Gyokuro Cha Meijin

Tea type
Green Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Asparagus, Butternut Squash, Creamy, Earth, Floral, Grass, Green, Red Apple, Spinach, Sunflower Seed, Sweet, Umami, Vegetal, Crisp, Green Apple, Salad Greens, Squash, Wheatgrass
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Medium
Certification
Organic
Edit tea info Last updated by Cameron B.
Average preparation
140 °F / 60 °C 2 min, 0 sec 5 g 6 oz / 179 ml

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4 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Very smooth after first long 2 min steeping. Surprisingly no bitterness. Good to the last sip – which came quickly after relatively low 140F first steeping.” Read full tasting note
    80
  • “NIO Advent Tea Nice glossy leaves. Deep green. Umami, grassy aroma. Initial aroma of summer florals and a hint of gardenia. Going to do many quick infusions with this one. This is very gentle...” Read full tasting note
    68
  • “What luck! After my recent positive experience with this cultivar, I found another Saemidori tea in my pile of Nio samples, this time a gyokuro. I steeped 5 g of leaf in a 150 ml pot using 140F...” Read full tasting note
    84
  • “Nio Teas Advent Calendar 2022 – Day 24 (3/3) The last one! This is quite light for a gyokuro, though it does have those nice rich and intense vegetal notes, paired with plenty of umami. It’s also...” Read full tasting note

From Nio Teas

Coming from the cultivar of Saemidori, this Gyokuro has a very gentle sweet taste while being complex at the same time. In the top note, a hint of hazelnut is followed by butternut in a well-developed sweet note of Umami making space for a full-bodied character of fresh vegetables. In all its different tasting notes this tea is very balanced and lingers for a long time after the first sip.

This tea is grown in Kagoshima Japan on the small farm of the Sakamoto family. Because Mr. Sakamoto specializes in Gyokuro, he shades the tea plants for 3 weeks prior to the harvest, in order to boost the levels of theanine, caffeine and chlorophyll. This also creates a sweeter and more savory flavor in the tea. The soil on the farm of Mr. Sakamoto is incredibly soft, due to the diversity of flora and fauna on the field which loosens up the soil. This soft soil allows the roots to penetrate deeper into the ground and absorb more nutrients.

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4 Tasting Notes

80
4 tasting notes

Very smooth after first long 2 min steeping. Surprisingly no bitterness. Good to the last sip – which came quickly after relatively low 140F first steeping.

Preparation
5 g 8 OZ / 236 ML

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68
1285 tasting notes

NIO Advent Tea
Nice glossy leaves. Deep green. Umami, grassy aroma. Initial aroma of summer florals and a hint of gardenia. Going to do many quick infusions with this one. This is very gentle compared to the previous gyokuro. It says two minutes but I really felt like 1 minute was tops. When steeped longer there is a flavor I just don’t enjoy. Yes, it is also bitter but something about the flavor just puts me off. Second steeping needs very quick steeps. I guess I’m just not impressed with this one.

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84
440 tasting notes

What luck! After my recent positive experience with this cultivar, I found another Saemidori tea in my pile of Nio samples, this time a gyokuro. I steeped 5 g of leaf in a 150 ml pot using 140F water for 120, 20, 20, 30, 40, 60, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of apples, squash, sunflower seeds, florals, and grass. The first steep has notes of starchy butternut squash, apples, slight florality, sunflower seeds, grass, and spinach. The tea is quite thick and has no astringency. The next steep brings more creamy squash and red apple, with a bit more greenness. Steeps three to five introduce asparagus, more spinach and grass, and some earthiness. I accidentally left the tea too long and got apple again, along with mild veggies, umami, and sweetness. The tea really never gets bitter and fades gently into sweet veggies and grass.

As Cameron pointed out, this is a very soft gyokuro that’s sweeter and less green/astringent than most Japanese green teas I’ve tried. The squash is a little weird, but it was more unexpected than anything else. Saemidori is turning out to be a winner for me!

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Flavors: Asparagus, Butternut Squash, Creamy, Earth, Floral, Grass, Green, Red Apple, Spinach, Sunflower Seed, Sweet, Umami, Vegetal

Preparation
140 °F / 60 °C 2 min, 0 sec 5 g 5 OZ / 150 ML

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4186 tasting notes

Nio Teas Advent Calendar 2022 – Day 24 (3/3)

The last one!

This is quite light for a gyokuro, though it does have those nice rich and intense vegetal notes, paired with plenty of umami. It’s also quite sweet and has some nice refreshing top notes – not quite grassy, but something close like salad greens. The finish is quite short, and has a light and crisp fruitiness that reminds me of green apples.

Very nice light tea for the evening, though I’m not sure I would guess it was a gyokuro if I didn’t know. It is extremely smooth though.

Flavors: Crisp, Green Apple, Salad Greens, Spinach, Squash, Sweet, Umami, Vegetal, Wheatgrass

Preparation
140 °F / 60 °C 2 min, 0 sec 5 g 5 OZ / 150 ML

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