Tencha-kuki Houjicha

[Pentox]

It looks like Den's has a new product, Tencha-Kuki Houjicha. Quite a mouthful to say. I'm a bit curious why this product came first as a houji and not just a tencha kukicha. I would think that would have a very nice taste to it.

Anyone else intrigued by this new product?

[Chip]

I saw it. Tencha Kukicha (karigane) tends to be very mild surprisingly in my very limited exposure to it. This sounds like it is lightly roasted perhaps? Perhaps creating a more flavorful version.

[andy825]

So would this be the stemmy bits that are left from making tencha?

[Pentox]

So would this be the stemmy bits that are left from making tencha?

Correct. Although they would further be processed by a light roasting.

[Wesli]

Someone try it.

[Space Samurai]

Someone try it.

I will. It kind of sucks that I just ordered from them. Last week. I must of got the last of the regular houji kuki.

[murrius]

I will get some the next time I order from Den's. I'm totally intrigued. It looks like a perfect afternoon work tea.

[inspectoring]

is this supposed to taste the way they describe it? "sweet like honey" ?

[Wesli]

is this supposed to taste the way they describe it? "sweet like honey" ?

I imagine that if it does, the sweetness is normal tea sweetness (which can be significant in some teas, but is never sugary), accompanied likely by a honey taste, that is a common change greener teas undergo when they get a light roast.

[Pentox]

I was planning on getting it when I put in my next Den's order. But I don't have much left to try from them.

[ErikaM]

I was putting in an order today anyway, so I added a sample size to my order.

[Ed]

I had tencha karigane from hibiki-an last year. They were giving it away as a gift to celebrate their anniversary, or something like that. It was very clean tasting and satisfying but I wouldn't say it was better than hibiki-an's sencha karigane.

I'd be curious to taste a roasted version. In my experience, it's better to try to keep green things green and not go roasting them.

[ErikaM]

My Den's order came yesterday. Nothing quite like getting a box of new tea samples in the mail.

I'd only ever tried one other houjicha before this and hated it... WAY too much of a roasted flavor for my taste. (I ended up throwing the rest of the packet in the trash, I disliked it that much.) But this tencha-kuki houjicha is much milder. The dry stem bits are green with just a hit of a light brown finish. The directions on the package said to brew with boiling water to bring out the roasted flavor... since I didn't want an overload of roasted flavor, I chose to brew at about 180* and was pretty happy with the results. The resulting tea was fairly light -- about the color of a cup of white peony -- and sweeter than I expected. I don't know about the "sweet like honey" part... it's definitely not sweet like, say, an orange blossom honey, but I have some Greek honey in my pantry that's dark with more punch and I can see a comparison there. I expect it's totally different if you choose to use boiling water. It's not the sort of thing I'd drink a lot of, but it's good in its own way. The roasted taste does tend to linger.

[Chip]

Thanks for sharing, Erica! My experience with tencha kukicha is that is is pretty light overall, not just color. I am thinking if you use MORE leaf and or more heat, maybe that would coax the honey nuance out.

[ErikaM]

Wow, I just tried again with boiling water and it *is* sweeter with the hotter water. The roasted flavor is actually a bit more subdued as well, or maybe just offset by the sweetness.

The more varieties I sample the more I realize I do not understand tea. It's taken me this long to learn that cooler water is better, and then something like this comes along and shatters my worldview...