Marufuji

First of all, fixed finally the blurry image for you guys.
Secondly, found myself with excessive time suddenly before going to work for the evening and feeling no guilt whatsoever for spending it with my cup and pot.
Thirdly, still having a feeling that my skin pores are infused in tar because of the latest exhibition I helped to put up in the gallery. Made me crave for Lapsang for those two days.

And now for the neglected cup of tea. Been a while.

Sweet, subtle promise of warm pleasure expands in my nostrils as I take a deep breath of the dry leaves. Visual looks and the scent associates with steaming cup in the middle of autumn morning on an old wooden pier in a cold wind. Cold, harsh and moody wind that is. Accidentally enough the one we have right now. Gray, rainy, windy, moody..if you feel up for adventurous weather feel free to visit Helsinki within the current month. Surprises guaranteed. Which makes the simmering pot and cup on the side even more appealing at the moment.

A sliver of smoke lingers through. That or I just should’ve taken a glass of whisky with this and my brain tries to suggest that course of action. Choosing to ignore it.

..for now.

Surprisingly the scent does give away the aroma of green tea which means very pure and..well..‘green’ sweetness, even though the roasted feeling almost pushes away all other scents this one has to offer. My mind ends up with a nagging feeling of a mixture of smoked fruit..but which one? Dates? Figs? Plums?

Hmmmm.

Oh the heck with it, my pot’s getting cold.

When brewed the aroma changes into more subtle mixture of previously mentioned without being so straightforward, especially with the roasted smokiness. Somehow the scent turns more solid and the color of the liquid is intriguing, very pleasant brownish-reddish-hint-of-gray-and-green-if-one-squints-enough. Fellow students could mention similarities to my color schemes (which I would choose to ignore as well). I wonder if anyone has ever made black tea as in black-like-charbonnel-black-printing-ink. That would be something to try. This tea puts strange thoughts in my mind. Worth loving for that already.

Sip.
…Oh.

Nice. More than nice. Smokiness, roasted taste palette, definitely round and tasty and where did that sweet untertone suddenly come from? This would be divine with carrot cake or cinnamon rolls or pancakes with turkish yoghurt and cherry jam or better yet black currants, the character of this specimen could carry the creamy sweetness and caramel tones of pastries very well and I bet it would be compatible with the bitterness of smetana and yoghurt. One could describe the flavor a tad bit plain, which it honestly is, it does have very simple key flavor which is supported with the subtle layers of others. Maybe that’s why first thoughts concentrated on tastes it could compliment on the side. But it still holds its’ ground when enjoyed alone. Even the aftertaste hangs around quite a bit, oh how I love the smoke-

Wait.
This won’t do.
I will not hype a tea.

But I will bite the one who dares to steal a sip.

Yr classik genmaicha wot I have been drinking steadily for years – in fact I know I took some pretty pictures of it ages ago I will unearth and upload sometime. The packaging says to steep with boiling water for 60 seconds, then pour out completely (Japanese style). In practice I find boiling water kills the lovely delicate green colour of the first infusion (before it turns green-tinged gold), so I let the water sit in the kettle for a minute first. To make a jumbo-sized cup for myself I use 1.5 teaspoonfuls in one of those empty sachets they sell at the Korean grocery (also v. good for holding bouquet garnis for soup and such), and just take the sachet out after a minute. One sachet can be infused 2-4 times, increasing the steeping period each time. The last one won’t be much good tea-wise, but it’ll still have the distinctive brown rice scent and flavour.