Gyokuro 2011

Name; Gyokuro 2011玉露
Type; Green, Japan
Price; £ 9.95 for 50 grams from Anteaques.

http://www.anteaques.co.uk

Brewing; 9 grams for .1 litres, 30 seconds at 60 degrees.

Review; Gyokuros are a beautiful tea, both in taste, appearance, and history.  The un-brewed leaves are long, thin and perfectly pinate.  However to me the most interesting factor of a Gyokuro is its scientific composition.  Gyokuro’s are a Japanese Sencha tea that is shade grown for 3 weeks.  This shade growing changes the light spectrum so that the plant has to generate new types of chlorophyll to match this spectrum.  Meaning that this tea is a “super enhanced” green tea with artificially increased levels of chlorophyll.  What gets even cooler is that plants are only able to produce starch and cellulose molecules in full sun, with a scavenger pathway kicking in resulting in more simple sugars.  This entails that one should expect a sweeter taste to this green tea than a regular green tea.  Or at least I tell myself so.  It is thought that Gyokuro was first made in 1835 in the Uji by Kahei Yamamoto. 

Gyokuro is also the base tea that is used for the making of Matcha in the Japanese Tea Ceremony.  In order to make this fine power, the tea must be stone ground very slowly (talking about producing only a couple grams an hour) lest the power is heated too high from the friction and oxidizes.

Gyokuros are made in a specific pot, that you put in at least 3 times the amount of tea in, with a very small amount of water.  Quick infusions still deliver a powerful kick of flavour that results in multiple different tastes as one progresses from the first infusion to the sixth.  Further more because of its delicate shade grown nature Gyokuro requires 60 degree water so as not to burn the leaves.

Taste wise there are beautiful umami flavourings, as well as spinach, seaweek, sea breeze and a sweetness that leaves the mouth astringent.  Snow peas dipped in butter (and maybe a little salt) in your mouth.  No bitterness or astringency if made correctly.

I’ve also had Gyokuro made other ways including room temperature brewing and ice brewing.  Tea is such a unique and diverse product, and different flavours, aromas and tastes all can change depending on how the tea is brewed.

While this tea is particularly expensive, Anteaques again has provided this high quality tea at an affordable price. 

Enjoy

-Tea Fan

Balasun Darjeeling 2nd Flush 2011

Name; Balasun Darjeeling 2^nd Flush 2011
Type; Black, India, Darjeeling, Balasun, SFTGFOP
Price; £ 8.00 for 50 grams from Anteaques.

http://www.anteaques.co.uk

Brewing; 4 grams for .6 litres, 3:30 seconds at 100 degrees.

Review; If the reader hasn’t caught on yet, Anteaques is usually my go to tea shop when I’m in dire need of a good cuppa.  Anteaques is where I have tasted the finest Darjeelings.  Andrew one of the owners goes to extreme care with selection of his teas and Balasun Darjeeling is a prime example.  Anteaques also has the highest level of selection of Darjeelings in the UK.  As I stated earlier second flushes are usually the preferred brew of a Darjeeling, and Balasun offers a prime example of an excellent second flush.

Balasun Darjeeling is Anteaques’s answer to Goomtee when they ran out of that precious dew.  It’s got much of the same muscatel tones, yet to be completely honest carries a bitterness if it is over or under brewed.  I have had to order this tea many times to get it just right, but it is well worth it.

A friend I was drinking with at the time described it as ‘very subtle, yet lots of perfume’.  I could not agree more, this Darjeeling is too fine for the likes of milk and sugar, and opens up to a beautiful honey liqueur reminiscent of mead and muscat wines.  Subtle start leads to a more complex sweet finish.

 All in all, this is a wonderful tea.  My only complaint would be the price, however that is not justified.  This is half of the price of the mediocre First Flush I drank from Jing, and at a quality that is un-rivaled this year.  

Enjoy

-Tea Fan