Sipdown! It was a 5g packet, but still counts! After this, the only single packets I have left are all gyokuro, which I’m a bit hesitant to try until I’ve had a few more sencha. The dry leaf here had a lovely warm chestnut brown color. The pieces looked quite a bit smaller than the Tsubame hoji-kukicha, like they were made from slimmer stems.
I wasn’t feeling the kyusu tonight, so I did a sort of hybrid method. Still the same amount of leaf to water, but in a baby teacup with a wire basket instead of a traditional pot. My three steeps were 30s, 15s, and 45s. The steeped tea had a beautiful amber-chestnut color to it.
This actually has a mellower flavor than I expected given the color. Lovely soft wood and autumn leaf notes as usual, but it also has a mineral char that reminds me of a roasted oolong. I also taste more umami notes than I generally get in hojicha, and they’re similar to toasted seaweed. There’s an underlying richness that reminds me of dark caramel, but without the sweetness.
I feel like I’m describing all of these roasted tea the same way, hah… It would be interesting to do a side-by-side comparison to see how they really differ. Hopefully the notes aren’t terribly repetitive! >.<
Flavors: Autumn Leaf Pile, Burnt Sugar, Char, Mineral, Roasted, Roasted Barley, Seaweed, Smooth, Toasted, Umami, Wood
