I first brewed this like a sencha and was extremely disappointed. It lacked character and tasted more fishy than I expected. So I researched Gyokuro preparation and tried again and I’m glad I did.
The next time I used more tea (1g per 30ml of water) and a lower temperature at 65C.
This was much better. A lot of the subtlety that I was expecting now shone through. Subsequent infusions were also quite good with the second being the best overall.
It’s vegetal and has hints of grassiness, with a very slight (enjoyable) taste of seaweed compared to the overly fishy taste from my first attempt. I got a bit of the buttery mouth feel that others report, but not quite as much as I expected.
In general I prefer Chinese greens and Oolongs to Japanese green teas, but this one is pretty good.
Now the catch is that this tea is extremely expensive. I honestly don’t think it’s worth the price and I would not pay out of pocket unless it was discounted by at least 50%. However, since DAVIDsTEA introduced their loyalty rewards frequent steeper program (yay!) I get free 50g bags of tea quite often. As a freebie it’s great!
So the bottom line for me is that this tea is quite good but not amazing and I wouldn’t recommend it for purchase at full cost. It’s certainly enjoyable when prepared properly but as an ultra-premium offering it falls short.
Flavors: Butter, Grass, Seaweed, Vegetal
