What Green Are You Drinking

[polezaivsani]

Would care to share your brewing parameters?

I'll measure them more precisely tomorrow (or on the next session, whichever comes first) and post it here. I usually don't care about objective measures (unless i'm running out of the leaves) in favor of honing perception and ability to wing it

[Victoria]

The greens i've been dreaming to cherish on the hot summer days are finally showing up and i still have some hot days to live up to those dreams This one's about Shi Feng Long Jing from Jing Tea Shop.

Leaves smell of chicken broth and young and slightly bitter nuts. A savory floral soup having a mild body quickly turning into budding bushes and slight cooling sensation for a dozen seconds more.

Empty cup on the first rinses smell of cereals and dried strawberry, unless it's a cup akin to a fried chicken stand with the longest queues being shut down to find that the oil has never been replaced.

For a pu erh head, these don't have as long of an aftertaste, but it's nice to be able to finish the whole thing in under half an hour without falling into meditative state.

Great description @polezaivsani. When I posted tasting notes for a Mingqian Shifeng LongJing I have been enjoying this summer I noted smooth creamy macadamia nuts and sweet corn notes. Your chicken brothy savory floral soup notes, remind me of a very special Crystal White Longjing from TeaHabitat that I enjoyed a few years ago. One thing that was common between the two was that a clean palate was needed to really experience these very subtle notes.

[polezaivsani]

Would care to share your brewing parameters?

The readings: 2.2g of leaves in thin 60ml porcelain gaiwan resulting in ~40ml tea soup per steeping. I have no thermometer, with a best guess of ~80C for the tastier first steeps (suppose one can go for lower temps still). Discarded a quick first wash and then had 5 tasty morsels at 18s, 20s, 30s, 50s and 2 minute steeps. Then had 2 more 3 minute long ones which had enough juice to bring you back to reality. Also confirmed the empty cup aroma with a control piece - delicious slightly caramelized dried strawberry. Chicken broth with strawberries - laugh all you like, they are separate in time and taste delicious anyways

@Victoria, your macadamia nuts with sweet corn palate sounds great! I also enjoyed the way dry leaves look rolled flat, like scrapped off of herbarium book.

[Victoria]

I am so impressed with how well Maiko’s 2016 Shincha Sencha Kinari has aged with refrigeration. It is The Best aged Shincha I’ve ever had. Smooth, creamy, sweet umami notes. Astringency, fresh green, and seaside notes have mellowed out bringing forward an umami sweet symphony. Also, the shot of caffeine I associate with fresh Shincha has mellowed out slightly, but it’s still there. Looking at tasting notes I shared in 2013 and 2016 I see I’m now using more leaf/water (1-1.16g leaf/1oz water in past, now 1.5g leaf/1oz water) otherwise everything is the same. I’m probably being slightly reckless using so much leaf given that this is a AAA experience, but oh well only live once or twice.
10g/200ml/145f/90sec in Emu pear skin shudei.

[polezaivsani]

Have been seeping a good lot of bi luo chun from around Dongting lake by the thetea.pl folks. Not particularly fond of it (unlike their liu an offer) and thinking that should some more likeable packs show up, it won't get much tea time. It's a good bean soaked in butter base mouthfeel and solid sweet empty cup. But the smell of the wet leaves during first couple infusions remind me of a tomato plant, which if fine so far. But that particular exemplar had spent couple hours in a damp cardboard box by the smell of it, which kinda ruins the whole experience for me.

[Bok]

Have been seeping a good lot of bi luo chun from around Dongting lake by the thetea.pl folks. Not particularly fond of it (unlike their liu an offer) and thinking that should some more likeable packs show up, it won't get much tea time. It's a good bean soaked in butter base mouthfeel and solid sweet empty cup. But the smell of the wet leaves during first couple infusions remind me of a tomato plant, which if fine so far. But that particular exemplar had spent couple hours in a damp cardboard box by the smell of it, which kinda ruins the whole experience for me.

In general bilouchun from Taiwan is nothing to write home about in general...

[polezaivsani]

@Bok, that one was from Eastern China's Dongting lake (or rather mountain). Still not a particularly brilliant exemplar

[Bok]

Bok, that one was from Eastern China's Dongting lake (or rather mountain). Still not a particularly brilliant exemplar

Haha my bad, did not know there was an area of that name in China! I had something even more weird and also not exemplary by any standard: Anxi made Sencha for export to Japan – atrocious!

[debunix]

Earth sencha from Obubu: a robust but still pleasant sencha. Grassy, sweet, quickly increasing in astringency through several steeps.

[polezaivsani]

Meticulously enjoyed a Huangshan Maofengs galore from a fellow forum member, got some favorites and would rather continue with them one at a time now. No pictures since i didn't feel like making the teas just.

Starting with a real beauty, Shexian Huangshan Maofeng. Dry leaves in preheated gaiwan smell of beautiful mix of sweet cocoa and unami broth. The latter becomes more evident as the steeping progresses. Elusive, ephemeral sweetness in the soup with bitterness profile of green nuts and mushrooms. Mild sweetness in the empty cup. The mild qualities are of a humble beauty kind here, nothing is missing, neither jumping straight at you. Beyond the trials would rather stop at 3 infusions rather than itching to wring the juices to the last bit - that'll suit the offered experience better i guess.

Next, Chashan Huangshan Maofeng. Dry leaves bear a whiff of smoke, while when wet, have an obvious lemon rind smell with a hint of orange sweetness. Lemon carries over to a tart broth with a bit of rye bread and occasional rose bush. Lasts for 4-5 infusions. Lemons and rose bushes aren't my thing really (still struggle figuring out what to do with likewise tasting hong cha). Used it as a good intermission.

Last, Hougu Huangshan Maofeng. Here dry leaves smell of chocolate proper with unami undertone. Pungent bitterness of kerosene and passion fruit sweetness in the broth. Real exotic bliss. 4th infusion onwards unami smell becomes more evident on the leaves. Tart soup. Lasts for whooping 8-9 infusions. Would need to cram more of this one in my diet.

[Auxilium]

Hosen sencha from ippodo, wonderfully balanced sencha, a little under the weather right now, I have concluded that there is nothing better when sick than a nice sencha! I highly recommend!

[faj]

This morning, I had O-Cha's Kirameki asamushi. I am on my second bag from this spring. I have found it good, but a bit short of my hopes in terms of aromatics. I must say, though, that I had pleasing sessions with it from a couple of clay pots in the last couple of days.

This morning, just as a test, I used a glass gaiwan. 4g for a bit less than 100ml, 30s infusion after very slowly pouring water in, 70C. I found the result to be on the bitter side of that tea (I do not mean bitter on an absolute scale, just more bitter than I usually get from this tea). I cannot say I gained obvious aromatic power in return. It was OK overall, but no more.

A bit later, I had a second session with the same tea, same parameters, but in a Masaki Shigaraki kyusu. What a difference! The bitterness was gone, and the tea had a pleasing, expansive "glow" in the mouth which I have difficulty explaining in words. It felt like a different tea. Subsequent infusions did not exhibit such an obvious difference between the two vessels, though.

[Victoria]

This morning, I had O-Cha's Kirameki asamushi. I am on my second bag from this spring. I have found it good, but a bit short of my hopes in terms of aromatics. I must say, though, that I had pleasing sessions with it from a couple of clay pots in the last couple of days.

This morning, just as a test, I used a glass gaiwan. 4g for a bit less than 100ml, 30s infusion after very slowly pouring water in, 70C. I found the result to be on the bitter side of that tea (I do not mean bitter on an absolute scale, just more bitter than I usually get from this tea). I cannot say I gained obvious aromatic power in return. It was OK overall, but no more.

A bit later, I had a second session with the same tea, same parameters, but in a Masaki Shigaraki kyusu. What a difference! The bitterness was gone, and the tea had a pleasing, expansive "glow" in the mouth which I have difficulty explaining in words. It felt like a different tea. Subsequent infusions did not exhibit such an obvious difference between the two vessels, though.

Just a thought, the bitterness might be a result of heat retention coming off your glass gaiwan. If it’s medium to thick walled I’d say that’s the cause. I’ve been enjoying O-Cha’s Sae Midori most mornings, getting a sweet and savory broth with no bitterness. Then yesterday using same vessel, amounts and time the steeps were bitter. Couldn’t figure out why, and today I realized here at my mother’s I’m using a glass Pyrex saucepan to heat water, and if I leave the water too long in the pan the water will continue to heat up 10-20 degrees more.

[faj]

Just a thought, the bitterness might be a result of heat retention coming off your glass gaiwan. If it’s medium to thick walled I’d say that’s the cause.

It is actually very, very thin. It is borosilicate, much thinner than a typical beaker. Almost as thin as the glass in double wall cups. Being so light, it will not absorb as much heat as clay at the beginning of the infusion. Maybe that could be an explanation. I would need to try with cooler water.

Though not ideal, infusing asamuchi in a gaiwan worked better than I expected from a practical standpoint. I did not get a significant amount of leaf bits in the tea.

[faj]

Just a thought, the bitterness might be a result of heat retention coming off your glass gaiwan. If it’s medium to thick walled I’d say that’s the cause.

I tried to test the hypothesis that the difference came from the thermal properties. While there is no way to make the gaiwan behave like the Shigaraki teapot, there is a way to force the Shigaraki teapot to behave more like the gaiwan and its very small thermal inertia : preheating.

Brewing the same tea with the same parameters but after preheating the teapot certainly did not yield a result similar to the glass gaiwan. The "glow" was there, though the tea felt less aromatic and satisfying, possibly because I had it just a few minutes after waking up.