I recently did a swap with KittyLovesTea, who sent me a very generous package of teas, most of which were Japanese (at my request). She very kindly included a pretty sizeable quantity of this tea – it smelled lovely, so I thought I’d give it a try last night!
As with all of the Japanese greens I’ve tried so far, I was really surprised by how small the dried leaves were! Some of them were almost needle like :O It had a lovely, fresh, grassy smell and the leaves were all a really deep, vibrant green.
I brewed up in my small glass pot, using pretty cool water (I followed the seemingly ubiquitous “warm water” steeping method – poured boiling water into my pot, left it for a short while, poured out into my two tasting cups, discarded the rest, poured the water back into the pot and then added the dried leaves).
The first infusion was sweet and mild, with a definite grassy, kinda floral flavour! It did have some of that savouriness, but it was mild and not too dominant! Later infusions were a little more balanced between sweet and savoury – still delicious and refreshing after our hearty dinner, though! :D
In all, this was certainly a lovely introduced to fine Japanese teas! I have enough left for another session, so I may try a similar set-up again, but using a Gaiwan. I don’t really have a small pot that’s suitable for sencha and other Japanese teas – maybe I’ll add a small kyusu and a gyokuro pot/set to my wishlist…! :D
Flavors: Cut Grass, Floral
