Competition Grade Asamushicha from Sayama vs Fukamushicha from Narama Part I

Yokota Tea Garden
Competition Grade Asamushicha
VS

Yamane-En Tea Shop
Fukamushicha from Narama

Today I'm comparing 2 types of Sencha.
First one is a lightly steamed green tea, meaning that the drying phase through steaming was below 30 seconds. In comparison, regular Sencha is steamed between 30 seconds and a minute.

The second one is a Fukumushicha, a deep steamed green tea that has been steamed anywhere from 1 to 2 minutes.

Quite short steaming times, but lots of differences!

Let's start with Yokota's Tea Garden's Competition Grade Asamushicha.

Harvested in Spring 2017 (making this tea "vintage"), in the region of Sayama in the Saitama prefecture of Japan (North of Tokyo).

The bag notes that it is "Deep steamed for a rich flavor and deep green color". Which is a mistake, as this is without a doubt, a lightly steamed Sencha (Asamushicha), from the title to the taste.

Recommended Steeping method
3 grams of tea ¤ 60 seconds ¤ 70C°/158F° ¤ 200 ml of water
I used a senchado teapot.

Steeping notes: For stronger flavour, use stronger time or less water; for less astringency use a lower temperature. Resteep 3X.

Dry leaf

Long leaves of dark green colour with a few flat light green ones. They were very shiny and looked promising. Their aroma was very sweet and marine, reminiscent of buttered crab meat and roasted nori.

1st infusion (一煎目)

Yeah, it's a cat hair. They're everywhere.

Liquor
The aroma was fainter than the leaves offered but still retained the sweetness of butter cooked crab.
Its colour was a cloudy pale green containing some particles, but shiny.

Taste
It was disappointingly light in taste. I expected a vivid marine attack but it never came, instead, it simply gave me a light butter crab taste coupled with a little astringency.
Even when I added another 45 seconds, it was still disappointing.

Wet leaves
The leaves were fat and engorged with water, very beautiful and tender (perfect for cooking!). Medium-green colour and fleshy, mostly unfurled that looked liked cooked greens. Their aroma was grassy and of buttery crab.


2nd infusion (二煎目)

Liquor
This time cloudier, but still shiny, with a darker shade of green. Again with some particles dusting the bottom.

Taste
Very pleasant taste but too light in my opinion. There's definitely umami in there, but it kept feeling like it needed to steep longer. It was nice but so delicate as to remind me of a Bai Hao Yin Zhen. Not as flavourful as it should have been.

I couldn't discern much so I ended up redoing a completely new infusion. Behold!

So I ended up following the same instructions as for the Fukamushicha.

2nd infusion

As you can see (on the other side of this small pitcher)
200 ml of water yielded almost 200 ml of tea.

New steeping method still with a senchado teapot:
5 grams of tea ¤ 60 seconds ¤ 70C°/158F° ¤ 200 ml of water

Liquor
More cloudy and a darker (but still light) green colour. More particles as expected when you almost double the quantity of tea. Still retains its shininess, after all, this is a tea of quality.

Grassy aroma mingled with melted butter and cooked crab, ending with a finale of wintergreen.

Taste
Cooked crabs remained with a touch of astringency and ending in a beautiful dark earthy mushroom finish — I'm thinking grilled portobello. Deliciously oily and rich, almost perfectly smooth and long in mouth. It had a fullness — filling the mouth without acidity and with a rather sweet aroma — that was not present in the first infusion.

Notes
Even with such a rich profile, I ended up disappointed. As the second steeping of the 2nd infusion (5g) yielded little flavour. This tea pacts a soft delicious punch that's long in mouth, but doesn't translate well into the second cup, so I did not bother with a 3rd one. The recommendations were way off. I know that tea is supposed to be brewed to one's tastes, but I expect that people new to the game will follow the given instructions... and this time, be disappointed.
That's why I always try to brew with the same instructions the tea came with (unless not on the package, then from the website directly).

I would give this tea 3 out of 5 stars. Originally, it was 2.5, but I don't want the misleading instructions to influence my rating, I am, after all, testing tea, not editing packaging content.

Final thought, the fact that this tea was harvested in 2017 might play a big role in its loss of taste — surprisingly, it smelled vividly delicious. I'm a little disappointed that I did not notice prior to purchasing but also that yunomi's tea club was offering it. It is no longer available, making me wonder as to why they wanted us to review it. It seems to me they were trying to get rid of old stock.
I am ready to bet that in 2017, this tea was amazing. But having a little experience with aged teas, I believe not much of the tea profile was lost in the first infusion; most of it happened in the subsequent ones.

Koukaen Tea Factory: Premium Nishio Tencha Samidori Aged 2016 Vintage

Today's tencha made me do a lot of research and it turns out we're about to see a revolution in Japan's tea industry. Nothing too drastic, but I'll be sure to make a separate post about it!

This Premium Nishio Tencha Samidori has been aged since 2016, so I expected to be blown away by a matured green tea, but no, quite the contrary. More in the review (much more down).

About this tea; I had 2 conflicting information, one source said the cultivar was Samidori, the other Yabukita blend. Since Yabukita makes up 75% of Japan's tea fields, I'm tempted to say that this is a blend of both Samidori and Yabukita.

This tea is from the region of Nishio in the Aichi Prefecture.

If you're interested in the Koukaen Tea Factory, here's what yunomi.life had to say about it: 

Founded in 1948 by Yoshikazu Naito, the Koukaen Tea Factory is owned by the Naito family and employs a total of 9 people including family members. His son, President Tadashi Naito (see photo) is the 2nd head of the company. Based in the Nishio region of Aichi Prefecture, Koukaen specializes in the initial processing of leaves from farms in Nishio into dried unrefined tencha tea leaves (steamed and dried without rolling), and grinding of refined tencha leaves into matcha. (Refinement of the tencha leaves is outsourced to a trusted partner.)

Koukaen Tea Factory

Premium Nishio Tencha Samidori

Aged 2016 Vintage

西尾碾茶サミドリプレミアム

Recommended steeping method

5 grams of tea ¤ 2 minutes ¤ temperature at 80°C/176°F ¤ 250 ml of water

Dry leaf

Small medium-green colour chopped leaves and no stems because tencha is "mostly deveined" leaves that primarily end up ground into matcha. Aroma: very sweet notes of dark chocolate and raspberry jam. It almost smelled like candy.

1st infusion (一煎目)

Liquor

It was both herbaceous and marine (iodine notes mixed with seaweed), with cooked asparagus aromas and a mineral finish. The colour was bright light lime-yellow, shiny and clear, with some dust at the bottom of the cup.

Taste

There was a short attack of cooked asparagus evolving into a drywood and cocoa mouth. Low in asperity, and flowing, it was quite short in mouth, but full of quickly evolving flavours. The finishing notes had a swift richness to them, changing to light raspberry, kelp and an iodine touch.

Wet leaves

Rich medium-dark green colours with hints of cocoa, raspberry and cooked asparagus aromas.

2nd infusion (二煎目)

Liquor

A paler yellow-green colour this time and very clear and bright, still shiny with some dust remaining.

Aromas of raspberry albeit mild, but persistent alongside kelp.

Taste

A rather strong iodine attack with some kelp, quite short in mouth, previous flavours disappeared, unfortunately. With low astringency and flavours ascending, this infusion was frank but frivolous. Fortunately, they tapered off smoothly.

Notes

It seems this tencha tea might have lost a lot of flavours and depth as the ageing process went on. Fresher leaves might yield a more diverse palette, and flavours closer to what the dry and wet leaves impression gave me.
Maybe tencha teas are not meant to be aged?

Results

Quite frankly, this tea receives 3 stars out of 5. While the first infusion was tasty, the second infusion ended up rather disappointing. In general, this tea feels too short in mouth and the dry and wet leaves impressions gave me higher expectations, setting me up for further disappointment.

NaturaliTea Sencha: Setoya Midori (Aged: Best before 2017.12.05)

On the 29th of July 2018, I have tested 2 teas, both aged. Here is the first.

While there was no claim that it was aged, I did notice the best before date (for freshness, not "going bad") was the 5th of December 2017. While not aged very long, this stamp proves NaturaliTea take freshness very seriously as this green sencha was harvested in mid-May.

Setoya is the name given to the area where a few villages merged together enlarging the scope of Fujieda city in the Shizuoka Prefecture of Japan. Setoya is where most of the NaturaliTea's fields are found, and this sencha was 100% grown in Shizuoka.

NaturaliTea is a family-operated farm cooperative, and has been in operation for 42 years.

Here's Yunomi.life's description of the farm: In addition to their own fields, the Kinezuka family's company has partnerships with over thirty other neighboring farmers to both research organic farming techniques and work together to produce tea leaves. Leaves are then aggregated and processed into the products below.

NaturaliTea Sencha
Setoya Midori

Recommended steeping method:
5 grams of tea ¤ 60 seconds steeping ¤ 200 ml of water ¤ temperature at 70°C/158°F

Dry leaves

Those short leaves have a rich forest green colour with a few bright yellow short stems adding vibrancy to the mix. The aroma remind me of freshly mowed grass that has been left in a mound for a couple of hours under the warm sun. A warm, sweeter note which has lost some of it's bright sharper character coupled with hay undertones. There's a sort of saltiness to it which I attribute to marine aromas. Adding to these pleasant notes are zucchinis cooked in butter. 

1st infusion (一煎目)

Liquor

Sadly, in my eagerness, I forgot to snap a shot of the 1st steeping's liquor. This picture (above) is in fact the 3rd steeping I did later without regard to infusion time. Luckily it was so close to it in colour as to fit perfectly as a replacement, so forgive my air-headedness! The only difference is that this picture does not contain dust particles at the bottom (some). But if you are familiar with my blog, you will have seen many examples of what "some dust" at the bottom of a cup looks like.

While pictures never render the exact same colour I see, my impression was that of a more lime colour, sort of a bright green-yellow tone. The liquor was shiny and slightly cloudy. Again, the aroma of cooked zucchini came back with some added cooked spinach. A light mocha note lingered nicely which brought some richness to the mix. It was all around pleasantly sweet!

Taste
I noticed a light astringency but this tea is agreeably round, smooth and slightly oily. A liveliness lingers in this tea even if aged. It delivered a rich mocha attack finishing in notes of oregano. A surprising mix that is both impressive and structured.

Wet leaves

Leaves of vibrant medium green colour with greenish-white stems complimenting the aroma of cooked veggies and tomato flowers. It made me want to eat the leaves. Which you totally can! I like cooking them in butter and adding a little soy sauce.

2nd infusion (二煎目)

Liquor

Again the colour is quite bright, but more towards yellow than green. Still shiny as a good tea should be, but more cloudy. Barely any dust remains after the 1st infusion. Buttery zucchini notes come back again forming a sweet and rich aroma.

Taste
Similar to the 1st taste with a stronger attack and weak finish. Still round and definitely oilier.

Notes
I made a random 3rd infusion that may have been around 2-3 minutes long and I got notes of cinnamon apple spices! I don't know how that happened as my environment was rather clean of lingering kitchen smells.

Results
As you may know, I am not a sencha fan. Their green brightness is usually not pleasant to my palate but I was surprisingly satisfied with this sencha. Each infusion brought interesting notes and sensations.
Likely the ageing of this tea imparted richer tones and tapered the harsh brightness I personally dislike.

My personal rating is 4.5 stars out of 5. This was likely the most pleasant sencha I've had so far. However, I found the 2nd steeping a little more boring as the finish was weaker.
Give it a try here.
I guess aging a sencha reminds me of a long oxidized oolong versus a short oxidized one (for young sencha). It makes sense to me since I'm not a fan of short oxidized wulong either.

Creha Tea - Mirai First, Japanese Black Tea

Hello all!

I have not been active in the last months as my health has been down, my doctors have been going nuts trying to find out what was wrong with me, and I've been, and am still, on all sorts of meds. My immune system has been down the drain and I was sick so frequently I didn't trust my nose to know what tea tasted like anymore. If you're curious, I have Lyme disease. It's a disease that's worth knowing about because it isn't well known yet and most doctors don't know how to treat it. I'll spare you the details, but if you have it, you're not crazy, even if your doctor tells you it's all in your head. You gotta find an expert if you highly suspect that's what you have, they know how to test it properly, but it's not cheap. Even in Canada, some tests are not done here, and there's no coverage if done outside of the country (in my case, Germany). That's how little research there is on the subject in North America. I normally don't share much like this about myself, but I think there's a need for traction in the research department. So I'll recommend 2 things, 1st, a wiki link on it: Wiki link here, and also, a link to the documentary about the disease (note that most cases in this movie are extreme, I mostly only have arthritis and severe fatigue): Under Our Skin. There's also a sequel.

I'm better so I thought I'd give tea cupping another try.

Also the first one of the year, yay!

I received this sample from Yunomi and I've been eager to try it out! I was not disappointed. As a matter of fact, being away from tea for so many months, I was shocked that I did not need my trusty book on flavours to help me orient what I'm tasting and smelling. I think I have improved and it makes me very very, oh so very happy~.

This tea is sold by Yunomi (click here for the Creha tea page). The Creha (Kureha) Tea company also has a wide array of Japanese black teas, some flavoured (cinnamon, yum!) and some straight. Considering what a treat this tea was, I am definitely interested in trying them all.
This tea originates from the Kawanehon (川根本) village, Haibara district, in the Shizuoka prefecture of Japan, farmed by Etsuro Masui. At least that's what the package says, I think Mr. Etsuro Masui is a producer.

Creha Tea

Mirai First, Japanese Black Tea

Recommend steeping: 5 grams ¤ 2-3 minutes ¤ 90C°/194F° ¤ 200-300 ml of water

What I did: 5 grams ¤ 2.5 minutes ¤ 90C°/194F° ¤ 200 ml of water in a small glass teapot

Dry Leaves
I had a hard time capturing the true colour of this tea as my camera would show it as forest green rather than the dark brown I saw. Truly, it is a dark green, but at normal light, these flat tea leaves look brown, almost black. There are a few stems of dark green and copper in the mix, but mostly it's all broken flat parts.
The aroma was rather pleasant, malty and jammy (peaches, currant, blackberries) and bread dough.

Wet Leaves

There wasn't much difference in appearance with the wet leaves compared to the dry ones, aside from being slightly engorged with water. Whiffs of malt & sweet brioche, currant, shellfish and hyacinth came at different intervals. As I was about to go for the liquor, I even caught some hints of citrus and spices like cinnamon.

Liquor

What a beautiful dark burnt orange colour this cup yielded! Silky, thick and almost clear, I could not wait for the first sip. Aromas of apricot jam enveloped in a comforting and warm brioche were telling me this was going to be good.

1st steeping (一煎目)

As there were no instructions for subsequent infusions, I tried to steep it again for about 2 minutes but it yielded a very weak tea, so I'm guessing this tea is only meant for a single steeping when made with the teapot method. Maybe a gaiwan would yield more infusions, but today you get the experience of a single steeping.

At first, it seemed like a strong almost bitter attack but was quick to mellow as to offer no unpleasantness. To the contrary, the promise of delicious apricot jam came back on a nice slice of brioche but didn't linger too long. There wasn't much asperity although it did build up in strength with the next sips but never gave any harshness. The liquid felt silky, with a hint of maltiness and a tip of sourness. The finish was earthy with a little wink of spices like cinnamon.

This tea gets a 4.8/5 stars. I took .2 points out for sourness, not that it was persistent or really displeasing, but it's not my favourite and this is based on personal preferences.

But hey, 4.8, that's excellent. I would buy this again. This was a treat in all aspects of the tea cupping experience.