Kihara #4 Naturally Grown Karigane Premium Tea Leaf Stems

GCTTB4

I steeped this using Western parameters this morning: 12 oz, 1.5 tsp, 70C, 3 minutes or so.

The resulting liquor was a nice pale yellow green and tasted fairly mild but typical of a Japanese green tea: that umami vegetal flavour that was slightly sweet.

Glad I got a chance to try this. I think my heart really belongs with Chinese greens over Japanese ones, but it’s always good to try something new.

I love Japanese green teas but they are brewed at such low temperatures! I like my tea to be hot. When it’s brewed at 140F or 160F and goes from a teapot to a cup (which have been warmed)it still cools down somewhat so that I am drinking lukewarm tea. Well, that’s my only beef about this tea. Otherwise it’s good.

I botched the first brewing. Didn’t read the instructions and just brewed at my regular green tea temperature (185F) for 1 min. It came out bitter. So I threw that out and started again. This time it’s sweet and grassy. Not as much umami as sencha or gyokuro. It is lighter and with less caffeine. I am now on the 2nd infusion. It seems to have lost some of the punch (sencha & gyokuro usually get stronger in the 2nd infusion). and there’s a bit of bitterness creeping back into it. This one gets bitter really easy!

Oh, this is yummy. I’m not as good at describing green tea as I am black, but this is super delightful. It’s quite savory. Not as grassy or seaweed-y as I find most other Japanese greens. But not floral like Chinese greens either. It tastes most similar to a Sencha but with heavy creamy spinach notes. It has a nice silky mouthfeel with no bitterness.
The leaves are gorgeous as well. I was assuming that it would be completely stems, but there is a pretty decent amount of leaves in there as well. Probably 50/50. It’s just as lovely to look at as it is to drink.