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

Sencha, Fuji,

Sencha (Fuji)
Type; Green, Japan
Price; £ 3.60 for 50 grams from Anteaques.

http://anteaques.co.uk/greentea/senchafuji

"This is a very high quality large leaf Japanese sencha. It has a wonderful crystalline green colour and a superb flavour that eclipses those of other green teas.
Like all traditional senchas, the freshly picked tea leaves are lightly steamed to prevent them oxidising and turning black. This distinguishes them from most of the Chinese green teas, which are usually pan fried to prevent the oxidation. The steaming process gives the sencha a more intense, distinctive, flavour."

Review; It seems only fitting to write a review for Sencha after the review of Dragon Well last week. As I have mentioned before there is a distinctive difference between Chinese and Japanese teas and that is the nature in which they are dried. Japanese teas being steam-dried gives a stronger freshly cut grass, or seaweed taste. As Japanese Tea Master Mio Shapley said, “only with Matcha does one drink tea, all other teas are but the essence of tea”.

Wiser words have not been said in my opinion and holds true with Sencha. This essence of tea, one can taste the chlorophyll on ones tongue. Senchas like Dragon Wells, and like Darjeelings, have famous regions, and estates that they can come from, though often times this element is missed in the west. A statistic I once read stated that roughly 80% of all Japanese teas stay in Japan for consumption. I find Sencha to be one of the best teas to drink for studying for exams, especially if over-brewed.

Interesting things can be observed when it comes to comparing Japanese and Chinese green teas and where they are pre-dominantly consumed. Chinese teas have a trump in Europe while Japanese green teas are trump in North America and Australia/New Zealand.

Enjoy!

-Tea Fan