Day 41: Hifumi

Brand: Lupicia
Type: Green (Houjicha and rice blend)
Brew Time & Temperature: 2 minutes, boiling
Leaf Appearance: Very broken up light brown leaves (fannings, I think) with chunks of stems and various colored (red, white, brown) toasted grains/rice
Color: A light chestnut-brown; clear
Smell: Roasted smell characteristic of houjicha, with some smokiness and vinegar-like undertones
Recommended with/as: As is
Rating: 7.5/10

Tasting notes and thoughts:
Since the leaves in the tea bag were so broken up, I couldn't use the gaiwan today. Instead, I just did my regular brewing technique (However, I did use the gaiwan earlier with green tea, and that didn't go as well since leaves kept getting into the fairness cup and I scalded my fingers more than once). I've been using the gaiwan as an aroma cup though, which works surprisingly well.

This tea is essentially a roasted genmaicha. The smell is distinctively houjicha, but the taste is a mix between the two. It's not as strong as the previous houjichas I've tried, which isn't bad. There's a strong nutty taste complimented by the taste of the rice, along with a somewhat rich roasted flavor. It has little to no astringency or bitterness and is actually a bit savory. Unlike the other houjichas, however, it's a bit mild; if you wanted to, you could probably brew it for longer without making it too bitter.

Overall, it's good (and made for a nice dinner tea), but it's a bit too average tasting for me to really enjoy it.

Other notes:
Well, today there was school-mandated acceptance of other cultures. It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't scheduled when it was (in history, we had half of the usual time to write an essay today which sucked), and if we weren't forced to watch terribly made videos and answer worksheets about it. There was a rally which I enjoyed, but spending an hour watching videos that pretty much just said "everyone's special, and you shouldn't make fun of them for that!" isn't the way to get the point across to high schoolers (like really? I get the importance of the whole event and everything, but trying to teach it by forcing teachers to read off of a piece of paper, do a bunch of activities that no one wants to do, and play videos showing how privileged we are isn't the way to do it).

In other news, I also get to spend this weekend editing an essay, studying, working on that writeup, and making speeches. I had to do this interview thing today too for paid taste tests, but got denied since they wanted people who buy lunch at school (which is something I can't afford). I'm not too upset about it, but hey, they said there might be more tests in the future. I also ordered a DVD copy of Ikiru from the Criterion Collection (I like having hard copies of movies/shows I enjoy, and we might actually be able to watch it in Japanese class too) and the God of Love CD by Stereo Alchemy today, which I'm pretty excited about.

Next on the 100 Days of Tea: Ripe Mango Oolong