Kukicha review

I made some Kukicha which is a japanese green tea. Common nick name is twig tea. I got my Kukicha from The Tea Grotto. I put in 2 grams of tea for every 6 oz of water and used filtered water. I ended up steeping it in my cast iron tea pot at 70 degrees F. I tasted the tea every 30 sec. into steeping. What I found was that 1 min. 30 sec. was the perfect blend of grassy freshness without any bitterness. I continued to steep tell 2 min. 30 sec. to tast the developments in the tea. I found that any longer then 2 min. and it started to become bitter.
Dry Kukicha

Kukicha after steeping 

Color of tea. Mind you this is the color afte steeping it for 2 min. 30 sec. Which wasn't the ideal steep. 

Over all I would say It was medium soft body tea. It was grassy, fresh, kelpy, and robust. I love a good japanese green and this kukicha was very enjoyable. 

Green Tea Liqueur

 I tried a new liqueur I found called Zen. It's a matcha green tea liqueur that's 20% alc/vol.

I poured a bit in a cup to take a tast of the liqueur on it's own. The scent is simmular to vodka but a little more sweet.
The flavor was much more sweet then I expected. I could tast a hint of matcha but honestly the sweetness really over powered the green tea flavor. It was to sweet for my tast though I'm not one for sweetened drinks. If you enjoy really sweet liqueur then I would suggest the zen.
On the back of the bottle there is a recipe that calles for green or black tea. I steeped some sencha tea and mixed about 4 parts green tea to 1 part zen liqueur.

The bottle said to add iced green tea but I enjoyed it warm. I liked Zen a lot more once it was diluted down and with an actual green tea flavor. It would probably be pretty good with matcha which would help bring out the matcha in the actual alcohol.

Over all I enjoyed it mixed with green tea but found it to sweet on it's own. It's a bit pricy running at around $30 per bottle. I don't think I will probably buy it again unless it goes down to the teen price range.