16 Tasting Notes
I walked in to the office after a brisk little walk and my colleague mentioned she helped herself to the tea on my desk. Totally cool! She LOVED it. She had never tried it before but I always keep a stash in my desk!
This tea is like nectar. I like to brew it strong. I think that when you brew it strong you are really extracting the body of tea found in ancient tea trees. There are nice fruity notes in this tea. I taste peach and nectar and the love of the ancient trees.
Preparation
I said, " I need to make tea." Then magically my colleague fills my cup with Gokubo! My favorite kukicha, ever!
I can not drink any other kukicha after drinking this one. There is a wonderful citrus note and no astringency. It is rich and sweet and pretty complex. The infusion color is a beautiful rich green color.
Preparation
This tea is truly a treat. I just made some with my friend and we can’t help but smiling at each other. It is so delicate yet rich with flavor. The dry leaf is emerald and full of oils. The wet leaf aroma has notes of evergreen and you can just smell the rich, milky umami. I will be re-steeping this at least two more times.
I like this Gyokuro because of the differences in the Yame growing area. The Yame area uses different fertilizing than the Uji area does. The Uji area also tends to use the Goku bushes which naturally take in a lot of nitrogen. They then use very concentrated fertilizing practices to pump up the plant.
The fertilizing practices in Yame are different and the tea tends to have less of the super umami but does have a nice range of complexity.
Preparation
It had been a while since I had made our current lot. I had forgotten how great this batch is. This lot is made from many grades including some pu-erh palace. It has great complexity and very nice body. The leaf size is very small because it is made up of higher grades but delicious. I will put away my 2005 lot and enjoy this lot, now!
That sounds tasty! I’ll need to add it to the list.