Zairai Estate Japanese Aoyagi Kamairi Cha Tea by Chicago Tea Garden

Zairai Estate Japanese Aoyagi Kamairi Cha

Tea
This kamairi tea has a very strong vegetal, green tea smell. The taste is very strong and reminiscent of buttered green beans. There is a very light, almost thirst-quenching astringency and a lasting freshness.

Leaf
The dry leaf of this kamairi cha is tightly rolled and is a very dark green. Once steeped, the rolled leaves open up and become bright green and very fresh looking. The wet and dry leaves have an overhwelming fresh smell to them, reminiscent of fresh steamed vegetables.

Serving Suggestions
The farmer recommends that for an aromatic brew, use 195-200F water and steep for 45-60 seconds using 3 grams of tea for every 4oz of water. For a high-flavor brew, use 175F water and steep for 45-60 seconds using 4 grams of tea for every 4oz of water. In general using high temperature water tends to make this tea bitter and astringent quickly so be sure to adjust the leaf and water proportion to your liking.

Etymology
- kamairi means pan-fired
- aoyagi is processing method used to create the rolled leaves

About Zairai Estate Japanese Aoyagi Kamairi Cha
This tea is produced from tea plants grown from seed in Gokase town in the Miyazaki prefecture on Kyushu island. This tea is pan-fired in small batches this is unusual as most green teas from Japan are steamed and not pan-fired. Yoichi Korogi produces a small amount of this tea only for subscribed customers in Japan each year, so we are lucky to have obtained a small amount of it. This tea is 2010 Shincha (1st flush). Traditional Aoyagi style processing gives slightly more toasty and pungent aroma to the tea. The tea field’s elevation is about 600m above sea level. The morning mist and mountainous climate in this region creates a good quality tea that is known throughout Japan, but rarely makes it to the United States.

Farmer
Mr. Yoichi Korogi is a 2nd generation tea farmer in Miyazaki prefecture. He has been producing kamairi-cha his whole life and has won 15 grand prize awards in Japan’s National Tea competition in kamairi-cha category.

5 Tasting Notes

Auggy 3 tasting notes

Honestly, I’m not feeling all that great today so it’s not the best time for me to try a new tea, but my order from CTG just came in and it had this interesting little beastie in it and I just couldn’t resist.

There are two different ways to prepare this, plus I’ve got my own sort of default prep method, giving me three different ways I want to try this tea at to see what it gives me. For this first attempt, I decided to go with the ‘high flavor brew’. 4g/4oz, 175° for 45s. The tea smells very vegetal with a hint of buttery. The first part of the taste is refreshingly astringent with a very vegetal/green and a little sweet and buttery flavor. The aftertaste is astringent but sweet. And now my cup is empty.

4oz almost isn’t enough to figure out what I think of this tea. I could probably do without the astringent aftertaste, but I kind of like how it shows up at the front of the sip. The other flavors in the tea are also very promising but I’ll have to have more of it to figure out how much I like it. And that will give me a chance to play with parameters, too. So right now the rating is tentative, subject to change with more parameter playing and when I’m feeling more chipper.

ETA: I messed up the second steep (too much water) but it ended up nice anyway – the vegetal taste of a Chinese green, the sweetness of a Japanese green. I did a 5s steep, treating it like I would a Japanese green and I probably could have given it a touch more time since it tasted a little thin, but at the same time the shorter steep time probably kept any astringency down.

2010-08-09 21:17:47 -0400

175 °F / 79 °C

0 min 45 sec

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LissaMarie

very light tea, vegetal tones mixed with some nice citrus flavors. sadly, i’m almost out of this tea :(

2011-01-18 10:43:58 -0500

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T.C.

The taste is delightfully complex. It seems like an entirely different tea in the back of your mouth – it has a strange mildly astringent, almost citrus-y taste in your throat, with a savory aftertaste. It has a very smooth textured body with a relaxed buttery taste. This tea is definitely worth the money – I’m very impressed. I’m excited to try CTG’s Ti Kuan Yin next.

2010-08-14 21:04:49 -0400

175 °F / 79 °C

1 min 0 sec

I Like This

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