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goishi-cha (go stone tea, 碁石茶) is a twice-fermented tea from the mountains of Otoyo.


i'm trying one from thés du japon. it doesn't remind me of puerh at all but is rather special in its own right. lactofermentation provides appreciable tartness. the aroma is sweet, very fruity, malty, and somehow savory as well. i've seen it described as camphoric, but i didn't pick that up personally.

it's pressed and chopped into little squares. this is where the 'go stone' name comes from.


i've been brewing it in a gaiwan with relatively short steeps, and i find that a little goes a long way (2g in 60mL, boiling). i'm very happy with the tea and wanted to write a little about it. definitely worth sampling if you're thinking of doing a TdJ order. good 'comfort tea'. i will probably order another pack of it to drink over the winter.

have you tried goishi-cha from other vendors? thoughts?

What an interesting sounding tea. I don't think I've ever heard of anything quite like it.

Me neither! Looks a bit like seaweed crackers. Taste profile sounds interesting as well.

I've tried drinking a few different kinds, but I quickly started to "see through" the flavor. The initial encounters with this tea are an interesting experience though. Goishicha is traditionally used to flavor rice while cooking, which I can see being a good fit... esp if you pair with umeboshi.

Love the look of those fermented tea squares. Reading about the very hands-on, labor intensive, 2 month process of making this tea is fascinating, down to the yellow mold used and the lactic acid bacteria needing to come from 600 meters above sea level. Would be interesting to make Chagayu, the Japanese rice porridge originally made with this tea. Here is a recipe using Houjicha, but can be switched out;
https://obubutea.com/chagayu-tea-porridge/

p.s. I wonder if mold is used or is it really yeast?

I've tried one from Furyu Bancha that I bought from Yunomi. I brewed it in different ways but I found gongfu to be the best for it. The first two steeps were very tart, fruity and juicy. I remember describing it as lemons, tamarind candy and prunes. The tartness and fruitiness drops significantly on the third steep and it transforms into notes of kelp, mushrooms and dried grass.

My friend from Japan brought it to Canada for me. It was delicious. I think it is my new favourite tea. It's very sweet smelling!

TheTeaDrunkard wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 05, 2020 6:58 pm

My friend from Japan brought it to Canada for me. It was delicious. I think it is my new favourite tea. It's very sweet smelling!

Welcome to TeaForum @TheTeaDrunkard. That’s great to hear, for Goishi cha is an acquired taste. What aspects did you most enjoy? A few other threads have additional info as well; , ‘Goishi cha, typical profile’, and ‘ Japanese Green Tea: Aged, Roasted, Fermented’.

It was sweet! Very easy to drink. I have to get more if I can!

I've only tried one version of this tea, which I reviewed at the end of last year.

Trying it was strange on a few levels, because I've never tried anything close to that in character, and because a local Chinese tea vendor passed it on. He didn't like it. And because it was in tea bags; odd it worked out like that.

The taste was a bit sour but quite complex, and the sourness and initial umami moved on to other range, transitioning a good bit across infusions.

I know you guys must feel left out for not hearing "I wrote a blog post about that":

http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.co ... r-tea.html

pedant wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 03, 2018 5:11 pm

i've seen it described as camphoric, but i didn't pick that up personally.

it's funny. trying this same exact tea (same bag) years later, i'm definitely getting camphor from it.

This is the great thing about tea, there’s so many options out there and I’m always learning, in my comparatively scarce tea experience (compared to other members here) of about 5 years it’s always a treat to learn something new I had no idea about.