some of Tokyo’s best desserts” taste like, as I have never been to Tokyo, and living in the midwest, specifically Kansas, does not really afford me some of the best Asian dining experiences! So we will chalk my confusion over this tea up to ignorance, however in this case, ignorance is bliss, as I am blissfully enjoying this Tokyo tea from Harney and Sons!
