Bought this tea recently from Yunomi when they had their sale 35% off. As this is normally about $68 I probably would not have bought it at full price. It is quite good as gyokuros go. It is a mixture of sweet and umami taste. The umami is ever present but not too powerful. This is not in my opinion a really complex tea having really two notes that I picked up. It is good though. Yunomi is currently sold out of this one. They recommend a first steep of 50 degrees centigrade but as my electric kettle doesn’t have any setting that low I just went with 175 degrees Farenheit.
I steeped this three times with 7.4g leaf in a 360ml Kyusu teapot with 175 degree water. I steeped it for 1 min, 1.5 min, and 2 min. The brewed tea was a very light green in color, the leaves were bright green in color. This is easily one of the best gyokuros I have had but I have only tasted a few.
Flavors: Sweet, Umami
When I brew some of these Japanese greens that ask for really low temps (My kettle goes down to 150, but sometimes they say 140 or even 120F), I will get my kettle to the lowest temp it can do, then pour it into my teacup or some other vessel before pouring it into the pot to lower the temperature a little bit.
I could have done that but I just didn’t think of that at the time. Also it would not have gotten the temp down enough from the minimum 160 degrees of my kettle.
Wow, that is pricey tea.
To me, matcha is so intensely umami and sweet, that loose leaf green tea seems watery in comparison? Is there something about loose leaf Japanese greens I’m missing out on that matcha doesn’t have?