Thés du Japon

Received a sample of this tea with my Thes du Japon order. This is a good sencha, albeit atypical for a fukamushi. It’s not super grassy like deep steamed sencha tends to be but instead leans more towards gyokuro with its pale yellowish-green liquor and savory, umami flavor.

Dry leaf smells of raspberries and a freshly mowed lawn. Wet leaf smells of spinach. The first infusion is gyokuro-like with a rich umami flavor and light, earthy grassiness. Faint hints of blackberries and pine nuts as it cools. A deeper green flavor and color emerge in the second steep. More grass, umami, and steamed spinach notes with white pepper in the finish. The tea begins mellowing by the third steep yet still has a bright green flavor and a bit of sweetness.

This sencha has quickly become one of my favorites. The dry leaves have a strong, sweet scent. It makes me look forward to opening the package each time I prepare this tea. The tea itself is sweet and refreshing with a pleasant grassy flavor. I highly recommend this tea!

The dry leaf is composed of small slivers of leaf that are a deep, dark shade of green with incredible vibrancy. There are spots where a light, neon green comes shining through. There is a very beany scent to the dry leaf with hints of oceanic smells, such as sea salt and seaweed.

After brewing for 90 seconds at 50 degrees celsius, the liquor is a pretty, springy shade of light green. The taste of this first infusion is heavily vegetal with just the slightest hint of that sweetness gyokuros are known for.

After flash brewing at the same temperature for the second infusion, the liquor changes to a deep, murky green. This is when the deliciousness really shines through. There is an overwhelming sweet sea of flavor. Strong initial umami gives way to a sweet tartness as the liquid travels to the throat. This leaves a juicy mouthfeel with an aroma of peaches and green apples. The effect of this tea on the mind and body is strong. It’s like getting a brain massage that energizes you with every sip, sinking you deeper and deeper into it’s fresh flavor. This stays consistent for the remainder of infusions.

Cultivar: Yubukita
Harvest: May 2015 1st spring harvest
Water Temp: 70C
Brewing Time: 60s
Brewed tea leaves look bright green, smell of grass and vegetables.
Taste is sweet and slight savoury-taste-veggies, astringent but refreshing
Note: tea leaves will expand from 2nd brew, better to use houhin bigger than 60ml
https://www.instagram.com/p/BAPI8amI-O4/?taken-by=esung123

This is a nice, clean, sweet asamushi – style. The brew is light and thin, with a note that reminds me of cherry blossom.

Leaves are peachy and sweet. After brewing then we have broccoli water, vegetal like with a vanilla backdrop and a bit of extra saltiness as it ends.

Very clean and straight-forward, not at all vegetal, not very sweet either.

Best brewing conditions: 80 C / 1 min; 80 C / 30 sec; 85 C/ 1.30 min.
Leaves with roasted aroma,smell of vegetables and sea.
First infusion similar smell than the tea leaves. Complex, well defined but smooth flavour with touch of umami, vegetables, … Initially a slight astringency that evolves towards a sweetish complex flavours, that leaves an agreeable aftertaste.
The second infusion shows similar characteristics than the first, but smoother.
The infusions are yellow-dark Orange, transparent and dense.
The tea is not very delicate to steep and consistently gives delicious cups day after day.

Steeping conditions.
Quantity of leaves: 5,5 g. Water: 70 C. Steeping time: 1 min, 10 sec. Steeped in a kyusu.
Infusion of golden colour, opaque and dense that smells to flowers like the leaves in the teapot. Rich and sweet flavour with a light aftertaste.
The first stepping was consistently easy to prepare.

10g / 180ml Banko-yaki kyusu, water from kunzan tetsubin.
Multiple infusions.

1m/5s/5s @ 80C
10s/15s/15s @ 85C

Nice sensha, however first infusion had a little to much astringancy. will do 45s next time.
Was nice to use my tetsubin warmer with a teacandle in it. The light it casts is beutiful in an otherwise dark room!
Good times!

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.

I found this tea somewhat thin compared to some of Thes du Japon’s Kamairicha offerings this season. The well rounded autumnal roasted chestnut flavor is weaker than usual, and replaced with a somewhat unpleasant (to me) peatiness. The body is thinner than normal and an unfamiliar bitterness is present. This contrasts with the approaching-perfection “Kamairi cha from Takachiho” from the same company. It could be due to my preparation choice of lower temperature.

This tea has a slight smokiness and earthiness I am not accustomed to in Matcha. I found it to be missing some classic flavor I was expecting, but it is unique and delicious in its own right.

This Sencha was highly satisfying. Very well balanced in terms of butteriness and bitterness. Attempts with cooler water did not prove satisfactory.

This is an interesting tea. Maybe I haven’t found the temperature/leaf ratio hot spot yet, but the major taste I get is like raw tea leaves.

This Kamairicha is on par with the best I have tasted. Extremely well balanced (maybe due to the blend?), it has everything I look for in a tea of this type: roasted chestnut/sweet potato aroma, umami finish, bitterness to counterbalance the sweet scent. Definitely recommend it.

Had another go this morning.
8g / 200ml glaspot.
Three infusions @ 100C
50s/1:15m/2m

I can help but taste oregano, maybe its because of the apperance of the leaves. Looks similar.
The taste is a mix of cinnamon and sharp herbal flavours with a slight astringency. It is very different to other japanese blacks.
Im actually lowering the score somewhat because it dissapoints if you like the usual japanese black tea flavour. and it cant stand up to a good darjeeling neither.

Ran out of Fuji black tea. So the time came to open up a bag of this interesting tea.

7g / 200ml glaspot
One infusion for 1m @100C.

I overslept this morning so only had time for 1 infusion.
This japanese black was a bit different.
The usual cinnamon flavor is there but with a mix of slight astringency and tones of mor classic black teas like a darjeeling second flush.

Will have to try a few more infusions before i can discern better the many flavours.

It is very good at the least :)

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!

10g / 180ml Banko-yaki kyusu, water from Kunzan tetsubin.
1:15/0:05/0:05/0:05 @ 65C

Next time will be a sipdown of this most exellent sensha.
4th infusion started to get a bit weaker so will do 10s 4th and onward.

Infusions are very clear, taste is clean and veggietasting a hint of grass. Also i think i tasted something in the sweetness like vanilla?

Perhaps i will go for a deep steamed sensha next? Although Gyokuro is a whole lot better! :D

10g / 180ml banko-yaki kyusu

This time i used the recommended amount of leaf.
This gave a much more potent brew! The liquid is still very clear, light green.
Packed full of flavour with the slightest astringency.

Pure joy!

6g / 180ml banko-yaki kyusu.

4 Infusions
1:15m/5s/5s/5s 65-75C

Recently finished the exellent organic Mie sencha and although im stocked up with more :) felt id open up this new sencha.

First i noticed the leaves. Very long with a nice fragrant smell of grass (the good kind ^^)
The liquid was very clear with a light smooth feel to it. Flavours of vegetable and grassy notes. VERY pleasant although a bit to weak.

Recommended amount of leaves is 4g/70ml, in my pot that would be 10g.
Next time i will try 8g and see what happens. But i can imagine a large amount is needed because these large leaf do not infuse very quickly.