Sokenbicha - 5 Reviews

For the longest time, I couldn't enjoy unsweetened tea. I always need my iced to taste like fruit and sugar. Sometimes one would question if what I was drinking were actually tea. Probably not, I think most sugary iced teas are more water and sugar with a hint of instant tea powder.

Skip forward many years and I'm living in a house in Portland called the Lemon Bomb. It was named the Lemon Balm, but people kept saying it as 'bomb' so they changed it. A friend once drew a great picture of a grenade/lemon hybrid. Anyways, previous tenants of the house had amassed a good collection of loose tea and everyone in the house enjoyed them. Everyone that is, except me. One day, I decided to be adventurous and went through all the little mason jars and picked out a few scoops of 3 or 4 of the best smelling ones. I put them in a pot of boiling water and 10 minutes later I had the best unsweetened tea I've ever had. It was that moment that made me realize that all unsweetened tea isn't bad.

This tea isn't quite as incredible as my own concoction, but it's still really good. It has a nice light and crisp taste to it. My palette isn't accustomed to unsweetened teas yet, but this has guava leaves and ginseng in it along with the Oolong tea. Thank you Sokenbicha for helping me on my journey into the unsweetened tea world.

In recent news, the unsweetened tea world has been turned on its ear recently by newcomer Sokenbicha. When Sokenbicha first arrived on the tea scene no one took much notice. It sat on the shelves in its quasi-fancy bottle gathering dust as it was overlooked for Teas Tea. Then one daring individual took a chance during a sale and the tea world has never been the same. Never has such a richly flavored unsweetened iced tea made so many moves in such a short time.

The company knows that flavor is just as important as no sugar, and they make their ingredients count. Most companies treat their unsweetened teas as bare bones. Water and tealeaves with nothing else added. Sokenbicha sees the folly in that and in this particular flavor they add barley, rice, cinnamon and ginger. The result is truly phenomenal. The taste is primarily a nice smooth tea mixed with what tastes like puffed rice. Added to that are the slightest aftertastes of ginger and cinnamon. It is truly a drink to write back to the small town you grew up in and brag about to those who are destined to die never leave.

Rough days count for strong, unsweetened tea. Nothing calms me down like an unsweetened tea that's bursting with infused with flavors. I've been having a rough time at work. Things are going down, you know. It's one of those things where I just wish someone could punch me in the face and it would all be over? You've never had that? Come on. You've never wanted to get punched in the face and wake up and "it's all over"? You live an easy life, my friend.

Before someone punches me in the face, I would like to finish this bottle of tea. It's good. It's that nice bitterness that is accompanied with an uber-intense chamomile flavor that, I'm hoping, doesn't knock me out. I hope it just chills me out to the point where I don't care if someone runs up the back of my legs with a bike because no one in this city knows you're supposed to ride your bike on the street. Sidewalks are for walking. Streets are for bikes. So there aren't any bike lanes. Who cares? Deal with it.

I could easily make this tea a nice standby and if you are a non-sweetened tea lover, and you've never tried it, you can't go wrong. Drop a small amount of dough and relax. That punch is coming.

I was not prepared for this tea. I expected a bitter unsweetened tea. While there is no sugar added to this, it is far from bitter. The little story on the bottle tells me that the Oolong tea has notes of raspberry and pomegranate. They definitely give the tea a slight fruit flavor and overpower the bitterness. The rose hips and pedals that are listed in the ingredients also give this the faintest of floral. I'm honestly shocked at how good this is. It's definitely going to become my go-to unsweetened tea. I only wish that it was available in bigger bottles for home consumption.

Roller coaster, the song by Everything But The Girl off the smash hit record "Amplified Heart" tells the tale of a unbalanced relationship where one person has moved on and the other person is still emotionally involved. Although this drink does not leave you crying in the dark listening to folk rock and eating iced cream, it does take you on a roller coaster of taste. It's got a very strong smell but when you taste it, it's light and very floral. If you really stick your nose in the bottle, like I did because I'm a scientist, it smells strong like barley, but if you just whiff it from the top, it's strong, but completely different. The taste is an incremental flavor where it tastes a little like a peach, but is not peach? Strange? It's infused with all sorts of stuff, none being peach, all being good.

This was a wonderful unsweetened tea that I could see myself coming back to time and time again. If you are bored with your jasmine green like I am, take a trip to flavor country, grab a bottle of this, put on "Amplified Heart" and just relax because both are great, great things.