Nio Tea Podcast

Today we are tasting a tea that doesn’t get much attention and that is the Japanese Oolong. Normally people talk about either Chinese Oolongs or Japanese Green Tea but rarely do they talk about Japanese Oolong. This one we found from Issin-en is really delicious!

You may know Mr. Sakamoto as our legendary Gyokuro farmer but did you know he also produces matcha? Let’s give it a try!

In this episode, we try a new Gyokuro from Mr. Sakamoto that has a much lower price tag. The Gyokuro Matsu is a fantastic value tea that delivers a powerful sweet umami flavor in the first steeping.

In this episode we drink a Bancha from a farm in Shizuoka and compare it with a standard supermarket Bancha. There is a lot more complexity to this one from Shizuoka!

The Cha Musume is our most popular Gyokuro, but it is not the highest quality Gyokuro we sell. To see the difference between the two Gyokuro I wanted to do a side by side comparison of these two amazing teas.

In this episode, I do the unthinkable and drink tea out of a tea bag! I talk about why many tea lovers prefer loose leaf tea and how you can make the switch.

In this episode, we compare two of our matchas, the matcha Washimine, a smooth and creamy Okumidori matcha, with a strong and vegetal Yabukita matcha like the Matcha Sesui

In this episode, we will be doing a tasting of one of my all time favorite green teas! The Gyokuro Cha Musume is the most popular tea on our site and it has a very nice umami sweetness to it. It is difficult to grow high quality organic Gyokuro, but our farmer Mr. Sakamoto has found a way to produce some amazing quality teas without the use of conventional pesticides.

In this episode, we will be Tasting a very unique Japanese green tea. Instead of being steamed like most Japanese green teas, this one is pan fired and that really makes a big difference in the taste!

In this episode, we taste a Genmaicha and learn a little bit more about one of Japan’s most popular teas!

In this episode, we’re going to be talking about matcha. Our Matcha Washimine and Matcha Sesui both come from Mr. Nakai in Wazuka, right outside of Kyoto. The Nakai family was one of the first in Japan to switch to Organic tea. Mr. Nakai’s father was one of the creators of the JAS logo on every packet of organic Japanese tea!

In this episode, we head back into the field to visit the farmers at Satoen. We start off by touring the factory and then we stop by their brand new matcha cafe and even get a tour of their organic tea fields!

In this episode, we teach you how to properly store your matcha. This is extremely important because if you store your matcha incorrectly, it will totally diminish the flavor in a very short period of time. With proper matcha storage, your tea should stay fresh for months!

In this episode, we learn how the same tea plant is used to make 2 very different green teas. The Bancha and Gyokuro almost couldn’t be more different. Gyokuro is from the first harvest, Bancha is from the second or third. Gyokuro is shaded, Bancha is unshaded. The top leaves are picked to make Gyokuro, the bottom leaves are picked to make Bancha. This of course results in two very different tasting teas!

In this episode we talk about my first trip to Fuji Matcha and my first trip to Shizuoka. It was an amazing trip that I won’t soon forget. I learned so much about tea, got to see some amazing views of the Japanese countryside and I got to meet two amazing farmers that walked me through the entire matcha production process.