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.
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?
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.
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