What Green Are You Drinking

Non-oxidized tea
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teatray
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Mon Feb 21, 2022 12:43 am

Baisao wrote:
Sat Feb 19, 2022 2:40 am
I’m enjoying a kyô-bancha from TDJ: https://www.thes-du-japon.com/index.php ... cts_id=726
[...]
It’s smokey, though not in a direct way like a lapsang souchong, and has an incense-like aroma.
Oh, I have this one in my incoming TdJ order! Sounds delicious.
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Baisao
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Mon Feb 21, 2022 3:00 am

teatray wrote:
Mon Feb 21, 2022 12:43 am
Baisao wrote:
Sat Feb 19, 2022 2:40 am
I’m enjoying a kyô-bancha from TDJ: https://www.thes-du-japon.com/index.php ... cts_id=726
[...]
It’s smokey, though not in a direct way like a lapsang souchong, and has an incense-like aroma.
Oh, I have this one in my incoming TdJ order! Sounds delicious.
It’s yummy, especially after the 1st steep. The flavors are not in harmony on the 1st steep, it’s still good, but it comes into its own in subsequent steeps.
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teatray
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Sat Feb 26, 2022 1:42 pm

SHIZU-INZATSU 131 from Nearai - Dry.jpg
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Fukamushi SHIZU-INZATSU 131 from Nearai via TdJ (Florent's very interesting blog entry).

Dry leaf resembles the yellowed stale sencha you can get from a Western shop with improper storage. That's the overall color, but a closer look reveals it's actually fresh & shiny. Smell is unusual and exciting, reminds me of aromatic black teas I had a long time ago but can't find anymore with added strong roasted seaweed. Wet leaf is a surprisingly pleasing yellow & green mosaic. Taste is very nice, deep, fried-seaweedy, and yet with a flowery perfume that reminds me of (descendant cultivar) Kondo-wase, though less intense. 5th infusion (98°C for several mins) possible and nice enough. It's a tea that immediately invites you to study it: both by varying brewing parameters and by reading about its story.
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teatray
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Sun Feb 27, 2022 7:13 am

Baisao wrote:
Sat Feb 19, 2022 2:40 am
I’m enjoying a kyô-bancha from TDJ: https://www.thes-du-japon.com/index.php ... cts_id=726
[...]
It would be a wonderful tea for cold days.
Cheers! Also gives no buzz that I can feel, so should be good for afternoons. It tastes very foody, I want to sprinkle spearmint and/or chili peppers in my next infusion.
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Baisao
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Mon Feb 28, 2022 12:39 am

teatray wrote:
Sun Feb 27, 2022 7:13 am
Baisao wrote:
Sat Feb 19, 2022 2:40 am
I’m enjoying a kyô-bancha from TDJ: https://www.thes-du-japon.com/index.php ... cts_id=726
[...]
It would be a wonderful tea for cold days.
Cheers! Also gives no buzz that I can feel, so should be good for afternoons. It tastes very foody, I want to sprinkle spearmint and/or chili peppers in my next infusion.
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I agree that the cha qi seemed neutral to me. It would be a good all day tea.
RayClem
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Location: Chicago suburbs

Tue Mar 01, 2022 8:24 am

I am fairly new to drinking quality loose leaf tea. This morning, I opened my first pack of Long Jing tea sold by FullChea. It is supposed to be from the West Lake region of China and was listed as a First Grade tea.

Since it was my first experience with Long Jing, I have nothing to compare this with, but I found it to be a very pleasant experience: delicate, smooth, slightly sweet and satisfying. I am looking forward to more sessions with this tea and other Long Jing teas in the future.
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Baisao
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Wed Mar 02, 2022 11:41 pm

RayClem wrote:
Tue Mar 01, 2022 8:24 am
I am fairly new to drinking quality loose leaf tea. This morning, I opened my first pack of Long Jing tea sold by FullChea. It is supposed to be from the West Lake region of China and was listed as a First Grade tea.

Since it was my first experience with Long Jing, I have nothing to compare this with, but I found it to be a very pleasant experience: delicate, smooth, slightly sweet and satisfying. I am looking forward to more sessions with this tea and other Long Jing teas in the future.
The higher grades of longjing are prohibitively expensive. I participated in a tasting of 3 of the 4 grades available: 2, 3, 4. To my surprise I found I enjoyed the lowest grades the most, 3 & 4.

Longjing is a good place to begin. I also like bi luo chun and tai ping hou kui. There are many other good Chinese greens too.

As always, freshness is of the utmost importance with greens so source from a vendor who has a good turnover and use careful storage methods for the best flavor. For example, I buy green tea I can consume within a month; unopened Mylar bags are refrigerated; store opened bags away from heat; fill the Mylar bag with inert gas after opening.

Enjoy!

* It may have been that there were only 4 grades from the farmer but I was told that there were 4 grades for all longjing. Perhaps this was a language issue.
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teatray
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Mon Mar 07, 2022 9:45 pm

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Yamakai cultivar from Sakuma, Tenryū via TdJ

Enjoying this tea. Mild but aromatic with an intriguing smoky note. Spectacular value at ¥1,360 per 100g (~$0.12/g). Waking up and reaching for it these past few mornings. I get 3 good infusions (starting with 6g/100ml/75°C/60s in warmed pot).
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teatray
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Thu Apr 14, 2022 7:17 pm

First 2022 tea for me, Sanxia Bi Luo Chun ("organic best grade") via Tea Masters. Also, my first ever Taiwanese green. Haven't tried the mainland counterpart, nor that many other mainland greens, but FWIW it made a very pleasant impression, with an enchanting bouquet containing flowery notes and a deeper, nutty yumminess without being overly beany/veggie. Its weakness seems to be that it loses complexity after the first infusion, esp. when grandpa refilling (unlike the Taiping Houkui I've tried, which I thought developed interesting new "layers" as it sat in my mug). Preparing in a teapot with a high leaf ratio and generous steeping times seemed to work best and made ~4 good cups. While none of the subsequent ones approached the nuanced bouquet of the first, the nuttiness developed nicely.
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Baisao
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Fri Apr 15, 2022 2:58 am

@teatray, I feel that Taiwanese BLC is underrated. It’s also very different from Chinese BLC, different enough that I don’t know why the Taiwanese chose that name for the tea. It’s even more different still than TPHK. All 3 are very different from each other.

I like the various scents of Taiwanese BLC. Depending on harvest they can have citrus aromas, petrichor, and sea grass. They can create a strong sense of place for me, like I’ve been moved to a location by the aromas alone. I don’t think my method is orthodox but I get great results steeping it 6g/120ml @ 185° with short-ish steeps in a thin-walled teapot.
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debunix
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Fri Apr 15, 2022 3:37 am

Baisao wrote:
Wed Mar 02, 2022 11:41 pm

The higher grades of longjing are prohibitively expensive. I participated in a tasting of 3 of the 4 grades available: 2, 3, 4. To my surprise I found I enjoyed the lowest grades the most, 3 & 4.
A less elaborate tasting of several grades of long jing at Wing Hop Fung and some purchased online from…. I’m not actually sure which shop, but I know I purchased a sample of both the most expensive and a much less expensive long Jing from both… made me realize that what I preferred was not the same as that preferred by the people grading the teas.

And I’m totally OK with that.
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LeoFox
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Fri Apr 15, 2022 10:24 am

Some 2021 LongJing from teahabitat.



So after trying a few sessions varying parameters frlm 2 to 3.5 g/100 ml boiling water (indeed her website proclaims her greens can take boiling) and 20 to 50s initial infusion- and finding they all resulted in strong painful astringency and sour note - i emailed the store asking for advice. This was their response:
Water, it needs purified water from water store. Start with 2 g/100 ml gaiwan, quick 20 seconds after a quick rinse. Adjust time as needed. Do not use stone ware, or glass. Porcelain is good, celadon is better. Do not use Japanese clay or porcelain, the clay from jap doesn't work with Chinese teas.
So then I tried brewing 2 g/ 100 ml with flash brews in my pot. The result seems acceptable initially but after some time, the mouth is still attacked by astringency. The sour note is still present, but weaker. Therefore, I decided to reset my antique pot in peroxide and proceed with porcelain. - if that doesn't work out, I will set this tea aside to "settle/age". There is something about it that reminds me of very aggressive young sheng
Pot reset to eliminate all residual from that tea. Whatever chemical triggers the mouth and throat pain, I don't want any of it remaining in the clay.
Pot reset to eliminate all residual from that tea. Whatever chemical triggers the mouth and throat pain, I don't want any of it remaining in the clay.
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So I proceeded to brew in JDZ porcelain set from mud and leaves, following imen's advice exactly. The result? The sour note is gone. Astringency is still present but a bit more controlled and has a longer delay. As expected, tea has much less body, with salinity and umami more present (maybe just less buried by the other flavors that the pot draws out) -and maybe a touch more floral.



After playing around with temperature - I found the sweet spot at around 85 C - 3.5g/80 ml starting at 30s

Astringency much more controlled (though edging it here, and still causing stomach cramp after some time...) - and the sour note blends into the sweetness, resulting in a nice citrus candy profile (something i find more commonly in assamica...). The tea is quite thick, and there is a lingering medicinal aroma. But it lacks what I am looking for in a Chinese green - and esp in an LJ. if I wanted to play the tepid water game, I could get a great sencha at a quarter of the price for a superior experience..

A second approach that seems more acceptable is 3.5 g/ 80 ml, boiling water- and then flash brews - treating it like a potent sheng...
swordofmytriumph
Posts: 429
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Location: Seattle, USA

Fri Apr 22, 2022 6:04 am

I tried gyokuro for the first time today! Got it from Thes du Japon, the gyokruo from Asahina, Saemidori cultivar.

It was so rich, thick and viscous. No astringency, almost no bitterness at all, almost the suggestion of bitterness at the back end. It was very smooth and in that way it reminded me of the satsuma sae midori sencha i had from O-Cha a few years ago, but like three times thicker. It was like I’d been drinking fat free milk all my life and someone gave me half and half to drink.

I think I’ll drink less of it next time, steep it in a tiny vessel and only have enough for maybe two sips per steep, it was so rich that towards the end of the cup I was feeling overloaded. Like cheesecake, I think I’ll like this tea even more in smaller doses.
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debunix
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Fri Apr 22, 2022 9:59 am

This is a great description:
swordofmytriumph wrote:
Fri Apr 22, 2022 6:04 am
I tried gyokuro for the first time today! .... It was like I’d been drinking fat free milk all my life and someone gave me half and half to drink.
My first experience with it was not so immediately satisfying: when tried with the infusion parameters suggested as part of a group tasting, the seawater broth note was too overwhelming. I have since figured out that if I infuse it more like sencha, I get something 'lighter' but still notably not-sencha, and very pleasing.

Sweet that your introduction was more love at first sip.
swordofmytriumph
Posts: 429
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Fri Apr 22, 2022 11:54 am

debunix wrote:
Fri Apr 22, 2022 9:59 am
This is a great description:
swordofmytriumph wrote:
Fri Apr 22, 2022 6:04 am
I tried gyokuro for the first time today! .... It was like I’d been drinking fat free milk all my life and someone gave me half and half to drink.
My first experience with it was not so immediately satisfying: when tried with the infusion parameters suggested as part of a group tasting, the seawater broth note was too overwhelming. I have since figured out that if I infuse it more like sencha, I get something 'lighter' but still notably not-sencha, and very pleasing.

Sweet that your introduction was more love at first sip.
Love at first sip I like that! I will say though that by the fourth sip I was also definitely feeling overwhelmed. I’m going to be drinking it in smaller quantities to combat this—which will have the admirable effect of making my stock last longer :D ! That’s a good idea to infuse it like sencha, I’ll try that also, might be an interesting exploration of the flavor.
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