Yabukita

It’s been a while since my last note…doesn’t mean i didn’t dring any tea :)
Recently i received my package of new teas from my local dealer. I’ve updated my collection with japan teas. One of them was this nice Kabusecha.
The tea was nominated into the national and also perfectual tea competition so i had some expectations. The Kabuse was left in shadow 10 days before it was picked. This gave it a very fresh and quite strong fragrance. Looking at the leafs it looks like very precise processing this tea has gone throuh. The leafs are even in size and have a very nice plastic fresh dark green colour.
I used my small kyusu to brew it. Temps should not be very high for such tea. You are welcome to use quite many leafs if you like strong flavour (that’s me).
Steeping was around 40sec. for the 1st brew and 30 sec. for the second. The final bawerage had a nice light green colour and fresh vegetable smell. A bit sweet. The taste on the other hand had only a little bit of sweetness. It consited of more layers od tastes – from fresh green/vegetal to a taste of young fruits. The aftertaste was very long, but delicious. I just had to take a pause after every sip to enjoy it.
A very good tea indeed. I was also very pleased with the other teas from Yabukita i drank in the past. Will look forward for the 2010 spring teas from them. Until than i can at least enjoy the last supplies from 2009.

I need to say i loved the “deep steamed” version of the sencha since the first time i drank it. If somebody asks me if i like asamushi, chumushi or rather fukamushi sencha there’s no way i could answer that. The fukamushi sencha is a class itself. So what’s the difference?
As far as i know the deep steeming (or fukamushi) is rather a new method of steaming teas. It’s used only since the 60’s. Some people don’t like it, because the huge amount of steam breaks the leafs into smaller pieces. On the other hand it allows the tea to better and faster give out the flavour and colour.
In the past i used the buy the “plain” fukamushi sencha and now i tried out the superior version.
Looking at the leaves i can see that there are more bigger parts than in the plain version. Other that that i only noticed a more richer flavour with very long and pleasant aftertaste.
Prepearing this particular type of sencha without a kyusu can be pretty anoying. The very small particles of the tea will bung the strainer all the time if you have a really fine one. With a kyusu it’s a pleasure to work with. Since it’s a fine tea, you need to use water about 60-70 degrees celsium, not more. Steeping time is about 40 sec. at the 1st infusion and about 30 sec. for all the next infusions. Can take about 5, which is pretty good for a japanese tea.
The liquor is very heavy and has a very nice bright green color. You really need to see that! The taste is not as fresh and light as a high quality chumushi/asamushi, but it’s very deep, with several layers you can feel after having it for some time on the tongue. The aftertaste is very long lasting. One of the advantages of the fukamushi is that you don’t as many leafs to get a rich beverage as with a normal sencha.
This is something you really need to try. For me it’s a sencha which should always be ready in my tea locker :)
If you are not afraid to get an overwhelming green tea experience, go get it before it gets you! Muhaha.