This tea arrived with my last Yunomi order which was only a couple of days ago. This tea intrigued me for two particular reasons:
1 – It’s rolled up into balls and resembles Gunpowder Green
2 – It says you can also eat this tea as a snack.
Well there is also a hidden number 3 – it’s a beautiful shade of shiny green
The first thing I did when I opened this tea is go ahead and eat a piece, diving into the deep end so to speak. It’s actually quite nice but also rather astringent and much stronger than I expected. It tastes like seaweed and cabbage but very raw. Like I said not disgusting but just an acquired taste.
If I forget about eating it for now I can note the tea itself. The balls vary in size but they average an estimate of 4-5mm and are flat rather than round (mostly anyway). They are dark green and very shiny but also have a rough look, like the surface of a stone. Though it’s mostly ball shaped leaves there are also some thin, small curls of leaves and stems present too. They have a sweet yet perfumed scent that is rather strong, also very mineral. Particularly savoy cabbage (or similar) and sweet grass.
Steeping instructions were followed and taken from the Yunomi website.
First steep – 30 seconds
The pale yellow tea has a subtle yet sweet smell which is more floral or mineral now than grassy. Oh yum! It tastes as it smells, very fresh and light but sweet and mineral. I’m imagining a light spring rain dancing upon the leaves of this beautiful plant and the fallen dancers are the result of the dew in my cup.
Second steep – 45 seconds
Thicker but still sweet and mineral with no astringency. The increased strength is still very mild but the flavour it has is beautiful. It has a green Oolong feel about it with notes of honey.
Third steep – 1min 10secs
Another slight strength increase but still no astringency though this one is a little perfumed and dry. Also more mineral and grassy than before.
This is a light and sweet green tea that tastes pure and very refreshing. There was no astringency at all though-out three steeps and the flavours carried on well. This is one of my new favourite Japanese greens.
