What Green Are You Drinking

[debunix]

Obubu Summer Sun sencha. They describe it as a summer harvest tea with a pleasant astringency. I find it veers from astringent to bitter, but it also has a captivating roundness and warmth like summer in the vegetable grassy notes that is very pleasing and that helps me to put up with the touch of bitter. It really does feel like a summer... when there are so much good liveliness happening in the garden, seasoned with the unpleasantness of too much heat if the time of day is off just a little bit.

[Darrel]

Yame Gyokuro. Hard to get the brewing parameters down with this one. Not as bitter today but still need some work!

[debunix]

Gyokuro should be very forgiving and not prone to bitterness.... what parameters are you using?

[Darrel]

Gyokuro should be very forgiving and not prone to bitterness.... what parameters are you using?

This vendor recommended steeping for 2.5 to 3 minutes which seems kind of long compared to what I’m used to. I lowered the steeping time to 1 minute and 1.5 on the second cup and the taste is much better with no bitterness. I have the water at 140 degrees Fahrenheit and use about 5 grams of tea.

[LeoFox]

Gyokuro should be very forgiving and not prone to bitterness.... what parameters are you using?

This vendor recommended steeping for 2.5 to 3 minutes which seems kind of long compared to what I’m used to. I lowered the steeping time to 1 minute and 1.5 on the second cup and the taste is much better with no bitterness. I have the water at 140 degrees Fahrenheit and use about 5 grams of tea.

Try 120-125 F - about 40-50 ml for 5g and start at 1 min 30 seconds - then 1 min - then 2 min - then either eat the leaves or proceed with 3 min at 140 F - and so on. If this is too bitter - either gyokuro is not for you or it is subpar tea

[Darrel]

Gyokuro should be very forgiving and not prone to bitterness.... what parameters are you using?

This vendor recommended steeping for 2.5 to 3 minutes which seems kind of long compared to what I’m used to. I lowered the steeping time to 1 minute and 1.5 on the second cup and the taste is much better with no bitterness. I have the water at 140 degrees Fahrenheit and use about 5 grams of tea.

Try 120-125 F - about 40-50 ml for 5g and start at 1 min 30 seconds - then 1 min - then 2 min - then either eat the leaves or proceed with 3 min at 140 F - and so on. If this is too bitter - either gyokuro is not for you or it is subpar tea

I will try that lower temperature. Looks like I will have to bring out my shiboridashi.

Thank you for the tips!

[Masterjeff]

Enjoying a wonderful saemidori gyokuro from Thes Du Japon, thick umami with not a hint of bitterness brewed at 4g/40ml, quite disheartening to hear about the recent changes as I really enjoy their tea.

[Masterjeff]

Another Thes Du Japon tea, this time kurasawa cultivar sencha from Tenryu, an excellent use of the notoriously hostile cultivar. Very complex in both aroma and flavor over the infusions, transitioning from fruity and floral, to floral and woodsy, to a creamy dark chocolate like bitterness at the third infusion. All throughout it carried this note of bitterness with it but in a very pleasant way, showing through more in the later infusions. I'm quite sensitive to certain kinds of bitterness but this never bothered me since it was always balanced by the other notes and doesn't last too long in the aftertaste (which is quite long but more on the floral and later creamier side). Definitely going to try it in other clays but it worked well in my banko hohin at Florent's recommended 4g/70ml 80°C 60s.

[teatray]

Another Thes Du Japon tea, this time kurasawa cultivar sencha from Tenryu, an excellent use of the notoriously hostile cultivar. Very complex in both aroma and flavor over the infusions, transitioning from fruity and floral, to floral and woodsy, to a creamy dark chocolate like bitterness at the third infusion. All throughout it carried this note of bitterness with it but in a very pleasant way, showing through more in the later infusions. I'm quite sensitive to certain kinds of bitterness but this never bothered me since it was always balanced by the other notes and doesn't last too long in the aftertaste (which is quite long but more on the floral and later creamier side). Definitely going to try it in other clays but it worked well in my banko hohin at Florent's recommended 4g/70ml 80°C 60s.

Mmm. Looks good. How do you find the banko for sencha?

[Masterjeff]

Mmm. Looks good. How do you find the banko for sencha?

I find banko works quite well for a lot of sencha (as well as other Japanese steamed greens like kabusecha and gyokuro), especially the shizu cultivars such as kurasawa or shizu 7132 as both body and aftertaste are improved while astringency is lessened, though results may vary based off water hardness and factors like clay composition, as even among Iroku's pots there seems to be variations in color.
A few senchas I've had come out worse, can't remember which ones specifically at the moment unfortunately.

[Darrel]

Organic Kurasawa Sencha from o cha. Refreshing on this semi warm day. Happy Easter to those that celebrate.

[debunix]

annual Sakura sencha from Obubu, a lovely offering that is floral and fresh without any overdone or off notes. Happy camper, me.

[Masterjeff]

Enjoying another Thes Du Japon sencha, fuji-midori from okawa-oma, delicious as well as an aromatic delight, the moment the water hit the leaves I knew I was in for something special. I love these high elevation senchas, haven't been disappointed by one yet, only disappointed is that I didn't get more of them to try .

[debunix]

A recent episode of my favorite podcast, "in defense of plants" talked about light being both so necessary to a plant but also sometimes toxic if overdone, and described how some of the red and purple pigments are produced as almost like a Sunscreen to protect them from excessive sun in various situations, to avoid oxidizing damage from UV rays striking and insufficiently protected leaf. It totally makes sense to me, thinking about that, that elevation could make a big difference in how much of some flavors some compounds a leaf might produce, and higher elevations really may produce higher quality in some teas. One alternative often considered is simply higher elevation teas being associated with a prestige factor because there's less land on top of the mountain then there is in the valleys below! But because the elevation really does make a difference In the complex chemicals produced by the leaf, it well may make a difference directly In the quality of the tea steeped from that leaf.

… Need to go find some high elevation tea to enjoy it while I ponder this!

[Cha Cha Cha]

Having some Hekisuien-Matsu no Midori matcha. Pretty decent stuff for the price. Only about $10-ish dollars for a 30gm. tin