Cup 9--Sakura Sencha

oh sakura sencha, you taste like spring. You make me think of warmer weather. You remind me that winter will eventually end!

Den's tea has a seasonal cherry flavored sencha. To their normal delicious sencha they add in some cherry blossoms. and my oh my. I'm very tempted to start up a tea-fridge just to store some of this!

I had my first taste of this on a sunny day. Very bright outside. The tea made me feel like it was spring already. i decided to leave my coat inside, and walked out into the 8* weather, and then promptly walked back inside to retrieve my coat. needless to say this tea is quite the trickster for persuading me that it was warm outside because it tasted like spring.

so what exactly does spring taste like? tart cherry with a backdrop of sweet corn. It seriously reminded me of a cherry pie almost! Not overly sweet, not astringent or bitter in the least. it didn't have the fake cherry taste like cough syrup (although i have had a lot of that recently!) but a very pleasant glowing flavor.

but how's it's staying power. 4 rounds in and i can usually get a few more decent, if less cherry and more sencha-y, cups. of course all of this is brewed in my new kyusu. I'm very happy with this little fella. While he does leak a bit around the lid when filled full and doesn't always stop the complete flow of tea when you plug the hole, he does brew up a good sized cup and rinses out well.



Kind-Green Tea
Brew Time-Less than a minute
Water Temp-170* or there abouts
Color- light green
Fragrance- flowery, cherry kinda sweet
Taste-tart cherry and sweet corn
Best during- cold weather? ;D
Style- Loose
Price per oz- $4.75
Place bought- Den's Tea
Overall- very nice flavored sencha!

Boil 2-- Pu eggs and other new things!

So i had some eggs, and so pu-erh tea from Adagio that i had gotten as a free sample. I've tried drinking this pu-erh twice and both times the taste has just been drinkable, but the smell was rather bad. so i decided to use if for my tea-eggs this time around... in retrospect it wasn't the best of ideas.

brewed in a small batch the pu-erh is just a bit smelly. add it to an entire pot of boiling water and let it simmer for an hour or so and the entire room will smell like a pachyderm house. no. i am NOT kidding. i actually heard people in the hallway wondering where the funky smell was coming from. a spell in the fridge was actually worse. the entire fridge smelled like pu.

i'm sure in time the smell of pu-erh will not faze me in the slightest. but currently it makes me gag a bit. Pu-erh, i've been told, is rather like dark wine, it's an acquired taste. Apparently very earthy and delicious. Pu-erh is usually tea that has been pressed into Beengs, basically Frisbee like disks of tea. Tea producers sell these beengs and the people that buy it will age it, usually at least 3-5 years before having some. Older beengs of pu are usually sold for more. However if stored properly it can supposedly last much longer than wine, which will eventually re-ferment and become nasty sour tasting wine.

When you decide the pu is ripe for the drinking then you take the beeng and using a pu-pick (i'm sure that this has a proper name... but it's basically like a letter opener) you break apart the disk of pu. slowly working your way around the pu to break it in half and then flexing the half of the disks carefully so you wiggle the individual leaves free instead of riping and tearing them.

Pu collecting is something that many serious pu-drinkers do. Some people have seperate storage areas for their pu, much like a cigar or wine collector would. This is not unlike the tea-fridge's that many white/green/oolong drinkers have started to use to store their teas.

i actually have not tried these yet. i'm worried about how they'll taste, maybe i'll mix them up and make egg salad? i'll keep ya'll posted.

In other news! Meet the newest member of the family, the Shudei kyusu from Den's Tea.

isn't it cute?! it's a 9oz glazed kyusu that they're currently offering to past customers for 9 bucks, or if you're a first time customer you can order it in a 'novice package' which is basically the starter package with this kyusu. If all kyusus are this cute i may have a problem restraining myself from buying them @,@

I christened the new pot with some Houjicha Gold, or roasted bancha. It was cold today and it really hit the spot! In this order i also got some more of the Genmaicha Extra Green that i've previously reviewed. But the main reason that i ordered right before the new greens came out was because i wanted to try their sakura sencha.

ohhh. it was good the first time around. i should be reviewing it later this week since i'm more or less recovered from my strep.