Oct 19
Vanessa’s Teaview Snapshot
 | "A remarkably sweet and smooth green tea. On several occasions as I was drinking this tea, I caught myself saying "yum" alound."
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9/10
Well, after completing nearly 300 tea reviews for TeaViews, I have done something with this sample of Kaze Sencha that I have never done before: eat the tea. But I should probably start with my review of the brewed tea first. This tea hails from the Obubu Tea Farm, which besides having a fun-to-say name, also apparently produces marvelous teas. The Kaze Sencha presents itself as grass-like blades of dark green colors. Boulder states that one can get three brews out of each serving of leaves, and the instructions differed markedly from other sources of how to re-infuse tea leaves. Basically, the first infusion is prepared using hot, but not boiling water, and steeping the leaves for 90 seconds. The second and third brews are steeped with boiling water (which I was not expecting) and infused for 5 and 15 seconds, respectively. In all, I didn't see much difference in the three infusions, although Boulder tea does say that the second and third brews are more astringent. I'm used to having each subsequent cup become weaker and weaker, and that really wasn't the case here. The tea brews to a pale yellow color and is remarkably sweet and smooth. I detected no bitterness and not much of an overly spinachy flavor. The tea has a savory/broth-like quality to it, but avoids being aggressively vegetal. This is a calmer, milder Sencha than I am used to, and one that I really appreciated. On several occasions as I was drinking this tea, I caught myself saying "yum" alound. This tea is highly enjoyable on its own, but also would be perfect to pair with meals. I also think that because this tea has that brothy-like aspect to it, that this tea could be used as a substitute for plain water when preparing rice and other grains.Okay, now on to the part where I ate the tea leaves. Boulder tea suggests that the infused leaves be sprinkled lightly with soy sauce and bonita flakes before eating. I don't know what bonita flakes are or where one would obtain bonita flakes, so I just used the soy sauce. I was amazed at how spinach-like the dish tasted. The texture was not as mushy as cooked spinach; the leaves had a little more crunch to them because they had been infused for a total of less than two minutes. I have to say that I really enjoyed this. Kaze sencha brought the tea experience to a new level. I will be looking forward to eating other infused green leaves to see if they hold up to this standard.
Bottom line: An excellent sencha for those that don't favor extremely vegetal brews; a clearly high-quality tea that serves not only as a beverage but as a healthy, post-infusion snack. I hope to buy some of this for myself very soon.
— To purchase Boulder Tea Kaze Sencha, or for more specific information on ingredients or the story behind this particular blend, click here to go directly to the manufacturer's web site.
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October 19th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
great review! Bonito flakes are dried fish in a flake format, often added to soups and other stuff in Japan, you can find them in many asian food markets and the “Asian Aisle” in many markets. They are sort of pink and very light and flaky. Tasty (and cats love them as well) The treatment of the tea sounds intriguing!!
October 21st, 2009 at 6:17 am
Fun! I often (well, less often than not) like to munch on a few dried leaves from various teas – it’s definitely interesting and sometimes reveals spicy flavors that aren’t as prominent in the brewed teas. Never ate post-brewed leaves, though. Interesting that a purveyor suggests this!
Vanessa (or anybody else): have you ever substituted tea for water, broth, etc when cooking? I hadn’t even thought of this before, but have to do some brainstorming on some specific teas and recipes I could use this approach. Might be a worthy discussion in the Forum.
October 21st, 2009 at 2:51 pm
I ran out of bananas awhile ago when making banana bread, so I used steeped The Necessiteas banana strawberry tea instead of water for the rest of the recipe. Weird at first, but after the bread cooled, it was actually AMAZING.
October 26th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Hey Dan, I have used loose leaf jasmine tea in my rice cooker with rice and water to make a “jasmine” rice substitute when I only had plain rice on hand. I got the tip from a foodie website, and it actually turned out great!