Kogane midori
Time ago my friend Nori offered me a special sencha handmade by him in Morokozawa, called "Kogane midori". It's a rare albino cultivar and its production is really really limited every year. To allow the leaves to remain yellow it's important not to cover them during their growing; the sun has an important role for Kogane midori tea... Nori offered me a special batch of this tea made by him and by the farmer with "Kamairi" working process, not steamed but pan fired. Preparing this sencha using boiling water there was no astringency and we enjoyed 8 steepings... it's hard to describe this tea because it's really sofisticated, but in my opinion it has some features in common with some Huoshan Huang Ya yellow teas; the vegetal note was delicate and the taste results always really warm. It was funny becase every steeping was different... in the 3rd one it was similar to a "common" sencha, in the next one more like a yellow tea etc... the aftertaste was really mineral, umani and at the and of the tea session I was tea drunk...!
P.s: All the pictures have copyright ©Sounds like a really nice session you had @luchayi. Mutated tea leaves are interesting, exhibiting slightly different flavor profiles. I had a white Long Jing that was very special as well. I see Thes du Japon sells this type of yellow gold, lightly roasted tea also, Okawa Morokozawa, Kogane Midori. Except they are steeping it differently than you did, might be interesting to compare;
“This is a sencha to be brewed for a relatively long time with quite cool water. You can even begin with three or four cold-water infusions: 3 g (generous 1 tsp) of leaves for 30 ml (1.5 tbsp) of water and 5 minutes of steeping. After, you can continue with warmer water and shorter brewing times, which will allow you to enjoy a very large number of infusions.”
Thinking of you in northern Italy and wishing you a safe journey forward .
“This is a sencha to be brewed for a relatively long time with quite cool water. You can even begin with three or four cold-water infusions: 3 g (generous 1 tsp) of leaves for 30 ml (1.5 tbsp) of water and 5 minutes of steeping. After, you can continue with warmer water and shorter brewing times, which will allow you to enjoy a very large number of infusions.”
Thinking of you in northern Italy and wishing you a safe journey forward .
Bai Cha or Bai Ya Longjing is great! It's produced by the same cultivar used for Anji bai cha "Bai Ye Yi Yao" (Bai ye No.1). The version I had the opportunity to taste I think is not sold on the market, so it's not easy to get . It would be useful to know the working process, with or without steaming to make a comparison...