Kagoshima Chirancha

Brand: Satshumarché

Found at: Bokkusu

Is a tea bag a snack? Debatable.

Do I brew tea like it’s free? Oh, most definitely.

So today, I’ve decided to post about tea, as a blatant affront to all the excellent tea blogs out there who do a much better job and describing tea than I do. Because that’s the kind of quality content I provide.

But I do feel a little guilty. It doesn’t feel right to be drinking this tea in a dorm room. This is one of those fancy teas that come in a pyramid-shaped bag and turns the water the rich green of a well-watered lawn. It looks like the kind of thing you’d be served at a day spa that gives gold facials and has an herbal sauna. It’s elegant, it’s refined, it has a fragrance. Unfortunately, as I am neither elegant nor refined, I struggle to find the words to describe said fragrance. To me, it smells exactly like a fancy green tea, which is not helpful to anyone. If I had to guess, I’d say it has high notes of jasmine and pulled pork. Honestly, I am a nightmare at wine tastings.

I can also tell that this tea is too fancy for me because it is from Kagoshima prefecture, the second largest tea producing area in Japan. It’s like buying Italian wine – I know that I’m not going to fully appreciate it and that I can’t afford it, so I just avoid it as a rule. Chirancha is also a tea that has a longer production process, as it is steamed for a longer time before it is dried and rolled. This makes the flavor smoother so that you do not get the bitterness that you get in fancy matcha powder or cheap Lipton green tea. It is also supposed to be healthier for you, but as I’ve heard this claim for every tea I’ve ever tried, I’m holding off judgement. Someone has taken great care to produce a quality product, and here I am drinking it out of a cracked IKEA mug.

From my point of view, what makes this tea great is that it still tastes good even after you’ve left it on the counter for six hours because you forgot and can’t be trusted with nice things. I’m telling you, it’s like casting pearls before swine over here.