Tag: Yunomi

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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Handpicked Mountain-Grown Shizuoka Sencha by Yunomi
Green Tea / Straight
$7.00USD for 10g

Yunomi has provided me with Handpicked Mountain-Grown Shizuoka Sencha for the purposes of providing an honest review.

First Impressions

Yunomi sent me this Handpicked Mountain-Grown Shizuoka Sencha from the Murakami Tea Garden, located in the Yoshiwara District, Shizuoka Prefecture. I was able to learn from the Yunomi website that the Murakami Tea Garden was established in the late 19th century, and they only produce 1300kg of tea each year as they only harvest the tea leaves from the spring first flush harvest.

This sencha came to me in a beautiful golden paper covered foil packet that’s resealable. The sencha was steamed for 90 seconds after being harvested on May 4 2017. It’s kind of amazing that they can tell me exactly when it was harvested and for how long it was harvested. The smell from the dry leaf is very lightly salty, a bit of seaweed, a bit of ocean air. There’s a slight underlying sweetness to the aroma from the dry leaf that reminds me of flowers and peaches.

Preparation

Yunomi has recommendations for the first three steeps. First steep at 60°C (140°F) for 1-2 minutes, second steep for 15 seconds for 80°C (176°F), and the third steep for 45 seconds at 80°C (176°F). I followed the instructions for the first three steeps of this Handpicked Mountain-Grown Shizuoka Sencha. Yunomi also includes that if you use a hotter temperature water, it’ll be more astringent; and a cooler temperature water, the tea will be sweeter.

First Taste

The initial steep of Handpicked Mountain-Grown Shizuoka Sencha steeped to a pale green-yellow. The aroma that wafts up from this sencha is one that reminds me of salty air by the ocean and there’s underlying honeyed sweetness to the tea. I sipped it and found it to be just a touch sweet and salty at the same time. The umami flavours are quite good, I found zero astringency and bitterness when I steeped it at such a low temperature compared to other green teas I’ve had in the past. There was a subtle flavour of floral sweetness in the tea that I find quite enjoyable.

A Second Cup?

I followed the Yunomi steeping recommendations for the second and third steeps for this sencha. The green tea became sweeter and saltier with each steep. I found that I could steep the same leaves a fourth and fifth time, and found this Japanese green tea became a touch sweeter. The sixth steep was quite watery and unenjoyable. I would recommend a total of five steeps with this sencha.

My Overall Impression

I loved Yunomi’s Handpicked Mountain-Grown Shizuoka Sencha. From the dry leaf to the steeping process and the smell that comes up from the wet leaves, this sencha has a beautiful fragrance and flavour. I really enjoyed the contrasting sweet-and-salty flavours in this sencha and I’m quite happy to have tried it. I like that the tea can be resteeped a few times is a lovely quality to the sencha – especially as Yunomi included extensive steeping instructions for not only an initial steep for subsequent steeps as well.

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