83
drank Gyokuro Cha Musume by Nio Teas
413 tasting notes

Nio Teas kindly sent me their Advent calendar in December, and sent samples again when that package failed to arrive. Thank you for your persistence and generosity! I have minimal experience with Japanese teas, so this should be interesting!

Since I enjoy gyokuro, I was happy to grab this first from my pile of samples. I have a 120 ml kyusu instead of a 150 ml one, which means I had to deviate from their instructions slightly. I steeped 5 g of leaf in 120 ml of 140F water for 2 minutes, then three more times for 20 seconds.

The dry leaf has aromas of spinach, seaweed, and grass. The first steep has notes of spinach, squash, umami, kale, butter, and grass, with slight but noticeable bitterness. I also get the creamy hazelnut mentioned in the description. The next steeps are a bit sweeter, with more of that hazelnut, umami, and grass. As Cameron noted, it does taste more like a sencha as the session goes on. By the fourth steep, I was able to taste squash, apple, and sweet grass as the vegetal bitterness diminished.

This is a nice tea, though it doesn’t have the fruitiness I’ve found in other gyokuro. I particularly appreciate the comparative lack of bitterness.

Flavors: Apple, Butter, Creamy, Grass, Hazelnut, Kale, Seaweed, Spinach, Squash, Sweet, Umami, Vegetal

Preparation
140 °F / 60 °C 2 min, 0 sec 5 g 4 OZ / 120 ML
derk

I had no idea you liked gyokuro!

Leafhopper

Before today, I’ve had two fantastic gyokuro in my life and one really bad one. This fell somewhere in the middle toward the good end of the spectrum. I like fruity gyokuro with very little bitterness, which means it’s hard to shop for them.

Also, I need to drink that green from TDJ before it’s completely dead!

Cameron B.

Oh no, I hope the advent reaches you eventually!

Leafhopper

I think it was returned to them. I’m not sure if these are the same samples from the calendar, but either way, I’m glad to have gotten them.

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derk

I had no idea you liked gyokuro!

Leafhopper

Before today, I’ve had two fantastic gyokuro in my life and one really bad one. This fell somewhere in the middle toward the good end of the spectrum. I like fruity gyokuro with very little bitterness, which means it’s hard to shop for them.

Also, I need to drink that green from TDJ before it’s completely dead!

Cameron B.

Oh no, I hope the advent reaches you eventually!

Leafhopper

I think it was returned to them. I’m not sure if these are the same samples from the calendar, but either way, I’m glad to have gotten them.

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Bio

Since I discovered Teavana’s Monkey Picked Oolong four years ago, I’ve been fascinated by loose-leaf tea. I’m glad to say that my oolong tastes have evolved, and that I now like nearly every tea that comes from Taiwan, oolong or not, particularly the bug-bitten varieties. I also find myself drinking Yunnan blacks and Darjeelings from time to time, as well as a few other curiosities.

However, while online reviews might make me feel like an expert, I know that I still have some work to do to actually pick up those flavours myself. I hope that by making me describe what I’m tasting, Steepster can improve my appreciation of teas I already enjoy and make me more open to new possibilities (maybe even puerh!).

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