Ocharaka: Natsumikan (Citrus) Flavored Green Tea

I had an awesome day, best day I have had in a while! Lately all my plans have been going poof for one reason or another so when everything went perfectly today it made it all the sweeter. First off I got a gloriously comfy new desk chair and shelves from a very nice lady on freecycle, the chair is high back and leather just like my old beloved chair, and the shelves are a perfect fit for my Tea Lair. Ben decided to take me out for an afternoon snack at Subway and shopping at the thrift store where he bought me some awesome new clothes. Also the radio seemed to be playing all the right music so I had fun dancing and singing like a goof. All an all, awesome day.

Today’s tea is a little bit of summer captured in tea, Sencha Summer Citrus by Yunomi.us and Ocharaka Tea Shop. This beautifully bright green sencha is blended with Natsumikan (translates to Summer Tangerine) a type of citrus native to Japan. The only distinctly Japanese citrus I have had is Yuzu, so it was exciting to research the Natsumikan a bit, famous in the city of Hagi and frequently brought back as a souvenir. They are described as being a blend of oranges, lemons, and grapefruits with a more sour quality. Sounds exciting! The aroma of this summer themed tea is intensely citrus, true to the description it smells like a citrus salad rather than one specific fruit. There is also the sencha aroma, delightfully fresh sweet grass and mown hay. It blends quite wonderfully with the slightly sweet and slightly sour citrus aroma from the Natsumikan.

Steeping the leaves brings out more the the fresh green aroma, very evocative of a field in summer, full of fresh grass, sweet hay, and a delicate touch of vegetal. There is of course still the aroma of citrus, but it is much milder and mostly sweet like oranges. The liquid is delightfully green with notes of fresh grass and vegetal (I want to say artichoke and lettuce but it is very faint) there is also a very delicate touch of kelp and of course an undertone of citrus.

The taste is mild and refreshing, it is very much so something I would want to sip during a summer day. There is a bit of citrus sweetness, again with the blend of different citrus fruits, and a midtaste of sour citrus, but it fades to sweetness again which is quite nice. There is a green, fresh grass quality that blends well with the citrus, the green is more vegetation than vegetal so it almost feels like you have the citrus leaves as well as the fruit. As the tea cools the citrus becomes sweeter and the sencha takes on a vegetal lettuce quality. This tea is good both hot and cold, and it might be the best citrus themed teas I have yet to taste.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/03/yunomius-and-ocharaka-tea-shop-sencha.html