Finally got a chance to sit down with this tea that I plucked out of the fifth round of the Great Canadian Travelling Tea Box a few months back…
I actually brewed this one Gong Fu today in my Hojicha dedicated yixing pot. God, I just love the feel of that pot in my hands. It’s the perfect size and weight, and it pours so smoothly. I don’t use this pot enough; and it shows a bit because brewing this today there flavour of the tea was light enough that I imagine there’s still some flavour being sucked out of the liquor into the pot. It’s hard to say definitively though ‘cause I actually haven’t tried this Hojicha yet outside of the yixing pot as a “control” infusion. I likely should have done that first…
But despite some possible flavour sucking, I actually thought that this was a REALLY enjoyable session. The first half I enjoyed while listening to some good music. In this case, I was rocking a couple different songs by The Inkspots. This was my favourite from the session though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC_VzbtRGr0&list=LL1M1wDjmJD4SJr_CwzXAGuQ&index=2
The Ink Spots are just so smooth and melodic, and I think the tone of their voice matches the smooth qualities of the tea quite well. Sometimes there’s a hint of that “char” sort of note with Hojicha, but this was just so beautifully smooth and evenly roasted/toasty in flavour. Apart from the familiar, comforting toasty notes I felt there was also some sweetness in this tea; maybe a bit of honey and cocoa hidden underneath that soft roast? I liked that I couldn’t taste any “greenness” from the tea either.
After four or so infusions I took a break for supper, and then when I returned to the session I switched things up a little bit and instead of listening to music I watched the Season One finale of Scream Queens. I have to say; I wasn’t surprised by the final reveal but only because I had it spoiled for me ages ago. It was a good finale though! I’m not really sure what direction season two will take from here, but I think I’m on board with continuing with the series to find out…
Final infusions were much lighter; the flavour of this one definitely deteriorated quickly into the session. I’m not overly surprised; I’ve never managed to pull off super long session with Hojicha. Even the last infusion I did (I think number seven?) did have a mild roast to it though, even if it was mostly watery. So I feel like I definitely got as much out of the tea as I could have. So it was very enjoyable overall.
