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.