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LeoFox wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 25, 2022 9:23 am

Hojo jasmine - after nearly three years, the underlying green tea from yunnan is starting to shine- in a sheng-y way

Is that the 90ml porcelain pot from Hojo's? May I ask how you like it / what's the functional volume & color (ivory/blue/green/snow white)?

Some zairai

From a recent TDJ order, SENCHA FROM MURAKAMI, YABUKITA CULTIVAR.

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This was just a sample size so I had about 2 grams left over. I decided to blend it 2 grams + 5 grams hojo tsukigase zairai. The result is quite interesting. The savory potato notes from the tdj tea adds a nice warm and cozy feeling for first few infusions. Later,long hot infusions are taken over by the zairai that releases some musky notes.

Obubu tencha on this gray morning
Smooth, mellow, the essence of vegetable….and lots of little bits of broken leaf through the filter into the cup, because…tencha…

SENCHA FROM SAYAMA, SAYAMA-KAORI CULTIVAR via tdj




Thick and long lasting with even some shuixian notes! Hahaha..and then adding 1 gram with 6grams of hojo's zairai seemed to be a match in heaven... the second infusion is like wow

I'm really starting to enjoy making sencha blends. No need for so called mix masters. Doing it yourself is better hahahaha

Quirky Blends are seeping into greens!! Looking forward to @LeoFox’s Quirky Blends…

LeoFox wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 13, 2022 1:27 pm

SENCHA FROM SAYAMA, SAYAMA-KAORI CULTIVAR via tdj




Thick and long lasting with even some shuixian notes! Hahaha..and then adding 1 gram with 6grams of hojo's zairai seemed to be a match in heaven... the second infusion is like wow

I'm really starting to enjoy making sencha blends. No need for so called mix masters. Doing it yourself is better hahahaha

OCTO wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 14, 2022 7:23 am

Quirky Blends are seeping into greens!! Looking forward to LeoFox’s Quirky Blends…

LeoFox wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 13, 2022 1:27 pm

SENCHA FROM SAYAMA, SAYAMA-KAORI CULTIVAR via tdj




Thick and long lasting with even some shuixian notes! Hahaha..and then adding 1 gram with 6grams of hojo's zairai seemed to be a match in heaven... the second infusion is like wow

I'm really starting to enjoy making sencha blends. No need for so called mix masters. Doing it yourself is better hahahaha

Hahahahaha. Really worth doing for sure!.

Not quite ready yet to mix different categories of tea though

I sometimes forget that there was a bit of one tea left in a cup and pour something else into it.....and occasionally I deliberately temper the last of a bit of overlong-steeped stuff with a bit of a final steeping that is mostly sweet water of something else. I never plan these in advance, because I figure I can never count on lightning twice....

And forgot to add this morning's Gushing Brook sencha from Obubu, a little lighter bodied than yesterday's tencha, with a bit more bite of astringency and bitterness behind it.....like one of those streams that looks simple to cross but when moving swiftly can actually knock you down if you challenge it....

It's not often that I come to this part of the forum... Practising my non-existent green tea brewing skills on some Spring 2020 Sanxia biluochun from Teamasters which I never got around to trying back when it was fresh. That's one of the reasons why I don't drink green tea very often; it's usually not much fun finding a stale old packet hidden at the bottom of a big box.

It's pleasant enough; it seems a bit mintier and more herbal than I would have expected it to be when it was fresh, and it has a light but pleasantly-lingering aftertaste, though pushing it with hotter water after a few lighter infusions didn't seem to make it too happy.

However, over the last few months I've been paying more attention to how various teas make me feel (that is, teas other than aged tea, which I always drink for their 'qi'), and this one feels like water to me. I had the final cup of a two week brewing session of some 60s liubao today as well, and that pale-coloured water felt very powerful in comparison... No, that's not a fair comparison, but it's still interesting to me.

Andrew

Breaking in my new yixing hohin with  UJI GYOKURO FROM UJI-TAWARA, "SHIMOOKA" GOKÔ from tdj

Brewed slightly lighter than recommended at 5g / 40 ml. Not intending to eat leaves as I'm going to submerge the entire pot in the tea for a while

KAMA-IRI CHA FROM KUMAMOTO, ASHIKITA, KÔSHUN CULTIVAR from tdj

Started the day feeling humid, so to say, and so experimenting with green tea again seemed like a good option (perhaps counter-intuitively, the other option was old puer...).

Tried two of the Daxue Jiadao Anhui handcraft tea samples; both DInggu Dafang, one being the 'normal' version and the other being its huangye (荒野) version, one after the other (and all from the perspective of someone who does not drink green tea). Brewed with 5g in a 120mL gaiwan which I didn't fill up to capacity, boiling water, around 25 seconds to start, reaching a minute around the fourth infusion (in case any of that helps anyone).

The normal version is quite lovely; it tasted bright and fresh, and felt quite refreshing, with light but elegant flavours and aftertaste.

The huangye (which I understand to mean old bushes from untended gardens, as opposed to wild pushes) had a much more potent and relaxing overall feeling for me, with a richer mouthfeel without feeling heavy, and a much stronger and more complex aftertaste, with some slightly darker and more savoury aspects to the overall flavour. It also seemed to have a greater transition towards a less delicate and more fruity presentation from around the third infusion onwards.

I've included photos of both (normal above, huangye below), each taken at the end of the third infusion, even though they look quite similar. It's probably just my eyes playing tricks on me, but perhaps the huangye version look a little bit less unfurled.

They're both nice in their own ways; I can imagine that someone might prefer the normal version, either generally or on specific occasions, but I found the huangye version much more pleasing to my tastes.

This was fun (even for someone who is primarily an old puer and roasted wulong drinker); I look forward to trying some of the other teas in the sample set and learning more.

Andrew

Those both look and sound lovely.

More Daxue Jiadao Anhui greens while the sky is still blue; this time, 2022 Yongxi Huoqing Fengkeng 'normal' and wild / yecha (野茶) versions.

For those who are interested in learning more, LeoFox has previously summarised these teas here (viewtopic.php?p=38396#p38396) and Daxue Jiadao's overall range of green teas here (viewtopic.php?p=37648#p37648).

For the normal, there was quite a marked progression of flavours and textures from one infusion to the next. I found it to start elegantly but subtly floral with a bright active mouthfeel, then much more warming and savoury flavours with a coating mouthfeel, then an intermingling of the two styles as the more savoury side gave way to a vegetal fruitiness. It feels like the flavours start on the warmer and grainier side, then develop more floral notes for me after I swallow, or as I keep the tea in my mouth. The taste is quite 'warm', but the aftertaste and aroma after swallowing are quite 'cooling' and refreshing. The tea's overall feeling for me is quite warm (in a 'hot' way, rather than an old puer's calming warmth).

For the yecha, it gave me a more elegant and better-integrated start, then a rather different profile compared to the normal version, which I think can be described again as a lot more integration between the savoury and fruity aspects of the tea and with a cool aftertaste hinting at some dark fruits. Compared to the normal version, the cooling feeling after swallowing continues in a similar manner, but the aftertaste and after-aroma carry more fruitiness along with that cool feeling. The later infusions were fruitier than the normal one. It didn't feel as though there were two halves to the tea, each fighting the other. Overall, it came across as being much more elegant and balanced, with fewer vegetal or grainy qualities and more fruity aspects, and with less obvious warmth to the flavour or the feeling. It felt more comfortable and relaxing to drink.

To my non-green tea mind, neither of these two teas tastes like a 'typical' or 'ordinary' green tea; rather, much more savoury and warm, but especially so for the normal one. Overall, I found the normal version interesting, and the wild version quite enjoyable.

Daxue Jiadao mention that they can improve into the following year, and I wonder if perhaps it would be worthwhile holding at least some of the stock back for a year, or a few years, before selling them (like with yancha). An aged version of the wild one would be quite interesting to try one day.

Andrew

Andrew S wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 24, 2022 7:07 pm

Daxue Jiadao mention that they can improve into the following year, and I wonder if perhaps it would be worthwhile holding at least some of the stock back for a year, or a few years, before selling them (like with yancha). An aged version of the wild one would be quite interesting to try one day.

Andrew

Hi Andrew! Hello everyone else.. I'm very overdue for posting around here.

So, while we welcome and even encourage our customers to give it a try holding onto at least a couple sessions of these greens, especially the Huoqing, into the subsequent year, to see the evolution possible with these teas, we don't have plans to offer different vintages.

Glad to see you're enjoying them. With the Yunwuzhua and the Shijingkeng, see how deep you can dig into the leaves. Once you think you're through, I recommend trying an overnight kill brew in a gaiwan.