What Green Are You Drinking

Non-oxidized tea
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debunix
Posts: 1812
Joined: Sat Oct 21, 2017 1:27 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Tue Jul 31, 2018 8:54 pm

Search for 'sparkling sencha' here and on TeaChat. We discussed it quite a bit there.
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Jo
Mrs. Chip
Posts: 268
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2017 6:48 pm
Location: Pennsylvania

Tue Aug 07, 2018 12:13 pm

This morning, we enjoyed Asanoka, shincha from O-Cha brewed at a cool 150 to 160 in a shudei clay, Yamaha Sou. Very aromatic loose leaf tea with deep mouthfeel. Delicious.
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Jo
Mrs. Chip
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Location: Pennsylvania

Tue Aug 07, 2018 12:14 pm

Currently we are enjoying gyokuro teabags cold brewed, absolutely refreshing on such a hot day 8-)
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Victoria
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Tue Aug 07, 2018 12:59 pm

Jo wrote:
Tue Aug 07, 2018 12:14 pm
Currently we are enjoying gyokuro teabags cold brewed, absolutely refreshing on such a hot day 8-)
Are those from O-Cha? I’m surprised how good his green tea bags are :) perfect for traveling and when on the road. And they don’t seem to be so finicky with temperature variables, at least not as much as loose leaf. Wonder why.
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d.manuk
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Location: Dallas

Tue Aug 07, 2018 1:11 pm

I'm drinking Song Tea's 2018 Dragonwell, which they gave me as a sample.
It's nice, I wish it had more body but overall the tea is nice for what it is.

I'm trying to be a little less critical of what I drink :D
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Victoria
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Tue Aug 07, 2018 1:25 pm

Sipping on O-Cha’s pan fried Organic Guricha (also known as Tamaryokucha), grown in Nagasaki. Lower temp and lower leaf ratio makes this very well priced 1st flush green sing. It is refreshing, with mild fresh green notes and warming umami sweetness.
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Jo
Mrs. Chip
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Location: Pennsylvania

Tue Aug 07, 2018 1:34 pm

Victoria wrote:
Tue Aug 07, 2018 12:59 pm
Jo wrote:
Tue Aug 07, 2018 12:14 pm
Currently we are enjoying gyokuro teabags cold brewed, absolutely refreshing on such a hot day 8-)
Are those from O-Cha? I’m surprised how good his green tea bags are :) perfect for traveling and when on the road. And they don’t seem to be so finicky with temperature variables, at least not as much as loose leaf. Wonder why.
Yes Victoria, from O-Cha. Hmmm, I agree, don't have an answer for that.
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Mrs. Chip
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Tue Aug 07, 2018 1:41 pm

Chip will be going on a bike ride in a few hours, so not enough time to ice brew today. But tomorrow we will use our largest kyusu, 400 ml pot. It is beautifully hand etched, but the artists name escapes Chip at the moment.

He's going to have to do some research on it, will let you know tomorrow.
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RinsedSloth
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Location: Spain
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Sat Aug 11, 2018 5:18 am

Yesterday I tried the "Chun Ya" sample from Teavivre and it was a quite nice experience.

The flavor really suited me, umami was noticeable but doesn't arrived to be overwhelming vegetal nor nutty like others I've tried but really close, it could be the bean note stated on the web. It allowed me to perform more steeps than the habitual leaving my stomach satisfied and a bit of overbrewing doesn't seem to affect it at all.

One thing that I'm not sure is that if "Chun Ya" or "Spring bud" is a nickname or is it the actual type of tea, it would be great if someone could clarify it :)
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debunix
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Wed Aug 15, 2018 11:17 am

The rich mouthfeel of this Earth sencha is surprising me: it's vegetal, subtly sweet, not bitter, not floral or nectar sweet. Just deep green fresh sweet leaf. The label says 'full bodied', and that's exactly right. And it is a perfect companion for dark chocolate, tiny nibbles of which between sips bring out a spicy note in the tea. It has evolved through the 4th infusion, different aspects of it being brought out in different infusions--the silky richness in the first, sweetness in the 2nd, vegetal in the 3rd, and spice in the 4th, and a lighter vegetal sweetness in the 5th (didn't let it go long enough, but still, so nice).

I'm enjoying it from a Yamada Sou kyusu that just arrived yesterday, the perfect matching partner to a Yamada Sou cup I got last year. Even though the kyusu looks tiny compared to the cup, it brews up just enough volume to give a pleasing There will be photos later in the kyusu topic.
Janice
Posts: 262
Joined: Tue Oct 10, 2017 11:11 pm
Location: New Jersey

Thu Aug 16, 2018 6:28 pm

I recently purchased a banko Kyusu expecting (hoping) it would improve less desirable greens. Instead it improved the best gyokuro I currently have on hand. The gyokuro yame, which is my least expensive gyo, with a tendency toward bitterness, became more bitter brewed in the banko. This little mixed porcelain pot from the Korean potter Kim Ung Chul is a bit better.
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Janice
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Mon Aug 20, 2018 8:29 am

I’m beginning my tea week with one of my favorite teas - karigane Sencha otsusan from O-Cha. He sells two different karigane teas with distinctive flavor profiles. Given my difficulty with being overly sensitive to the bitterness of Sencha these stem teas became part of my tea routine early on. I matched this tea to this little 75 ml kenji nerikomi kyusu.

This is a blended tea so the flavor profile is consistent from year to year.
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Victoria
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Mon Aug 20, 2018 1:37 pm

Janice wrote:
Thu Aug 16, 2018 6:28 pm
I recently purchased a banko Kyusu expecting (hoping) it would improve less desirable greens. Instead it improved the best gyokuro I currently have on hand. The gyokuro yame, which is my least expensive gyo, with a tendency toward bitterness, became more bitter brewed in the banko. This little mixed porcelain pot from the Korean potter Kim Ung Chul is a bit better.
I recently tried O-Cha’s Yame Gyokuro and found steeped per recommendation (1.2:1/140f/2min) resulted in a good 1st brew, but then was very thin into subsequent 2/3/4th steeps. I’ll stick to his higher end gyokuro in the future. With gyokuro I don’t look for clay to improve flavor profile, for me steeping is more important, and of course quality of leaf /processing. I wonder if anyone else ( [mention]Chip[/mention] , [mention]Jo[/mention] ) looks for a pots clay to improve gyokuro?

Finish very quickly O-Cha’s Satsuma Sae Midori, a very high quality shincha that I look forward to reordering. Rich, brothy, sweet umami profile, that everyone that has tried it liked, including non-Japanese drinkers.
Henk
Posts: 16
Joined: Tue Dec 12, 2017 10:26 pm
Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Tue Aug 21, 2018 9:59 am

I'm drinking a Yun Feng from Hojo. A bit of an impulse buy; definitely not regretted but I think Mao Feng remains my favorite Chinese green.
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debunix
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Wed Aug 22, 2018 4:38 pm

debunix wrote:
Wed Aug 15, 2018 11:17 am
The rich mouthfeel of this Earth sencha is surprising me: it's vegetal, subtly sweet, not bitter, not floral or nectar sweet. Just deep green fresh sweet leaf. The label says 'full bodied', and that's exactly right. And it is a perfect companion for dark chocolate, tiny nibbles of which between sips bring out a spicy note in the tea. It has evolved through the 4th infusion, different aspects of it being brought out in different infusions--the silky richness in the first, sweetness in the 2nd, vegetal in the 3rd, and spice in the 4th, and a lighter vegetal sweetness in the 5th (didn't let it go long enough, but still, so nice).
Just realized I didn't properly credit that tea. The 'Earth' sencha is one of those I received as part of an annual subscription membership to the Obubu Tea Farm in Kyoto that I visited last fall.

Right now I'm back with the Jungjak Tteokeumcha korean green tea from Dosim Dawan. Still interesting through about 6 rather haphazard infusions while eating lunch and typing at work. It takes a kind and flexible tea to be so good in these conditions: light, brisk, grassy with a hint of nutty roast, but little astringency or bitterness. I need to give this one more attention again, it deserves it and will reward me, but I am turning to it so often for hot tea while working, and cold brew in a hurry to go, that it is quickly vanishing. A delight to have at my side.
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