Dec 16
Review: American Tea Room Kabuki
American Tea Room, Cherry Blossom Tea, Green Tea, Sencha Tea Add commentsLynn’s Teaview Snapshot
 | "The syrupy fragrance persisted and pervaded the flavor of the tea, still very candy-like, but the sharp, vegetal edge of the sencha did find its way through, cutting and balancing the sweetness much better than expected. Nonetheless, the cherry candy fragrance won in the end, lingering strongly in my mouth and nose. "
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From Wiki: "Kabuki is the highly stylized classical Japanese dance-drama. Kabuki theatre is known for the stylization of its drama and for the elaborate make-up worn by some of its performers. The individual kanji characters, from left to right, mean sing, dance, and skill. Kabuki is therefore sometimes translated as "the art of singing and dancing." These are, however, ateji characters which do not reflect actual etymology. . . Since the word kabuki is believed to derive from the verb kabuku, meaning "to lean" or "to be out of the ordinary", kabuki can be interpreted as "avant-garde" or "bizarre" theatre."I'm going to tell you right up front that my standards for scented and flavored teas are extremely rigorous. If you tell me the tea is going to taste like "freshly sliced grapes" then it better taste like freshly sliced grapes, not grape extract or candy or anything other than freshly sliced grapes. The same goes for scents. Promise me real flower fragrance, and that's what I expect, not artificial perfume. I must also say that the American Tea Room helped set the bar for me with their glorious Tangier, which recently wowed many of us here at Teaviews.com. That tea promised fresh apricots and saffron and delivered fresh apricots and saffron, big time.
ATR's Kabuki tea promises several things. On the packet it reads "Our lightly steamed Sencha is blended with seasonal fragrant cherry blossoms to create the classic Green Tea," while the web listing says, "Large sencha leaves, blossomy cherry tree flowers and vibrant violet blooms come together for a bold, flowery bouquet with a scent of cherry simple syrup. . . The flavor is smooth and sweet—the taste of cherry blossoms is heightened with flavors of violet and fresh-cut flower stems."
The moment I opened the packet I was overwhelmed with a decidedly syrupy cherry aroma—cherry candy rather than cherry blossoms or cherries—no doubt the "simple syrup" of the website description and far too sugary and artificial for my taste.
The tea is quite pretty and just as described: the dark green sencha leaves are needle-like and shiny, sifted with white and violet dried flower petals. Following directions, I infused a level teaspoon in a cup of 175F water for two minutes. The syrupy fragrance persisted and pervaded the flavor of the tea, still very candy-like, but the sharp, vegetal edge of the sencha did find its way through, cutting and balancing the sweetness much better than expected. Nonetheless, the cherry candy fragrance won in the end, lingering strongly in my mouth and nose.
If the taste and smell were of fresh cherries or cherry blossoms, I would be singing this tea's praises, as I did Tangier's, but the syrupy, candy-like infusion of flavor simply didn't work for me and I found that it entirely overwhelmed the sencha in the end, like an actor hidden behind too much make up. It was just too "kabuki" for me—as in it leaned too far. That being said, the flavoring maintained its candy identity, never slipping into the cheap chemical additive range. If you do like cherry candy, you might well like this interpretation.
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