Thés du Japon

Unpretentious

Yet:

Fine art.

Silk.

Is.

After trying ice-brewing again, I decided it wasn’t for me. Since I have so many teas at home I’d rather drink, this had the potential to become severely neglected. It’s definitely good enough that I didn’t want to toss the leaf, so I took it to work to see what I could do with it there.

Turns out the key to my appreciation for this tea lies in a much lower leaf-to-water ratio than is custom for gyokuro. I let the cup of dispenser hot water sit while I dive into these involved projects I’m working on and by the time I come up for a breather, the water has cooled to gyokuro brewing temperature or lower. Take a big pinch of leaf (3-4g) and let it steep for several minutes (a 2nd steep, too). The resulting cup effects my mood and work pace in a very beneficial way. I detect almost no bitterness and the low, deep, thick and rich umami is lightened enough that my body and tastebuds do not protest. With longer steeps, some eucalyptus and pineapple can come out in the aftertaste.

Tried my hand at ice-brewing, following a guideline somewhere that called for 1g of tea to 30g of ice (yeah, I weighed it). It’s better than hot-brewed for my tastes but still too intense for my liking, thick with shellfish umami, soybean sweetness and those cholorphyllic wheatgrass notes. Some of the bitterness is mitigated by this method. The leaf will be relatively easy to finish off as ice brews. Not a repurchase, though. This particular gyokuro is simply not for me.

A family friend from Texas landed unexpectedly at our house last night for an impromptu weekend visit. After nerding out about tea with King Weird for a bit last night, I put together a care package for him of Japanese greens (and many other teas!) which is what prompted this note.

April 28, 2021 harvest

Very intense when brewed with TDJ’s parameters. The amino acid content made my stomach turn, so with this session, I dialed back the first infusion time to 1 minute. Much better, still intense but kinder to my constitution.

Nutty-sweet and starchy white sweet potato scent of the dry leaf with a sheer, creamy overlay; soft, clean note of boiled spinach. Something elusive, like a combination of marzipan, some kind of fruit and cinnamon. It’s a mystery to me, but it’s there and very well hidden.

The liquor is very low-pitched and seafood umami/sweet-driven. Alkaline, brothy and moderately thick (but not oily) with a dominant taste of soft, sweet seafood and edamame, bitterness of dark green kale. Some cashew nuttiness, a sharper umami note of white bean paste that’s more in the nose than mouth, and a quiet, undefinable fruit undertone. The ultra-green chlorophyllic wheatgrass note of shaded green teas expresses itself greater with each subsequent infusion.

Really difficult tea to understand and take in. The bitterness isn’t well integrated and always pulls me out of the moment. Gyokuro’s charm continues to evade me. I can say that I did enjoy another of TDJ’s gyokuro from Asahina more: https://steepster.com/teas/thes-du-japon/98109-gyokuro-from-asahina-saemidori-cultivar

Maybe I’ll try this one ice-brewed.

Each teapot a deep treasure, each tumbler a sweet pleasure. This tea hasn’t goofed me yet. It was slow to build on me but now that it’s almost gone, I’m comfortable giving a personal rating.

Another interesting sencha and so different from any I’ve had :) April 26/27, 2021 harvest.

The dark green needles smell very sweet and fruity like raspberries but not raspberries, you know, some other obscure regional berry that never makes it way into a market! There’s also undertones white grapes and melon, more deep red watermelon leaning than anything, even candy-like, without that cucumbery smell they can sometimes have. The dry leaf smelled so good that the leaf that I spilled got picked up by my finger and went straight into my mouth to crunch on.

Warming the leaf brings another awesome aroma of raspberry danishes with a mellow undertone of cooked greens. Bahahaha!

Aroma is of raspberry, cherry blossom and wheatgrass with a small amount of dark bitterness.

Tea itself is thick with alkaline umami and some peaty bitterness. The raspberry/berry aromatics evaporate off palate and low into the sinuses. Here, it tastes/smells more like a berry flavored vitamin than the fruit. A moist, natural sweetness comes about in the back of the mouth in the ensuing minutes. The 3 or 4 subsequent steeps lighten evenly across all characteristics. I forgot about a final pot last night and poured it cold this morning after it sat for 12 hours. The tea was sweet and very tasty with practically no bitterness remaining and the berry character presented fully.

I don’t know. I’ve had this tea several times now and can’t help but think I’m describing it too simply. Dewy-thick-alkaline-umami-peaty-bitter-fruity-sweet. All that hyphenation tells me it’s round. I don’t find any distinct vegetal, grassy or seaweed tastes in this tea, only in the leaf and liquor aromas and a bit of a grass vibe as it steeps out.

I enjoyed what I had of this tea very quickly. May 20, 2021 harvest.

The dry leaf when I first opened the bag smelled quite floral, spicy and woody like a Nepali black tea. By the time I brewed the last serving, its scent became earthier and deeper like a dark tobacco. When warmed, the leaf displays a strong camphor-wintergreen note atop malted barley and an undertone of hard peaches and their flowers.

My first and last pot of this tea followed TDJ’s parameters. The cups in between were brewed at work in a mug basket strainer. I enjoyed both ways of preparation.

The aroma has a light caramel sweetness mixed with malty orange. There is a camphor freshness to this tea that fits well with the flavors and light earthiness, producing a mixed evergreen-deciduous forest character.

Brewed for 5 minutes in a teapot, I notice the malty, tangy orange character accented by tobacco, sweet potato and wood as soon as I sip, immediately followed by a tingly woody-pithy-peaty bitterness, then the light freshness of camphor and mineral character. When I notice my mouth watering, I also perceive a floral aftertaste. The second steep is very creamy-orange with a fructose sweetness, and the sweet potato and woody tastes that were accents in the first infusion become more prominent.

When had in a mug, the tea is sweet and refreshing while still maintaining fresh forest character. The leaf’s lower oxidation is pronounced in this manner.

My conclusion is succinct — I really enjoyed this tea and it was very easy to drink :) It’s not a heavy black tea by any means.

May 8, 2021 harvest. Initial tasting from a few nights ago.

The dry leaf smells just like the 3 descriptors TDJ lists — sweet red beans, herbs, butter.

The taste is much the same, moderately buttery and beany with some bitterness and a bright grass-pineapple astringency that considerably lightens what could be an umami bomb.

Dinner was a rice bowl with kimchi, fried egg and seaweed. This sencha served as a solid palate cleanser for such a piquant meal, while still having enough flavor to stand on its own. A little too much caffeine to be having a few hours before bed, though :P To me, this is a utilitarian tea and performs well over 3 steeps.

I’ll probably go more in depth sometime since I have 100g to play with.

Haha, wow!

Grounding, stimulating yet calming, refreshing. It’s like an overlay of three California environments — the Montara Mountain trailhead eucalyptus grove saturated with early evening fog; a sunny Oro Blanco grapefruit grove in southern California; the cool coastline with scattered tangles of sea vegetation.

If you like eucalyptus, flowers, grapefruit peel and a strong aftertaste, please give this a try. I never would have expected such a profile from sencha.

April 28, 2021 harvest

Final freebie from the order, thank you :)

October 22, 2021 harvest

I feel surrounded by flowers — lily, lilac, sweet pea, freesia, gardenia, honeysuckle. A very complex, aromatic tea with persistent retronasal action. I did brew this with boiling water as suggested, at least initially, and then dialed it down after the second infusion. The liquor is — I finally get what TDJ refers to as fluid. There’s a bit of weight to it in the mouth but it’s not necessarily thick or oily. It moves around. A little alkaline-umami with a floral bitterness, some drying astringency. In the gripping aftertaste is a fruity, morphing mix of strawberry glaze, sugary peach and vanilla-cream mixed with the heady floral bouquet. Got maybe 7 infusions with long-ish steeping times, last steep produce a pure floral perfume taste-aroma.

The leaf is beautiful. I haven’t seen leaf edges rimmed with oxidation in a while. I like it. And wish I had more to play. I never expected a tea with this strong of a floral bouquet to come out of Japan. Well done!

This is even more baozhong-like than the other oolong I tried — from Sashima, Kanaya-midori cultivar. The cultivar of this one is teased at in the description. It’s probably Qing Xin. Could be Four Seasons, could be Jin Xuan shrug

And another freebie, thank you!

May 4th, 2021 harvest.

I can’t recall ever having a Japanese oolong before.

Thés du Japon likens this tea to a baozhong oolong. I have to agree, though it is much less florally intense than the Taiwanese teas I’ve had of this style.

The dry leaf smells toasty-biscuity with sweet-sour baked fruits, like an apricot-quince compote if I were to imagine one. The aroma of the tea is floral-sugarcane sweet with a creamy lily note.

First cup is smooth and silky, fruity-tangy with a unique sweetness and a spicy catch in the throat; drying with a persistent fruity mango-coconut? aftertaste. As I sip the second cup, I realize the overall taste is not well-defined but is round and rather ethereal, much like a Taiwanese Dayuling I had several years ago. Maybe with that silky mouthfeel it’s like coconut water? With the second steep, I notice a tiny bit of bitterness, however it’s not off-putting. Here is where I am arrested immediately by the intoxicating aroma coming off the wet leaf, the tea itself and also the bottom the cup. Macerated peaches with sugar and lemon sticks sweetly to everything! This carries into the third steep where the tea becomes slatey-mineral, reminding me in a way of how activated charcoal feels. I know that sounds strange but that’s where my mind went. From the fourth infusion on, the tea seems to regain a sense of self beyond the mineral character. The sweet, fruity aroma and aftertaste both carry even into the seventh infusion, where I call it quits.

I’m having a difficult time describing this tea and wish I had more to play around with! Despite this difficulty, it’s a treat of a tea with its aroma, silky mouthfeel and aftertaste. And it handles boiling water with grace, which is always a plus.

Another freebie provided by Thés du Japon, thank you :)

July 5th, 2021 harvest

Dry leaf in the bag has a soft floral sweetness along with a tangy blackberry-raspberry note. Once in hand, it smells very berry-malt with lighter notes of orange and cream, an overlay of freshly washed hair – you know the smell? Warming the leaf is the preview of what is to come — tangy, fresh and clean vibe with tangerine, malt and rosewood.

The citrusy-sweet-tangy aroma is prominent with creamy peach-orange. In the mouth, the taste is very intense but with minimal tannins. A magnificent floral bouquet blooms with tangerine blossom and roses, lingering in the throat and nose. Mixed with that is candied tangerine peel, malt and rosewood, while a mild sweet vanilla-cream taste caresses and softens the bright citrus. Salivation is effusive, and the tangerine blossom and roses persist.

In my last note for a different black tea from TDJ, I said I’d go with my usual steeping parameters for black tea, but for some reason I went with package directions. Very happy with the result. First steep of 5min, second of 8min, now sipping on the third at 15min and it is like drinking candied tangerine peel with a little bit of creaminess on the sip and a very citrusy-fruity tangy aftertaste and sour feeling that becomes buttery once the tea is cold. MMM.

I hope you like this one, Leafhopper!

June 14th, 2021 harvest

This was a sample provided by Thés du Japon in my joint buy with Leafhopper. I prepared it according to TDJ’s parameters, which differ from my usual 3g:300mL:3min for many black teas. TDJ recommends half of my typical water volume, so I opted to use a 200mL Taiwanese black clay teapot and eyeball the water level instead of my usual Western-style mason jar brewing. I have 2 different black clay teapots that hadn’t seen much use until I recently got into Japanese teas. They seem to work very well for these teas and I’m happy they’re getting the attention they deserve!

A powerful Japanese black tea, full of lively tannins but with no heaviness that upsets my body. The woody-floral-spicy aroma carries through into the mouth and presents strongly in retro-olfaction but does not linger for more than a few minutes. I think this is due to the tannic and drying, rather than coating, nature of the tea. The full flavor is malty-rosewoody with lesser dark-fruitiness and soft, warm cinnamon; an apple nuance. A fruity and light, buttery finish presents along with the return of the aroma. I accidentally steeped the second infusion for 15 minutes. It came out rather bitter, reminding me of violet candies, while still presenting some weakened characteristics of the first infusion.

The tea calls to mind the profile of What-Cha’s Taiwan Wild ‘Shan Cha’, the main difference between the two residing in the mouthfeel — this one has plenty of structure provided by the tannins, while the Wild ‘Shan Cha’ exhibits the smooth character of many Taiwanese blacks. This is a lovely black tea that I think would appeal to plenty of people , especially those who like to add a touch of milk, but it is not necessarily something I would seek out. For being grown without chemical pesticides or fertilizers, I’m impressed with the result!

April 22th, 2021 harvest

Dry leaf has a rich, deep green, bittersweet aroma of oshitahsi, fir, green apple and sweet scallops or seafood broth.

This gyokuro has needed some willingness to adapt on my end since I am not acquainted with brewing this style of green tea. A longer initial brew produced a tea that was too intense for my preferences. Being more delicate with timing, I was able to balance the power within these leaves.

The resulting tea has a moderate alkaline quality that when combined with the sweet and mellow umami, very much gives the impression of raw shellfish. The tea hits the tastebuds very rounded. The difficulty in this tea is to describe the way it moves. Maybe I shouldn’t bother describing it and just sit with it.

Haha, that only happens sometimes. It feels like a silky ball of flavor upfront that squishes down low and coats the tongue. Maybe the feel of silken tofu combined with with the feel of carrageenan. Sweet, velvety seafood with a side of oshitashi, a hint of banana. Subsequent infusions bring a more forward wheatgrass taste and bitterness that does not move across the tongue but only appears in the back. The coating quality of the tea is evident in the way the aftertaste slowly develops. It starts mild then becomes very prominently fruity, calling to mind the depth of a buttery nectarine jam.

Read personal ramblings below if you care:

Somebody in my Mandarin class has on occasion made a point of asking what I’m drinking. Tuesday, when I last had this tea, he sent me a private message wanting to know what kind of tea was in my tiny cup. He enjoys green tea but knows little about it, so he wants me to teach him. He said he can’t find anywhere locally to buy high quality, unflavored green teas or teapots, and he’s right. I believe there is a market here for such, since most companies sell flavored teas. I would love to open a Chinese-style tea house similar to Imperial Tea Court in San Francisco that would serve the tea-loving residents of Sonoma County who don’t want to make the drive down to the touristy area of the city to relax over a pot. Where do I get the capital for such an endeavor? Tea farming requires less upfront costs as its more of an organic process. Oh, I just realized I should speak with the owner of the Chinese imports store downtown!

Hot water in a cup (Atlanta airport), few pinches of leaves.

Think about a floral baozhong oolong with deeper low-oxidation black tea tones. Dang pleasant!

April 28th, 2021 harvest, grown without pesticides

Second time this has happened in the middle of typing a glowing review of this tea — backspaced myself out of the pop-up window and lost it all.

In my frustration, I feel like I need some closure so I’m posting a little bit for now:

What a gorgeous Japanese black tea! It blows away all past encounters with Japanese blacks, all of which deeply offended my stomach. This leaf is so clean and pure.

I’ll come back with a full review later after typing it up in another platform :P

April 18/25 2021 harvest

With only a few servings left of the 50g bag, it’s time to attempt some kind of description of this sencha. My multiple notes literally got scattered all over the place and I can only find this one now.

Dry leaf has a lush, deep green aroma. Very fruity, strawberry-pineapple-sakura-pine, sometimes mandarin orange-Asian pear attached to that hyphenation.

Wet leaf smells very meaty, can’t get the idea of Vienna sausages out of my head. I guess that’s the umami revealing itself, much moreso in the wet leaf than in the taste. Dark green wet grass, subdued flowers.

The tea is such a moving mix of flavors and sensations. I find it difficult to sit with the tea but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy drinking it. Active tea means activity. Rich, persimmonsweet flavor. Rather smooth, fruity with a bitter-bright vegetal taste, piney backdrop. Fairly light rounded umami that is not a distinct note or aftertaste. Floral-fruity-bitter-brightgrassy finish. Fruity aftertaste later turns piney-fruity.

There is some bitterness-astringency in the throat that quickly brings about returning sweetness. Cool inhalations, a light chill lines the inner perimeter of my lips. Feels like my body is breathing. Bottom of the cup smells like sakura. Only in later steeps do I notice the cinnamon and vanilla described by Thés du Japon, mostly in the aroma.

I also really like this western brewed. Probably around 1g:100mL, 2-3 min?, 2-3 steeps. It’s so refreshing. Good astringency mixed with gentle cooked white bean and seaweed overtone, butter. Not fruity as prepared in my small clay teapot but I feel like I get hints of it all here and there. Returning sweetness.

A winter harvest bancha tea, heavily roasted. The leaves are large, broken, rustic in appearance with some leaves blackened, burnt even, while others remain olive green. Same goes for the stems which are included in higher proportion than any other Japanese tea I’ve had excluding kukicha or kuki-hojicha.

The easiest way to describe the type of smokiness and other qualities of the tea is to make a comparison. If you could bottle the essence of charred summer squash or chayote and corn husk with stray blackened kernels all with their steaming, gentle nutty-vegetal sweetness, this tea would be it. The liquor is silky smooth and carries the smoke quality with a deft touch across the palate. The char aroma is strong but for me it does not overwhelm at all. I find it comforting, like bringing a part of summer with me into depths of fall.

A refined tea this is not, however I want to say that whoever grew and processed this tea absolutely knows what they are doing. It brews consistently every time with boiling water. It is a functional tea made by a skilled craftsman.

For the price, I can’t think of a cheaper, more reliable tea to drink as I hopefully transition out of a time frame that’s left me questioning my sanity. This tea is gently grounding and refreshing. I am very to grateful to have it at my table.

May 9/14, 2021 harvest, grown without pesticides

It’s been a few weeks since I finished this free sample (thank you to Thés du Japon). I suppose this tea didn’t capture my attention as much as the sample of a sencha also from Hon.yama, Umegashima, that made it into the parcel – https://steepster.com/teas/thes-du-japon/98173-sencha-from-hon-dot-yama-umegashima-tomochi-yabukita-cultivar

I recall this evoking a sensation of the image of vibrant green oxalis growing in damp evergreen forest understory. Sweet, muddled in structure and taste, drying. Heavy in the stomach with a bit of turning, meaning food was needed beforehand.

Is it worth buying a bag to pay more attention to? Maybe if I want to explore Zairai, or indigenous, teas but not at this time. For my tastes, this tea needs to be experimented with.

Wow, I can’t believe I drank through a 100g bag of this green tea in less than a year and a half. It must’ve been good! Bright and refreshing, beautifully bittersweet taste that in my mind tastes like colors such as sunshine yellow, spring yellow-green, pine green and sky blue — as if they were translucent glass.

What made this so great: good body, layered taste, retained its full character over time probably due to being wok-dried. Also, this isn’t picky about water temperature unlike most sencha; it never balked at very hot water from the dispenser at work, just had to reduce steep time a little bit. And finally, $14.32/100g is a great price for the quality as long as you can meet TDJ’s free shipping threshold.

Feeling: coolly medicinal, focused and energetic, emerging from a mountain pine forest into a sunny clearing

Instead of being steamed like modern sencha, kama-iri cha is pan-fried.

May 19th, 2021 harvest

Very robust taste and feeling in the mouth balanced by a dewy cardamom-like sweetness with a touch of astringency. Cooling evergreen forest and fresh medicinal bittersweet herbs layered over a thin, shifting matrix of roasted chestnut and boiled spinach, almost like the forward medicinal character passes through a sheer curtain weaved of pan-fired and vegetal tastes, picking up bits of those flavors as the tea moves through the mouth. There is also a brightness to the tea that I want to liken to citrus but it is not that. Bitterness persists in the back of the mouth; it is not necessarily penetrating, but it is certainly there, giving greater conviction to medicinal notions. The aftertaste shifts from this nature into something floral and vaguely fruity, reminiscent of sakura blossoms. Clean minerality is in the background and becomes evident after the swallow, when the mouth begins to water.

Despite having drank this tea maybe 5 times now, I still find the character elusive. I always feel like I’m on the edge of understanding, which keeps me coming back for more :) It feels like a mountain person, a pine forest hermit strengthened but somewhat burled by nature and who remains under cloak while gathering herbs for a concoction to be simmered over a small fire, in a clearing illuminated by the sun.

It was about dang time to stir up my taste buds and perceptions by exploring Japanese teas, which never really jived with me before. I had been in a tea appreciation slump for a while (several months? half a year?) and these teas from Thés du Japon are doing wonders for me right now.

This tea deserves an abstract impressionistic painting to be made of itself.

I feel like I do not have adequate words, but I will try my best below.

At first notice, the tea is floral forward and upward. The light color of the liquor cloaks a vegetal quality that is round, robust, grounding, deep; neither meek nor overbearing but something that reminds me of a forgotten mossy forest path, providing a springy base to soften one’s step across earth, wood and wet rock. A mild fruity and buttery back-end is revealed on the upper palate once some bitterness in the tonsils and back of the throat subsides, while a simultaneously dewy-sweet and cooling aftertaste presents. The retronasal perfume carries throughout the session. At times, there is a playful brush of astringency in the full body; in other moments the astringency is more prominent, as a light squeeze on the arm would feel. A joy for me as a lover of structure, and most importantly, the way the tea feels in my body.

The generosity of Thés du Japon is much appreciated.

May 23th, 2021 harvest, grown without pesticides

I feel like I’ve stumbled into this moment.

Sencha of the past – no more. This is it. Dive in and learn to swim. A very different experience from drinking Chinese greens. The lexicon I have been using does not apply. Theanine is not the only influence in this perception.

It’s so

You know

A decent sencha but not as amazing as Saemidori Kagoshima green teas I’ve had from O-Cha and Yuuki-Cha in the past. It’s also different from the others in that it appears to be more asamushi like with lots of long needle shaped leaves even though its advertised as a deep steamed sencha. First steep is light and vegetal with a splash of umami. Second infusion is grassier with a touch of astringency. Notes of spinach, cashew, and turnips. The last steep is similar with a generic green flavor.

Not packaged oxygen-free like other Japanese vendors which likely contributed to the less than optimal taste.