Sencha of the Spring Sun Hachiju-Hachiya from Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms

Sencha of the Spring Sun Hachiju-Hachiya

Tea type
Green Tea
Ingredients
Green Tea
Flavors
Asparagus, Astringent, Cut Grass, Grass, Nuts, Seaweed, Smooth, Spinach, Squash, Sweet, Umami, Vegetal
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Medium
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Cameron B.
Average preparation
165 °F / 73 °C 1 min, 0 sec 5 g 7 oz / 200 ml

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  • “Sipdown! (20 | 65) Sipping down the 2021 version, but I still have this year’s harvest somewhere. This is essentially just the shincha version of Sencha of the Spring Sun. Hachijūhachi (八十八)...” Read full tasting note
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From Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms

Spring Sun HachijuHachiya is a Limited Edition Sencha steeped in history. It’s comprised of glossy dark green needles that create an emerald green liquor. Full-bodied with a long presence in the mouth, it gives bright-tasting grassy notes with a delightful astringency that epitomises the essence of Spring time teas. The tea liquor has a thicker viscosity which is due to the downy hairs on the back of the very young leaves . We hand sorted the raw material used only the youngest buds and first two leaves. The tea had a light steaming and soft rolling enabling a many steeps. This tea is an unshaded tea which we harvested in spring, precisely 88 days after the first day of Spring. A truly unique tea, ideal for early mornings or afternoon calm.

HachijuHachiya Background

The 88th day of traditional Japanese calendar, which falls right around May 1st or 2nd, is famous as an important date for farmers, and especially tea farmers. For several hundred years, the 88th day has been considered the best day to start the spring tea harvest. Those tender new shoots are prized, and used for the highest grades of sencha.

The number 8 is considered auspicious in Japan, so the 88th day sounds very lucky. Tea picked on this day is said to give the drinker a long and prosperous life.

Taste: Astringent
Body: Full
Texture: Thick
Length: Long
Harvest: The 2nd of May
Tea Cultivar: Yabukita
Origin: Wazuka
Cultivation: Unshaded
Processing: Lightly Steamed, Rolled, Dried

About Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms View company

It started with a single cup of tea. As the legend goes, our president Akihiro Kita, or Akky-san, visited Wazuka, Kyoto one fateful day. At the time, Akky-san was still a college student in search for life's calling. After trying the region's famous Ujicha (literally meaning tea from the Uji district), he immediately fell in love and his passion for green tea was born. He had finally found what he was looking for in that one simple cup of tea. After fifteen years of learning to master the art of growing tea from tea farmers in Wazuka, Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms was born and as they say, the rest is history. So what's an Obubu? Obubu is the Kyoto slang for tea. Here in the international department we call ourselves Obubu Tea. That's "Tea Tea" for the bilinguals. We love tea so much, we just had to have it twice in our name. Now Obubu means more than just tea to us. It means, family, friends, passion and the place we call home. More than just tea. Though the roots of Obubu stem from tea, it has become more than that over the years. Obubu is an agricultural social venture, operating with three (1) bring quality Japanese tea to the world (2) contribute to the local and global community through tea (3) revitalize interest in tea and agriculture through education.

1 Tasting Note

82
3514 tasting notes

Sipdown! (20 | 65)

Sipping down the 2021 version, but I still have this year’s harvest somewhere. This is essentially just the shincha version of Sencha of the Spring Sun. Hachijūhachi (八十八) means 88, because this was harvested on the 88th day of spring, which is supposedly the best day to begin the harvest. Anyway, it’s shincha. Or at least it was about 14 months ago… XD (my cupboard is where tea goes to die)

Steeped via the lazy method, which is doing 3 steeps (60s, 15s, 45s) in a gravity steeper and combining them into one teapot. Someday soon I should really break out the kyusu though…

Very smooth and refreshing, with a lighter grassy flavor (since it’s not a shaded tea). A nice balance of gentle vegetal sweetness, bright and fresh grassiness, and soft umami notes reminiscent of lightly toasted nori. Quite sweet up front, some vegetal umami lingers around the sides of my mouth and tongue at the end of the sip, and there’s a gently astringent grassy finish. Perhaps a touch of light nuttiness as well.

Anyway, enough already. A very tasty well-rounded sencha, and it has held up well despite being 14 months old. I never can keep up with my Obubu subscription. :P

Flavors: Asparagus, Astringent, Cut Grass, Grass, Nuts, Seaweed, Smooth, Spinach, Squash, Sweet, Umami, Vegetal

Preparation
165 °F / 73 °C 1 min, 0 sec 5 g 7 OZ / 200 ML
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