Review: Kuromame Cha - Kaneido

Tea Info
Type: Herbal/Tisane
Producer: Kyoto Sanjo Kaneido
Origin: Japan
Brewing Parameters: 5g, 100°C,  3-4 minutes – loose leaf/beans
Appearance: Whole, light tan beans (maybe up to 1/3rd inch in length) with a cracked black shell; the beans without the shells actually look a bit like peanuts
Rating: B+ | 89/100
# of Brews: 3

Tasting Notes and Thoughts
Oh no, I'm almost done with all of my Japan teas! The only ones I have left are this one and a powdered mushroom tea with gold (and to be honest, I feel like that'd taste more like a broth/soup instead of a tea).

Anyway, this tea seems much more high quality than the first one I drank. The packaging is a nice paper envelope with gold tape, with the tea in a plastic bag. As for the actual tea, it's the full bean in its shell instead of chopped up pieces with mostly shells. The smell is very similar to peanuts instead of the roasty smell of the other tea.

Watching the tea was one of the coolest things ever, actually. You know when you put grape skittles or something with food coloring in water, and the food coloring kind of emanates from it? Well, that's exactly what happened here. For some reason, the tea was a reddish, black color– like diluted red wine– which was interesting. If you remember the last black bean tea I had, it was a dark, yellowish color. I hope they didn't actually add any food coloring or anything.

The flavor was much more light and nuanced compared to the other one I had. Despite the confusing color, the main taste was the roasted, savory, and slightly sweet flavor of the soybeans. There was also a peanut butter flavor, with a creamy/smooth texture. I didn't really notice an aftertaste other than a very light roasty taste, but I did notice a bit of a waxy texture on my tongue after. The tea didn't really last very long; the first brew was very dark and somewhat strong (3 min.), but in the subsequent brews, the liquid was very light with not that much taste (4-6 minute brews). Overall, I actually enjoyed this one very much (much more than the other tea I had); the only issue I really have with it is the lack of durability/small number of brews.

Other Notes
Well, this has been a very busy two weeks, and March is going to be a very busy month. In the past two weeks, I've done a ton: applied for next year's Competition Civics, turned in most of my applications for summer internships (got 1 more, gonna write it today), won 3rd place in the Ohlone College Biotechnology Quiz Bowl, won 1st or 2nd (not announced yet) place in the county for Journalist in Mock Trial, and finally had the Science Alliance (that one club with that guy that's a huge pain to work with) approved.

First off, let's talk about the quiz bowl. Our school has 2 teams, and I was put into the team that is admittedly less smart than the other (my friends were in the group, so I didn't mind). We ended up losing our first round, but made it to Round 3, meaning that we were the wildcard team in the semi-finals. We lost there too (since we went against the team that beat us at the start), but we got enough points to win third place. It was super fun since our team did not practice at all– the other teams looked like they have been prepping for weeks– and we just made jokes and played with our teacher's kids.

Next, mock trial! I competed a while ago, but I got the results at semi-finals (Tuesday this week). All of our team's artists and journalists (including me) are advancing to the state competition, which means that we are all in first or second place. I'm pretty hyped about that, but I'll have to be practicing my journalism-ing now– the competition is on March 18 at Sacramento. The main team, however, isn't advancing. We won semis and had the highest win percentage with no losses, but we ended up losing to the current champions at finals. Oh well, there's next year and we have a lot of potential– it's just that a few of our members don't put in the effort.

Finally, March! Busy month. I got my last internship application due on the 4th (unless I find another internship, which means I'll be applying to five in total), an English speech arguing against child support on the 11th, the science fair on the 12th (set up is on the 11th), and Mock Trial state on the 18th. If I feel confident enough about my project, there's a second fair I should sign up for; applications close on the 11th (I might just sign up though for the hell of it, but my project is honestly way too simple/basic to compete). Gonna be a fun month.

Oh, and also, it turns out my girlfriend (and best friend) is going to be moving in six months. It sucks.