Here in Australia, we have the basic version of Muji with the beautifully designed furniture, weighty cutlery, gorgeous white organisation aids, and the elegant logo-free and tastefully coloured clothing, but we stop short of the items of the Japanese stores that are more tempting to the impulse purchaser. Muji stores in Japan have a dedicated food section lined with dry staples from (Muji-branded) sauce mixes to pasta and noodles to fruits and candy. Flagship Muji stores even have a cafeteria serving freshly prepared meals.
Of course, tea is considered a dry staple at Muji, and this is Muji Organic Tea Apple & Elderflower.
Infusing 1 teabag in 200 ml for 5 minutes yields a golden yellow liquor. The aroma and flavour of the tea was a lot like a mellow chamomile tea sweetened with the flavour, but not the sweetness, of a floral honey. The first sip being distinctly floral, the apple notes came through in the body as a slight sharpness akin to apple skin with a mellow acidity akin to apple juice developing in the tail and into the aftertaste. I can see this tea being a refreshing apple scented elderflower cordial with the addition of some honey to sweeten.
The instructions do suggest infusing in 140 mL (for 2-3 infusions), yet I’ve followed my usual guide for infusions as I find 200 mL for 5 minutes yields a more pleasantly mellow, less heady, flavour. The elderflower notes came through with very faint notes of apple in the second infusion in 200 ml. By the third infusion, the apple notes have all but disappeared and the elderflower notes are quite watered down.
This Muji Organic Tea Apple & Elderflower contained 9 tea bags. It was packed in Japan and purchased in Kanazawa, Japan in 2015.