Fukamushi Sencha Yamaga no Sato

After reading others’ descriptions of this tea as very astringent, I decided to take the vendor’s advice and cold brew this fukamushi sencha. I don’t usually do cold brewing, as it doesn’t produce as much tea as hot steeping, but avoiding bitterness and bringing out the fruit were good enough reasons for me. I steeped 5 g of leaf in a 700 ml teapot using cold water for around 4 hours, then resteeped the leaves for over 12 hours.

The dry aroma is of spinach, kale, umami, apple, and papaya. Though the tea is still vegetal, it isn’t as astringent as I suspect it would be hot. I get notes of spinach, kale, grass, umami, beans, butter, apple, and faint papaya. I still wouldn’t describe it as particularly fruity. The tea is smoother than the two hot fukamushi senchas I’ve had, with a thicker body. The longer second steep produced a pleasant grassy, vegetal tea with no fruit and little character, so I think it’s best to cold steep it only once.

Dry Aroma: Sweetgrass. One of my favorite tea scents. The aroma changes very quickly as it moves from freshly opened to mixing with the air.
Appearance: Dark green with a few light greens. A few long needles but mostly smaller pieces.
Liquor aroma: Mouth watering. Slightly brothy. Some what grassy.
Wet leaf: Mushy. Green.
Flavor: This tea is like a 2-year-old. Watch it or you’re going to have a mess. Within 10 seconds it quickly switches from this creamy sweet grass with a silky mouthfeel to a raging toddler with astringency and strong grass notes.

NIO Advent 2023: Quick brewing in a shiboridashi is a thing of art. And I am an amateur. The amount of water is very small so the steep time is quite quick. Many of the same notes. Though I do think this one shines brighter with a higher amount of water. Could also be the 3 canker sores speaking…

Nio Teas Advent Calendar 2022 – Day 23 (2/2)

Woah, this one really smacks you in the mouth ha ha.

It has a very powerful and intense vegetal flavor with notes of spinach and kale, perhaps a bit of squash in there as well. Quite a bit of umami here. There’s some fresh grassiness midsip, and also a touch of bitterness creeps in, then some astringency pops up at the end of the sip, along with more grassy notes and apple skin.

The description mentions fruity notes, and I do get just a touch of the papaya near the end of the sip. As a rule I seem to have trouble finding fruity notes in Japanese green teas for some reason…

Very nice tea, especially when you need a kick in the pants! :P

Hmm, I have received a sample quite long ago. But week or so ago I have received an e-mail from the company how I liked it. Honestly I have to say I forgot a bit about this one and I can not remember it much. So I took it once again (few last leaves) and writing this review.

If you are reading this Will – it is because of you! (No offence)

On small resealable bag (as just a sample) there is 60°, 1-1.5 min. I had to buy a thermometer as I don´t want to ruin tea like this one. So, first steep – 1.25 min, 58°C or something, 1 tea spoon, 250 ml mug, ball strainer. (I need a proper teaware)

Appearance: cloudy, light green, with lots of “dust” of tea, I guess my strainer mesh is not fine enough. So it looks bit like matcha on the bottom.

Aroma and taste: Honestly, very complex. Spinach, flowers, lots of Umami. Aromas are almost same, but add a freshly cut grass. It also smells like meadow.

Ahh, I think I love it! (Keeping 100 for something really extra)

Let´s make second brew now.

Second brew is very similar: Color is more vivid, so does tastes and aromas.