Yunomi’s Hojicha Gold Roast

Hojicha Gold Roast by Yunomi
Green Tea / Straight
$13.00USD for 50g

Yunomi has provided me with Hojicha Gold Roast for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Hojicha Gold Roast from Yunomi is from the Obubu Tea Farms in Kyoto. I’ve mentioned it before on One More Steep, but I really do like the packaging and labeling that Yunomi uses for their packaging – it’s resealable and the label has all the information that one could ever want about the tea. Hojicha Gold Roast is a Japanese green tea that was harvested in the spring time.

Hojicha Gold Roast is a straight green tea. The leaves are dark brown with many short pieces throughout. This hojicha has some nice deep roasted/toasted notes ot it. It has a slightly smokey and nutty aroma to it.

Preparation

Yunomi recommends steeping Hojicha Gold Roast in 90C (195F) water for 60 seconds. My initial steep followed the steeping recommendations.

First Taste

Hojicha Gold Roast steeps to a light golden yellow. I noted that a lot of the fine particles of tea weren’t contained by with stainless steel infuser that I used in my tea pot, so if that bothers you, I would recommend using a filter bag instead. The tea itself has a nice toasted aroma to it. I found the tea to be very smooth when steeped for 60 seconds, with a nice strong nutty flavour. I found some sweetness to the tail end of each steep that reminded me a lot of caramel.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Hojicha Gold Roast a total of four times, because that’s what Yunomi suggested it could do. I added an extra 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that the flavours deepened in the first resteep, and became a deeper golden yellow colour. After that, the flavours got a bit weaker with each steep, I found that the nutty flavour gave way to the sweet caramel flavours that I got.

My Overall Impression

I loved Yunomi’s Hojicha Gold Roast. I really enjoyed this tea, because it’s not like other green teas out there. If you’re not a fan of the salty flavours or vegetal notes in most green teas, hojicha is a nice change of pace because it’s been roasted and it just has a different type of flavour profile to it. I really enjoyed the sweet caramel notes in this tea, along with the nutty flavours – which makes this tea quite savoury. I would easily pair this with a meal as it’ll be more sweet by the time you get to dessert.

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Yunomi’s Sayamacha Fukamushi Aracha

Sayamacha Fukamushi Aracha by Yunomi
Green Tea / Straight
$6.00USD for 20g

Yunomi has provided me with Sayamacha Fukamushi Aracha for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Sayamacha Fukamushi Aracha was sent to me by Yunomi in a resealable green foil pouch. If you’ve never had a tea from Yunomi before, you’re in for a bit of information overload about the tea on the label. The printed text covers how to steep it, how to adjust steeping this tea to your liking, the ingredients in the tea, as well as when and where this green tea was grown and harvested (Sayama, Saitama and in Spring 2018).

Sayamacha Fukamushi Aracha is a straight green tea. I found that the leaves seemed quite fine. The leaves are thin and flat in mostly bright to dark shades of green. The aroma of this tea is primarily that of the ocean (saltiness of the water) and vegetal notes that primarily remind me of dark green, leafy vegetables.

Preparation

Yunomi recommends steeping Sayamacha Fukamushi Aracha in 70°C (158°F) water for 60 seconds. The lowest my Breville IQ Kettle heats water to is (79°C) 175°F, so I opted to steep to that and allow the water to sit and cool for an additional 5 minutes. My steep of Sayamacha Fukamushi Aracha was for 60 seconds.

First Taste

I found there to be a lot of fine particles in my tea, it made it quite cloudy in appearance. If this is something that might bother you, I would recommend steeping Sayamacha Fukamushi Aracha with the use of a filter bag. The tea itself is a pleasant light yellow green. I found that the aroma of the tea to be very similar to the dry leaf – there’s quite of bit of salty aroma and the dark leafy vegetal aromas are still very much present. The flavour of Sayamacha Fukamushi Aracha was very similar to that of dried seaweed snacks – salty. This green tea hits all the umami notes well, I found it be on the savoury side of things.

A Second Cup?

Yunomi suggests that Sayamacha Fukamushi Aracha can be resteeped three times, so I did the same. I found the saltiness and umami notes to fade quite still maintaining the leafy vegetal flavours. I added an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep.

My Overall Impression

I loved Yunomi’s Sayamacha Fukamushi Aracha. I found the flavour to be really pleasant, and wasn’t too salty/umami for me. The flavours of this tea stayed fairly consistent with each steep, with just a gradual loss of the saltiness as I resteeped it. I think that Sayamacha Fukamushi Aracha would work really well with a savoury dish to help balance out the flavours and lend some of that saltiness to the flavour of your meal.

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Yunomi’s Fukamushicha From Narama

Fukamushicha From Narama by Yunomi
Green Tea / Straight
$6.00USD for 20g

Yunomi has provided me with Fukamushicha From Narama for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Fukamushicha From Narama came to me in a pale green, resealable foil bag. I love how Yunomi’s product labels tell you everything you ever needed to know about their teas, and then some. From this label, I learned that this Japanese green tea was harvested in spring of 2018, from the Narama Village, located in Shizuoka, Japan. You can literally pin point the location of when and where this tea was harvested, which is just so neat.

Fukamushicha From Narama is made up of fine, dark green leaves. There’s a very pleasant salty aroma from the leaves – it has a quality about it that reminds me a lot of seaweed, being by the water, just hanging out on the beach and breathing it all in. Fukamushicha From Narama consists of green tea.

Preparation

Yunomi recommends steeping Fukamushicha From Narama for 1 minute in 70°C (158°F). As usual, I use my trusty Breville IQ Kettle to heat up my water. However, the lowest my kettle goes is 175°F (79°C) so I heated my water to the lowest temperature setting and allowed it to cool with the lid open for about 5 minutes.

First Taste

Fukamushicha From Narama steeps to a lovely light green colour. There’s a very light flavour to this tea, with some clear umami notes. There’s a mild amount of saltiness, which isn’t off-putting. It has an almost savoury quality to it, which is quite endearing. Fukamushicha From Narama is quite a smooth green tea with zero bitterness or astringency.

A Second Cup?

Yunomi suggests that this tea can be resteeped up to 3 times, so obviously I had to give that a go. I resteeped it four times, with an additional 30 seconds for each resteep. The flavour were the strongest in the initial steep and the first resteep, and I found that it started to get weaker after that. The fourth resteep was still tasty, but it just wasn’t nearly as intense as the previous steeps.

My Overall Impression

I loved Yunomi’s Fukamushicha From Narama. I felt like it was a very nice savoury green tea, it was light with some good umami notes. I think it would pair well with savoury foods, or even play nicely with something sweet to help balance each other out. Fukamushicha From Narama resteeped well, which definitely made for a nice tea steeping session.

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