239 Tasting Notes
3g / 200ml glaspot
single infusion 3m @ 70C
Smooth flowery with more than a hint of lemon. Just wonderful, still one of my favorite greens! Will be sure to restock with this years harvest but will wait for autumn flush :)
This tea makes me happy!
Preparation
Ah, after finishing the black bi lou chun i turned to some higher quality tea. The leaf is ong needles, yellowish and black. The smell is very malty.
6g / 220ml zhuni yixing.
1m @ 80C
2m @ 90C
consequitive steepings so leaf doesnt cool in between.
first cup was divine. loads of honey blended with some malty chocolate. no astringany at all.
Second cup was less sweet and more malty. Very nice strenght.
This is a tea i will be sure to restock come spring.
Preparation
Sipdown. Backlog from yesterday.
This tea has been my pregym companion for some time. A good black yunnan that is as close to a “table tea” as it gets. not super quality but comforting. However since there is lots of better yunnan blacks i will not be restocking. Farewell!
Preparation
5g / 90ml celadon gaiwan with water from tetsubin.
wash/30/50/1:10m
This tea has a very distinct flavour. a subtly smoky sweetnes with some maltiness. 5g was on the shy side. Next time ill use more leaf, i like this tea on the heavy side!
Preparation
5g/180ml kobiwako kyusu
Three infusions
1m/1:30/2:30
I had a sipdown last night of my yamanami black tea. It will be missed! So now i filled up my jap. black tea tin with this amazing tea!!!
Its so incredibly smooth, well balanced with a aftertaste with a hint of cinnamon astringancy. It reminds me a bit of a milder version of darjeeling second flush. It lacks the usuall minty flacour that is commmon with japanese black teas. The cinnamon is there so is a hint of vanilla and wood?
Second best japanese black i´ve tried so far. Only the sayama black – Mushashi kaori cultivar is better. (to my tastebuds atleast.)
When i opened my box of jap. tea i realized i only had one bag of black left. so i just had to order a bunch from yuuki-cha.com, first tea order since this summer! Next time will be when autumn flush is out. some more laoshan black and autumn flush darjeeling! autumn teas are sooooo good :)
Preparation
7g / 180ml Banko-yaki kyusu
Three infusions.
1: 1m @ 80C
2&3: 5s @ 83C
This i my first sencha brewed at higher temperatures. Kaori means fragrance and the tea is well named. The scent when i opened the bag reminded me of liqurice! Powerful!
The liquid was very pale yellow and clear.
The taste has a VERY well balanced astringancy. It balances the sweetnes perfectly, vegal and vanilla? It does however lack the more full flavour and sweetness of other senchas ivé tried. Different but still very nice!
thumbs up.
Preparation
ca 5g / 180ml Kobiwako kyusu
Single infusion 2m @ 80C
Sipdown! The last of my pastry tea.. This the is so very sweet and minty, it goes perfect with pastry. I accompanied it with some white chocolate cheesecake. :)
Hm might try to get some more this spring when first harvests are coming in. A bit of a hassle to order though since Takeo-sans webpage is all in japanese. haha google-fu translate!
Anyways i will miss this tea.
Preparation
Sipdown. R.I.P
Really enjoyed this sencha. Powerful vegal taste. slight astringancy, thick and sweet. Still have lots of 2012 sencha in my stash. Aiming to finish it all before 2014 harvest.
On another note, its not to long until the wonderful autumnflush of darjeeling!
Preparation
5g / 180ml Kobiwako kyusu
Three infusions
1m/1:30m/2m @ 95-100C
This was perfect for three cups. All cups was full of flavour. None overly strong and none weak. Next time i will try to find the right amount and infusiontime for 1 cup.
This setting will be scribbled on the tinlabel :)
Preparation
6g/90ml celadon gaiwan.
wash/wash/15/15/20/20/30/30 @ 100C
Ah, this is good. Last sheng was a dissapointment so this one cheered me up! Powerful astringance, slightly bitter. But well balanced so its not unpleasnt. Did longer infusions this time around and it payed of! Since it late i stopped at 6. The taste lingers long in the mouth, a bit of a tail on this one. Good stuff!