Kuromitsu Kinako

Tea: Kuromitsu Kinako - 8518
Vendor: Lupicia USA
Vendor Description: This is a unique blend of green tea and tea powder, flavored with soy powder and rich brown sugar.

About This Tea: This is a tea that I picked up from Lupicia, although from the looks of it, it is no longer available on their website. This is just another one of the many teas that have been slowly disappearing off of the Lupicia website in the past few months.

Leaf: The leaf has a very strong brown sugar and maple syrupy aroma. There are some small brown-red beans in the mix. The leaf has a very matte appearance, but it is likely that a certain degree of this is from the brown sugar and kinako coatings. The leaf is rather large and not needle like how a sencha is.

1st Infusion Parameters: 5g, 5 oz, 208F, 2min

1st Infusion: The tea has a dark amber color. It is slightly murky and has a very sweet aroma. The aroma reminds me of brown sugar like the leaf has. The flavor of the tea is unsurprisingly sweet. There is a light bitterness to the flavor, but is overall quite smooth. There is a hint of bancha sharpness, but it is masked by the sugary sweetness.

2nd Infusion Parameters: 208F, 2:30

2nd Infusion: The tea had a darker yellow color this time. The aroma was still quite sweet. It is a little sharper this time around though and not as sweet as the first infusion. There is a little bit of snappy bitterness to it.

Rating: 2/10

Conclusion: This tea was rather odd. I'm normally not a big fan of the flavor of kinako or adding sugar to my green tea. Because of this, this tea wasn't terribly great. This wasn't a good pairing of flavoring with green tea. I also tried this tea iced, but it wasn't very good that way either.