Tag: Green Tea

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Tsujiri’s Premium Sencha

Premium Sencha by Tsujiri
Green Tea / Straight
$10.25 for 30g

First Impressions

This is the last loose leaf tea that I picked up from my visit to Tsujiri. It comes in familiar packaging – the lovely linen-feel paper with a cardstock sleeve with some information. The tea itself comes in an unmarked silver pouch that is sealed but not resealable. For the other teas, I’ve popped the silver pouch into a zip top plastic bag to help keep the tea from going stale (my empty tea tins are still packed away at this time).

Premium Sencha is dark and bright green leaves, mostly short and flattened pieces, with quite a bit of tea dust in the package. The aroma is mostly grassy, with a hint of salty air to it. The tea itself consists only of Japanese green tea.

Preparation

Tsujiri recommends steeping Premium Sencha in 70-80°C (158-176°F) for 1 minute. I opted to do the initial steep with 79°C (175°F) water for a steep time of 1 minute.

First Taste

Premium Sencha steeps to a yellow colour. There’s some grassy aroma from the tea when I smell it, and there are visible tea leave bits that have sunk to the bottom of the cup. On first taste, I noticed that there are some umami notes, a hint of saltiness, some grassy flavours, and some vegetal notes that remind me of dark green leafy vegetables. It has an interesting flavour profile, but the salty flavour does overwhelm the grassy notes at the tail end of each sip and it’s the aftertaste that I’m left with when drinking this green tea.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Premium Sencha three times, adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that the flavour got more grassy as I went, with less vegetal notes. The umami and salty flavours remained fairly consistent with each steep, the colour got a bit more golden in colour. More tea dust came out with each pour, I had used a stainless steel filter in my teapot.

My Overall Impression

I liked Tsujiri’s Premium Sencha. I found that the tea was enjoyable with an interesting flavour profile that was fairly well balanced – I would have rated it higher if I didn’t have that strong umami aftertaste with each sip. That said, I like green teas and this one has the flavours that I expect to find and drink. I do think that the price is on the higher side for the amount (only 30g!), as well as containing quite a bit of tea dust in the bag, which was unfortunate to see.

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Dessert by Deb’s Grapefruit Mint Granita

Grapefruit Mint Granita by Dessert by Deb
Green Tea / Flavoured
$16.00 for 75g

Grapefruit Mint Granita is an exclusive blend for Dessert by Deb subscription subscribers and is available for purchase by subscribers only at this time.

First Impressions

What a name! Grapefruit Mint Granita to me invokes the idea of an icy, fruity dessert with the cooling effects of mint and a punch of citrus goodness from the grapefruit. Granita, of course, being a frozen icy dessert from Italy, it really does invoke a certain picture in my mind of how I expect this green tea blend to taste.

Grapefruit Mint Granita came to me as part of my Dessert by Deb subscription box and it is a subscriber exclusive currently. It came in a matte gold foil pouch with a colourful label. The aroma of the dry leaf is mostly mint, with hints of citrus in the background. I don’t really smell the green tea base, because the mint is that much stronger in fragrance.

This green tea blend consists of organic: green tea, hibiscus, orange peel, rose hips, spearmint and peppermint. No wonder the mint is so fragrant, there’s two in this blend!

Preparation

Dessert by Deb recommends steeping Grapefruit Mint Granita in 200°F (93°C) water for 5 to 6 minutes. I followed the steeping instructions and did this as a preparation for iced tea. I did an initial steep of 5 minutes and then poured it over a glass of ice.

First Taste

Grapefruit Mint Granita steeps to a pleasant punch of bright pink, many thanks to the hibiscus for that. The aroma of it is primarily mint with a hint of citrus in the background. The green tea base is lost, because of the strength in the mint and citrus in comparison. I found that the flavour to be an interesting balance between the minty freshness that was throughout the sip, but really highlighted itself in the aftertaste, with just a touch of the citrus that mingles in the background. There is a certain level of tartness that I attribute to the hibiscus, but I really found myself searching for the green tea and was hoping for a stronger citrus flavour to help make it seem like there was grapefruit in the blend.

A Second Cup?

I attempted a second steep of Grapefruit Mint Granita and found it quite minty still, but fell even shorter on the delivery of citrus goodness. I would recommend Grapefruit Mint Granita for just one steep.

My Overall Impression

I thought that Dessert by Deb’s Grapefruit Mint Granita was just okay. The mint was an easy ingredient to find in the steeped tea, but I didn’t find myself thinking Italian iced dessert, or grapefruit. Certainly a bigger punch of citrus could make those dreams come true, for sure. I think it’s a lovely refreshing iced tea, and definitely should be had iced versus hot. I would consider steeping this in a pitcher and cutting it with some lemonade or grapefruit juice, I think it would just add a little something something with the burst of acidity and citrus flavour while the green tea would add the mint flavour and some extra freshness to it.

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.

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Tea Experience: Tsujiri

Tsujiri
Burnaby, BC
Matcha-Infused Drinks $4.25-9.00

I was spending some time with my sister last month as we’re in each other’s social bubbles, and decided we needed a treat (as one does). So we decided to try out Tsujiri after hearing about it from her husband. Tsujiri is self-described as a “matcha infused restaurant”. Fun fact, you can pre-order on their website, and even opt for local delivery with the various side-gig food delivery services out there (I take zero responsibility if your frappe is all melted by the time it gets to you).

The menu consists of parfaits, drinks, shaved ice, floats, frappes and more. Tsujiri also features drinks with matcha, houjicha, and yuzu (which is not a tea, but is an Asian citrus fruit). The prices aren’t the cheapest, but considering the ingredients in play, it’s not anything to turn your nose up against. It probably isn’t a sustainable treat option for the every day choice though.

My sister ordered a float while I ordered the Matcha Frappe ($7.00) which has the product description of “Rich and creamy blend of Matcha slush and yogurt with a swirl of whipped cream and Matcha crumbs topped with a luscious Matcha sauce”.

Unfortunately, the soft serve ice cream machine broke after we had placed our order, so we ended up getting a refund on the float. Fortunately (for me), the Matcha Frappe that I had ordered did not contain ice cream so I could still receive my order.

The matcha slush and yoghurt comes layered in the drink, topped with whipped cream and then with the matcha “crumbs” on top. I found that the yoghurt adds a nice layer of tangy flavour to the matcha, which is sweetened. The matcha sauce on top has a good amount of grassy flavour and umami, which is tempered considerably with the fresh whipped cream. I really found it to be tasty but the cup isn’t very large (and there weren’t a variety of cup sizes to choose from).

While I did enjoy my Matcha Frappe with the tangy yoghurt layered with the matcha slush, I think the experience was soured a bit by their machine malfunctioning. I would definitely give them a try again, but very wary of going back for a third time if the machine had an issue on the second try. I wasn’t too fond on the matcha crumbs on top though, as I feel like it didn’t add a nice texture to the frappe. That said, I think the drink was tasty, albeit I would have hoped for a much larger drink for the price (I would definitely consider the cup size offered to be more of the “small” size).