Tag: Green Tea

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California Tea House’s Imperial Gyokuro Genmaicha

Imperial Gyokuro Genmaicha by California Tea House
Green Tea / Flavoured
$13.00USD for 4oz

California Tea House has provided me with Imperial Gyokuro Genmaicha for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

I love a good genmaicha – for those who aren’t in the know, genmaicha is a green tea with toasted rice. California Tea House has a little twist on this traditional Japanese green tea by using a higher quality green tea in the blend, they’ve used gyokuro (a high quality sencha) instead of sencha or bancha. Imperial Gyokuro Genmaicha came to me in a resealable foil bag that has a clear plastic side so I can see all of the tea. The aroma from the dry leaf is primarily nutty, the toasted rice is quite fragrant!

Imperial Gyokuro Genmaicha consists of gyokuro green tea and toasted rice.

Preparation

California Tea House recommends steeping Imperial Gyokuro Genmaicha in 180°F (82°C) water for 3-4 minutes. I opted to do an initial steep in 175°F (79°C) for 2 minutes.

First Taste

Imperial Gyokuro Genmaicha steeps to a pale yellow, the aroma that comes off from the tea is primarily that of the toasted rice. I found the tea to be pleasantly sweet, with a hint of nuttiness and just a touch of vegetal goodness that reminds me a lot of gailan (Chinese broccoli). It’s a very pleasant green tea – there’s a smoothness to the tea that makes for a nice mouthfeel, and there’s zero bitterness at the temperature and length of time that I opted to steep this green tea for.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Imperial Gyokuro Genmaicha a total of four times (five steeps total), and I increased the steeping time by 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that the colour deepened for the first two resteeps, and started to get paler for the last two resteeps. The flavours intensified as the colour of the steeped tea darkened. The nutty sweetness from the toasted rice remained present throughout all of the steeps and the tea remained smooth.

My Overall Impression

I loved California Tea House’s Imperial Gyokuro Genmaicha. I found this twist on a classic Japanese green tea to be quite pleasant. I really enjoyed the nuttiness and sweetness that I found in the flavour profile, and it resteeped well. The vegetal flavour of gailan was a nice surprise, and it was provided a nice savoury green tea base to go with the toasted rice, which made it quite tasty.

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DavidsTea’s Matcha Miso

Matcha Miso by DavidsTea
Green Tea (Matcha) / Flavoured
$12.00 for 100g

First Impressions

A tea is a tea is a tea is a soup? DavidsTea recently released Matcha Miso, which is their latest tea soup mix offering. Described as being an “umami bomb”, I was curious enough to try it out even though you have to buy it in prepacked 100g pouches. The pouch itself has a kraft paper outside with a silver foil lining, with a see-through bottom so you can see the green powder of the soup mix. The aroma of this tea soup mix reminds me a lot of miso soup, which I love having when I’m out for sushi so I do have high hopes for this.

Matcha Miso consists of: matcha green tea, white miso powder, seaweed extract. For those with allergens, it does contain soy (in the miso powder). The aroma of the powder is mostly that of the miso with a hint of vegetal goodness from the matcha itself.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends using 1-2 spoonfuls of Matcha Miso and mixing it with hot water, which is described as “near boiling” on their product page, which is 90-95°C (194-203°F). 1 cup is said to have 390mg of salt, which is 16% of your daily recommended intake. I opted to use a small spoonful of the Matcha Miso powder.

First Taste

Matcha Miso stirs up to be a very greeny-yellow looking colour, it’s not as bright as you would expect a matcha to be which is fair considering that’s not the only ingredient. If you’re familiar to miso soup, you know if you let it sit it starts to separate, which is the same thing that happens here so you do have to stir it to keep the powder suspended throughout. The aroma reminds me a lot of miso soup, and has a nice vegetal fragrance to it.

The taste of Matcha Miso is very much a flavour bomb. I would say the miso is on the forefront, while the matcha plays understudy very well in terms of the balance of flavours. It’s tasty, and I really enjoyed it. I did use less powder and more water to dilute it a fair bit though, and still found it to be quite flavourful. I think using two spoonfuls of the powder would be incredibly salty – but to each their own!

A Second Cup?

Because Matcha Miso is a powder that gets mixed up and then drunk, there are no second steepings!

My Overall Impression

I loved DavidsTea’s Matcha Miso. I was pleasantly surprised by this tea soup mix, I think it’s incredibly flavourful. I think it would be a great soup base for ramen (think noodles, cubed up tofu, bean sprouts, maybe an egg on top) or for some miso soup at home (adding some cubed tofu, seaweed on top) to go on the side of your rolled-at-home sushi. I could see this tea soup mix being versatile in how you could change it up every time to get a different type of soup. The matcha adds such a nice vegetal flavour that it sort of adds an extra level of flavour experience.

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DavidsTea’s Green Spiral

Green Spiral by DavidsTea
Green Tea / Straight
$12.98 for 50g

First Impressions

Green Spiral is the last of the trio of DavidsTea’s latest straight tea offerings. This Chinese green tea, which comes from the Yunnan Province, came to me in a resealable silver bag as I had purchased it in store. The tea leaves are rolled up, although not uniform in size or shape. The multi coloured dried tea leaves have a grassy aroma.

In the description of Green Spiral, DavidsTea suggests that the tea is rolled up “like a cute little snail shell”. If you know Chinese green teas, you’ll know that this describes biluochun, a tea with a name that translates to green snail spring.

Preparation

DavidsTea recommends steeping Green Spiral in hot water for 2 to 3 minutes, where “hot water” is specified on their product page as being 75-80°C (167-176°F). I did an initial steep of Green Spiral at 175°F, which is the green tea setting for my Breville IQ Kettle, for 2 minutes.

First Taste

Green Spiral steeps to a pale yellow. The aroma that comes up from the steeped tea is grassy. On first taste, I note that there’s a grassy flavour, with a slight sweetness that lingers at the end of each sip. The tea is smooth, and has a nice mouthfeel to it. There’s nothing unpleasant about this tea, but also nothing that really makes it stand out in my mind either.

I did pour some of this tea into a glass and tucked it into the fridge. It makes for a nice refreshing glass of iced tea as well, if you’re wanting a iced green tea as the weather (finally!) warms up.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Green Spiral four times and enjoyed watching the leaves open up more and more with each steep. The flavour was stronger for the first resteep, and slowly began to wane with each subsequent steep. Overall, the flavour balance remained constant and was a pleasant cup of green tea.

My Overall Impression

I liked DavidsTea’s Green Spiral. This green tea resteeped well, and had a lovely grassy flavour to it. The one thing really stopping me from wanting to keep a big bag of this tea in my tea stash is the fact that it doesn’t really stand out for me. There’s so many green teas out there that are equally good, but this one is also on the slightly more expensive side (in comparison) and it’s not wowing me over to want to keep it on hand. That said, if you’re wanting to try a good quality green tea, Green Spiral does fall into that category and it resteeps very well, so you know you can definitely get your money’s worth with this green tea.

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