Customer Reviews

SerendipiTea Gyokuro, Hoshino, Japan, Green Tea, 4-Ounce Box

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I recently took up drinking tea, green and white to be exact. As a newbie I started off with the commercial stuff like Lipton and Celestial Seasonings with pure tea bags. The taste was ok but In all honestly it didn't do anything for me. I began doing a bit of research and found that loose leaf tea was more potent and flavorful due to the fact that they use whole leaves rather than the "dust" leftover they use in tea bags. A bit more research brought me to Japanese green tea which recognized as the best of green teas in the world. I started off drinking Traditional Medicinals Japanese Bancha, then I started drinking their roasted Hojicha. While a bit better than your average Lipton Tea, I knew tea could be better. I started using loose leaf Sencha which was great and before long I came upon drinking Matcha. Matcha is great but it is frothy and mainly comes in powdered form for shakes, desserts or ice cream.
Gyokuro on the other hand is the REAL DEAL. This stuff is truly what a green tea is all about. Very dark greenish bluish color with a strong pleasant aroma. The taste is pure and fresh and simply tastes like "green tea" and not grass. It only takes about 90 seconds steeping time and the brewing temperature just under boiling point. The color of the tea is a very bright clean looking green which tastes as good as it looks. I dare you to open a tea bag of Lipton, Traditional Medicinals or even loose leaf Sencha and compare alongside Gyokuro. You will laugh as the others look like trash compared to Gyokuro, I kid you not. I suggest any real green tea aficionado give it a shot; you wont be disappointed and I can assure you you will never go back to drinking anything less. It is expensive but so well worth it. Serendipitea is a great brand, Hoshino is the place for the best Gyokuro in Japan.

If you like Gyokuro tea then this is the real deal. It has the delicious 5th flavor that I look for in Gyokuros. I brew it at 140 degrees with filtered tap water (heated by a Zujirushi water kettle), and it is delicious. It will also make delicious iced tea if you brew it with room temperature water and then ice it down.

Other reviews talk about the cheap packaging and they are definitely correct. The plastic bag is extremely flimsy and will tear. I transfer mine to a tea tin or glass container. However I did not notice any plastic flavor imparted to the tea.

It smelled right. It looked right. It tasted awful. I brewed a batch side-by-side with an Adagio Gyokuro, and there was no comparison. The SerendipiTea product was missing all the complex flavors and had a bitter taste. There was nothing smooth or relaxing about it.

For what it's worth, the brittle cellophane packaging was torn, and there was loose tea everywhere in both the tea box as well as the shipping box. By comparison, the Adagio Gyokuro packaging is a heavy sealed plastic bag with an internal zip lock.

If this was ever a Gyokuro, it died somewhere in transit.

Having explored the world of Japanese tea for several years, I'm always keen to find new companies and explore their tea and teaware. Serendipitea was not a good choice sadly,(especially given the fact that they (Amazon) do not accept any returns. Tea arrived in a VERY cheap cellophane package that had been loosely sealed with a heat press to melt the plastic and a plastic sticker folded over the top which did little to keep the tea from spilling out. Accordingly, the tea had a STRONG plastic odor and had lost any semblance of its essential tea oils. To be fair, this was likely a high quality Gyokuro in another life(a yame perhaps?) Unfortunatley, I'll never know as the pathetic packaging ruined its flavor. I've tossed it in the dust bin and relegated it to experience. (I wouldn't even give these pathetic "sweepings" to an indigent, much less good company) Stay far away from their teas (their kukicha is packaged poorly as well and has little flavor) Consider Charaku and Rishi as they are excellent sources of quality gyokuro and sencha teas. They use a high quality foil lined resealable pouch that does not impart any plastic odor or cause the tea to lose essential oils.

I highly recommend this tea. Tastes great, no matter how long you steep it. I have had no problems with the packaging, so I'm guessing that other user may have just had bad luck that time.

The Good:

The difference between gyokuro and your average supermarket green tea (or even other premium green teas) is immense, but odds are you already know this if you're looking to order gyokuro, but for those unfamiliar I will elaborate. You can smell it before you even open the package (even more so in my case, see The Bad) and the aroma is VERY fresh. The aroma and flavor may not be appreciated by all because it is more potent than most green tea, with a grassy/seaweed hint/smell. The tea leaf itself is pretty dark green with a bit of glossiness to it. The cups of tea you get from the leaves however is a bright very green color, not the dark brownish green result you get with most generic, steamed green teas.

I've always drank my regular green tea sweetened with a bit of honey. However, I find myself able to enjoy the unsweetened flavor of this tea. In fact, adding even a little bit of honey ruins the unique flavor IMO. You can easily and enjoyably use the tea leaves more than once. The first infusion is powerful and delicious, the second and third are very similar. I personally found the 4th to be notably weaker, but still enjoyable. Being able to infuse this many times without sacrificing much by way of flavor pretty much compensates for the fact that you must use more tea per cup than most teas (1 gram per 1 fl oz or so).

The Bad:

The sealed bag inside of the box had a 1-2 inch tear in it and tea leaves were floating around both inside the serendipitea box and the bigger box amazon shipped it in. Clearly more care needs to be put in the packaging and keeping it air-tight so that it can be delivered as fresh as possible. I may try a different brand for my next order because of this. Also, make sure you don't follow the directions on the sticker on the box, as they are just generic team brewing instructions, not specific to this unique type.

Final Word:

A great tea for people who enjoy the flavor of the green tea itself. If you're like some people that I've shared this with (the ones who only like a hint of tea flavoring in their enormous mugs of sugar water), it's probably not for you. The taste can be unpleasantly bitter to some, especially if prepared with too hot of water or if steeped for more than 2 mins) and some people are put off just by the aroma alone.

If you're not sure how to prepare this tea properly, google it. I highly recommend getting a big infuser/filter so that the tea leaves have room to expand fully. I used my Swiss Gold TF-300 and was surprised at how much volume the leaves took up once they got wet, it pretty much doubled, and since you have to use more tea leaves per cup of this kind of tea already, you'll want to make sure you have enough room or make smaller cups than normal. Also, the T-Fal electric tea kettle has a adjustable temperature dial, and the low setting works great for making this (you only want about 140 degrees F).

Overall I enjoy this tea, but due to it being harder to make than, say, regular sencha, and the fact that it is prepared in smaller amounts (and at lower temps, so it gets cold fast), this isn't my every day tea. Coincidentally, this tea is typically served for guests and on special occasions in Japanese culture and not usually an every-day tea there either.