Erik Drews

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Tasting Lab tea Week 9

This week we had yet another tea tasting that focused on green teas, Genmai Cha and Kabusecha. Genmai cha is green tea mixed with toasted rice while Kabusecha is a shade grown green tea. The appearance of the genmai cha was mostly translucent with a little yellow color if any. The aroma was very much dominated by the presence of toasted rice with a little bit of a foliage type smell in the background. The flavor of the tea was also strongly dominated by the toasted rice. This tea was very mellow and had little to no astringency but there was a mild bitterness present in the aftertaste.

The second tea was the kabusecha which had almost an identical appearance to the first tea. The aroma also consisted mostly of a toasted rice type smell but less involved than in the genmai cha. What was most captivating about this tea was that I felt that it had an intense warming/comforting effect on my body. It tasted strongly of toasted rice. It was subtle and mellow in every possible way, completely absent of any bitterness.