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I'm looking at some Chinese production of Gyokuro.
Just wondering , anybody here have tried before?
I'm completely lama in this type of tea but thinking of trying it. Can anybody recommend some well written blog without any romantic poetic bla bla bla , but with some technical specification , efficient step by step guide how to determine quality ( how to select out some low quality obvious even from the picture ...etc. )
Maybe some videos , but some efficiently made ones , not one of those where person talks some non important "sauce" around.
I've noticed that many YT videos recently really go that boring way ;-(

If I decide to buy , I'm willing to share free samples ( u just need to pay for shipping via e-packet ) so we can discuss the quality based on your personal experience with that tea.

Cheers!

Interesting. I've never heard of Chinese gyokuro.

pedant wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 12, 2022 10:52 am

Interesting. I've never heard of Chinese gyokuro.

well, more I learn about it , more it is questionable. They do steaming , but no info about shading leaves before harvest. Only mention bushes growing in high altitude in clouds ( which supposedly should substitute artificial shading ). I'm not sure the affect on leaves is the same.

aet wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 12, 2022 6:36 pm

pedant wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 12, 2022 10:52 am

Interesting. I've never heard of Chinese gyokuro.

well, more I learn about it , more it is questionable. They do steaming , but no info about shading leaves before harvest. Only mention bushes growing in high altitude in clouds ( which supposedly should substitute artificial shading ). I'm not sure the affect on leaves is the same.

The effect would indeed not be the same. The shading of gyokuro is significant and for a set number of days. Varietal and terroir also play a significant role. It’s important to note that the Japanese selected varietals to have flavors that they favor, which are different from the flavors the Chinese diaspora favors. I think it would be nothing like gyokuro. This doesn’t make it a bad tea, of course. That’s in the cup. But it would be like comparing Chinese BLC than Taiwanese BLC, but even more different.

So I took up @aet's offer and got two samples - factory quality and full hand made quality.

Starting with factory quality:

it doesn't look or sound like gyokuro to me at all. seems like a new thing.

pedant wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 08, 2022 10:44 pm

it doesn't look or sound like gyokuro to me at all. seems like a new thing.

Was definitely interesting infusing this tea as if it were gyokuro. I would recommend others to give it a try.

Trying this tea again with a cooler touch - starting at 45 C. - 3.6g/35 ml

The slight temperature difference, along with having the bag open 2 days made a big difference. I used similar times as before

First few infusions no longer has much immediate fruity aromas at all- mainly just a corn and grassy sweetness that is found in many Japanese greens. The astringency is of course much softer, but still present. Tea also seems less thick. The aftertaste and after aromas are still similar to before - with that fruit/floral sheng quality. So is the energy.

Raising the temperature to 50 C after 3 infusions, immediately thickness and the the fruity aromas are turned on- along with astringency.

Keeping temp below 60 C, am getting continued development in the tea even after 20+ rounds doing 2-3 min infusions . Maybe this is a good approach for this tea.

Update: this tea also seems to work awesome in a mug- tiny 0.5g amount in 300 ml mug filled with boiling hot water

And now the handmade version.