Tag: Green Tea

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ShakTea’s Pear Green

Pear Green by ShakTea
Green Tea / Flavoured
$7.75 for 50g

First Impressions

Pear Green is one of the teas that I picked up at the 2017 Vancouver Tea Festival at ShakTea’s booth (the others being White Grape and Morning Dew, both previously reviewed here). Pear Green was a tea that I was able to smell in person, and it’s got such a bright fruity aroma to it! The fragrance from this tea is primarily that of the pear, and I smell very little of the roses beyond a hint of floral in the background.

The ingredients in Pear Green are: green tea, pear pieces, and rose petals. You can definitely see all of the ingredients in this green tea blend. The pear pieces are quite generous in size and smell so good.

Preparation

There weren’t any preparation instructions for Pear Green on the packaging or the website’s product page, so I did an initial steep of this green tea blend at 79°C/175°F for 2 minutes.

First Taste

Pear Green steeps to a pale yellow after two minutes. The aroma from this tea is mostly fruity sweetness, with just a slight bit of rose. When I sip this tea, I find it to be enjoyable – there’s definitely some sweetness from the pear, I can taste the roses, and the green tea base is mostly in the background. There’s just a hint of grass notes mingling there, being overwhelmed by the pear and the roses.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Pear Green twice, adding an extra 30 seconds for each steep. I found that the green tea base flavour keeps fairly consistently, while the pear and rose (while present) continued to get weaker. There’s still that fruity sweetness with the two resteeps, so I did quite enjoy both resteeps. If you’re after a strong pear flavour, I would say that the first steep is the one for you.

My Overall Impression

I loved ShakTea’s Pear Green. I found the pear flavours of this green tea blend to be very enjoyable and added a great natural sweetness to this tea. I felt like the ingredients lived up to the name of this tea, and it was nice that it resteeped fairly decently, especially being a tea with fruit and floral ingredients. I think this would be a nice tea to pair with a meal, mostly because the grassy notes would play off a savoury meal while the pear and rose would partner nicely with a dessert.

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Yunomi’s Sobacha Green Tea

Sobacha Green Tea by Yunomi
Green Tea / Flavoured
$5.00USD for 12g (3 sachets)

Yunomi has provided me with Sobacha Green Tea for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

I received the three Sobacha Green Tea sachets in a green foil resealable bag. There was 12g of tea in this bag, with 4g in each sachet. Each sachet is a pyramid, with a simple tag attached (each tag just says “tea” on it). The out side of each pyramid is covered with some fine green tea dust.

Sobacha Green Tea comes from the Kaneroku Matsumoto Tea Garden, this green tea is a blend of green tea (from Shimada, Shizuoka prefecture) and soba, also known as buckwheat (Kunisake Peninsula, Oita prefecture). The aroma of this tea reminds me a bit of genmaicha – there’s a certain aroma that reminds of vegetation with a level of roasted nuttiness, like the aroma of the toasted rice in genmaicha. However, the roasted nuttiness is a lot mellower compared to genmaicha normally smells to me.

Preparation

Yunomi recommends steeping Sobacha Green Tea in boiling water (100°C/212°F) for 2 to 3 minutes. I steeped at a lower temperature (79°C/175°F) for 2 minutes.

First Taste

Sobacha steeps to a pale, cloudy yellow-green. The tea dust on the outside of the pyramid forms a bit of a rim on my tea cup. The aroma from my cup is that of vegetation with the roasted nuttiness again. The taste is surprisingly sweet, although not overwhelmingly so. I found that the roasted nuttiness is present with every sip, and it almost reminds me of toasted oats. The sweetness plays with the vegetal flavours, mostly reminding me of dark green vegetables like gailan or broccoli.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Sobacha Green Tea twice. The first resteep, the flavours were more towards the sweet vegetal side with less of the nuttiness from the soba. For the second resteep, the green tea base was the shining star with little or none of the soba present. That said, the green tea base is pleasant to drink so it wasn’t the end of the world.

My Overall Impression

I liked Yunomi’s Sobacha Green Tea. I really enjoyed this green tea blend, I thought it was a great play on the genmaicha that I’m more familiar with. The nuttiness from the buckwheat was balanced well against the sweet vegetal green tea base. I do wish that it had resteeped a little bit better, because the soba was the reason why it was enjoyable and added another level of complexity to the flavour of this tea. That said, it was still a delicious cup of tea and a tasty alternative to genmaicha.

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Young Mountain Tea’s Nilgiri Green Swords

Nilgiri Green Swords by Young Mountain Tea
Green Tea / Straight
$6.50USD for 1oz

First Impressions

I picked up Nilgiri Green Swords at Young Mountain Tea’s table at the 2017 Vancouver Tea Festival This green tea was one of the teas that they had available for sampling and I enjoyed it. This green tea comes from the Nilgiri mountains of south India, and comes from the Coonoor Tea Estate. Interestingly enough, this tea was inspired by the traditional Dragonwell (Longjing). These tea leaves are dark green with a flattened ‘sword’ shape – it’s no mystery where the name of this tea came from

The dry leaf of Nilgiri Green Swords has an aroma that is an interesting mix – when I opened the packet (resealable kraft paper bag that’s lined in foil), I could smell grassy notes, along with what reminded me of apricots. The description of the tea on the packaging suggests that this tea tastes like peaches.

Preparation

Young Mountain Tea recommends steeping Nilgiri Green Swords in 180°F (82°C) water for 3 to 5 minutes. I opted to do my initial steep of Nilgiri Green Swords at 175°F (79°C) for 3 minutes.

First Taste

The first steep of Nilgiri Green Swords steeps to a pale yellow, and it has a very subtle grassy aroma to it. The taste of this green tea has a light sweetness to it, and a mild vegetal base. While the description of the tea was peaches, I still taste apricots – so still some fruity flavour to it. With the apricot comes a bit of sweetness, making this tea pleasant to drink.

A Second Cup?

I did resteep Nilgiri Green Swords a few times (four resteeps total), adding an extra 30 seconds per steep. I found that the flavours became more developed – the apricot/fruit sweetness came through more with each steep, while the vegetal base remained mostly the same. The colour of this tea became more and more golden yellow with each steep.

My Overall Impression

I liked Young Mountain Tea’s Nilgiri Green Swords. I found the flavour to be pleasant, and enjoyed the fact that the fruity flavour was present in this green tea. I wish it had reminded me more of peaches, but the apricot flavour that I was able to pick out was delicious and balanced well with the vegetal flavour component of this green tea’s flavour. I think it did well with the resteeping process, and enjoyed watching the tea leaves open up. It’d be a nice tea to pair with a slice of pie or other sweets that lean towards the savoury side.

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