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I stopped by kettl in Brooklyn and had some Shizuku gyokuro. They brewed it with room temperature water and the flavor was so good, really really good!!

Again, part of the fun of drinking Chinese greens in the spring is using teaware that doesn’t work well with Japanese greens or yancha. Today I’m drinking Yu Qian An Ji Bai Cha from Tea Trekker in this beautiful Hong-Seong Il pot. The copper glaze resulted in beautiful shades of purple.

In an effort to finish all the unintentionally aged greens, I'm drinking a 2016 gyokuro "kanro" from Itōkyuuemon . Just opened the seal about 6 months ago, so the aroma is still there. This tea has a lot of umami, and tastes like a seaweed soup. I used roughly 4g of tea / 100ml water @ 60C for 2.5 min, and was quite happy with the result

Lu Shan Yun Wu 'Pine Forest' second flush, part of a green-tea sampler from TeaHabitat. The twisty delicate strands of this one have been waiting their turn in the refrigerator (sealed) for an unconscionably long time.

The first flash infusion with water about 185 degrees for about 10 seconds (to 'wake' the leaves) is delicate and floral, delicious.

The second infusion, one minute at 156 degrees, has a little more vegetal/cooked flavor, but is still light and delicate overall. Mmm.

Lost track after that because I got interrupted, but I had 4 or 5 fine infusions all together, with even the last one 2-3 minutes at 205 degrees being delicious and not bitter.

The wet leaves afterwards filled about 1/3 volume of the gaiwan.

You're welcome!

Competition grade first flush Laoshan green tea from Yunnan Sourcing. It's a solid green tea that lasts through many steeps but is on the light side as most first flush teas tend to be.

I bought a sample pack of Shizuoka Sencha Asatsuyu by Seiko tea at Yunomi. Unique and quite impressive sencha.

lUKAV28 wrote: ↑

Fri May 24, 2019 2:16 pm

I bought a sample pack of Shizuoka Sencha Asatsuyu by Seiko tea at Yunomi. Unique and quite impressive sencha.

Welcome to TeaForum. Yunomi has incredible access to a huge number of Japanese tea farms and suppliers. How was your experience buying there? Not sure where you are based re speed of shipping etc.? I’m in the US and have considered buying some roasted sencha through them, no one else seems to sell it.

Is the fuka Shizuoka Sencha Asatsuyu really as umami rich in taste as described? Sounds promising, plus has a little extra shading at end. Not sure what your experience is, would be nice to know more about your trajectory in introductions.

With gyokuro on my mind, and having finished two Sae Midori shincha packs, I opened up O-Cha’s light/medium steamed Uji Gyokuro Fujitsubo. Deep emerald green well formed needles, no dust, with a sweet green dry leaf aroma. Like other Tsuen I’ve had the liquor is clean, sweet and elegant. No bitterness or astringency, with nice salivation. Maybe even some similar sweet background notes to those found in 20th Anniversary Sae Midori.

Steeped in Shawn McGuire Shiboridashi with Noritake sake cup.

Victoria wrote: ↑

Fri May 24, 2019 2:33 pm

lUKAV28 wrote: ↑

Fri May 24, 2019 2:16 pm

I bought a sample pack of Shizuoka Sencha Asatsuyu by Seiko tea at Yunomi. Unique and quite impressive sencha.

Welcome to TeaForum. Yunomi has incredible access to a huge number of Japanese tea farms and suppliers. How was your experience buying there? Not sure where you are based re speed of shipping etc.? I’m in the US and have considered buying some roasted sencha through them, no one else seems to sell it.

Is the fuka Shizuoka Sencha Asatsuyu really as umami rich in taste as described? Sounds promising, plus has a little extra shading at end. Not sure what your experience is, would be nice to know more about your trajectory in introductions.

Thank you Victoria. It is not my first experience with yunomqi as I was experimenting with their mistery tea “subscription” years ago, but it was nonetheless nice. I am from Slovenia (Europe) and It took about a week for tea to come. My initial thought when I tasted the tea was how fresh or rather refreshing it was. I bought my fair share of senchas via Sunday.de as it is Europe based so I can avoid customs for bigger orders and they have really nice selection of Japanese teas but for me they always tasted like sencha - which is not bad. This yumomi tea, at least for my background, was something else. Thought that was slipping through my mind was tasting rainforest. Otherwise the tea is quite powdery but I could never overbrew it even though the water rested in a saucer full of tea as I was trying to get it through it.

My brewing parameters were:

2,5g tea leaves in 100 ml of water

1. Steep: 1 min, 70C
2. Steep: 15 seconds, 80C
3. Steep: 45 seconds, 80C
4. Steep: 1 min, 90C

I really loved the second steep as It was the perfect combination of taste/heat.

My mistake was that I didn’t took much care for the storage as It was only 20g package so it lost its freshness over few weeks (I was drinking other teas). With my next yunomi order will definitely slip another package in.

lUKAV28 wrote: ↑

Sat May 25, 2019 12:28 am

....... slipping through my mind was tasting rainforest. Otherwise the tea is quite powdery but I could never overbrew it even though the water rested in a saucer full of tea as I was trying to get it through it.

My brewing parameters were:
2,5g tea leaves in 100 ml of water

1. Steep: 1 min, 70C
2. Steep: 15 seconds, 80C
3. Steep: 45 seconds, 80C
4. Steep: 1 min, 90C

I really loved the second steep as It was the perfect combination of taste/heat.

My mistake was that I didn’t took much care for the storage as It was only 20g package so it lost its freshness over few weeks (I was drinking other teas). With my next yunomi order will definitely slip another package in.

Tasting a rainforest sounds pretty nice, thanks for sharing. What temperature are you using? I’ve never steeped any sencha for as little as 15 seconds. Oh, now I see you are following vendor recommendations. Akira Hojo also has recommended very short gongfu cha steeping times, and higher heat, for a few of his sencha (an aracha Uji Jubuzan), but that is in my opinion is an abnormality. Although, aracha can take higher heat.
I usually ramp up the leaf:water ratio starting with 1gr:1oz / 1gr:30ml at 160F/71C

Victoria wrote: ↑

Sat May 25, 2019 5:05 pm

Tasting a rainforest sounds pretty nice, thanks for sharing. What temperature are you using? I’ve never steeped any sencha for as little as 15 seconds.

Actually, 15 seconds is one of my preferred parameters for steeping. I usually start at:

Leaf: 0.9 grams per 30ml

Steep 1 – 1:15 @ 160°
Steep 2 – 0:15 @ 167°
Steep 3 – 0:30 @ 175°
Steep 4 – 1:00 @ 180°
Steep 5 – 2:00 @ 190°

@Dresden I always enjoy reading how other members steep. So many possible variables from humidity in the air, water, teapot, leaf:water:time plus personal constitution. Just now, I steeped a 2016 Sae Midori opened in late April that I thought was a lost cause, and got great results by just lowering temperature from 175F down to 165F. Well, I also switched to a Banko kyusu....

I am impressed by how much better O-Cha's Uji Gyokuro Fujitsubo is in my rough and porous Shigaraki clay shiboridashi. The first few times trying it I thought "oh its an okay gyokuro", but not as rich and creamy as Satsuma Sae Midori that I loved. Using same proportion of leaf:water/temp/time and bottled Icelandic Spring water the Shigaraki clay turned a light elegant brew into a creamy brothy one with more depth (compared to using Shawn's glazed shibo and a porcelain Kiyomizu-ware houhin). In another thread, we are discussing using shiboridashi versus houhin for gyokuro, and I focused on horizontal form versus more rounded form of some houhin and shibo. I now would like to see what the results would be between horizontal versus rounded Shigaraki clay shiboridashi.

1st steep in glass, 2nd ready to pour on right in Shigaraki clay shibo. The grooved slots on shibo allow liquor to pass through, while the lid holds back leaves. With this gyokuro the leaves are not very big, so I poured carefully to lessen the amount of leaf passing through.

Tani Seiuemon (b. 1913) shigaraki shiboridashi using wood fired natural ash glaze.

@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.