What Green Are You Drinking

[Jo]

Chip and I are on our third day of brewing Uji Shincha from Ippodo.

The jury is still out on this one. It is an asamushi and the flavor profile is a bit subdued. The first step has a relatively deep mouthfeel and umami, but not in assertive quantities. This is not
a particularly compelling tea.

Yet right up front comes a dominating bitterness and astringency beginning with the 2nd steep and more pronounced with the 3rd steep. Hmm...

[Victoria]

[mention]Jo[/mention] not sure which Uji shincha you got. Curious if you tried steeping in more pourous clays like Tachi Masaki shigaraki or Junzo Maekawa kobiwako clay? In my post above I commented that I was surprised how much richer and brothier that light/steamed blended gyokuro (Uji-hikari, Asahi, Samidori) was just by switching to a shigaraki clay shibo. It went from light and elegant to thicker and richer. I think the shigaraki clay works really well with Asamushi and lighter steamed sencha/gyokuro.

[Jo]

Jo not sure which Uji shincha you got. Curious if you tried steeping in more pourous clays like Tachi Masaki shigaraki or Junzo Maekawa kobiwako clay? In my post above I commented that I was surprised how much richer and brothier that light/steamed blended gyokuro (Uji-hikari, Asahi, Samidori) was just by switching to a shigaraki clay shibo. It went from light and elegant to thicker and richer. I think the shigaraki clay works really well with Asamushi and lighter steamed sencha/gyokuro.

We purchased the only Shincha on the site, listed as Shincha from Uji, that's the only info.

Today we used a Guisi shudei, Guisi mogake yesterday, unknown clay and used an AO Yamada Sou our first try.

[Victoria]

Victoria that looks wonderful!
- - -
I'm nearing the bottom of my 100g bag of the O-Cha 20th Anniversary Sae Midori. Here's how I brewed it today and it's the parameters I've been experimenting with as I get to the end of it.

120F - 9 min
160F - 4 min
160F - 4 min

160ml/6g. I also poured the water first and then put in the tea leaves to agitate them as little as possible.

This session was at 80F and 72% humidity. Today I also complemented the session with diffused Altas Cedarwood essential oil (a new favorite!) and gave one of my plants a haircut in between steeps.

Thank you, late afternoon light is special here.

Interesting steeping parameters you settled on. Glad you included humidity and temperature. I’ve found changing ambient conditions affect steeping results, as does barometric/air pressure. I enjoy tracking them.

Curious what lead you to such cool water/long steep? Was it too bitter or rich at parameters I shared?
1.7gr:1oz (30ml)/160F/60sec.
vs yours
1.5gr:1oz (30ml)/120F/9min. {6gr/4oz (160ml)/120F/9min.}

What kyusu are you steeping in?

[d.manuk]

Victoria that looks wonderful!
- - -
I'm nearing the bottom of my 100g bag of the O-Cha 20th Anniversary Sae Midori. Here's how I brewed it today and it's the parameters I've been experimenting with as I get to the end of it.

120F - 9 min
160F - 4 min
160F - 4 min

160ml/6g. I also poured the water first and then put in the tea leaves to agitate them as little as possible.

This session was at 80F and 72% humidity. Today I also complemented the session with diffused Altas Cedarwood essential oil (a new favorite!) and gave one of my plants a haircut in between steeps.

Thank you, late afternoon light is special here.

Interesting steeping parameters you settled on. Glad you included humidity and temperature. I’ve found changing ambient conditions affect steeping results, as does barometric/air pressure. I enjoy tracking them.

Curious what lead you to such cool water/long steep? Was it too bitter or rich at parameters I shared?
1.7gr:1oz (30ml)/160F/60sec.
vs yours
1.5gr:1oz (30ml)/120F/9min. {6gr/4oz (160ml)/120F/9min.}

What kyusu are you steeping in?

Brewed in my kobiwako kyusu from Hojo. Ever since I came across someone brewing gyokuro for 10 minutes with room temperature water (and being very impressed with the result), I've been exploring lower temperatures with Japanese greens a lot more. I think sencha does taste better with little heat, so I'm not using room temp water. 118F+ is the temperature at which raw enzymes denature so I decided to try 120F today. I found for this tea, longer steeps in the 120-130F range are rather nice to explore because the leaves are on the more delicate/powdery side. I've experimented from 175 all the way down to 120F, every 10F or so.

Starting off the first steep with 160F brought out a flavor that I think others have referred to as "pea", but I didn't really enjoy that particular flavor. While I wouldn't call it bitter, something about it seemed to want a gentler start.

[Janice]

Brewed in my kobiwako kyusu from Hojo. Ever since I came across someone brewing gyokuro for 10 minutes with room temperature water (and being very impressed with the result), I've been exploring lower temperatures with Japanese greens a lot more. I think sencha does taste better with little heat, so I'm not using room temp water. 118F+ is the temperature at which raw enzymes denature so I decided to try 120F today. I found for this tea, longer steeps in the 120-130F range are rather nice to explore because the leaves are on the more delicate/powdery side. I've experimented from 175 all the way down to 120F, every 10F or so.

Starting off the first steep with 160F brought out a flavor that I think others have referred to as "pea", but I didn't really enjoy that particular flavor. While I wouldn't call it bitter, something about it seemed to want a gentler start.

I have some thes-du-japon yame gyokuro that I found to be too bitter at my usual gyro brewing parameters. I’ll have to try room temperature water in my kobiwako kyusu and see if the bitterness is reduced enough so I can finish the bag.

[Janice]

Continuing on with Chinese greens by brewing Tea Trekker Long Jing in a Shawn McGuire gaiwan. Shawn was experimenting with a pebbly green glaze that looks pretty and spring-like, and feels good to the touch.

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[d.manuk]

Brewed in my kobiwako kyusu from Hojo. Ever since I came across someone brewing gyokuro for 10 minutes with room temperature water (and being very impressed with the result), I've been exploring lower temperatures with Japanese greens a lot more. I think sencha does taste better with little heat, so I'm not using room temp water. 118F+ is the temperature at which raw enzymes denature so I decided to try 120F today. I found for this tea, longer steeps in the 120-130F range are rather nice to explore because the leaves are on the more delicate/powdery side. I've experimented from 175 all the way down to 120F, every 10F or so.

Starting off the first steep with 160F brought out a flavor that I think others have referred to as "pea", but I didn't really enjoy that particular flavor. While I wouldn't call it bitter, something about it seemed to want a gentler start.

I have some thes-du-japon yame gyokuro that I found to be too bitter at my usual gyro brewing parameters. I’ll have to try room temperature water in my kobiwako kyusu and see if the bitterness is reduced enough so I can finish the bag.

As a starting point, perhaps try 1g/30ml for 5 minutes with room temperature water. I prefer to do 10 mins though. Then for the second steep I usually try 1 or 2 min at 130F.

[luchayi]

Fenghuangjian Taiping hou kui!

[Janice]

Room temperature brewing of the ‘bitter’ gyokuro didn’t reduce the bitterness enough for me. I dug out my Horoku, a pot for roasting tea, that I purchased from thes-du-japon several years ago. The roasting helped reduce the bitterness, but I need to work on my roasting and brewing technique. I’ve watched the thes-du-japon video and I have several Japanese teas that I didn’t enjoy as-is that I can practice on.

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[Victoria]

Room temperature brewing of the ‘bitter’ gyokuro didn’t reduce the bitterness enough for me. I dug out my Horoku, a pot for roasting tea, that I purchased from thes-du-japon several years ago. The roasting helped reduce the bitterness, but I need to work on my roasting and brewing technique. I’ve watched the thes-du-japon video and I have several Japanese teas that I didn’t enjoy as-is that I can practice on.

I used my sesame roaster with sencha for 10 minutes, over medium flame gas stove, with a diffuser, wearing protective gloves. My wrist was tired after that. I think I should have had higher heat and longer roast. Next time I’ll roast for longer, rest, and re-roast another time. Then place in wooden canister and try after a few days of rest... or maybe try some right away, some after resting.

[Janice]

For some reason the thes-du-japon video that I watched just this afternoon is now unavailable. He didn’t roast the tea for nearly that long. First step was to heat the tea over a low flame without stirring or moving the pot. Then he moved the pot back and forth for a minute or two. That was more than enough time to turn my tea into a gentle Hojica but I was just doing a few grams of tea.

[Victoria]

I used my sesame roaster with sencha for 10 minutes, over medium flame gas stove, with a diffuser, wearing protective gloves. My wrist was tired after that. I think I should have had higher heat and longer roast. Next time I’ll roast for longer, rest, and re-roast another time. Then place in wooden canister and try after a few days of rest... or maybe try some right away, some after resting.

For some reason the thes-du-japon video that I watched just this afternoon is now unavailable. He didn’t roast the tea for nearly that long. First step was to heat the tea over a low flame without stirring or moving the pot. Then he moved the pot back and forth for a minute or two. That was more than enough time to turn my tea into a gentle Hojica but I was just doing a few grams of tea.

Hojicha is fired at a higher temperature than what I was aiming for. Also, it typically uses larger bancha leaf and stems while I was using a high quality sencha (not sure if that makes a difference in roasting speed though). I used a diffuser over medium flame trying to approximate a Kagoshima roasted sencha I had; the leaves were not browned rather still dark green. Are you using a direct flame on your sesame roaster? I was afraid to crack mine so used a diffuser. The Kagoshima farmers said they roast their sencha for 15 minutes over 70C/158F flame.

[d.manuk]

Asahina Gyokuro from HOJO - I enjoyed this. The very first time I had it I thought the first brew tasted "rainbow," whatever that means Seem to be interesting pops and brightness of flavor in it but after 2 steeps there isn't much left to receive.

Gyokuro Okumidori from HOJO - Didn't enjoy this at all. I found the taste to be somewhat sickening and it didn't make me feel good. The flavor profile was "deep" rather than umami. Perhaps I should have tested it in a different type of clay.

Karigane Gyokuro, mystery vendor gifted by a friend - Has a nice ocean salinity that I appreciate. Also has a note of straw, which likely comes from the thick stems. Lasts 3 steeps.

[debunix]

An Ji Bai Cha, from Norbu. Always so nice to come back to this tea, warm and vegetal and floral and delicious.