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“Bought this tea in my recent Yunomi order, picked it basically at random as I knew nothing about their black teas. It is quite tasty. The main note to this tea is malt, but not overpowering malt. I...” Read full tasting note
“I usually enjoy my black teas more on the weaker side. My parameters: 95 °C/300 ml/5 g/20 sec; up to 3 infusions This tea is a mix of twisted and broken leaves with some larger stem pieces. When...” Read full tasting note
Organic grown black tea in Tsukigase village of Nara prefecture. Tsukigase First Flush has a refreshing but an intense flavor.
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Bought this tea in my recent Yunomi order, picked it basically at random as I knew nothing about their black teas. It is quite tasty. The main note to this tea is malt, but not overpowering malt. I added only sugar to this tea but I think for those who like milk in black tea this one would go well. There is a sweetness behind the malt as well. Overall I would rate this tea quite highly. It is the first Japanese black tea I have tried. It does seem to be a high quality tea. I brewed it western style this morning.
I brewed this tea once in a Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 200 degree water for 3 min. It might benefit from a shorter steep.
Flavors: Malt
I usually enjoy my black teas more on the weaker side.
My parameters: 95 °C/300 ml/5 g/20 sec; up to 3 infusions
This tea is a mix of twisted and broken leaves with some larger stem pieces. When infused they all became mushy.
Despite the short steeping time this tea was full bodied and intensive. The taste was mellow and sweet with subtle aroma of musky and malt. No bitterness or astringency.
Pics: http://teapictres.blogspot.de/2015/03/tsukigase-first-flush-by-creha-tea.html
Interesting. From your description, it sounds more like a breakfast tea from Sri Lanka or India than a Chinese black tea. Would you agree with this?
That is fairly accurate, but a little lighter bodied than a breakfast tea from Sri Lanka. The malt flavor was quite subdued. I am not partial to overly malty teas and I really liked this.
Oh, okay.
I’ll be interested to see if this is the trend for most of the black teas. I read that at least one of their farmers travels to Sri Lanka regularly to learn more about black tea production.
If you’re interested, I emailed Ian to ask about this and here’s what he said:
Most of the Japanese blacks available through us are made with Japanese cultivars in the style of Sri Lankan or Indian black tea. But they are much milder…less astringency, lighter like light oolong with the flavor of black.
The reason is that plant cultivated varieties for black tea have more catechin. This catechin converts into tannin as the tea leaf oxidizes, so green tea has more catechin. But green tea, to avoid being too bitter, generally uses leaves with less catechin. So when you make black tea with green tea cultivars, the flavor is lighter.
That is interesting info. I have too more of their blacks to drink this week. We will see what they taste like. I definitely want to buy more.