Teance

I’ve had this tea many times and the honey fragrance has always been there but never really stood out to me over other characteristics. This time, I used more leaf and was rewarded with more honey in not just the fragrance, but in the aroma, nose, afteraroma, and flavor as well.

8g with 150ml water in a zi ni rong tian yixing teapot dedicated to Phoenix Oolongs. Single rinse with immediate pour – 10 second contact time. Multiple infusions in rapid succession using 85 degree C water.

Beautiful long, dark, twisted leaves with stripes of yellow, mossy green, deep red-violet, gold, and dark sienna on an umber brown background. Average length is over an inch in twisted, dry form. Fragrance is toasty, sharply nutty (pecans, filberts, and chopped almonds), and while not sweet smelling it leaves a sweet impression within the sinuses. Wet leaves are much lighter green like iris leaves with olive leaf dark patches, though the light yellow stripes are retained. More clove and honey in wet leaf aroma with antique wood cupboard sharp, slightly musty note and a hint of tobacco leaves. Clear, yellow liquor has mild but thick, soothing sweet aroma – more nectar-like than honey… Ripe nectarine or honeysuckle and a baked bread aroma like ripping open a fresh wheat roll. Tropical flower aromas flit in and out as well. Very much like the aroma of a greenhouse.

Smooth up front with a bit of astringency in the throat as the flavor recedes. Honey on wheat toast aroma. Lightly sweet and mouthwatering. Myriad of fleeting flavor notes pop in and out with each sip. Peach pit tang is dominant and potent when slurped yet mixed evenly in a balanced, delicate flavor melange when taken as a draught. Ginger-like umami. Really warming from the head all the way through the belly. Spice notes include practically every spice I have in my cupboard and every herb I’ve grown but clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, turmeric, star anise, thyme, and basil are the first to really make an impression. Ginger flower, sorrel, rosemary, orchid, chocolate-mint flower, and amaryllis florals present in nose and many reappear for aftertaste. Gives my breath a sweet and vaporous feel for a long time. While not an actual flavor or aroma, the combinations of tastes, sensations, and aromas produce an effect reminiscent of honey in warm cream. Makes me think of buttered cinnamon French toast with agave nectar or lavender honey drizzled over it. Roughly 2-3 minutes after drinking, a second (or is it third or fourth?) aftertaste comes out of nowhere with more of those wheat toast and crystallized honey flavors.
Seeeerious lasting capability. I’m falling asleep before the tea is and really running out of capacity in my stomach. Not declining at the 12th infusion, where I typically start wrapping this up at when I use just a little more than half this strength.

Mild in flavor but rich in expression and a sort of thick-air quality emanates from this tea (even greater in the mouth and when swallowing). Many different flavors and aromas. Not the most complex, but more so than the vast majority of teas out there. It seems to take a slight step down in intensity and expression compared to some other Phoenix Oolongs as a tradeoff for comforting feeling. This is one of those teas that can produce a bit of a “tea drunk” feeling and sure helps promote the idea of curling up and falling asleep… Toasty, warm and sweet… Definitely a comforter.

Wonderful floral and fruity notes. This was definitely the most sweet smelling tie kwan yin I’ve ever had. Absolutely delicious and smooth, from the first infusion.

The smell of the dry leaves reminds me of my grandparent’s barn after my grandpa died and my grandma got rid of the cows – dusty but clean with a residual sweet smell of hay. After steeping, it smells very freshly green and rich, almost like sencha but not as grassy.

The flavor is rather delicate and sweetly floral and green with a fresh hay and flower taste going on. Really very pretty but with less mouthfeel than I’m used to having with baozhongs. Ah, there’s the mouthfeel. Apparently the tea has to cool a little bit to get that silky, almost textured quality that I’m used to/look for in this type of tea.

Second Steep: 2:00, slightly less delicate with less floral and tasting faintly of buttered greens though I can’t identify what type.

Third Steep: 3:00, a more solid flavor but I do miss the sweet hay and floral. It’s leveled out to a more buttered steamed asparagus. Based on the smell, the leaves might have one more steep in them.

Overall a nice tea that I like but I have the feeling that I should be able to get a bit more out of it. I think I’ll try this with more leaf next time and see how that goes. If it doesn’t work, I’ll up the water temp.
2.8g/5oz

So I bought some gyokuro from englishteastore.com for an almost too good to be true price. So I was skeptical about its quality considering that most places charge 3 times the amount. So far I’m not that impressed. Maybe its a lower end gyokuro or something. I’ve experimented with a range of temps and steep times….100-160 and 1 second to 2 minutes. The later steeps are shortest. I looked online about ways to prepare it and the customary japanese method is very complicated but super cool! And they eat the leaves afterwards. He used vinegar and sesame oil so I tryed the same and it was delicious! It tasted like a seaweed salad from a sushi restaurant. Its nice to know how healthy it is too.
So most of my steeps are a little bitter despite using very low steep times and low temps. And I don’t use the last few drops becasue thats typically the most bitter. I heard that the more rolled up the leave the higher end it is. And these are maybe a little tighter rolled than my stock sencha. I ‘ll just keep experimenting. I’ve have had a couple lucky steeps that taste way better than the regular sencha so there is hope!

Meh. Pretty, tippy leaves, but not much flavor.

Let’s just get this out of the way: Auggy is a goddess.

No, seriously. Because I think I’ve finally gotten what all the hullabaloo has been about Japanese greens.

I’m perpetually amazed at how different various permutations of tea can be. Not only through the white – black scale, but from different companies and different preparations. It’s almost frightening. I thought I pretty much knew what gyokuro was about from the Harney & Sons version I had a few weeks ago.

I thought wrong. Completely wrong.

Gyokuro is one of those teas that’s beautiful to look at. I don’t think that photos do it justice. The leaves are silky and a deep blue-green, most thinner than a toothpick. Really gorgeous stuff. The smell coming off them is a sweet, very grassy note, with just a hint of butter.

So I waited… and waited… and waited for the damned water to cool down enough to begin steeping this one. I believe I started the pour at 50 secs, just because I really wanted to make sure that this one didn’t oversteep. It’s that delicate. I also steeped with the lid off, to give the gyokuro some room to breathe. I don’t want to scorch the leaves in ANY way.

I knew immediately while the tea was pouring that this was going to be something special. The smell… oh my gahd. Very grass, but also very, very buttery. Mmmmm. The wet leaves smelled much the same. It’s like a freshly cut grass smell, mixed with melted butter. It smells delicious.

And the taste? Joygasm. Seriously.

I’ve been having a lot of trouble with greens, I think mainly because in general, I tend to dislike green things. I really don’t like vegetables. I hate salads. Beyond artichokes and asparagus, and maybe the occasional piece of broccoli… yeah, they’re not my thing. But this tea… it’s lighter than Harney’s gyokuro, but just as intense and interesting. It’s pretty grassy, but that grassiness is tempered by butter. Rich butter. It’s silky-smooth and delicious and satisfying and REFRESHING. You can taste the award-winningness of this one.

There’s just this general sweetness to the entire cup as well. There’s really no astringency. Towards the end of some sips I sometimes get this almost tart feeling that develops just into a green sweetness. It’s almost similar to the sweetness you find in sugar snap peas (another green thing that I love).

I think Auggy just converted me with one cup of tea. I can’t wait to see what the second steep tastes like, although I probably won’t drink the entire thing, since gyokuro’s caffeine levels are off the charts. But DELICIOUS and NOM. Wow. Taste the quality!

The Second Steep (5 secs, 140 degrees) was pretty tasty, but a bit thinner than the first. The taste was a bit more grassy and a bit less buttery. Hrm. I’ll try to get a third steep out of this, but I doubt I’m going to finish the cup at all. It’ll be just for tasting purposes! NOM, though!

So Steep Three (1:10, 140 degrees) just sort of tasted like grassy umami water. Not that it was bad, but there’s no tea-ness to it. So I dumped the leaves out. I also played around with the wet leaves a bit, and they’re as soft as silk.

very smooth and soothing

not too harsh or bold
but kinda misses the risker aspects of my favorite
Comforting – perfect for flying.

Auggy was kind enough to send me a little of this. This is the first gyokuro I’ve made myself and I wanted to do it up right so I got a kyusu. The tea arrived here before the kyusu did, so there was a bit of an internal battle going on until I got my Rishi stuff. I was literally, at one point, standing and staring at this tea until I caught myself and shook myself out of it.

Anyhow, I was good and I waited. I’m not sure what difference making this in the kyusu made, but I liked rocking and swishing the stuff out.

I read/heard/saw somewhere that gyokuros are supposed to sit for 5 or so minutes in cold/room temperature water to open them up and keep them from before steeping them warm. That’s something that’s stuck with me for some reason, but I’m also not sure how specific that is to the type of gyokuro, and whatnot. I’ve also read many different things about water to leaf ratios and the temperature of water that’s “supposed” to be used for hot/warm infusions. I’ve heard that you’re not supposed to use water hotter than 160°F and that you should infuse in ice water. What all of this has led me to believe is that I just need to drink a lot more gyokuro and see what slams my door.

Anyway, I let this sit in some room temperature for five minutes. [I did try to drink that but it was relatively flavorless.] Then I did about four steeps at 1 minute in 140°F water, all of which tasted relatively the same. I probably could have kept going, to be honest, and I make a face as I type this – I think I might have wasted the leaves as a result. I also see that Auggy has varied her steeping times for different infusions [which is what you’re probably supposed to do]. Luckily, I have some left of this to play around with, so I’ll have to try steeping otherwise. I think I’m going to try and read some more about these before I do, because right now I’m very much saturated with conflicting information and I think some of it’s going to begin dripping out if I don’t try and filter and sort some of it.

All right, enough about my brain scream over “proper” gyokuro steeping. The tea. The tea was good! I really doubt that this truly shows the range of where this can go, but I enjoyed what I got out of it and that’s a good thing. What I was missing was that buttery taste that both the description and Auggy both mentioned. I was searching for it, and I think that maybe because I was I thought I caught a glimpse of it, but that could have been purely psychological. What I did get was a vegetal taste followed by a delicious, chlorophyll-y sweetness. The sweetness was bright and high and clear, and only grew in volume when accompanied by inhalation. It also, and I’m really not sure how to describe this accurately, it tingled. It hopped around on my tongue.

This experience has intrigued me enough to really become interested in gyokuro, so I think I’ll be trying to procure some more and do a little experimenting.

Also, should you be interested, pictures of the new kyusu begin here [they are, however, without tea]. http://bit.ly/5oRgh0

I’ve had gyokuro from different sources but I think this is one of the best. It comes from Uji, which is the province of Japan that is best for green tea. It has a delicate and pretty high vegetal flavor, with a hint of sweetness at the end

I tried this tea at a tasting at the shop when I lived in California. It had a really good flavor but its the only Lu Shan Clouds and Mist I’ve ever tried!

Teaplz’s lovely log from earlier reminded me what a delicious beast this tea is, so I had to have some. Sadly, I only had enough for half a cup so I am now out of this tea. ::sob::

But it was a really good half cup. The second steep (@5s) still remains my favorite, being super rich, buttery and grassy. Love it.

2.3g/3oz

I realized today that it has been a bit since I’ve had a truly awesome tea.

So I decided to have this.

The counter may now be reset.

0 days since our last awesome tea.

I should have used a bit more leaf – I only used 3.5g for my 6oz – so this isn’t as strong as before. But this tea is still so good. Clean, sweet and fresh tasting. The tastes makes me picture lush green hills, a cloudless sky and temperate weather with a slightly cool breeze. Delightful.

The husband caught a whiff of this while we were in the bulk teas section of the grocery store so I picked up a little bit to sample. This stuff is selling for $199.99 a pound! Goodness. I hope this is good but I’ve never had much luck with enjoying gyokuro. But eh, that’s the joy of bulk food buying – I can try just a little.

I’m going to up late tonight so I’m not too concerned with caffeine so I went ahead and did the suggested 4g of leaf in 6oz of water. I’m really surprised at how nice the leaf looks considering where I got it. Dark green, clear, somewhat silky (not silky enough to be super-fresh but fresh enough, I think). Dry it smells both clean and buttery.

And now I remember one reason I rarely drink gyokuro. I’m impatient for the water to cool. Sigh. But finally, the water is ready and in 45s I’ll have some gyokuro.

Mmm, okay, this is good. Very clean tasting but still sweet. Makes me think of honeydew melon. There’s also a thicker taste that gets mixed in there. What I assume they are calling butter but the husband says reminds him of Le Sueur very young sweet peas (a household favorite). I can see both butter and pea-like but waffle between the two. Ultimately, it is more a feeling of creaminess than an actual taste for me.

I can see why this is supposedly award-winning. This is good. The husband thought so too as he tried to drink about half my cup. Depending on how subsequent steeps go, this tea might get my elusive 5 star rating.

ETA:
Steep 2 – pour started at 5s. OMG, it’s buttered grass. So awesome.
Steep 3 – pour started at 1min. This steep isn’t as intense as the first two. Should have done 1:15 – 1:30. Still nice (if light). Tastes like thin honey.

Buttery, sweet and smooth, with honey and cucumber aroma. Astringency is very slight, but enough for a clean finish.

Exactly 170 F, for 1 minute. Glass cup, metal basket infuser, covered. I found in this tea a sweet green aroma and a buttery artichoke flavor. Second steep was the sweetest. A cool tingle lingers on the tongue, requesting another sip. Quite delightful. I prefer it warm or hot, as the richness of scent and taste is muted in the cooled tea.

I’ve been drinking this all day. I cold brewed a giant pot. I just pour cold water in a pot of the tea and refrigerate. I let it brew for 4 hours.

It has beautiful delicate melony notes and is very refreshing. It’s a good alternative to drinking soda or juice on a hot day. I get board with drinking straight water and it mixes things up for me. I can drink up to 6 cups a day.

I also like it hot but I’ll write more about that on a day when I drink it hot.

I found this tea to lack presence when first brewed. Mild maybe sweet. When it cooled it had a distinctly astringent taste when brewed to instruction, with a reduced water temp, and when brew time was shortened.