What Green Are You Drinking

Non-oxidized tea
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Elise
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Thu Feb 07, 2019 8:54 am

I’ve been brewing Oku-Midori sencha from Miyakonojo (Thes du Japon) in my Tachi Masaki kyusu from Hojo yesterday. It was the first time I made sencha with this clay and the result was really good. I can’t remember if this clay was tested in the 12 days/kyusu recent experiment, but it’s definitely worth trying.
Edit: The pitcher is a shino katakuchi from Suzuki Shu, I use it as a yusamashi and the hagi guinomi is from Kaneta Masanao.
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Last edited by Elise on Fri Feb 08, 2019 2:15 am, edited 2 times in total.
noumaminolife
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Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2019 11:55 am

Thu Feb 07, 2019 10:53 am

wow, beautiful

having Kagoshima Seicha Hoshu this am

even the 2nd infusion has lots of umami

:)
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debunix
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Location: Los Angeles, CA

Sun Feb 10, 2019 11:26 am

'Earth' spring sencha from Obubu tea farm: the broken leaf pieces appear to have come from larger leaves than usual, but the scent of the dry leaf is still rich and vegetal, and the leaf is a lovely deep green.

The first infusion (70 seconds, 165 degrees F) is sweet vegetal with a deeper bass note, and a little spicy finish. The note on the package says this is a 'robust' spring tea, and that fits: this is not a delicate tea, but still spring-like and not harsh. Delicious.vv9i

Second infusion (30 seconds, water had cooled to 156 F) is still sweet with the spicy to the fore. Very tasty wake-up to start the morning.

Third infusion (60 seconds, 175 degrees F), the spicy note is now a bit of atringency, at the fore, with a rich warm meadow as the principal impression highlighted by that spicy/astringent note. Still mmmm. Don't want that astringency to get too strong so will increase temp only a little and not increase time with next infusion.

Fourth infusion (lost count, a litle under a minute, maybe?, 185 degrees F), warm summer meadow with drying grass and fresh blooming flowers, still very pleasing, astringency is tamed, but leaves are getting a little weak--probably went a little too short on this one. Will push the leaves with a last long infusion of water near the boil.

Fifth infusion (more than 10 minutes, could be 20, lost count, 210 degrees F): sweet water, hint of sweet/vegetal/spicy, nice finish to my breakfast of 5 grain rolled cereal with apple.
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pizzapotamus
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Sun Feb 10, 2019 7:53 pm

Victoria wrote:
Wed Feb 06, 2019 8:27 pm
Found a jewel in the haystack. After finishing still drinkable open packs of sencha, I’m now going through unopened packs of Japanese greens I unfortunately didn’t refrigerate. This one is very high quality from 11/30/2017, it is excellent.

Anyone recognize this one? The light yellow liquor is very elegant and clear, sweet peas with a very pleasant slight upper palate expansive astringency that turns salivatory. Seems to be a very good Gyokuro. From packaging I'm reading Kyoto, Uji. It's possible I bought it at Ippodo when in NYC or O-Cha...


packaging Gyokuro_.jpg

Steeped in Kokuho Kiyomizu-ware houhin

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IMG_0056.jpg
It's a high end sencha, that leaf sticker in the upper right is "Sincha". Looks like a previous year's version of https://www.o-cha.com/kyoto-sencha.html?category_id=50.
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Victoria
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Mon Feb 11, 2019 12:19 am

pizzapotamus wrote:
Sun Feb 10, 2019 7:53 pm
Victoria wrote:
Wed Feb 06, 2019 8:27 pm
Found a jewel in the haystack. After finishing still drinkable open packs of sencha, I’m now going through unopened packs of Japanese greens I unfortunately didn’t refrigerate. This one is very high quality from 11/30/2017, it is excellent.

Anyone recognize this one? The light yellow liquor is very elegant and clear, sweet peas with a very pleasant slight upper palate expansive astringency that turns salivatory. Seems to be a very good Gyokuro. From packaging I'm reading Kyoto, Uji. It's possible I bought it at Ippodo when in NYC or O-Cha.
It's a high end sencha, that leaf sticker in the upper right is "Sincha". Looks like a previous year's version of https://www.o-cha.com/kyoto-sencha.html?category_id=50.
Oh wow, thank you so much for finding this. I’m surprised to read it is not gyokuro and is grown in full sun. Such beautiful needles and elegant rich umami notes.
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Elise
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Tue Feb 12, 2019 7:43 am

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gatmcm
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Fri Feb 15, 2019 4:04 am

Been drinking Ocha's Satsuma Sae Midori, getting a lot of umami and overally brothy flavours, it also seems very forgiving of parameters, I'm predicting I'll go through it very quickly :D

Another success from monitoring this thread :lol:
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Victoria
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Sun Feb 17, 2019 8:32 pm

Came across a sample of Hojo’s blended Uji Sencha Fukamushi. Akira has some very interesting and idiosyncratic ideas. With this blend of three different sencha he was orchestrating a ‘three dimensional sensation’ of mouth feel, body and aftertaste. He goes on to say, ‘the body is the horizontal sensation on palate’, created by leaving the stems in. The aftertaste is a ‘the vertical sensation we feel it through the throat to chest’ enhanced by natural farming without fertilizer.

He recommended steeping with ‘boiling water and brew less than 20-30 seconds’ followed by 5 second steeps. I’m glad I didn’t follow this advise as it would have been too astringent and bitter. I opted for 5gr/100ml/158f/40sec, 5sec, 15sec., much shorter steeps than I would typical use for sencha. The aroma was herbaceous and warming, liquor light with rich mouth feel, body and aftertaste, just what he was going for. It did lack sweet umami notes though, and was more astringent than I like.
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Victoria
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Mon Feb 18, 2019 3:11 pm

Today I added a little organic Matcha from Mite Co. to a mystery Fukamushi to liven up a medium grade experience. Much better. Yamada Jozan III direct wall filter kyusu though isn’t the best to use with Fukamushi, so I switched to my Gyokuryu (Mr. Umehara Jiro) kyusu. The sesame filter in this kyusu is much better at displacing the very fine needles of this Kagoshima sencha. Also, using a new sake glass pitcher and cup from Japan House Los Angeles in Hollywood.

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Victoria
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Sat Feb 23, 2019 1:52 pm

Continuing with a mystery Fukamushi; finally got the hang of this Kagoshima sencha. Steeping at below 132f, a sweet rich aromatic broth reveals itself. Since this is the last of my forgotten unrefrigerated/unopened Japanese greens, it is possible the now open (2 year old sealed bag) needed to ‘air’ a while longer than normal. Now a week after opening, it has blossomed from a medium grade to a superior rich fukamushi. The aroma is like a siren call, luring me to come back for more. It is possible it mellowed out a little from its 2 year rest, but since Fukamushi is so over-the-top green and rich, a little softening of those fresh cut edges is pretty smooth.
noumaminolife
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Joined: Thu Jan 17, 2019 11:55 am

Tue Feb 26, 2019 10:47 am

I just got a sample from Kagoshima - a fukumushi Miyabi sencha

it was crazy over the top brothy umami

the powdery fine bits dammed up the the ceramic screen so that the liquor barely flowed

many many infusions (but, I like the watery late infusions, too)

:)
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Mrs. Chip
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Location: Pennsylvania

Thu Feb 28, 2019 10:24 am

This morning, Yutaka Midori from Yame from Den's. This tea was smooth, first steep abundant umami, but lacking the high points and potency of O-Cha. We sense that since Den does not nitrogen flush, this could attribute that to the age of the tea.

Chip amped up the leaf ratio to 10 grams per 6 ounces, this improved the flavor profile from yesterday's session.
The tea was brewed in a mogake Hokujo kyusu.
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Victoria
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Fri Mar 01, 2019 11:20 pm

Tonight, O-Cha’s lightly steamed Sae Midori Okabe Shizuoka Gyokuro from a 3rd generation gyokuro master. I was surprised to read recommended steeping time at 2:30-3 minutes. First try steeped at recommended levels and found the steeps to be way too light for my palate, so I increased leaf and switched to a lower TDS water. Results were much better and richer steeped at 5gr/80ml/140F/2.45min. in Shawn McGuire shiboridashi, using Nice! Icelandic Spring. The wet leaf looks like broken up baby spinach and has an intoxicating umami aroma like sweet peas. This is one elegant gyokuro, even though it is very light and delicate, it is growing on me. Letting the liquor sit in the cups, a minute or so, helps to increase flavor experience.
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d.manuk
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Tue Mar 05, 2019 9:52 am

You always have such beautiful tea ware @Elise, thank you for making the time to take photos.
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d.manuk
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Tue Mar 05, 2019 9:53 am

Victoria wrote:
Mon Feb 18, 2019 3:11 pm
Today I added a little organic Matcha from Mite Co. to a mystery Fukamushi to liven up a medium grade experience. Much better. Yamada Jozan kyusu direct wall filter though isn’t the best to use with Fukamushi, so I switched to my Gyokuryu (Mr. Umehara Jiro) kyusu. The sesame filter in this kyusu is much better at displacing the very fine needles of this Kagoshima sencha.


Gyokuryu & Fukamushi w Matcha L1010311.jpg
Wow, I am in love with that color! :o
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