Organic Miyazaki Tokujo Kamairicha

If memory serves me right, this is the first Kamairicha I’ve had in any significant amount. Its character is an interesting mix of Japanese and Chinese style (think Laoshan) green teas.

The first time I drank the tea, I followed a recommendation I found online for the parameters, but I found it to be a bit overbrewed. Today I started slightly lighter and it yielded better results. Namely, the parameters I used were: 45s, 72°C / 15s, 82°C / 30s, 80°C / 45s, 85°C / 75s, 85°C / 2min, 90°C / …

One of the nice things about fresh green teas is the range of aromas they display, which is definitely the case here. Dry leaves smell of corn, toasted rice and grass at first and then in a preheated gaiwan I notice more of a bready scent with notes of thistles and sugarcane as well. On the other hand, during the session, the wet leaf aroma has a strong chicken broth character with a lot of vegetal notes such as celery, broccoli, squash and green beans. Empty cup aroma is then more on the milky and floral side of the spectrum.

The taste is quite savoury with a nice bitterness and biting astringency that can last a while. First infusion is more buttery and citrusy than later ones that become more grassy and sweet. There are flavours such as those of fiddlehead fern, yeast, spinach, green apple and others appearing throughout the session. The body is medium to full and the mouthfeel cooling and on the oily side. It takes a while until the sweetness properly takes over the aftertaste, but it does so eventually.

I’m baaak. Took a little break from tea during a week long excursion to So-Cal where I indulged in fancy California coffee. I used to be a coffee geek way back in the day before I got into tea and still appreciate a good cup o’ joe. However I can never be away from tea for too long and brought along a few tea bags filled with loose tea for easy brewing during my journey. This was one of them.

This is my second kamairicha from Yuuki-Cha. I’ve grown to love pan-fired Japanese greens which have earned a permanent spot in my regular rotation of teas. The flavor profile reminds me a lot of another favorite, Laoshan green tea. This one not only resembled Laoshan tea with its notes of soymilk but also had some Korean Sejak-like sweet corn and toasted rice along with notes of spinach, lemongrass, and green bean. It’s a little sensitive to water temperature though and can impart a grapefruit like bitterness when pushed beyond 170 F. Keeping it in cold storage for a little while had some interesting effects on the tea. There is an unexpected gaoshan like frutiness now and floral hints that weren’t there before.

I’d rank this slightly below the other two kamairichas, mainly due to the sporadic bitterness but it’s a delicious green tea in its own right and an excellent daily drinker.

Well, I did something really stupid today. Shopping at a Chinese Food Market I picked up grocery store sencha. Why oh why? Got it home, opened it and tried it and it smelled and tasted bad. What was I expecting? You only get what you pay for. Oh well. One of those bad decisions.

However, buying this tea was not a bad decision. Buying this was a VERY GOOD decision. The name is almost the same as the tea I loved from last year but the Tokujo in the name is different. It runs a little cheaper than that expensive tea (which I did buy too). This tea is very buttery and has a definite floral taste in the first 2 infusions. After that it’s just buttery & smooth. Very little astringency in this one compared to other Japanese greens. Did 3 infusions 30sec, 2 sec, 5 sec

So I’ve tried 2 out of the 4 teas I got from Yuuki-Cha and they are both great.