Kurihara Tea: #12 Shira-Ore Stem Tea With Matcha

After infusing, the tea smells very nutty and vegetal, like green beans

The brewed tea is a sort of yellow-green color, kind of sickly looking if I’m being honest. The scent is quite umami and reminds me of gyokuru. The flavor is unique. It has a flash of bitterness, but an agreeable kind and underneath that is a rich bed of umami with very green and vegetal tones, and some hints of herb and mushroom.

On the second infusion, the flavor is dramatically different, much more mellow and subdued, more sweet and nutty. I imagine this is because most of the matcha was poured and drank in the first infusion. There’s a bit of a sour tang in the finish.

The third infusion is even more subtle and tastes something like green beans and nuts. There’s a little saltiness as well. I got this sample from an acquaintance, so I can’t say how old it is, and it certainly hasn’t been properly stored for a Japanese green tea since I got it. I have had it in a little plastic bag just sitting in a box of other samples for months, so I imagine I am not experiencing this tea in its ideal state of freshness. I’ll lean a little higher on my rating to account for that.

I don’t know if matcha-laced teas are really my thing. I’ve only had a couple now. I enjoy sencha because most I have had are very calming and don’t have an intense feeling from caffeine. Adding matcha to the tea makes it seem more invigorating and gives me more of the sensation of caffeine rush, so I don’t particularly enjoy that. This wasn’t a bad tea. The flavor was nice, but it’s not really something I prefer… a little too “edgy” for me, I think.

Having a Kindle Fire is probably the most awesome thing I have experienced in a while, combine that with a free trial to Kindle Unlimited, and I am pretty sure my ‘books read’ count this year is going to sky-rocket past 100, easily. If I am lucky I can afford to keep the Kindle Unlimited thing after my free trial, because $10 for a mountain of books is just awesome. I love being able to carry all those books around with me without being crushed under their weight, a common problem when I travel around, I need my books! Having a book has always been a security blanket for me, I never leave the house without one.

Today’s tea comes from Yunomi, they recently gave their website a re-do, it caught me off guard, but it looks quite snazzy. From Kurihara Tea #12 Shira-Ore Stem Tea with Matcha will be the tea that gets to take a soak in my Kyusu today. Usually called Kukicha, stem tea in the Yame Region of Southern Japan is called Shira-Ore. It takes the stems separated out during the production of Sencha and mixes them with a bit of leaves to balance out the flavor and some Matcha to add in some richness. The aroma of the dry leaves is so green! There are notes of cut grass, fresh spinach, and an underlying sweet nuttiness, the aroma reminds me of the smell of summer when everything is in full growth.

Ah, the aroma of sweet, fresh, vegetation is a beautiful thing, especially to sniff when once is not in the best mood, it is like taking a walk through a lush field on a summer day, but without the worry of annoying bitey bugs. There are notes of fresh hay, cut grass, spinach, nuttiness, and a tiny hint of a green algae note. The liquid is sweet and green, there is a bit of grass and spinach with a sweet nutty quality and a tiny hint of umami filled kelp.

The first steep is delightfully mellow, not to be boring but the tea tastes pretty much exactly as it smells, no mysterious hidden notes that appear in the taste. Fresh green growth, cut grass, sweet fresh hay, and a nice nutty sweet finish. Very refreshing, especially if you, like me, are a lover of all things green. I should say that the Matcha taste is very mild, a lot of teas with added Matcha usually have a very distinct kick of of the stuff, this one is very light, so if you are one who is afraid of Matcha, this could be a good introduction to its taste.

I decided to go for a second steep (while I vigorously browse for new books for my kindle, that thing is going to be loaded with books for my train trip) the aroma is a warm grass green and sweet, mellow, Matcha. It reminds me of sun warmed green growth, where earlier it was a field in morning, this time it is late and lazy afternoon. The taste this time around has a more umami sea air and kelp tinge to it, with less sweetness and more green, there is a touch of cooked kale and fresh vegetation, with a finish of hay. An excellent example of stems being awesome.

For blog and photos: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/10/yunomi-kurihara-tea-12-shira-ore-stem.html