Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms’ Green Tea with Cherry Blossoms | Tea Review & TEA 103

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While summer has already come, I still wanted to share this tea from spring because I helped pick the Cherry Blossoms last year when I was an intern at Obubu!

As some people who follow me know, I have undertaken The Cup of Life‘s #drinkwhatyouown challenge, which means I am not purchasing tea. The one exception I made is for my quarterly Obubu Tea Club box. Each box normally comes with seasonal teas and other goodies such as candies or soba noodles!

I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the newsletter that comes with my last box and I found a picture of us picking the cherry blooms (sakura) last year! I was going to write a short description about picking sakura, but as part of the newsletter, it outlined what happened! So, I’ll let Google Translate explain it for us!

“In the middle of April last year, we harvested cherry blossoms in a large double cherry tree in Wazuka-cho. A total of 10 people harvested about 8 kg for three hours. 

It was carefully dried in the tea factory dryer and turned into a clean dried flower. 

It is a natural cherry blossom that is not smelled or colored at all. It is a finished product of cherry blossom fragrant sencha that falls in line with Kasase Sencha, and the scent of cherry blossoms is fluffy.  Please enjoy the full cup of spring coming.”

I never have tried this blend yet, but I am excited too! Since I helped to pick the sakura, I am not going to rate this tea, because that seems unfair.

Description: “…enjoy the gentle aroma and the flavour of sencha.”  (via Google Translate)

Instructions: 5g | 100cc water | 70°C | 90 seconds  (There was some discrepancy with the instructions (due to translations) so I followed the Japanese version.)

Review: The tea came in a small clear pouch with 5 grams inside. The dry blend had a vegetal, spinach and grassy smell. After I warmed the houhin (Japanese teapot), I added the blend in and there was a sweet cherry smell. After the infusion, there was a stronger cherry smell, which was sweet and floated in the air.

The liquor was yellow-green with little bits of sencha pieces (after straining). When hot, there was an instant hit of umami which faded into floral and vegetal notes. It reminded me of a garden.

However, after letting it cool, the astringency came forward after the vegetal notes and there was a faint floral taste at the tail end. In hindsight, I think I would have steeped this over multiple infusions because I think there would have been a nice range of tastes between the infusions.

Overall, I am very happy I was able to taste something that I helped personally pick! It reminded me of my time picking sakura and Japan!

The question of the post: Have you ever had cherry blossom in tea?

If you want to read more about my adventures in Japan or other Obubu products, you can find them here!

Edit: Nicole from Tea for me Please included my post in her June 23rd – June 29th Friday round-up! Check out some of the other cool posts from that week!