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(A free sample included with my last order from Norbu)

This is a warm, dark, toasty oolong. It reminds me a lot of the Tung Ting I got from TenRen, and my longtime companion SeaDyke Ti Kuan Yin. First impression is just toasty, roasty, dark, woody. Then it starts to open up a little, fruity, sweet, complex.

I started 185 degree water, 3.5 grams of tea in one of my larger yixing pots, but not filling fully—trying to keep it to about 1 gram leaf to 1 oz water. Each new infusion, the first impression is the toastedness, then the fruity sweetness becomes apparent after a few sips, as those the toasty tastebuds are getting saturated and there is attention available to notice the sweet fruity backdrop. Later infusions more quickly drop the toasted mask, and show these flavors sooner.

I think I might prefer this with a little less roast, so that I get to the sweet/fruity sooner. I agree with Greg’s description of the very smooth rich feeling of the liquor, and the remarkably pleasant aftertaste.

This is a wonderful shincha. I ordered a quartet of these from Yuuki-cha this year, and have enjoyed them all. This one has sweetness, delicate vegetal flavors, and milder umami—less briny than many of the fancier shinchas. I am happy through at least 4 infusions in the morning, about 1 gram per ounce of water at 160 degrees in my kyusu, 30" to start, then 10-20", 30-45", 60-90 seconds.

I think I prefer the Honoyama to this one, but this and the Sayamakaori were both about equally delightful.

I put together a tea tasting note on my web site here (no adds, no sales, just plain tea notes with some photos):

http://www.well.com/user/debunix/recipes/YuukiChaShinchas.html

Another delicious shincha. I ordered a quartet of these from Yuuki-cha this year, and have enjoyed them all. This one is very similar to the Sayamakaori—it has sweetness, delicate vegetal flavors, and milder umami than many of the other senchas & gyokuros I’ve tried. I am happy through at least 4 infusions in the morning, about 1 gram per ounce of water at 160 degrees in my kyusu, 30" to start, then 10-20", 30-45", 60-90 seconds.

I prefer the lighter profile of this one to the Tenryu Misakubo as well: it has less dominant umami, which permits more of the flavors that I prefer—the sweet and delicate vegetal tastes—to come to the fore. It does not have a lot of stamina, but in the morning I generally don’t have time for more than 4 infusions.

I think I prefer the Honoyama to this one, but this and the Okuyutaka were both about equally delightful.

I put together a tea tasting note on my web site here (no adds, no sales, just plain tea notes with some photos):

http://www.well.com/user/debunix/recipes/YuukiChaShinchas.html

After a question came up about whether this was an oolong or a green tea, I decided to check by brewing again, and it was clearly behaving like a green tea, less tempermental than most, but clearly a lovely sweet delicate green tea, with just enough astringency to confirm its green nature.

Brewed up a thermos full of this one, and it retains its essential character of sweet, fruity, and mild herbaceous astringency very well despite the less than ideal brewing technique.

A very nice tea. Need to do a more formal gongfu cha session and report back!

A delicate and fresh smelling tea, with a classic Bi Lo Chun curly snail-shaped leaf, this green tea was quite inexpensive—‘from a new supplier’. I’m not sure it has the same stamina of the sample from Jingteashop.com from last fall, but still a lovely tea for the price. It does have potential for bitterness, so I am brewing it short and low temp, with a low leaf to water ratio—probably about 2 grams in a 5 oz kyusu. This is a great value tea.

What a lovely mellow tea. I started out with what looked like a small volume of green leaves in my kamjove, which had little scent, then added water and there was a strong scent of green peas. Lovely. The leaves expanded to fill their chamber almost entirely. The first steep was a little long and ended up overconcentrated, and I did find a little bitterness in it; but when I finished up a thermos full from these leaves, it ended up as essence of summer hay, warm and mellow, just lovely.

I can see this will be a keeper. I think it will be particularly nice of an evening, to keep infusing while doing paperwork, semi-gongfu cha, but also is going to be lovely for a thermos full when I have to be away from my desk for half a day or more. But I will watch that first steep.

I was particularly pleased with this one because I recently tried some “silver needle yellow tea” from Hunan which was just unbearably bitter for me, very unlike the couple of wonderful yellow teas I’ve had from other sources.

I was pleased to discover some of this in a stash in another office, and brewing it up this morning, i was interrupted a few times, so it ended up quite slapdash in my thermos, a little light overall, but even though I know it can be much better when I get it just so, it is still such a wonderful, forgiving tea that hours later in the thermos it is sunny warm welcoming with hay notes more than the fruity notes that predominate earlier. Nothing bitter or unpleasant even under these abusive conditions. Gotta love a tea like that.

First time logging, not first time drinking. This is a lovely, mellow, forgiving tea that steeps and steeps. I have infused a few grams of tightly furled balls and filled up my 1 quart thermos today, and there is still more to get from these leaves. Sweet, floral, haylike, beautiful.

Can’t give grams or ounces or exact temps today, because I’m brewing in the office with a kamjove and the other tools are elsewhere. But it is giving wonderful results even without that specificity. A good general starting point for me is about 1 gram per ounce, so 2 grams for a small 2 ounce gaiwan, and the wetted leaves will fill the cup.

Again finding this is one lovely green tea. I’ve been brewing it like an oolong, covering the bottom of my small gaiwan with the rolled leaves, and finding that they expand to intact leaves that mostly fill it. I use cooler water—160-170 degrees—because it is a green tea, and the flavor is more vegetal and less floral than the green oolongs, but it is as easy and flexible and forgiving in terms of slightly variable quantities of leaf to water, and varied steep times from 15 seconds to a minute or quite a bit more with later steepings. The steeps thus do vary in flavor and intensity but are never bitter despite that. I’ve brewed up several green teas in the past day (shincha!, korean green, dragon well) and each of those has reminded me that they need attention and respect to remain mellow and pleasant. This one just stays mellow regardless of my fumblings. Love that!

Edited: still haven’t reached the end of the flavor from these leaves, now at least 8-10 steepings in. I do like my teas somewhat diluter than many, but this is still amazing for a green tea. Very oolong-like in this too.