Skysamurai Send Message

If tea were music this would be a classical piece. It’s a bit too subtle for the pieces like L’Éloignement but I don’t know if I want to be cliche by saying the rose flavor matches with Vivalid’s Four Seasons Spring. Granted I really do love that piece. If you’ve ever been to Delos, Greece you will especially love this: https://archive.org/details/live-from-delos-vivaldis-the-uncertain-four-seasons

First brew: In a mug. 195F.
Liquor aroma: Creamy. Warm milk with a hint of some type of spice.
Flavor: Woody notes swirling with rose. Hint of cacao.
After taste: Sweetwood.
Mouth feel: Smooth. No astringency.

Gong fu: Currently on my second infusion. My first edit of this post got erased on my phone. _ I will tell you that I do like this tea better as gong fu but both are still very enjoyable. Great woody notes highlighted with rose.

After discovering jasmine tea (mostly teabag) I stumbled upon genmaicha. Not bagged. Through the many years, I’ve tried every category of tea, white, yellow, green, oolong, black (red), and dark, and different flavored, blended, and scented teas and tisanes. And while I have many that rank on my rebuy and keep in the cupboard list there is something about genamicha. Not all genmaicha is made the same either. Many are made from bancha which is harvested later in the season. Which isn’t a bad thing but I often find the bite from a it to be unpleasant. However, ones made with a higher grade sencha… ooo so good.

It also helps that I have been to the shop and I know personally just how special this place is. They grow their own tea and then process it on the adorably small machinery in their shop. They even have a small temomi table!

Dry Appearance: Brown rice with an equal amount of pale green stems and pine green tightly rolled leaves.
Dry Aroma: The first time I opened the bag it was like the kind of genmai had appeared.
Flavor: Rice and slight grass.
Wet Aroma: Slightly toasty brown rice, a bit of coffee,

Dry Leaf aroma: Tightly twisted leaf. Dark brown and dusty with light brown fuzzy twisted buds.
Wet Leaf Aroma: Lightly woody.
Still mostly twisted but a few open fully. Standard pluck of a bud and first two leaves.
Flavor: Dry woods. Desert woods. A bit of leather. Winter squash.

The first infusion was a mug with a bagel. I’m learning you need to drink a really strong tea with bagels. This tea could have used a strong first infusion and it would have been fine but I think I prefer it on its own.

Infusion: gong ful style. cue gannam style song
Either hiw the leaf smells I really believe this will be better gongfu. O_O and it is. First sip was fantastico! Light woody notes nicely balanced with raisin wheat bread in the background. As it steeps longer with each infusion there is a bit of smokiness to it as well.

I’m not enthused about trying this tea. I do not like mixing citrus with green tea. But for the sake of adding to my tasting repertoire… Here we go.
The moment you open the bag, you are hit with citrus notes. It is a bit medicinal but not entirely unpleasant. When the ginko leaves fall off trees, they are quite pungent—almost repulsive—but thankfully, they kept it light in this one. The infusing aroma is lovely. Like citrus on a passionate tropical breeze. There are no steeping instructions on this bag. At one minute the citrus flavor is strongest. As expected. I am curious as to what citrus. Clearly, they used a mix but which ones? Perhaps a smidge of yuzu mixed with a bit of bergamot and key lime rounded off nicely with a whisp of lemon. This would make a nice lemonade. But it is not something I would purchase on the regular.

Michio Nakai comes from humble beginnings and creates amazing tea. Please go read his story. https://www.nakaiorganicteagarden.com/about-us
The dry leaf is incredibly well rolled. After participating in a hand-rolling class in Japan at Obubu Tea I can tell you it is not easy. All the leaves are uniform in color. A beautiful, shiny dark green, tightly rolled. It has the aroma of a gyokuro. A mix of rain, umami, and frozen parmesan cheese. It has an incredibly soft mouth feel. Very filling. The flavor is exactly what one would expect of a tea rolled on a temomi table. Really high in umami with a punch you in the face veggie note.

Dry leaf: medium sized leaf and twigs. Not quite ctc like a tea bag but no full leaf either. A fair amount of Lavender buds sprinkled amongst the tea.
Initial aroma: calming Lavender mixed in the dark woods
The first taste is full of Lavender. And the next and the next. It is too sparkling and fully of Lavender for the base to really have any say. In fact, the base is kind of tasteless. Or at least it was when the liquid was fairly hot. As it cools down the woody flavors start to come out more but the Lavender is still the main character. Almost to the point of being a bully.

We had a rare chance to spend two weeks on the Big Island this year (2024) with both sets of grandparents. We were also able to visit two tea farms. If you ever get to the Big Island be sure to go to the tea farms.
Dry Aroma: A pleasant soft woody note swirled with deep forest berries.
Dry appearance: The bag is lined with golden trichomes. The leaf is twisted tightly. A mix of dark chocolate and light, golden brown.
Initial aroma: Apples. Wood. Cream.
Flavor: Woody with fruity tones. Bits of apple mixed with bits of Nordic berries. The longer it steeps the more it reminds me of a Ceylon with a bit of an astringent punch. Though it is good sipped English style in a mug, I find that it truly shines when it is steeped gong fu style.
Liquor Color: Translucent golden amber.
Wet Leaf Aroma: Bready aroma, and caramel bits with planks of fresh cut cedar.

The mouth feel of this tea is incredible. Firstly, it is silky. Think the finest silk comforter you have ever touched. Second, the way it blankets the tongue. It is very filling.

Smoked and slightly charred sweet potato. Or maybe acorn squash would be closer to what I am tasting. While it has the main attributes of a hojicha, roasty and toasty, it also has a bit of leather, a tad of mahogany, and a bit of roasted nuts.

The dry aroma is a wonderful and fascinating mix of green and roasty notes.

Dry aroma. Slightly fruity. A bit of umami. For some reason, some of these higher-class Japanese green teas also remind me of frozen parmesan. A bit of marine in the undertones too.
Powder Appearance: Vibrant green. Smooth to the touch. Spread nicely under the finger.
The froth is not as good as I was hoping but that could also be due to my lack of skills and letting the water sit for too long while I was smelling the matcha.
Mouthfeel: Smooth. I thought with my lack of skills and forgetting to sieve it that the siltiness would be bad but this is very nice!
Flavor: Umami. Veggies. Starts with slight marine notes but ends quite high.

Not far from the middle of Uji is the Kyoto Prefectural Tea Industry Laboratory. Here they conduct research on camellia sinensis. The institute has a three-way focus. First is innovative research. We toured the facility thanks to the Global Japanese Tea Association and we were able to see some new and innovative machines that are exciting for the tea industry. Second is developing new cultivars, which they have two new ones so far. Third is the creation of new tea farmers. They do this in two different ways: 1. They educate the children of tea farmers in a one-year program. 2. An entrepreneurial two-year program.

I’m not sure if this place is open to the public as there is a lot going on there that is hush hush and honestly if it were me working there I wouldn’t want to deal with the public while researching… Anyway… call before going.

When I first opened the bag I was blown away by the aroma. It is calming down now. Just really goes to show you how fragile Japanese green tea is. But I mean that in a good way. Kind of like you wouldn’t leave ice cream in your car in the summer, these teas are to be appreciated sooner and in the correct way. Mine is forming small caffeine crystals as well. ^^;
Water is set to about 140 F. First, we will pour water into our cup and then into the kyusu. The aroma is divine. Umami, vegetal, and bits of marine notes. IT says to wait three minutes but at one minute it is so silky smooth and full of umami and veggie notes. No astringency. A slight hint of astringency but nothing face-kicking as it hits the 3-minute mark. A lot more umami and the mouthfeel is still incredibly soft and filling.

If you ever visit Uji be sure to visit his shop. I was blown away. I am a big fan.
https://en.nihonchaseikatsu.com/introduce/yamamotojinjirou/