What Green Are You Drinking

[vuanguyen]

Drinking organic first flush from Mauna Kea Tea. Spring comes early in the tropical island of Hawaii. When you have great tea and good water, who really needs the fancy hardwares? One of the best green teas I have ever tasted and it comes from the land of the free.

Happy new year my tea friends.

[Victoria]

Drinking organic first flush from Mauna Kea Tea. Spring comes early in the tropical island of Hawaii. When you have great tea and good water, who really needs the fancy hardwares? One of the best green teas I have ever tasted and it comes from the land of the free.

Happy new year my tea friends.

Happy New Year everyone. I’ve heard really good things about this Hawaiian tea producer, so good to get heads up. Nice to see the leaves with stem swirling in the glass

I started the day with O-cha’s Gyoku-Hou steeped in Chitoshi Morita‘s hakudei clay mogake kyusu. Going with larger steeps 10g/140ml/140f/90sec nice, sort of between a gyokuro and sencha steep.

[LeoFox]

After several days of awful winter storm water, decided to test a local spring water (tds: 90) with a budget gyokuro from o cha: yame gyokuro.

Brewed like this: 5.5 g/ 65 mL in carbonized reduction mumyoi

13 min room temp
150s 50 C
180s 50 C
150s 70C
150s 75C
150s 80C
150s 90C
Ate the leaves with rice and avocado sprinkled with bagel spices and a bit of yuzu/soy sauce blend.

Early steeps tasted of smooth dark chocolate. As I increased temperature, there was more fresh grassiness and a raspberry jam sweetness. Best infusions were #3, 4 and 5. When consumed, the leaves had a nice nutty flavor.

[Bok]

@LeoFox that looks all rather delicious!

[faj]

Early steeps tasted of smooth dark chocolate. As I increased temperature, there was more fresh grassiness and a raspberry jam sweetness.

Did you find it good, compared with more expensive ones?

Also, curious to know, to you use the glass teapot as a yuzamashi, pitcher, or both?

[LeoFox]

Early steeps tasted of smooth dark chocolate. As I increased temperature, there was more fresh grassiness and a raspberry jam sweetness.

Did you find it good, compared with more expensive ones?

Also, curious to know, to you use the glass teapot as a yuzamashi, pitcher, or both?

Compared to more expensive gyokuro, there is less complexity and shallower brothiness. Yet I enjoy the tea nonetheless for what it offers. The somatic effects of increased alertness and calmness are always pluses

I use the glass teapot as yuzamashi. I use a 70 mL arita yaki porcelain cup so no need for pitcher in this case.

@Bok
Thanks! It was a nice breakfast

[faj]

Compared to more expensive gyokuro, there is less complexity and shallower brothiness. Yet I enjoy the tea nonetheless for what it offers. The somatic effects of increased alertness and calmness are always pluses

All things considered, would you order it again rather than getting something else?

I use the glass teapot as yuzamashi. I use a 70 mL arita yaki porcelain cup so no need for pitcher in this case.

I use glass teapots as pitchers all the time when preparing tea for more than one person, the ones I have pour so much better than typical pitchers. I guess they can be used as yuzamashis just as well, though I have not done so myself because I use a variable temperature kettle.

[LeoFox]

Compared to more expensive gyokuro, there is less complexity and shallower brothiness. Yet I enjoy the tea nonetheless for what it offers. The somatic effects of increased alertness and calmness are always pluses

All things considered, would you order it again rather than getting something else?

I use the glass teapot as yuzamashi. I use a 70 mL arita yaki porcelain cup so no need for pitcher in this case.

I use glass teapots as pitchers all the time when preparing tea for more than one person, the ones I have pour so much better than typical pitchers. I guess they can be used as yuzamashis just as well, though I have not done so myself because I use a variable temperature kettle.

I would get it again. Then again, my tastes are not very elevated compared to many, hahaha ---( recently boiled the spent hy chen heavy roast oolong leaves for an hour and quite enjoyed the taste! i.e. sweet bamboo shoot soup and light toffee)

I am moving away from using pitcher. I find no matter what the material, glass or Jin de zhen porcelain, there is some flavor/ aroma that gets lost.

[Victoria]

Nice share @LeoFox thanks. I really enjoyed O-cha’s Yame as well. Low price doesn’t translate into low quality with this gyokuro. I did find steeping it in more porous shigaraki kyusu helped to thicken the liquor. For me it was too thin steeped in an Emu shudei kyusu, but then I used vendor recommended parameters 1.2gr leaf : 1gr water/140f/2min. which seemed pretty good. Curious if you tried steeping that way before tweeking? I’d get it again as well.

[LeoFox]

After several days of awful winter storm water, decided to test a local spring water (tds: 90) with a budget gyokuro from o cha: yame gyokuro.

Brewed the same tea with same parameters just now using the much maligned deer park water (tds=44)

The brew is much more bitter with less sweetness. Later steeps were also more flat.

[McScooter]

Brewed the same tea with same parameters just now using the much maligned deer park water (tds=44)

The brew is much more bitter with less sweetness. Later steeps were also more flat.

Not to geek out, but have you found a favorite retail water specifically for Japanese gyokuro? I'd consider anything from O-cha "higher end" in the grand scheme of things. I've had some odd experiences - I generally don't mind drinking Poland Spring, but just as with Deer Park, I've found it to be a poor partner for tea. Conversely, I don't particularly like Evian, but have found it to work well with certain teas, including a few younger shengs, though I honestly don't recall the exact pairings I enjoyed. Ditto for Nestle Pure Life. Seems like softer water would be more compatible with rich umami, but haven't found the perfect partner yet.

Also...sweet gyokuro salad I do the same with gyokuro leaves, usually with a bit of ponzu, maybe some sesame seeds, and then just wing it from there. Have gone the avocado route, and even served it to guests once as a side to some rare grilled tuna with a bit of shredded ginger. It's pretty awesome.

[Victoria]

Not to geek out, but have you found a favorite retail water specifically for Japanese gyokuro?

I’ve found Iceland Spring to be very good bottled water with gyokuro. @Baisao recommended it a while ago in the Water thread and it really is the best I’ve come across. Pricy, buy worth have a few bottles on hand. Iceland Spring comes with different labels in shops; Nice Iceland Pur Spring @Walgreens, V Iceland natural spring @theVitamin Shoppe, Iceland Natural Spring @WholeFoods, Glacier isle @RiteAid.

[LeoFox]

After several days of awful winter storm water, decided to test a local spring water (tds: 90) with a budget gyokuro from o cha: yame gyokuro.

Brewed the same tea with same parameters just now using the much maligned deer park water (tds=44)

The brew is much more bitter with less sweetness. Later steeps were also more flat.

Doubled down on gyokuro today. Repeated these parameters using 1:1 deer park water and brita filtered tap from the limestone lined Potomac ( tds= 400 mainly from winter salting).

Brew is much sweeter than pure deer park. The chocolate notes return. Not as grassy as the local spring water I used yesterday. The aromas are stronger, and the aftertaste longer lasting.

[McScooter]

Thanks for the tip re: Iceland Spring @Victoria. I'll have to experiment a bit. I'm sitting here with some Kettl Zairai Gold, and decided to brew it using Evian as it's one of the "fancier" waters I have on hand at the moment. Have brewed it the past couple of days with Brita filtered water, so the taste and texture of the tea is still fresh in mind. I may be losing it mentally, but with the Evian, the tea tastes 1) noticeably sweeter with perhaps slightly less umami, and 2) all of a sudden has a minty wintergreen note, though it was more pronounced in the earlier steeps. Almost as if someone put a couple of drops of a very fancy, all natural mouthwash in here Interesting, but I think I prefer the Brita. Evian also always tastes milky to me (maybe not the best adjective), and I can taste that note in here as well.

Time to go find some Iceland Spring. Once upon a time I scoured liquor stores in search of rare bourbons, now I'll be scouring convenience stores in search of rare waters!

[Bok]

A rare occasion, Sencha. Received some goodies from my mates at Anmo.

For the occasion Hokujo came out of forced retirement, as it’s really perfect for Japanese teas - who would’ve thought...

First up a Shizuoka competition Sencha Yabuki. As you can see I like to brew my Sencha dense and with little water, more like a Gyokuru.

I’m no expert with these kind of teas, but this one is pleasant and has something nice some would probably call Umami going on. A tad bitter but it might be my brewing ineptitude. Very light green spent leaves and a clear brew.