Since it is International Iced Tea Month, of course, I had to have something that was iced!
Description: “Mizudashi (水出し) means “cold brewing” in Japanese. It is an easy way to brew your tea without heating the water. By brewing by water, the flavor of umami is highlighted.”
Instructions: 1 tea bag [8 grams] into 1-1.5 L water. Leave it in the fridge for [a] couple of hours (or overnight). [L]eave the tea bag inside the container and add water. Tea is good for 3 days in the fridge.
Review: Since I knew I wanted to ice this tea, I brewed this tea with 1 litre of water rather than 1.5 so, the ice wouldn’t dilute the tea. I used cold brew bottles and plastic carafes as my brewing vessels. Once the cold water hit the large rectangular tea bag, the water had a yellow-green tinge. Since the recommendations on the website mentioned that the cold brew tea would be good for three days, I decided to make it and taste it each day.
Day 1: I brewed the tea overnight and the liquor was a slightly cloudy neon yellow-green colour in the brewing vessel. However, when pouring into the cup, the liquor was clear and it had a delicate vegetal, seaweed, mineral and, umami flavour.
Day 2: The dark yellow-green liquor had more of a nutty and roasted note that reminded me of genmaicha, a Japanese green tea with roasted rice. Similar to Day 1 where the tea was cloudy in the bottle, it was mostly clear with some tea particles floating in the liquor. I tried using the cold brew tea in two different ways: as an iced tea and in a dish.
First, since it was a hot day, I made the cold brew into an iced tea. It was refreshing and the taste reminded me of ice brewing, which is when the ice cubes are placed on top of the tea leaves and allowed to melt. I find this method of brewing creates a more mellow flavour. The tea was refreshing with a roasted and salinity taste and a crisp finish.
Second, I used some of the cold brew tea in my Chirashi Don (I had a North American version that was sashimi on top of rice). I’m unsure if tea is a common or typical ingredient, but I was craving tea and rice like I had when I was in Uji, Japan. The tea gave the dish a nice savoury and saline taste, highlighting the sashimi.
Day 3: By this point, the liquor was darker and murky due to all the suspended tea fanning in the liquor. After pouring the tea into the cup, the fanning slowly at the bottom. The liquor had a stronger vegetal and roasted quality followed by faint astringency at the back of the throat. I again added iced to this, which removed the dryness.
The wet dark forest green leaves are small, broken, and have a vegetal and fresh-cut grass smell.
As noted in my review of Taiwanese roasted oolong tea bags, I enjoy it when tea is simple to make and this tea was as easy as dropping tea into a vessel, adding water, and letting it sit in the fridge overnight. Normally, when I cold brew teas, I tend to use tea leaves that I have infused once or twice and don’t want the tea leaves to go to waste, so I get mixed results on how much flavour is remaining. Therefore, it is nice that this tea is specifically for that reason.
Since the weather has been getting warmer here, it has been such a treat to have cold tea sitting in the fridge for a few days and let it develop different flavours. I personally liked the second day best because I’m used to sencha having an intense flavour and during this day, it constantly had the largest range of flavours without the bitterness. This would be great for someone who is a fan of cold brewing or wants something simple for a hot day as everything is already preportioned (3.5/5 rating).
- Type: Green tea
- Origin: Japan
- Caffeine: Unknown
- Ingredients: Green tea
- Company: Momo Tea
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