Japanese pan fired green tea
My curiosity was piqued when I saw this rare Japanese tea on Yuuki-Cha: http://www.yuuki-cha.com/organic-green-tea/kamairicha
Seems they go through a similar processing method as Chinese green tea and the curled leaves do in fact resemble a mao feng. I imagine the taste is closer to Chinese tea than sencha.
Has anyone tried this tea before?
I can’t tell if those are expensive or not as I have no idea what the exchange rate between dollars and yen is but they look interesting.
$1 is about 112 yen. Their average kamairicha is 1400 yen or roughly $12.50 for 100 grams. I’d say that’s pretty reasonable, cheaper than many of their senchas.
I’m intrigued by the Okumidori though. The reviews describe it as floral, sweet, and fruity which is right up my alley. And pretty atypical profile for Japanese green tea.
I’ll likely order it with spring shincha. Just wish they offered smaller quantities because 100g is a lot of green tea.
Yes, kamairicha does taste different than your normal steamed Japanese green tea.
It’s still made with Japanese cultivars and with Japenese terroir, however.
Although not very common, you can also find kamairicha with straight leaves.
How would you describe its taste (e.g., grassy, vegetal, etc.)? Are there any in particular you’d recommend?
It’s not as grassy/vegetal/marine as sencha. More floral, aroma is kind of sweet. I haven’t tried many, so I don’t really have the experience to recommend a good one.
Hmmm…I’ve tried a Chinese steam “fired” tea but not I’m not sure if I’ve tried a Japanese pan-fired one. I carry a Japanese black tea made from the yabukita cultivar that is delicious. You’ve made me realize I don’t know for sure that it is steam-fired. I’m gonna find out though…
Oops…too much of a hurry when I wrote that. No kill-green firing for a black tea, of course. I was thinking more whether the drying process differed in an interesting way for a Japanese Black.
Need to run down some Kamairicha to try.
I purchased the okumidori from yuuki-cha and it’s awesome. I finished it off months ago so my recollection of it is a little dull but I remember it being a floral and sweet with some similarities to sencha. I highly recommend it and the price is great for the quality. In fact, I would highly recommend yuuki-cha in general from my experience. 100% plan on ordering from them when this year’s spring teas start rolling in.
I live in Japan but not a tea producing region. Kamairicha is hard to come by , most of my local stores don’t stock it and I have to order it online. Lupicia stocks a few good ones, as well as chachanoma. I’m personally not a big fan of sencha so when I want to drink Japanese green tea kamairicha is what I go for.
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