Thés du Japon

Derk the lovely sent me this tea and it is the very first tea in my new and refurbished room (still shared with older brother). I can easily drink tea prepared gongfu here on my desk, without using windowsill as an extension, where I had my gaiwan, teabowl and thermos. Thank you a lot derk!

I prepared it gongfu, all 5 grams in my 125 ml gaiwan, with temperature carefully heated to 70°C (possible variance +- 2°C), 6 pm.

Oh my…
this is a grassy tea with herb (thyme) flavour. Freshly cut grass, even it’s 3 and half years old. Smooth, round and creamy. Very aromatic, with following steeps turns more into green beans with buttery and oily texture, some florals. Kinda brings me memories of late summer/early autumn in Finland and my hiking trips near the lakes — probably mossy and swampy forest, if it makes some sense with the notes above.

While it has got some umami, it’s not dominant and feels just fine with the other notes. No seaweed as some greens are, no or very low minerality, and I just wish never finishing this tea.

I completely understand my friend’s statement being left with no words. Just go and try it yourself. And tell us your impressions. If you are able to.

Another draining day, another nice tea I hope.
Gongfu, 5.5 grams / 125 ml / 75°C water.

I wasn’t paying much attention for every single steep, but I got probably expected flavour profile — buttery and grassy; mild and smooth. With longer steeps a bit more of astringency and seaweeds, but not bitterness. Maybe I have been expecting tropical fruits, but I don’t get those, so probably indeed it was a contaminationthat LuckyMe sample had.

I have offered second steep (roughly 15 seconds) to my mom and here are her words: “It’s fine, but nothing exceptional.” Yes, I agree with her word by word. Nevertheless, I have to say thank you to my friend derk, who kindly sent me this tea which I received in January.

I’m being too lazy to create another page. I am drinking this same one but it is through a hotel here in Japan. The dry leaf is very nice. Warm umami notes along with slight touches of veggies and grass. But the wet leaf is even more delectable to my nose. Slight warn umami with hints of cream, sweet grass, and asparagus. If anyone is watching me sniff this tea bag they probably have a real amusing look on their face. The liquor full of umami and hints of veggies and grass. The mouth feel is silky.

The leaves have a nice smell to them – a bit like fresh moss, pine, and sweet grass, may something citrusy mixed in there. The wet leaf is floral with that moss-forest-y vibe. The floral and grassy notes are transferred into the infusions. I’d say this tea is quite stable with each infusion being similar to previous ones. Perhaps the 2nd infusion has the most pronounced floral character and has the most body. ‘Zairai’ senchas tend to remind me of Chinese green teas and this is no exception. There is a sharpness that is almost gasoline-like that reminds me of very fresh sheng pu’er tea. If you have a sensative stomach, you might find this tea slightly unpleasant during the initial steeps, but I was fine. There’s a balance that’s struck by the thick, soft body of the second and 3rd infusions and the moss-like vibe in the. nose that counters the sharp grassy/gasoline-y-ness. It’s a unique tea for sure.

May 2022 harvest

I prepared this at home a few times hot in a small pot and wasn’t thrilled with the deep vegetal flavor, though I’m sure others might be. So I relegated it to “Work Tea” which means western steeping in either a ceramic or glass vessel. But I tired of the flavor quickly during the winter months as it wasn’t what I really craved. The bag made many trips to and from work in my backpack and as a result, probably 95% of the remaining leaf was crushed to fannings.

Cue a warmer spring than normal and I’ve found myself cold-brewing the fannings everyday for several weeks now. I’m down to my last serving and am happy to say this makes an excellent cold-brew despite being 2 years old at this point. It’s so flavorful and deeply vegetal, sweet, fruity and thick yet refreshing. Really hits the spot and glad I could put my backpack mistake to use!

I usually cold-brew Chinese greens with a light hand, the same 1g:100mL that I use for western steeping. This sencha does well with that ratio as well. Since I had plenty of leaf with which to experiment, I found my sweet spot is over double the leaf, about 6g to 450mL, and left to sit in the fridge overnight.

Thanks to Derk for the chance to try another black tea from TDJ! I steeped 3 g of leaf in 150 ml of 203F water for 3, 5, 7, and 10 minutes.

The dry aroma is of apple, cinnamon, blackberry, jasmine, and malt. Oof! If TDJ describes this tea as having faint tannins, I wouldn’t want to drink anything they think is stronger. The first steep has notes of tannins, wood, malt, pencil shavings, earth, apple, blackberry, jasmine, violet, butter, and cinnamon, though those drying tannins grab my attention and don’t let go. The sad part is that the apple, blackberry, cinnamon, and florals are lovely, but are totally overwhelmed. The next steep has mouthwatering aromas of baked apple, cinnamon, blackberries and other berries, apricot, and florals, but those tannins steal the show. The tannins are less aggressive in the third steep, allowing honey, malt, and florals to peak through and offering nice apple hints in the aftertaste. The final steep is fainter, with a cinnamon apple aroma and a tannic kick.

If I’d only smelled this tea without tasting it, I would have given it a high rating. As is, it’s way too harsh for me. The fruity, cinnamon, floral aroma and aftertaste don’t make up for the astringency.

Thanks again to Derk for this sample! Following Derk and the vendor’s instructions, I steeped 3 g of leaf in 150 ml of boiling water for 5, 8, and 15 minutes. I hope these long steeps don’t make this tea into a tannin monster!

The dry aroma is of tangerine, berries, cream, rose, other florals, malt, and wood. The first steep has rich aromas and flavours of blackberry, raspberry, vanilla, rose, and orange. In the mouth, I get the fruit plus cream, rose, orange blossom, malt, wood, thyme, vanilla, earth, and restrained tannins. The blackberry and raspberry are more pronounced for me than the orange, though it’s a nice background note. There’s blackberry, orange, and peach in the lingering aftertaste. The next steep is a bit more malty and woody, but still has lots of fruity and floral goodness. The final steep has minerals, wood, and malt with faint berries, cream, and orange, and it’s quite a bit more tannic.

This is an excellent black tea with wonderful fruity, creamy, and floral notes. It doesn’t have great longevity, but I also did very long steeps. The tannins never get overwhelming. I’m enjoying these TDJ teas more than I expected to.

I feel guilty about these generous Thés du Japon samples from Derk. I wasn’t sure how to steep them when I received them and I’m equally clueless now, but instead of figuring it out, I accidentally shuffled them into the tea museum. The box is out in the open now, so there should be more TDJ reviews soon.

I’m excited to finally try this floral green oolong from Japan! I steeped 3 g of leaf in 85 ml of 195F water for 25 seconds, then lowered the temperature to 190F for 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is very floral and Baozhong-like: lilac, lily, sweet pea, gardenia, honeysuckle, and grass. The first steep has all these florals, plus strawberry, peach, citrus, cookies, and grass. It’s also quite astringent, though the peachy aftertaste is amazing. I lowered the temperature to 190F in subsequent steeps, which really brings out the butter, lilac, sweet pea, grass, and strawberry. The star here, however, is really that super-ripe, realistic peach, like one you’d have to eat over the kitchen sink. The next couple steeps are still very peachy and floral, with apricot, orange, spinach, umami, and strawberry. The fruit is a little less pronounced in the next few steeps, letting the florals back in. The tea peters out into grass, spinach, and faint florals soon afterwards.

If you don’t mind astringency, this is a beautiful tea. I was even more impressed by the fruit than by the florals, though both are lovely and indeed reminiscent of a Taiwanese oolong. (Did I mention the strawberry and peach?) The flavours are strong even after two years in storage. Lower temperatures tame the astringency somewhat. I hope these farmers keep experimenting with these Taiwanese-style oolongs because this one is an excellent start. Thanks again, Derk, for the chance to try this tea!

Brewing the finely crushed leaf from the bottom of the bag. Stronger than I like with a thick gyokuro-like umami and some bitterness. Showing some age (1.5 years old) but still fully expresses its unique character. Scrumptious aromas — almond croissant, herbal basil, mixed berry cereal, kudzu. Smooth and thick spinach-seaweed base taste, fruity peach aftertaste.

2023 harvest

So much to say, so little to desire to write. I have been burned out from work.

Yesterday, a customer I’ve developed a work-related friendship with called out to me as I rushed past him. I apprehensively turned around and walked back to him. He told me a story.

‘There was an American man who traveled to Japan during war. The Japanese consulate denied him a new visa so he went to sit in a park. He drank tea and wrote a poem, then went back to the consulate to present it. After reading the poem, the consulate granted him a new visa.’

My customer inhaled sharply to stifle his tears.

’The poem read:

Drinking a bowl of
green tea
I stop the war.’

We parted ways.

He is a teacher.

https://www.ahapoetry.com/PP1000..htm

This tea is such a wild card. Glad I had 40g to figure out what was going on here. After 10 or so rounds of experimentation at work and home, the last cup of the bag was the best! I didn’t weigh the broken bits (2g?) but did use the 160F setting on my kettle. Got distracted, came back 10+ minutes later to a sweet and mellow fruity cup. The floral blueberry and fruity peach notes really stood out this time. No bitterness. Full-bodied.

Overcast and cool September Sunday calls for some sencha.

May 2022 harvest
First experience with this tea that’s over a year old by now. I picked it up at some point in Spring of 2023.

Dry leaf smells like kudzu, black grapes, paper, buttery raspberry scones (anybody familiar with Sconehenge?), anise and lamb fat. Warmed leaf is more intense with dominant aromas of spinach souffle and raspberry cream.

The dry and warmed leaf aromas catch my attention much more than the taste of the tea. Brewed with Thés du Japon’s suggested parameters, the tea is watery, drying and tannic with a distinct bitterness – perhaps it is showing its age. I do get fruity notes like green grapes and kiwifruit. Also some wheatgrass and light, dewy sweetness. Slight refreshing character, like cypress in the fog.

I’ll give this tea a few more tries. If it’s simply past its prime, compost it is.

First ever tamaryokucha style green tea, and I believe it’s 2023 shincha, courtesy of Thés du Japon. Thank you!

This morning’s cups were damn near perfect. Half the sample – 4g – went into the steeper basket with cooled water from the work dispenser, steeped for maybe a minute. White beany and vegetal, full-bodied and round with sweet umami, not a lick of bitterness or astringency. Refreshing and engaging but mellow. Second much like the first. Third steep, brewed without cooling the water, was dark and cloudy; it tasted like the smell of the clumps of young, wet grass that stick to the bottom of the lawnmower. Wow, those were some great cups of tea. I have the rest of the sample set aside for brewing in a small pot.

Like gyokuro-lite. I dig this much more than gyokuro. More balanced.

A free sample included with my order. I believe the sample is 2023 shincha.

Edited to add that I think this tea is better steeped in a basket. I went heavier than usual 4g:300mL to finish off the sample, 160F for 1min. Practically no bitterness and the aroma is like a berries and cream candy with such a soft spinach vegetal component.

Aroma of pie crust with blueberry and raspberry jam, some boiled spinach as well. It is a soft and sweet scent. Body is medium with a little fish broth umami underpinning a bright and bitter haylike taste. The berry notes of the leaf and aroma release lightly on the swallow. Very dewy sweet aftertaste comes from the back of the mouth. A few small burps taste like the aroma. This is a nice tea and moves easily but the bitterness is off balance for my taste (perhaps this can be mitigated) and there is a catch in my throat. Good for 3 steeps in a small pot.

Yamakai cultivar is certainly unique and worth a try. This one is a great introduction at only ~$0.08/g, however, shipping fees must be taken into account.

Thank you, Thés du Japon!

Another interesting tea courtesy of derk.

I was surprised by how fruity this was. And by fruity I mean tropical fruit which is unusual in green tea. When I first sniffed the leaves, I wondered if perhaps they had absorbed scent from another flavored tea.

Sure enough, the fruitiness from the aroma came through in the tea. Definitely taste the adzuki bean sweetness that derk noted. Soft umami, baby spinach, stir fried cabbage, and cherry blossom were amongst the flavors encountered.

As someone that drinks a lot of green tea, they often end up tasting rather similar. So a unique sencha like this with an atypical flavor profile is a welcome change.

May 2021 harvest

The leaf is clearly thin and delicate and when dry, has a soft, high scent of butterfat with an even softer ‘dark’ undertone. The cut is small and uniform, about the size of sea salt flakes, which allows for quick infusion. Despite this, there is very little astringency and no bitterness. It is best prepared as a one-steep tea with long infusion time. Probably well suited for a European-style large teapot brew.

A doughy aroma gently stimulates the senses. I think of it less like yeast, which gmathis aptly noted, and maybe more like a fresh, doughy and warm soft pretzel.

As far as the taste, this tea is all about the tones and lacks distinct flavor notes. Low tones of well worn soft leather, old dark wood, dark bread and forest soil earthiness with some red currant brightness are so soft and rounded. Tinges of astringency and acidity. When prepared with higher leaf:water ratio, I do notice some of the vanilla sugar Thés du Japon suggests.

This profile is a bit of a mystery to me. If I am to categorize its character, it’s maybe like an African black tea with a leathery Assam but without the typical assamica punch of either. The velvety and full body is more like a high-quality Chinese Qimen and does not match what the leaf visual brings to mind.

Interesting tea and worth a try for the curious. Read more here: https://japaneseteasommelier.wordpress.com/2017/12/24/karabeni-cultivar-black-tea/

Uh-oh. No notes on this one yet so I’m going to have to figure out the flavor without any help from fancier palates than mine. The cup was a little like a sensory jigsaw puzzle!

Plain old Missouri farm girl western-style steep; four minutes. The scent—-and I had to keep sniffing and thinking about it—reminded me of yeast that had been left to rise in the sun just a little too long, but in a good way. (Fermented a little, I guess.) The flavor doesn’t quite fit my usual favorite toasty or bready adjectives; it was more like a heavy Christmas fruitcake or plum cake—definitely a dark, heavy fruit thing going on.

I’ll add an amendment when I try the second steep, but in the meantime, thank you, derk—this is one I would never have stumbled across without you! It is unlike any straight black tea I’ve ever tried.

April 2021 harvest.

Rich, heady florals and thick sweetness with a balanced astringency once I dialed in on this leaf’s character. It can be very finnicky, bitter and unbalanced, especially so when following TDJ’s parameters.

What transformed this tea for me was using 4g:400mL brewed in a glass vessel with water 160F or lower for a minute or two. It reminds me of oolong with its floral intensity, creamy-milky and fruity notes (like Froot Loops cereal), sugarcane-like sweetness and extended retronasal action of the aftertaste. It is equally a green tea, though, with pronounced but well integrated astringent vegetal-whitebean-grass taste. Mild, minty cooling.

It took a minute, but I’m now rather happy with this sencha and hope that others can be, too.

Oh, there’s some ghee here, too. Not your typical buttery note. GHEE. It’s sticky in my olfactories. But that note also seems unnatural, though inoffensive — if not strangely palatable — like a flavored milk oolong. I like it.

Addendum: Recommended for those who fancy a big floral bouquet and can find some pleasure in experimentation. The fruity nuances this tea has to offer are a treat. They will materialize with some coaxing and linger with the affection of a crazed lover. Intense tea. Mellow is not a quality that has ever come to mind. While I’m unlikely to seek out this sencha again, I do appreciate the exercise in patience that allowed me to finally get to know this tea.

Also, while the tea is still fresh a year after harvest, I can see it devolving quickly into pure parfum. I will work to drink this down before other green teas in my cupboard that are known practitioners of longevity.

May 2021 harvest, grown without pesticides

Following TDJ’s parameters, I wasn’t impressed by the level of barklike bitterness; however, the flavor itself was pretty good and the aroma spectacular. I remember the second infusion smelling like blood oranges. I’m wondering how TDJ picked up a descriptor of ‘coconut dumplings’.

Steeped 3g:300mL for several minutes, again the aroma is pronounced, with a mixture of lychee, apple, blackberry, cream, cinnamon and almond, a touch of malt. The body of the tea consists of dominant qualities that are dark and tannic-drying, reminding me of rosewood, with a dark and dry leaf litter vibe. The aroma does flow very well through the taste and lingers like a thick vapor. Camphory, cypressy freshness abounds soon after the swallow, spreading from the chest to the throat, eventually taking over the mouth with minty freshness; not overbearing, just very natural and a marker for me of a high-quality tea. A candied orange peel aftertaste blooms slowly and grows with the sense of calm that this tea induces.
That aftertaste morphs into a tree-sappy returning sweetness with notes of something more like mandarin-apricot. I also notice a rasp on the tongue which reinforces the notion of cinnamon I caught in the aroma.

This is a tricky leaf, as I’m finding out with my exploration of Japanese teas, but it has an elegant heaviness and depth if approached in an appreciative manner. In other words, it’s a tea to respect, to sit with, not one to brew and drink in a rush.

Thanks, Derk, for all the generous Japanese tea samples! This is also my first Japanese oolong, and I was drawn to the ones featured on the Thés du Japon site because they were described as resembling Taiwanese gaoshan, even down to the cultivars used. I had no idea how to steep this, not having a 60 ml vessel, so I filled my 85 ml teapot most of the way and hoped it was okay. TDJ also only gives directions for the first steep. I used my 3 g of leaf in boiling water and steeped it for 30, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds.

The dry aroma is of apricot, tart fruit (I haven’t had quince, but that seems accurate), grain, lemon, lilies and other flowers, and sugarcane. The lily, honeysuckle, orchid, and maybe even lilac florals do remind me of a Baozhong, as does the grass, butter, and silky texture. There’s definitely an element of grain that I haven’t found in Baozhong, and the tart quince/apricot/peach comes in on the aftertaste. (That peachy aftertaste might be the best part of this steep!) Spice is quite prominent in steep two, along with flowers, grass, minerals, grain, sap, and tart fruit. I see how Derk is getting mango in steep three, though there’s also some astringency, grass, spinach, lily, apricot, lemon, and minerals. The tea is starting to get a bit rough around the edges. Coconut appears in the fourth steep, though the spinach and grass are getting stronger and the fruit/florals are backing off. There’s still some creamy mango sweetness as it cools. The coconut, mango, and apricot continue in the next few steeps, but this oolong is getting very grassy, vegetal, and bitter.

This oolong evolved throughout my gongfu session and was a bit temperamental, though that could have been due to user error. While it did have some similarities to Baozhong, it took a wildly different direction in later steeps. (Also, keep those coconut teas coming!) Thanks to Derk for letting me try this tea!

A lingering specimen from Mastress Alita’s Monthly Sipdown Challenge, March 2022 – A floral tea

The dry and warm leaves of this Japanese oolong smell like a bowl of Captain Crunch Berries cereal. I’d love to see confirmation of that.

Beyond that cutesy, drool-worthy leaf aroma, this tea is green, pretentious and stubborn, often unfeelingly brash, with some quiet depth beyond the florals. I could never fully open up this tea no matter the preparation; it stayed rigid and zipped up kinda like a certain someone sometimes haha. Because of this, I could never sink into the experience.

If I had had an idea that I didn’t possess the skill to get this tea where I think it needed to be, I wouldn’t have purchased it. Sorry Leafhopper, this one was a gamble. Maybe you’ll have the touch begged for to explore its emotionally unavailable diva-like character.

Either myself or this tea needs therapy.

Sipdown, and upping the rating. I don’t remember what I did differently, but kept things shorter at 15, and then 30 seconds so far. Orange is coming out with the geranium and rose, having a herbaceous finish for me. I’m enjoying it more.

Thank you Derk! Here’s my input-I’m going to have a hard time going into this tea blind since I’ve read your note and the description from the website, so here it goes.

I brew this in my gong fu 2 go, and intuitively make it. I did about 25-30 seconds in the first brew with about two thirds of the bag. I immediately noticed a geranium-lilac aroma coming from the cup, and drinking it up, chestnut or even butternut squash coats the palette. There’s some brown sugar sweetness here and there, and some woodsiness. It’s not as woody as other Japanese Teas I’ve had. Instead, it’s more floral and smooth bordering on some oolong qualities. How the florals flatten on my tongue, and then rise into my sinuses remind me of quality Baozhong flower notes, and even has the same kind of gold floral malt some of them have. The savory qualities make it lean more black, but the mouthfeel does interesting things, starting low, creamy, then cooling up into a sweetness with piquant bitter hints. Middle steeps were more floral, more rosy, but lilac, squash, brown sugar, and light wood hit my brain the most. Later steeps, 4 and 5, were sweeter/lighter towards squash and sugar, maybe cinnamon, and the last brew was sweet, light, and the most woodsy.

I’m not too sure about some of the fruitier notes described, but I can see them because the teas naturally sweet and has the kind of acidic bite strawberries might have. Camphor is something I immediately get to approximate the sweet wood cooling oil quality of the tea. I’m leaning towards petrichor in terms of mood and feel. Cinnamon is a little bit more psychological. I see it more in the later steeps than in the earlier ones, though I’m not sure if I’d peg that as a note comparing it to cinnamon in teas and Rou Guis.

I really like this one, and enjoyed it more than the Tsushima black a little bit because this one was more easy going. I still have one Japanese black to try out along with others, but I enjoyed this one. More experienced drinkers would be better with this one than newbs because it might just taste like a savory floral tea to them. I hope my input was decent derk!