Gyokuro

All you wonderful Gyokuro fans who so kindly wrote about brewing this stuff. I tried, I really tried, I brewed it every which way and I still don’t like it. I am a big hater of fish and seaweedy stuff and there is just enough that I must sadly decline. It is an attractive tea and I leave it to you all with my best.

Grassy and sweet. Yum!

Okay, so this is my first experience with Gyokuro. Encouraged by my recent successes with Sencha, I decided it was time to branch out and move on.

So far, so good. Looking at the dry leaves, I’m actually struck by their similarity the Sencha I drank. They’re a similar very dark green, but maybe slightly smaller and finer. They definetly have the same sweet, hay-like scent. This still surprises me — until recently, sweetness wasn’t something I’d ever associated with green tea.

Brewed, the leaves are very soft, and the smell is of freshly steamed, buttered green vegetables. Quite yummy, and quite unexpected. The liquor is a deep yellow, and, joy of joys, it tastes just like it smells. Very fresh, very green. It’s smooth, ever so slightly sweet with no bitterness or astringency anywhere in sight. To my mind, it has a more intense flavour than Adagio’s Sencha, which isn’t a bad thing at all. It’s a pleasure to drink this tea, and it definetly cheered up a miserable day!

I have to say, I’m actually really glad I decided to try gourmet loose leaf green tea. I approached them with trepidation initially, as I’ve always believed myself to be a green tea hater. I’m definetly being proved wrong, though, and I’m completely amazed at the difference. I think I’ll always prefer black tea, but a few more experiences like this could make a habitual green tea drinker of me yet.

Gyokuro bills itself as one of the more high-end green teas on the market, and so perhaps I expected too much of Adagio’s gyokuro offering. It is a fine green tea nonetheless, light and smooth with a bright, clean finish, but it simply did not have the subtle richness that I was hoping for. A pity, for I certainly would have rated this higher if I could.

First time I made this, I must have had the water too hot. It was not good. Based on what I’ve read this one will get bad quick with water that is too warm. I didn’t rate that first try since something was obviously wrong.

Leaves are very different from what I’m used to in other loose leaf teas. It looks a lot like grass clippings to be honest. Smell is of rice mixed with vegetables. Color when steeped is a pale gold and green mixture. It steeps cloudy and has a lot of tiny particles floating in it. Taste is more of the cereal grains than rice with an ending astringency that is not bad, but doesn’t tip the scales to great for my taste buds.

My search for a green tea that I consider excellent, will continue.

Quite good!
I second Jennlea’s description of grassy and sweet.
Just the way I like it :)

Yet another great Japanese green tea. The first, second and third infusions each bring out different aromas to the tea. Note that the tea leaves should have plenty of space to infuse and as they are very gentle, the water should be cooler too.

I got a sample of this from Adagio since it’s such an expensive tea. This is my first Gyokuro, but I can see why the price is so high! It’s very smooth and flavorful. I brewed it at about 160 due to recommendations, but I am going to play around with the temperatures a bit to explore it a little bit more.

Nice tea, but too expensive. This tea seemed a little on the broken and dusty side. I guess it could have been beat up during shipping, but i would guess it’s more a sign of the quality of the tea, or lack thereof. This is definitely the best tea i’ve had from Adagio….but that’s not saying very much. I’ve yet to be truly impressed by any of their offerings.

I’d say a tea that’s at least as good as this one for less money is the Gyokuro Hoshino from Shizuokatea.com.

I got this as part of one of Adagio’s Green Samplers. I was probably destined to like this tea since it’s fun to say especially when combined with “vs. Gojira.” Anywho, the smell really concerned me since it seemed like I could’ve gone out to the lawnmower, scraped up some grass, and made some tea from that (and it would’ve been the same thing as the tea). I’m sooo glad that I didn’t let the smell discourage me. It’s really a lovely tea. Yes, there’s a grassy taste, but it’s like a pleasant springtime grass. NE