Kirameki no Sencha

Tea type
Green Tea
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Edit tea info Last updated by Cameron B.
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 0 min, 30 sec

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3 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Obubu seems to have a fairly unique approach when it comes to the green tea market. There are other tea farmers (like Hibiki-an) that sell directly to consumers, but Obubu sells all of its tea as...” Read full tasting note
    85
  • “Such an interesting tea, quite good flavors and a light peppery aroma. I have been working my way through my sample pack from Obubu, and thought I would make this one today as it is so very warm...” Read full tasting note
    86
  • “I got the sampler from Obubu. I went for this tea first, since it was perfect for making into iced tea. The leaves are very interesting. They are very rough looking. I brewed the recommended away....” Read full tasting note
    80

From Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms

Named for because it is so delicious as iced tea, in Japanese, Kirameki no Sencha or きらめきの煎茶, carries the nuance of shimmering light as it dances on and through cool, refreshing water. As such, the leaves produce tea that is light and refreshing, perfect as a cool drink to quench your thirst on hot summer days.

Grown on a south facing hillside, the fields have good exposure to the sun and wind. Combining the strong summer sun, more mature leaves, and the two-week covering technique used in producing Kabuse Sencha, the characteristic of Kirameki no Sencha leaves is that its sweetness is light and refreshing.

Product name: Kirameki no Sencha
Ingredients: 100% aracha from Wazuka, Kyoto
Tea plant: Yabukita plants, about 25 years old
Cultivation notes: Covered for 14 days before harvesting with tarp to reduce 85% of sunlight reaching the leaves
Harvest period: July
Processing notes: light steaming (about 25 seconds)
Product size: 1 bag (24.5 x11.5 x2.0 cm / 9.65 x4.53 x0.79 in)
Weight of contents: 100 g / 3.53 oz
Producer: Akihiro Kita
Expiration: Good for 6 months from shipment
Storage: Seal tightly and refrigerate

About Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms View company

It started with a single cup of tea. As the legend goes, our president Akihiro Kita, or Akky-san, visited Wazuka, Kyoto one fateful day. At the time, Akky-san was still a college student in search for life's calling. After trying the region's famous Ujicha (literally meaning tea from the Uji district), he immediately fell in love and his passion for green tea was born. He had finally found what he was looking for in that one simple cup of tea. After fifteen years of learning to master the art of growing tea from tea farmers in Wazuka, Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms was born and as they say, the rest is history. So what's an Obubu? Obubu is the Kyoto slang for tea. Here in the international department we call ourselves Obubu Tea. That's "Tea Tea" for the bilinguals. We love tea so much, we just had to have it twice in our name. Now Obubu means more than just tea to us. It means, family, friends, passion and the place we call home. More than just tea. Though the roots of Obubu stem from tea, it has become more than that over the years. Obubu is an agricultural social venture, operating with three (1) bring quality Japanese tea to the world (2) contribute to the local and global community through tea (3) revitalize interest in tea and agriculture through education.

3 Tasting Notes

85
280 tasting notes

Obubu seems to have a fairly unique approach when it comes to the green tea market. There are other tea farmers (like Hibiki-an) that sell directly to consumers, but Obubu sells all of its tea as aracha, which is unsorted tea. I don’t know a whole lot about it, but my understanding is that most of the green teas on the market have been sifted by machines by their size, and then once sifted, expertly blended with several other lots to come up with one unique, but consistent product (ie, if you know how to blend teas to achieve a desired taste, you can have the product taste the same every year no matter how good or poor the harvest is that year or other factors that come in to play).
Obubu, on the other hand, seems to distinguish their different products by where in the fields they grow them, and by which harvest (and method of growing, of course). I would guess that this can lead to a lot of variation in the product from year to year. The better the harvest, the better all of their products will be, and vice-versa.

I’m no expert, so that is just a guess.

Along those same lines, this is a cool, pretty unique tea. This is a 2nd harvest sencha, yet, it is covered for the last 2 weeks like a 1st harvest kabuse or gyokuro would be. If they didn’t cover it, I’m sure the flavor profile would be the nearly indistinguishable from their Sencha of the Summer Sun.

Enough rambling.
I did the first brewing with 40 degree water (5oz for the whole 5g sample) for 14 minutes. It tasted like a non-sweet gyokuro; lots of marine aroma and flavor, a little grassyness, maybe some hints of sweet.

The next steep was with boiling water for just 25 seconds. The wet leaf smelled a little peppery, and then was full of fruity notes just like a green oolong. I really liked that, and hoped that the cup would contain some of those oolong-like fruit flavors, as it would have been very unique.
The tea itself wasn’t bitter at all, nor astringent. None of the marine or nori flavors from the last brew were left. Instead, for some reason I tasted chocolate oranges. I’m not sure if the chocolate flavor was really there, but the orange flavor certainly was. This flavor wasn’t sour like citrus; but, again, like the orange flavor you get when you have a piece of orange-flavored chocolate. The body of the flavor didn’t taste like the fruity oolong the leaf smelled like. Other than the orange note, it was slightly sweet and grassy, but not a lot of depth.

I wonder if aracha is the reason I’ve felt like none of Obubu’s teas have had a lot of depth. There have been good/interesting flavors, and I have certainly liked a few of the teas, but many of them have seemed good at the beginning of the sip, only to give out towards the end and not leave any kind of aftertaste or aroma in the mouth.

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 15 sec

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86
134 tasting notes

Such an interesting tea, quite good flavors and a light peppery aroma.
I have been working my way through my sample pack from Obubu, and thought I would make this one today as it is so very warm and humid. I followed their recommended brewing instructions, using my kyusu to hold the entire 5 gram sample. Nice grassy fragrance to the dry leaves, and mix of leaf size as this is aracha (unsorted) tea straight from the farm.

1st steep: 30 seconds at 185F, yields a really nice light emerald green liquid, with slightly peppery aroma to the wet leaves. I can’t resist drinking this hot, saving the second steep for “iced” tea. It has a really nice vegetal taste, with more spinach flavors and grassy undertones. No kelpiness, just a real nice earthy green flavor.
2nd steep: quick 15 second steep at 185F, then poured over ice. This is truly where this tea shines. It tastes amazingly good, refreshing and ‘sparkling’ — but definitely not too sweet. It is beautifully clear, and an appealing gold-green.

I am cold brewing the remaining leaves to see if I can stretch this sample, not only because I am frugal, but because I am really liking this tea! This one is going on my shopping list…

Preparation
185 °F / 85 °C 0 min, 30 sec

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80
335 tasting notes

I got the sampler from Obubu. I went for this tea first, since it was perfect for making into iced tea. The leaves are very interesting. They are very rough looking. I brewed the recommended away. It’s very thick tasting, so I added more ice. It has a nice, strong flavor. I chugged the sample in less than 2 minutes. Rebrews 2 more times.

It seemed lightly grassy. I would drink this again, though I am more interested in what else they have to offer.

Preparation
Boiling 0 min, 30 sec

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