Momo Cha Fine Teas: Shiraore Green Tea

This evening I'm tucked up in bed nice and warm whilst it's raining quite heavily outside. As blogging is my passion I rifled through my sample box and decided that I'd like to have a green tea to review. Today I've had fruit tea's and black tea's and quite frankly, I've missed my daily green tea that I always have.

The tea I selected this evening is Shiraore Green Tea from a fantastic tea company, Momo Cha Fine Teas. The tea is a gorgeous tea from Japan. This tea was sent to me through the excellent tea subscription service from teatourist

What first struck me about this tea is it's really gorgeous colour. Oh my goodness, not seen a tea with such stunning colour in a while. I absolutely love that there is a really dark green tea and then, in contrast a lighter green colour. Very pretty. Uniquely, there is a grassy element to this tea, it's quite fine, and I found it stuck to my teaspoon when filling my bag! It's just lovely and looks like it is bouncing with health!

I am always very, very careful with the way I brew my tea. However, today, having had a couple of sturdy black tea's and some fruit tea's I have gotten out of the habit of carefully monitoring the tea making preparations, so I had to remind myself that this is a far, far more delicate tea that I had taken today and so I adhered to the brewing instructions strictly. Firstly, I switched the kettle off before it got anywhere near to a full boil and infused the tea for a minute, as suggested on the information card.

The tea infused to a very light green colour, so pale that it resembles just plain water!

Sadly, the photo does the tea no justice, however, you can see that it brews to a very pale colour.

Shiraore tea is very traditional. It captures the very essence of green tea. And it's everything that people would probably say about green tea. And it's everything that I love about green tea.

The aroma of this tea is quite strong and was very evident from the moment I cut open the packet. It has that grassy, vegetation type aroma which drives me nuts about green tea. I just love it!

Due to the fact that the water temperature needs to be a bit cooler then normal to prepare this tea, I was sure to drink this as quickly as it could whilst still fairly hot. And it's just amazing.

As I settled into bed and took my first sip .. well, the only way I can describe it is heavenly. It has ALL the elements that I so love in green tea. I adore the grassy flavour this tea has. It's just something that happens to appeal to me. With each sip, as the flavour developed in my mouth, it just got better and better.

This tea is also very smooth and easy to drink. Due to the fact I prepared the tea correctly, it's totally devoid of any sort of bitterness. But, I will say that it's vital to prepare the tea exactly how the company suggest as this does have the potential to go bitter and astringent if you use boiling water or if you over steep. Easy does it with this tea!

There is also a slightly roasted flavour to this tea, or at least that is what I picked up from it.

As this is so traditional this will appeal to those of us steadfast green tea lovers. It's totally fulfilling and satisfying. However, if you are new to green tea, or new to taking it pure and unflavoured, it's delicateness - and this has a appealing delicateness without being too weak - this would be a ideal tea to start with.

I cannot praise this green tea enough. I like it's natural earthiness. I find it delicious. I like how simple and pure it is, how it's completely unadulterated. And I love it.

But to get the very best out of this tea you MUST follow the brewing instructions to the letter. I did and thoroughly enjoyed it.

This is the first tea I've tried from Momo Cha Fine Tea's. And I'm incredibly impressed. I certainly hope to experience more of their tea's in the near future.

I'm off to make another cup of this gorgeous tea and browse their website. It's highly likely I'll find at least ten tea's I'd love to buy!