Type of tea: futsumushi sencha (normal steamed sencha)
Origin: Fuji City, Shizuoka Prefecture
Cultivar: Inzatsu 131
Harvest: First spring harvest
Akiyama Katsuhide is a talented Japanese tea producer from Shizuoka, and a pioneer in the use of many cultivars, some of which are very rare. His constant goal is to create new variations on Japanese tea, with new flavours and fragrances.
This sencha is produced using the Inzatsu 131 cultivar, which was born of the Indian Assam Manipuri 5 cultivar and an unknown father. It is rich in methyl anthranilic acid, one of the components responsible for the tea’s floral fragrance.
The liquor of this Japanese tea confirms its origins with a taste dominated by astringency, a little bitter, rich in tannins. Nonetheless, the strong flavour leaves a pleasant fragrant, mellow, round impression in the mouth. Indeed, the fragrance is this sencha’s strong point:very unusual complex scents of heady flowers, dominated by a disconcerting lily of the valley fragrance at first, then, as it cools a little, notes recalling almonds and cherry blossoms (which are salted and used to make an infusion served at weddings in Japan). This surprising fragrance very quickly becomes “addictive.”
As is generally the case for cultivars with strong special fragrances, the scent of this Inzatsu 131 grows stronger when it is left in contact with the air for a time.
It is a tea with a unique flavour and fragrance.
Steeping method
Quantity of leaves*: 3 g / 1 tsp per person
Quantity of water: 70 ml / 1/4 cup per person
Water temperature: 70-75°C / 158-162°F
Steeping time: 1min
*If you are making tea for just one person, increase the quantity of leaves slightly.