Category: Review

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Yunomi’s Gyokuro Phoenix 2016

Gyokuro Phoenix 2016 by Yunomi
Green Tea / Straight
$6.00USD for 10g

Yunomi has provided me with Gyokuro Phoenix 2016 for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Gyokuro Phoenix 2016 comes from the Hattori Tea farm, from Uji, Kyoto. Yunomi describes this tea as a “heritage grade gyokuro”, which is from Akinobu Hattori, who is a tea farmer who has been farming gyokuro for fifty years. The family that runs Hattori Tea Farm has a 400 history as tea farmers (whoa!). Gyokuro Phoenix is a handpicked green tea that was harvested in the spring of 2016. This tea was aged by Yunomi.

Gyokuro Phoenix has these beautiful dark green leaves, there’s some parts of it that almost have an emerald-like shimmer to them. The leaves have a light grassy aroma to it, and they actually look quite small. But given the fact that they were harvested in the spring (and who knows how early in the spring), that seems fairly appropriate.

Preparation

Yunomi recommends a series of steep times for this green tea. An initial steep for 60-80 seconds at 50°C (122°F), with a second steep for 15 seconds at 80°C (176°F) and a third steep for 45 seconds at 80°C (176°F).

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know that while I do use a variable temperature kettle, I can’t change the temperature settings. What I did for the initial steep of Gyokuro Phoenix was heat the water at the lowest temperature setting 175°F (79°C) and allow it to cool for about 7 minutes and I steeped the tea leaves for 70 seconds.

First Taste

Gyokuro Phoenix steeps to a pale yellow. The aroma that I get from this green tea is primarily that of sweetness, with a bit of salty air to it. When I tasted it, I noted that it had a bit of sweetness and some grassy notes. There was a pleasant amount of umami with each sip, which added a great mouthfeel to this tea. The grassy flavours made it taste very fresh, and felt very summery.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Gyokuro Phoenix a total of three times – I did the 2nd and 3rd steep was per the suggested steep times and did the 4th steep at 60 seconds. It did so well with each resteep, the flavours got stronger for the second steep, and started to wane for the third and fourth, but it was still a flavourful cup of tea.

My Overall Impression

I loved Yunomi’s Gyokuro Phoenix 2016. This green tea was flavourful and just steeped well. It’s definitely one that I would say you would need to watch your water temperature and steeping times, especially with such a low recommended temperature and relatively short resteep times. There was happily no bitterness or astringency at the recommended temperature settings, so I think Yunomi was on the ball with this one.

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Aroma Tea House’s Formosa Oolong

Formosa Oolong by Aroma Tea House
Oolong Tea / Straight
$12.00 for 100g   

First Impressions

I bought Formosa Oolong from Aroma Tea House’s booth at the Vancouver Tea Festival (I can’t remember which year, isn’t that terrible?!), and it came as part of a sampler of oolongs so I could try out four different types. Each cardboard tube had a snug-fitting lid, and the tea was poured into each one.

Formosa Oolong is one of their Taiwanese oolongs, and I was pretty happy to try it out. Formosa Oolong has these lovely green to brown leaves, the leaves all squished up together. The aroma from the dry leaf was that of a light fruity aroma with a mix of freshly cut grass, which I find quite inviting.

Preparation

As part of the sampler packaging, there were no steeping instructions on the cardboard tube. On the product page online, Aroma Tea House recommended steeping Formosa Oolong in a small teapot for 15 to 30 seconds, with no suggestions for water temperature. I used my Breville IQ Kettle‘s green tea temperature setting of 175°F (79°C) and steeped it for 30 seconds.

First Taste

Formosa Oolong steeps to what seems like an impossibly pale yellow when the leaves are only steeped for 30 seconds. The aroma from the tea is light sweetness, and fresh fruit – I get a mix of melon and plum. The tea is pleasantly smooth, no bitterness or astringency. I found the sweetness noted in the aroma of the tea carried over well into the flavour. It’s a smooth, creamy tea that certainly goes down easy.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Formosa Oolong seven times (eight steeps total!) and found that the flavours changed quite a bit as I steeped it. The fruity flavours intensified at first, and when that started to wane, there was some sweet floral notes that started to come out. It made for a great tasting adventure because the same leaves just produced such a wide range of flavour.

My Overall Impression

I loved Aroma Tea House’s Formosa Oolong. I really enjoyed how this oolong tasted – from the first steep to the eighth. The flavours were so complimentary to each other and made for a beautifully balanced flavour profile regardless of which steep I was on. This is definitely a tea that I would recommend having many, many cups of because the flavour of the tea just changes so well throughout each steep.

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DavidsTea’s Jasmine Crème Brulée

Jasmine Crème Brulée by DavidsTea
Green Tea / Flavoured
$8.98 for 50g

First Impressions

My first exposure to Jasmine Crème Brulée was as an iced tea sample in-store when it was the Tea of the Month – which is also the reasoning for the packaging. I actually bought the bag after it was the Tea of the Month, which meant this pouch was on sale because there was a new TotM. It was a bit of a perk, since it can be hard sometimes to get tea on sale – especially a tasty one. The dry leaf of Jasmine Crème Brulée smells like vanilla custard with floral notes and some fruity hints somewhere in there.

The ingredients in Jasmine Crème Brulée are as follows: apple, jasmine tea, rosehip shells, pineapple, sweet blackberry leaves, marigold flowers, natural and artificial flavouring. Like a lot of tea blends, I found that the smaller ingredients tended to settle at the bottom, so I had to give the bag a good shake to redistribute the ingredients again in order to get a spoonful that had the green tea in it.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Jasmine Crème Brulée in hot water for 3 to 5 minutes. I really do wish that they would go back to listing actual temperature values. I used the green tea setting on my Breville IQ Kettle and did an initial steep of Jasmine Crème Brulée at 79°C (175°F) for 3 minutes.

First Taste

Jasmine Crème Brulée steeps to a light golden yellow. There’s a nice jasmine/floral aroma that comes up from the tea, as well as something that definitely reminds me of a vanilla custard. I’m not sure how much of the green tea I actually taste, but this blend has a nice floral taste to it, some vanilla notes, and I’m not sure how much of the fruit ingredients I’m tasting. There’s a delicate creaminess to Jasmine Crème Brulée that has a nice buttery quality to it, which may be why it got its name. When steeped for 3 minutes, there was no astringency or bitterness from the green tea.

I iced some of the Jasmine Crème Brulée to try it cold and found it to be quite refreshing. I think this is one of those teas that does well both hot and iced. There was enough sweetness to it that I didn’t find myself needing any sweetener for either the hot or iced tea.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Jasmine Crème Brulée twice, adding an extra 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found the first resteep was quite similar to the initial steep in terms of the depth of flavour, while the second resteep was lacking some of that sweetness but was still palatable.

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Jasmine Crème Brulée. I really enjoyed the flavour profile of this green tea blend with the floral notes and the vanilla custard flavours. The creaminess and buttery qualities of this tea make for a great mouthfeel and there’s a nice sweetness to it. I found this tea equally enjoyable for both hot and iced. I think it’d be a great candidate for cold steeping so you don’t accidentally oversteep the green tea.

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