Yamane-En: Sugabow, Gyokuro Karigane Hojicha

Tea type
Green Tea
Ingredients
Hojicha
Flavors
Cedar, Nutty, Toasty, Caramel, Autumn Leaf Pile, Cinnamon, Roasted, Wood, Roasted Nuts, Smoke, Sweet, Toasted Rice, Tobacco, Umami, Bitter, Burnt Sugar, Cocoa, Coffee, Sugar, Fireplace, Forest Floor, Rooibos, Seaweed
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Kawaii433
Average preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 1 min, 0 sec 5 g 6 oz / 166 ml

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11 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Drank this for the monthly sipdown challenge: April 5th, National Caramel Day! Ended my day with this tea, as it’s the closest thing I have to a caramel flavored tea. The roasty notes really sing...” Read full tasting note
    88
  • “Last weekend my sister was visiting, and the weather was so nice that we went and had tea in the park. This was the tea I brought along, which we steeped out in my shiboridashi until the hot water...” Read full tasting note
    83
  • “Thank you, Derk :D Was getting close to midnight and decided for a low caffeine option. Still working hard at getting some tea off my shelf so I can buy more without having that overwhelming...” Read full tasting note
    90
  • “This tea was a new experience for me and I can’t wrap my thoughts around it. Very complex and different from the Obubu Dark Roast Houjicha I bought from What-Cha. I can say I really enjoyed this...” Read full tasting note

From Yunomi

Stems of high grade tea is called karigane 雁音. By roasting these stems in an iron pot, it becomes Karigane Houjicha. This particular product uses gyokuro tea stems from Uji, Kyoto.

How is this karigane houjicha different from regular houjicha? The answer is in the strength of fire. Usually, houjicha is roasted over an extremely low heat. In this way, the tea will not be burnt but roasted to the core of the teas. However, the flavor of the tea is lost through this process, leaving behind only the aroma.

This karigane houjicha is roasted in an iron pot over strong heat. Only the surface of the stems are roasted, retaining the flavor of the tea itself, because the inner part of the stem is not roasted. Both the strong aroma and taste of tea can be enjoyed.

The water color is a bit cloudy compared to regular houjicha with clear water color, but this cloudy water color is the flavor of tea.

About Yunomi View company

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11 Tasting Notes

88
114 tasting notes

Drank this for the monthly sipdown challenge: April 5th, National Caramel Day!

Ended my day with this tea, as it’s the closest thing I have to a caramel flavored tea. The roasty notes really sing when they meet the sweet caramel body of this brew. I got three different new hojichas to try with my latest Yunomi purchase, so they have some big shoes to fill when I finish this tea. If they aren’t up to snuff, I will absolutely re-order this one. Price of postage be damned!

Flavors: Caramel

ashmanra

I saw your thank you on the sipdown challenge thread but didn’t want to mess up your layout by responding there! I am glad you are enjoying these! It was fin coming ip with them and I have at least one year’s worth still to go, so maybe it can keep going next year, too. At this rate, I will NOT be meeting my goal…ha ha!

MiepSteep

Thank YOU for making these fun prompts! I always look forward to the next month’s set of prompts towards the end of the current month. It really has helped me think critically about my tea stash and given me things to think of when choosing what to drink next. That thread is one of the things holding Steepster together! Keep it up!!

derk

mmm this is a good houjicha indeed!

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83
1216 tasting notes

Last weekend my sister was visiting, and the weather was so nice that we went and had tea in the park. This was the tea I brought along, which we steeped out in my shiboridashi until the hot water from the thermos was out. As my focus was my sister and not the tea, I didn’t take any session notes.

Very different weather today — rain! — but it also puts me in the mood for hojicha, so I steeped up a couple cups for my work thermos. 5g for 500ml 195F water, steeped 3 minutes western-style.

The dry leaf has a strong “freshly cut” cedar wood sort of aroma, with the vaguest hint of cinnamon. The steeped liquor is a lovely deep brown, somewhere between maple syrup and coffee in shade.

Has a lovely fresh woody flavor, trending to a sweet nutty taste at the end of the sip. Also a mild autumn leaf flavor. A nice roasty tea for a dreary day.

Flavors: Autumn Leaf Pile, Cedar, Cinnamon, Nutty, Roasted, Wood

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec 5 g 17 OZ / 500 ML
Evol Ving Ness

Do you use the same shiboridashi for several types of tea or only for hojicha?

Mastress Alita

All types, since it isn’t made of clay. (For fine, small leaf, like many green teas, I have to pour through a strainer).

Evol Ving Ness

Thank you. I am wondering just how much tea ware I need. An endless supply, apparently.

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90
379 tasting notes

Thank you, Derk :D

Was getting close to midnight and decided for a low caffeine option. Still working hard at getting some tea off my shelf so I can buy more without having that overwhelming feeling of having too much on my shelf. Good luck, right? hehe

The golden sticks (stems) after the first infusion smelled like roasted nori, sweet tobacco. The cloudy, dark amber liquor produced infusions that had a toasty sweet flavor, along with roasted rice, umami, roasted malt and nuts, and smokey notes.

The site suggested 5 grams, 60s, 194°F, 200 ml. I went with a little more concentrated preparation of 5g, 100ml, beginning at 194°F (and later ramping up the temperature), 7 steeps, no rinse, 15s, 20s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 65s, 90s. The first couple of quick infusions introduced the roasted rice, fresh sweetness, bright notes, and at the end, I used close to boiling water for the longer infusions, the result was darker notes of roasted nuts, caramel-like, a different type of sweetness, more intense sweetness. Throughout all the infusions, the bitterness was at a perfect level of enjoyment. Mellow, smooth, calming, satisfying.

Note: Still a lot of flavor, I’ll probably keep drinking this throughout the night. It’s really good :D. Also, I’m biased… I grew up on Japanese tea so take that into consideration. ^^

Flavors: Caramel, Roasted Nuts, Smoke, Sweet, Toasted Rice, Tobacco, Umami

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 0 min, 15 sec 5 g 3 OZ / 100 ML
derk

We have a winner! I’m glad you were able to put a nice description together to capture the experience of this comforting tea. Togo introduced me to it :)

Kawaii433

+1 for Togo then hehe. It’s a good one! Thank you for sharing it with me. I keep drinking it because I don’t want it to go quite yet. It hurt to “remove” it off my cupboard. lol

derk

You’re welcome.

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1541 tasting notes

This tea was a new experience for me and I can’t wrap my thoughts around it. Very complex and different from the Obubu Dark Roast Houjicha I bought from What-Cha. I can say I really enjoyed this following Togo’s parameters in his latest review of this tea. I also simmered the leaves for 10 minutes to produce a mug of smooth, roasty and pleasantly bitter tea this morning. Want more, that’s all I really know. Thank you, Togo.

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 0 min, 30 sec 4 g 2 OZ / 59 ML
Mastress Alita

Oh, I think I have this one from one of my past Yunomi orders but haven’t tried it yet. I’ll have to look and give it a try.

Togo

Glad you liked it, I was saving some for you at the bottom of my pack, since I really like it too and it’s somewhat special. I haven’t seen the same kind of tea anywhere else.

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89
943 tasting notes

I feel like the more I drink this tea, the more I like it. It fares well with various different parameters. This time I tried a high leaf/water ratio and cooler temperature for first two steeps. Namely, 1st steep at 80°C, 2nd at 86°C, 3rd straight off the boil and 4th was a 10 minute simmer, now my standard ending of Hojicha sessions.

All infusions were very thick, but also very different from each other. It started off mild and roasty, yet complex and finished with a dark woody brew with competing coffee bitterness, green tea astringency and caramel sweetness.

Flavors: Caramel, Cedar

Preparation
175 °F / 79 °C 0 min, 30 sec 6 g 3 OZ / 80 ML

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89
296 tasting notes

This is one of the best Hojichas I have ever had. It’s not pedestrian stuff, it took me two different times to get used to it. It’s slightly smoky, slightly sweet as it cools and roasted and toasty to it’s core. I highly recommend cooking with it! I made some bomb pork chops with it.
I had some the other night with my man, and he likened it to ‘you know, schwag weed.’ which may be completely accurate.

Full fancy review:
http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/04/20/yamane-en-sugabou-gyokuro-karigane-houjicha-green-tea-yunomi/

Liquid Proust

Gyokuro hojicha…. yum!

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