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.