Thursday, October 18, 2007

Ito En Teas

I recently placed an order with Ito En. (I live in NYC, but I've been too busy to make it to the store since I got back from India, so I decided to take the easy way out and order online.) My order consisted of:

2 oz Dragon Well Qing Ming
3 oz Lapsang Souchong
3 oz Organic Makaibari Estate Silver Tips
2 oz Taiping Houkui
1 oz Uji Gyokuro
3 oz Ureshino Tama Ryokucha
1 oz Yame Gyokuro

Thoughts so far:

Dragon Well is one of my favorite teas of all time, and this one is no exception.

I thought the Lapsang Souchong would be a good choice for the fall chill we have going on up here and, boy, was I right.

I knew the Makaibari would be great because I was drinking it daily for a while there in Darjeeling. An excellent choice, as always.

I'd had Taiping Houkui (a.k.a. "Monkey King") before, but this one is really special. The flavor and aroma are superb and the imprint of the cotton cloth adds to the visual aesthetic quite nicely.

The gyokuros are a gift for a friend. I haven't tasted this batch, but I've had them before and they were exceptional.

The Ureshino Tama Ryokucha was new to me. It's a Japanese pan-fired tea, like houjicha, but it tastes more like a mild sencha or gyokuro. Vegetal, mellow, lightly sweet... I'm really glad I ordered this one without waiting to try it elsewhere first. Three cheers for new tea!!!

2 comments:

Mindey said...

Thanks for the post, I checked out Into En and the teas look good, a little pricey though. I suggest you check out the Lung
Ching Dragonwell
here. It is my favorite everyday green tea.

Vee said...

Thanks for the link, Mindey. Ito En's Lung Ching is a high quality Qing Ming (first flush), which is why it's more expensive.

~Vee