Fukamushi Superior

This came as a green tea in my green tea gift set I got for Christmas. I know that green tea has a short shelf life so I figure I’d better start drinking some of this. I used about 2 tsp for 12 oz of water. The instructions said to steep at 175 F for 90 seconds and I believe my temp was around that amount, although I do need to find my thermometer.

This does not seem like the best fukamushi I’ve ever had. It is very grassy with a touch of bitterness at the end. I would expect this more with a lower quality sencha. I may try decreasing the steeping time even further. I may also start cold brewing some of this green tea so I can drink it all before it goes stale. I definitely enjoyed the other 3 in the gift set more than this one.

Note: I did try a resteep at 60 seconds with around the same temp and it is a lot sweeter, perhaps less is more with this one, need to treat it gently.

Hmmm I really liked this when I first tried it, I think I did a 30 sec steep at 175 in cast iron. Today I did it for 30 secs in a glass infuser mug and unfortunately it was straining really slowly so it steeps for more lie a min (which is actually the recommended parameters on the tin), very astringent which is unfortunate as the leaves actually had a nice natural fruity smell going on. Second infusion I lowered the temp to 170 and steeped for 25 pouring it through a stainless steel strain into another cup, still bitter. Okay one more time 170, took out some leaf (or rather let it stay in the other strainer) steeps for 10 sec. Still crap.

I was planning on cold brewing but after reading Amy oh’s tasting notes below, I’m guessing there is no hope. So while I was going to start off this note saying I need to find better ways to brew Japanese green teas I’m going to add what I already knew, I need to find better Japanese green teas. I have a list for Mellow Monk and Dens but right now my tea budget only allows one major purchase a month and its been with Verdant for the last 6 months and I don’t see that changing any time soon, unless someone gets me a gift card for the holidays or a tea of the month subscription ;) Also I apologize for sending some of this to Angrboda, I really did have a fond memory of this at the time :/