the_skua

Whether or not this was in fact a different tea than the 2010 Maeda-en Shincha Gold, it did taste significantly different (and better!) to me. It is possible, though, that my palate had adjusted to some of the characters in the first tea, now able to plumb the depths of the following tea in greater detail. Or it was just better.

In the warmed houhin, a blast furnace of ocean brine and kelp, rich and detailed. The flavors blossom in delightful theanine sweetness, strong, with an initial flavor profile holding great honeydew and muskmelon, bright hothouse cucumber skin, and some faint herbals. It finished out with delicate grassiness that rounded the cup and the strong sweetness so potent in the first meeting of tongue and tea.

The second and third steeps held unique qualities of their own, with the second bringing a strong herbal mint character that gave both flavor and a crisp cooling sensation to the lips and back of the throat. For the third steep, the ocean rolled out and it became low tide, with intense oceanic brine and kelp, some intertidal mud, and some bristled sandworms, all coming on quite strong. I found this tea much more complex than the previous one, with an even more dazzling array of enjoyable textures and sensations. I don’t think I hold it in as high a regard as the 2010 O-Cha Sae Midori, but it’s a very close and very pleasant second.

I thought the leaves from this tea looked a little bit more peculiar than others I’ve inspected. They had a leathery appearance and some artificial-looking green colors. I’m not saying there’s anything artificial about this tea, just that the greens were stunningly odd.

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The leaves spill out onto paper with a neat blend of moderately small needles and quite a few particles, the apparent result of fukamushi steaming. Warm and in the pot, they glow with briny ocean delight. The first steep smells of light florals, pollen, and some faint plant-like mustiness. In the mouth, the texture is very soft, near-cotton and linen-like. This is pleasing, but the flavor composition is touch duller, with the average blend of kelp, melon starch, and maybe an edge of asparagus. There’s a bright sparkling glow of pepper-y spice right on the front of the tongue.

The second and third steeps yield greener, murkier soups, but fade on the flavor depth, as expected. I absolutely adore the soft textile texture that lingers in the back of the throat, but wish it was paired up with a wee bit more flavor complexity to hold the palate’s interest. Nonetheless, solid, well-handled quality leaves, in my opinion.

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Enjoying a gaiwan of this at work today. It’s supremely muggy and hot outside, and this tea is nicely countering the effects of sweating during sleep last night. Cool, crisp, and lightly sweet.

An inspection of the dry leaf appeared to contain a higher proportion of relatively large “needles”. A later inspection of the steeped leaves proves these to be a large number of stems and veins, something which I would predict to lessen the quality of a tea’s flavor. Continuing to compare this tea to my last experience, I found the first steep of the Yutaka Midori (YM) still sweet, but not as viscous or deep as the Sae Midori (SM). The flavor profile was different, with an array of tropical fruits, pineapple, lychee, and rambutan, all of which were quite enjoyable! Brininess really picks up in the back of the throat with some clam liquor, seawater, and dried kelp. Some green melon rind peeks in. Overall, this flavor profile didn’t seem particularly deep or thorough.

The second and third steeps were markedly different, with noticeable coarse bitterness that accompanied a sulfurous or tidal flat mud character, clashing with the tea’s sweetness. It made me suspect harsh chemical use in the growth of this tea. The second steep was not my favorite. The third showed more resilience, but was not enough to warrant a fourth. I know that this is a very lauded tea, but I must admit that I found it less enamoring than other examples from this year’s harvest.

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In the warmed houhin, the leaves glowed in briny ocean and warmed green grasses. The first steep produced an achingly sweet cup, with intense theanine-infused juiciness. What a wonderful texture, supple, sweet, and silky, with a strong bouquet of honeydew melon rind, oyster shell, and grape leaf. Savory and sweet all at once. I was so impressed with the first steep that I decided to hold off on a second session this morning and save my remaining 4g for a re-visit after I’ve tasted the other samples in my lot.

The second and third steeps were appreciably different, with the second exuding a not-bitter astringency that left a parching sensation in the mouth, a quality that played well with continuing sweetness, amplified green melon flavors, and persisting ocean brine. The third, however, was fairly plain and empty, but I was okay with that considering the shining impression that the first two steeps left. In many ways, this tea set a new bar for my limited experience with shincha.

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Part of 2010 Official TeaChat TeaTasting Initiative Round 1 – Shincha.

Initially, I was surprised by the overall lightness of the first steep. Maybe this tea could endure hotter water or a longer initial steep. But, in the second session, the first steep revealed this tea’s true complexity, loaded with cooked pumpkin flesh and skin, fresh cut carnation stem, and young maple tree shoots. The second steep opens up some of the more briny and oceanic characters with detectable fresh, firm littleneck clam meat and brown seaweeds. The third steep was rather flat.

This tea can be defined by a raw, buddy green stem character that’s complex and not harsh, but floral and perfumed, like rose buds. Most of the green kelpy and chlorophyll heavy notes were reserved for the wet leaves. I went searching for a bit more sweetness and came up with little. This is a dry tea. The theanine glow is moderate to low and soft. Enjoyable, but perhaps a little quiet, yet maybe one to seek for its complex savory and stemmy flavors that dominate the first steep of this tea.

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At higher temps, this tea exudes bright tangerine, but I still find the puffed rice a little overbearing.

I was pleased by the spicy smoke character that reminded me immediately of an Episcopalian Easter Vigil service bedecked with a thurifer belching clouds of frankincense. I was also pleased to find, that unlike the multitude of sheng pu’er samples I’ve fought with, the leaves released themselves from this cake willingly. After a rinse and a lightning quick first steep, the spicy, resinous pine-like smoke aroma jumped out of the cup. Unfortunately, that was the last time I was impressed by this tea.

In the cup was an overly subtle, simple, and rather limp soup. The texture was not satisfying, there was nary much kuwei and I kept digging for complexity and brightness. Instead, this tea proved safe. The orangeness was not detracting in that the tea had a cooked or hongcha-like flavor, it just yielded a mild, safe blend without much punch or power. Briefly, I considered that a 4 year old cake may exhibit signs of softening or slight age-induced oxidation to produce the orange-edge, but upon inspection of the leaves, that proved to be a faulty suspicion.

The flavors were not bad or offensive, never any cigarette and only the faintest hint of sourness six or seven steeps in. Instead, it just didn’t have any capturing essence, any piquant uniqueness that made me want to love it and revisit it. I took the steeps out into the tens of minutes, but ended up with an overly thin and grassy cup, proving a lack of endurance.

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The tea had a strong, clean and fresh aroma both dry and rinsed. Floral, but not overly heavy on the lilac-character. It opened relatively slowly with repeated quick steeps and released a nice, if painstakingly subtle flavor and texture. At a year old, the bouquet of floral qualities had already faded a good bit, but the tea had matured, married, and become refined and ethereal. Extremely delicate, subtle and never overly strong in any particular flavor element. I’m not sure my mind had been quieted enough to fully appreciate this tea, so I look forward to revisiting it in a more conscious state.

Most remarkable were this tea’s clarity and texture. The soup spilled out of the gaiwan and into the gongdaobei as an electrically crystal clear liquid, vibrant and beaming, which made for a visually impressive session. In terms of texture, the tea had a strong cooling quality, with a crisp drying sensation and an overall lifting of the palate. Very enjoyable. Despite these qualities, the tea did little for me in terms of qi or energy. Finally, and it’s not obvious in any of the photos I posted, this tea was impressively stemmy, with lengths reaching about three inches on many leaves.

Blog post: http://tea.theskua.com/?p=36

In terms of flavor, this tea was clean and delicious, if a bit one-dimensional. It had friendly vegetal greenness, a faint bit of brine, and some distant tangerine leaves. The viscosity of the brew was enjoyable, with a long, lingering thick sweetness, dappled with near-savory umami. I did think, though, that the proportion of near-dust was rather high and may have contributed to my initial bitter brew.

What this tea did remarkably well was load me up with a massive theanine glow. It was nearly immediate, strong, and beautiful. A sensation of heaviness came over me, and I just sat on the patio, smiled, and watched the Sunday morning open with high clouds, a gentle breeze through the garden, and the cheerful song of goldfinches dance across the yard.

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Full disclosure: this tea was sent to me as a free sample by the vendor. However, there was no expectation that I would provide a review.

Gyokuro is probably my most preferred Japanese style tea, so I’m eager to see how this tea-bag example show.

160F water for about 2 minutes. Clean bright lime green soup. Flavors and textures are hearty and satisfying, if a touch light. The flavors are clean and enjoyable, though, with bits of orange-like citrus, a faint glow of pine, and some sweet grasses. Nice lingering sweet silkiness on the finish.

This was a bit light for my tastes and I might have brewed it a little longer with less water next time, but for a tea bag, I thought this was decent brew. Nice clean flavors.

Full disclosure: this tea was sent to me as a free sample by the vendor. However, there was no expectation that I would provide a review.

May as well move on to my other genmai-cha sample. This one a bit dustier and without so much rice.

Flavors are toasty but swing towards a sweet greenness quickly. Lingering glutamates from the rice stick on the palate. Still pretty rice heavy, but with more leaf and more kelpiness. Enjoyable, but simple.

Full disclosure: this tea was sent to me as a free sample by the vendor. However, there was no expectation that I would provide a review.

Spent some time on the porch this morning and tried this tea out in further preparation for the full on shin-cha experience.

I must say I’m a little skeptical of shin-cha mixed with toasted rice and coated in matcha. Can the base leaf itself really be that good if there’s this much other stuff going on? Maybe this is the best use of shin-cha this year, considering the variable and broadly poor harvest.

The first steep is viscous, but largely tastes of strongly toasted rice. Maybe the first 6g of tea that tapped out of the bag had an inordinate amount of rice kernels, but this is one toasty cup of green tea. Dark emerald green soup. In the flashy finish quick glimses of tangerine citrus and umami-forward theanine sweetness. This tea has a real savory edge to it, hinting at sesame and green onion. Mild and a little heavy on the rice.

The second steep was completely empty. This tea does not steep more than once.

Flickr photo at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/the_skua/4668561111/

Full disclosure: this tea was sent to me as a free sample by the vendor. However, there was no expectation that I would provide a review.

Still at work, so let’s keep drinking tea. I’ve had enough caffeine today, so I’ll start to mellow out with something without. I must say I have mixed emotions about houji-cha as a style of tea in the first place. The concept of taking poor quality green tea and roasting it to produce something light, caffeine-free and easy to brew is, in my mind, not something to get all worked up about. On the other hand, it has a nice roasted flavor that’s rare in the tea world outside of a handful of oolongs.

At 200F and 90 seconds this brew comes through a little lighter and littered with dust (again). The flavors are bit coarse and charred. Faint bits of espresso, some tannic, dried autumn leaves and a touch of dark caramel. The body of this tea seems surprisingly thin and really parches out the tongue. I believe I’ve had deeper and fuller examples of the style, so I’ll go ahead and say this isn’t particularly exemplary in my mind.

Full disclosure: this tea was sent to me as a free sample by the vendor. However, there was no expectation that I would provide a review.

Continuing to explore the Maeda-en tea bag line in preparation for sampling the shin-cha this weekend, I moved onto the Premium Sen-cha. I turned up the heat a bit, seeking a little more thickness than the last brew.

I was surprised at how much dust came out of the nylon bag, but I think it was worth it, because I didn’t get that chalky paper taste from the nylon bag. This cup is sweet, clean and crisp, but lacks an overall depth of flavor and complexity. It’s bright, green, and heartily satisfying, but I want a little more from my sen-cha, some chewiness, some more chlorophyll, some more nuance. This is an improvement over the last bag, in my opinion, as it lacks the masking toasted character, the paper bag flaw, and improves in breadth of taste. However, it’s still rather light and simple. Glad to see, though, that it can take some heat without getting bitter.

Full disclosure: this tea was sent to me as a free sample by the vendor. However, there was no expectation that I would provide a review.

With my houhin at home and a handful of tea bags from Maeda-en at my disposal, I look to this sen-cha as an afternoon pick-up at work.

I’m not sure I’ve ever had a sen-cha as roasted as this one, with a distinct cooked chestnut and toasted rice overtone. It’s like having houji-cha and sen-cha at the same time, yet the roasted character drowns out most of the green or kelpy aspects of the tea, which show up as juicy vegetal flavors in the finish. Very light. A simple smooth drinker.

I found this version above average, when compared to the other four in the series. Again, very tight, thick compression of small leaves from the core of the cake came in my sample. When dry, an aroma of white raisins and warm earth. The first steeps produced a bright, clear middle golden soup, fresh with complex sweetness, some hickory chips, a pale maltiness, and fresh almond milk. It definitely had a bit of a creamy or milky character that made it silky and complex. Nice, but faint, bittersweetness in the back of the throat rounded the flavor. An enjoyable sample, for sure.

Just keeps going and going…

First, I must admit that shu puer is not something I get overly excited or worked up about. I enjoy it for some of its medicinal properties, its overall smoothness, the warmth it brings me, and as something that steeps many, many times. The flavor profile is okay. I’ve had a variety of loose leaf shus that work okay as at-work drinking teas and most of them are usually pretty light on the “riper” aspects. This one, however, gets a little fishy for me, even after a rinse and a few steeps. It does have larger than average leaves for a loose leaf shu and the overall flavor complexity is much deeper than other examples I’ve had, reaching into the umami, mushroom, and roasted nut characters. It is supremely smooth. A little tea goes a long way, with a relatively small portion giving a 6oz gaiwan more than half a dozen steeps before showing signs that it was thinning out. Again, I got what I paid for here, a smooth, not too weird, daily drinker loose leaf shu. I’m pleased with Seven Cups prices and quality.

This tea has bones. Yesterday’s Zi Yun Shan was palatable, if a bit flat. However, today, the Li Li Xiang lit me up. Nice tight nuggets of roasted delight grew into large crumpled and creased muddy-colored leaves. Nice chewy depth with flavors of almond, apricot, and a nip of lychee. The moderate amount of roast really adds depth and complexity to an otherwise expectable flavor. A bit nutty, as toasted sesame seeds. Most importantly, this tea held on. A layer at the bottom of my 6oz gaiwan lasted many, many steeps and gave a succulent brew from a 48 minute steep (!) at the end. I’m impressed by the quality of such an affordable (on-sale) tea. One that reminds me how good more oxidized, roasted oolongs can be.

I purchased a bargain-bin 2008 batch of this tea to drink at work, as a light, “green” oolong. Accordingly, I need to drop my expectations for excellence from this tea. I followed the brewing guidelines and ended up with a tea a bit too thin and empty for my tastes. At two years old, the amount of dry leaf used needs to be double and the initial steep drawn out a bit. Faded wet spring lilacs, faint peach nectar, and a slightly sulfurous quality to the finish, maybe a bit raw and rough. In the end, I got what I wanted from this tea: affordable, organic, green oolong that’s not flawed.

Oh the sweetness of this tea, how it lifts my day. The first two steeps of this tea are pure, viscous and sweet silvery delight. Downright juicy. Bright, clean strawberry and white sugar, mingled amongst orchid and lily floral notes. Not as grassy, hay-like, or complex as certain sources I’ve sampled, but incredibly clean, dazzlingly bright, and with a superb level of sweetness on the forefront. My only real criticism of this tea is that it thins out in the third and fourth steeps a bit more than I would like. Gives a glowing, warm, fresh qi.

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