Nice lighting and composition Elise.
This afternoon an elegant brothy umami and sweet peas Long Jing from Tea Habitat ‘Crystal White Long Jing‘. Zingy calcium carbonate action on tongue going on. Quality of water is super important with this tea.
What Green Are You Drinking
Well today I used my Santa Monica filtered tap water by mistake. Using Fiji was better last time, it was sweeter and smoother. I believe the Fiji is softer. Fiji usually doesn’t work with most of my teas, but with this one it does. Another time I used alkaline water from a local shop ‘Beyond O2’ that worked well also.
I am from Japan and drink green tea with almost every meal except for breakfast. I drink sencha, hojicha and genmaicha depending on my mood.
My favorite is sencha--I used to think it's a bit boring, but now I like it the most.
These days, I drink Jugetsudo Asa, loose tea.
It's organic and very tasty.
My favorite is sencha--I used to think it's a bit boring, but now I like it the most.
These days, I drink Jugetsudo Asa, loose tea.
It's organic and very tasty.
O-Cha Yutaka Midori Shincha from 2016, a sample included with a pot from ferg. Still tastes pretty good, although some oxidation has taken place so am using lower temperature, 152F, to put any bitterness at bay. Still sweet and vegetal.
If they are not opened, they keep really well refrigerated for several years. I store them inside odor and moisture proof Loksak Opsak camping ziplock bags, then inside a mylar bag to seal out light. I don’t have a dedicated tea refrigerator, so odors are a concern and this works very well. I did a side by side comparison and posted about it here; Refrigerating Sincha for a Few Years: 2013 vs 2016 Results
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Chip
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Fiji seemed to cause excessive scale build up in the kettle, Kyusu, and cups for me.Victoria wrote: ↑Sun Feb 11, 2018 8:41 pmWell today I used my Santa Monica filtered tap water by mistake. Using Fiji was better last time, it was sweeter and smoother. I believe the Fiji is softer. Fiji usually doesn’t work with most of my teas, but with this one it does. Another time I used alkaline water from a local shop ‘Beyond O2’ that worked well also.
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Chip
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I currently have 2 Japanese greens going.
Kame jurishi gyokuro from O-cha.
I ordered a "flight of 7" gyokuro. Kame is a perennial fave of mine, but for the first time in several years I ordered Gyokuhou (need to double check spelling) and liked that one more this year.
Also already opened Fujitsubo which I rank 3rd of the 3 opened so far.
Kame jurishi gyokuro from O-cha.
I ordered a "flight of 7" gyokuro. Kame is a perennial fave of mine, but for the first time in several years I ordered Gyokuhou (need to double check spelling) and liked that one more this year.
Also already opened Fujitsubo which I rank 3rd of the 3 opened so far.
earlier today:
fukujuen "GOSHO" gyokuro
pretty tasty. it has a berry-like aroma i've seen in tamaryokucha
now:
teaful biluo chun
taiwan grown
fukujuen "GOSHO" gyokuro
pretty tasty. it has a berry-like aroma i've seen in tamaryokucha
now:
teaful biluo chun
taiwan grown
Gyokuro Goku Uji-Tamara from Thes du Japon. This is one of their less expensive Gyokuro offerings and it’s less intense than more expensive gyos but still has an excellent flavor profile. I like to brew it in this little 50 mm porcelain Kyushu from a Korean potter, Kim Eung Chul. I’ve stopped purchasing from Thes du Japon because they charge me sales tax even though I leave in a state where loose tea isn’t taxed. I’m going to explore other sources of Gyokuro from the 2018 harvest.
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Today I had a surprise. For the first time in a very long time, I had a high mountain unlike any other I have tasted before! A gifted can, with a tea from Lishan. Dry leaves are large and tightly rolled and light green-yellowish. On the first brew it is apparent to me that it must be very lightly oxidised only, liquid is a strong yellow, tending to green. Very cloudy brew.
The dry leaves already had a quite different smell than usual for high mountain, can not really describe how. The brew has hint of sulfur, but not in a bad way, a buttery smell of a different kind. Soft and pleasant mouthfeel. Aftertaste is on the weaker side, compared to a normal Lishan.
But now the taste! Think of a snowy pineforest in the sunlight - that is the kind of taste it reminded me of, astonishing! Never had anything like it. Also almost a bit Sencha-like, but a lot smoother and not agressive and grassy as Japanese greens can be.
I used quite a lot of leaf and it expanded another bit, but this tea did not turn bitter or showed any other flaws, good material!
Aptly the tea is also named something like pine snow, have to look up the correct characters.
Will spend more time with it and take some pictures next time...
Really surprised to have something so different from a mountain I have been drinking day in and out for years now!
The dry leaves already had a quite different smell than usual for high mountain, can not really describe how. The brew has hint of sulfur, but not in a bad way, a buttery smell of a different kind. Soft and pleasant mouthfeel. Aftertaste is on the weaker side, compared to a normal Lishan.
But now the taste! Think of a snowy pineforest in the sunlight - that is the kind of taste it reminded me of, astonishing! Never had anything like it. Also almost a bit Sencha-like, but a lot smoother and not agressive and grassy as Japanese greens can be.
I used quite a lot of leaf and it expanded another bit, but this tea did not turn bitter or showed any other flaws, good material!
Aptly the tea is also named something like pine snow, have to look up the correct characters.
Will spend more time with it and take some pictures next time...
Really surprised to have something so different from a mountain I have been drinking day in and out for years now!