#ippodo

Picking the cheapest options from tea vendors has caused me to hesitate in the past. In hindsight this is silly. If you trust that a store's offerings are of good quality, you shouldn't have to worry about spending less than usual. Price does not necessarily equal quality, or tell you how much you will enjoy it.

Unro is light and crisp with a lingering vegetal aftertaste and little astringency. Like everything else I've tried from ippodo, it's very fragrance forward. The dry leaves smell sweet and grassy, similar to matcha. It brings "spring" to mind and makes me want to lay out a blanket and bring my tea set outside to sit in the sun.

The bag suggests using boiling water for 30 seconds. Normally I steep sencha for about a minute in the 160F range. For curiosity's sake I tried both, adding a teaspoon of dry leaves per cup for each method. My usual time and temperature combo produced a mellow brew with stronger umami. The aftertaste lingers on the tongue. Boiling water produced a slightly thicker body and more robust flavor profile. It's not a major difference, but in side by side comparisons, my family and I preferred Ippodo's recommendation for its strength. Additionally, this tea holds up very well to cold brew, only taking a quick 15 minutes or so to reach it's full potential.

Wrapping this up with a few questions:

What's a tea you prefer cold brewed?

Hafu Matsumoto, Wide Noshitake Bamboo Flower Vase,

Bamboo, 13 × 9 3/5 × 4 1/10 in (33 × 24.5 × 10.5 cm)