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“Brewed in a Nosaka red clay hohin with oxidation firing from Hojo. Very impressed with this tea. I drank it after a session of Hojo’s Tsukigase Zairai Sencha, and I prefer this better. If I can...” Read full tasting note
“A lot of what this company says sounds wrong. It would be interesting to read a review of this tea.” Read full tasting note
Aracha refers to the freshly produced tea on the same day when it is plucked. Aracha means crude tea in English. It is the same meaning as “Mao Cha” in Chinese.
As a common practice, aracha is sent for further refining and firing process. For common Japanese green tea, people believe that aracha has less taste if no firing is conducted. However, from my point of view, firing the tea is a very strange practice. I have travelled many places including China, Taiwan and India. For good tea, people should rather try not to fire the tea and preserve its original character as much as they can. Even Long Jing or many other Chinese green teas, the higher the quality, the lighter the firing.
Usually, tea that is produced with a lot of fertilizers gives very light taste. It is the same like fruit or vegetable that is grown with fertilizers. Since the taste of tea is very light, firing the tea becomes a standard practice. Amino acid will undergoes the Maillard reaction and produces the typical flavor. This is the same mechanism as how hot cake produces its flavor during baking. However, recently the firing is a little too much and it really destroys the original character of tea. Nevertheless, no firing will make tea has very less character and weak aroma.
On the other hand, the naturally-grown tea gives an overwhelming sweetness and thick flowery flavor, thanks to rich content of polyphenols and minerals. In fact, if tea is naturally-grown, it is the best to enjoy the aracha. It is exceptionally smooth, deeply satisfying, and full-bodied. The farmer also knew it very well. Therefore, they drink aracha and they keep the processed tea only as the gift for others. We absolutely feel that aracha is much nicer to drink even for our own. Thus, we decided to introduce aracha that is not fired at all. I think it is extremely rare in the market.
The Uji Sencha Jubuzan is completely an aracha. We only remove the dust and foreign object and then reduce the moisture content. This is the crude taste of tea that is freshly processed from a tea factory. If you have a chance to visit a tea factory and taste the fresh tea directly collected in the middle of the process, this is the flavor and taste you will enjoy.
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Brewed in a Nosaka red clay hohin with oxidation firing from Hojo.
Very impressed with this tea. I drank it after a session of Hojo’s Tsukigase Zairai
Sencha, and I prefer this better. If I can make an analogy, Uji Sencha Jubuzan is to Tsukigase Zairai Sencha as Jinxuan oolong (milk cultivar) is to Qingxin oolong, if that makes sense.
The dried leaves have a savory rich aroma similar to matcha. I used various teacups including a silver cup. I find teas out of a silver teacup are a touch thinner, but this tea remained thick and full bodied no matter what teacup I used.
After the first sip I got a wave of drunkeness and head-spin, and was glad I was sitting down. I guess I wasn’t prepared for that. I centered myself and continued.
The aftertaste continued to build. It was on the lower register. A rich, creamy, thick, savory, semi-sweet aftertaste just sat there on the center rear of my tongue. It gradually coated my tongue in an creamy manner, but not cloying. A touch of dryness prompts me to take another sip. This is decadent. I need to drink this next to Hojo’s Hon Yama Hebizuka. I wasn’t expecting this to be so good. I really enjoyed this tea, its on the dessert side of teas, decadent, semi-sweet, thick, rich, and filling.
The aftertaste seemed to fade away after a short time, but the creamy mouth coating and sensation on my tongue remained and increased as the session continued. At some point there is a blended confusion of mouthfeel and flavor/aftertaste, and its hard to tell where either one starts or ends. When I take a new sip, the flavor peaks, but then fades back and blends with the oily mouth feel, reminding you of what you just drank. Much different than the sheng puerh aftertaste I am accustomed to. Perhaps that’s why I mixed things up with sencha tonight :)
This tea is relaxing and makes me want to lay down, head qi, warming qi, drunken qi, never experienced this from sencha before. Not getting caffeine jitters either. This is good tea.
Late to comment, but nice review! I haven’t had many of Akira’s teas aside from the Kasuga sencha and wanted to try the Jubuzan for some time. I ordered some before I read this review, so now I’m really looking forward to trying it.