Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

Made from leaves that have not been oxidized.


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Jun 29th, '16, 12:51
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Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

by debunix » Jun 29th, '16, 12:51

More Kanayamidori from O-Cha this morning, and the first few infusions—brewed a little more concentrated and diluted with cooler water, because I did not open the windows in time to take best advantage of the evening breeze and it's still quite warm this morning—are marvelous, sweet peas, meadow grass, hints of flowers and honey, so good.

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Jul 2nd, '16, 17:54
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Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

by victoria3 » Jul 2nd, '16, 17:54

I'm also enjoying O-Cha offerings; 2013 Yutaka Midori- the one I kept in the refrigerator all this time. Steeped in my Tokoname red clay kyusu it is fabulous, rich, not bitter and seems to brew better three years later well into the 4th steep. I'm still trying to identify the maker of this precisely made red clay tokoname kyusu which uses the sujihiki technique showing off horizontal potters lines and a twisted spout. I suspect it comes from either the kiln of Yamada or Fugetsu family but not sure yet. Enjoying sipping this sincha out of my newly aquired Canton tea bowl from 1856.
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Jul 3rd, '16, 10:56
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Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

by debunix » Jul 3rd, '16, 10:56

Will you feature the cup itself anytime soon?

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Jul 3rd, '16, 11:06
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Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

by jayinhk » Jul 3rd, '16, 11:06

Drinking Thai Nguyen green tea in a Guangxi Nixing pot. Bowl by airbgr (a member here). The pot isn't fully broken in yet, so it smoothens out the tea a lot. The pour is excellent and the lid fit is great. Haven't had any Vietnamese green in a while and it's a nice break from pu and oolongs. Vegetal and malt flavors; the fruity and floral aromas seem to be absent because of the pot. If it continues to take away aroma after several sessions I may make it a liu bao pot!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHZwypnAZnm/

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Jul 3rd, '16, 14:24
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Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

by victoria3 » Jul 3rd, '16, 14:24

debunix wrote:Will you feature the cup itself anytime soon?
Will do....

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Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

by victoria3 » Jul 3rd, '16, 14:37

jayinhk wrote:Drinking Thai Nguyen green tea in a Guangxi Nixing pot. Bowl by airbgr (a member here). The pot isn't fully broken in yet, so it smoothens out the tea a lot. The pour is excellent and the lid fit is great. Haven't had any Vietnamese green in a while and it's a nice break from pu and oolongs. Vegetal and malt flavors; the fruity and floral aromas seem to be absent because of the pot. If it continues to take away aroma after several sessions I may make it a liu bao pot!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHZwypnAZnm/
That green looks interesting, very light. Where did you get it?

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Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

by jayinhk » Jul 3rd, '16, 14:54

victoria3 wrote:
jayinhk wrote:Drinking Thai Nguyen green tea in a Guangxi Nixing pot. Bowl by airbgr (a member here). The pot isn't fully broken in yet, so it smoothens out the tea a lot. The pour is excellent and the lid fit is great. Haven't had any Vietnamese green in a while and it's a nice break from pu and oolongs. Vegetal and malt flavors; the fruity and floral aromas seem to be absent because of the pot. If it continues to take away aroma after several sessions I may make it a liu bao pot!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHZwypnAZnm/
That green looks interesting, very light. Where did you get it?
I poured that first infusion out a little too early. :) I bought it in Saigon (HCM City), Vietnam last year.

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Jul 5th, '16, 21:18
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Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

by victoria3 » Jul 5th, '16, 21:18

One day I would like to experience tea from Vietnam's ancient tea trees in the northern mountains of Yen Bai abutting southern Yunnan. Have you tried Shan Tuyet tea?

I am continuing with my 2013 stash, today with O-Cha's Fukamushi Sencha 'Kaoru' which I opened months ago but is still tasting fresh. Steeped at 4gr/3.8oz/135f/3minutes it is sweet with a seaside aroma and flavour. The liquor is a rich cloudy green with plenty of fine tea particles coming through the ceramic strainer. After the 2nd or 3rd steep I cold brew it in the refrigerator for a few days. Steeped in my red clay tokoname kyusu and sipping it out of a modern Noritake pedestal bowl.
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Jul 6th, '16, 01:36
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Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

by jayinhk » Jul 6th, '16, 01:36

victoria3 wrote:One day I would like to experience tea from Vietnam's ancient tea trees in the northern mountains of Yen Bai abutting southern Yunnan. Have you tried Shan Tuyet tea?
Victoria, yes, I have three kinds of 2015 Shan Tuyet green and some 2015 Shan Tuyet black, too!

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Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

by daidokorocha » Jul 7th, '16, 00:19

So, I got around to trying out all of the greens I got in my Yunnan Sourcing order. I will post more about them later, but for now I will simply say some definitely tasted close to fish hook (thai nguyen), a bit of Yun Wu, and one a lot like pu-erh. However, I want to post specifically about the early spring 2016 yunnan bao hong. :shock: I tasted it and I immediately thought dragonwell, but of course, not dragonwell. Funnily enough, Yunnan Sourcing thought the same, as I went to relook it up on there, it compares it to dragonwell but "unique in its own right". The leaves probably biased me from the get go! I opened the package and was very relieved to see the leaves as I knew I was in for a good cup. The brew is intensely floral. The lid fragrance was one of the more intense I have ever had from a tea. I would have sworn someone scented this tea or dabbed some perfume on my lid. Excellent, excellent, excellent. I will give the others tries again, but between this and Xinyang Mao Jian, there is much to love about Yunnan Sourcing's green teas. As I was making these teas while very preoccupied, a more concentrated brewing session would be best. I'll run them through multiple water sources as well.

$7.00 per 25 grams, if you are ordering from YS anytime soon and a really lovely green, please consider bao hong. They have a 2015 version that is cheaper I imagine. Not sure how the quality would be in comparison. There is a story attached about the tea's history for those interested.

http://yunnansourcing.com/en/greentea/3 ... n-tea.html

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Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

by JRS22 » Jul 8th, '16, 09:14

This morning I'm drinking the last of my O-Cha Gyokuro Uji Gyoko-Hou. There was just a little bit left so I brewed it in my tiny appaloosa Kim Eung Chul pot. I've always thought of this unglazed porcelain pot as best for yancha, possibly because of the size, but I'm very pleased at how well the gyokuro turned out.
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Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

by Tead Off » Jul 8th, '16, 10:06

JRS22 wrote:This morning I'm drinking the last of my O-Cha Gyokuro Uji Gyoko-Hou. There was just a little bit left so I brewed it in my tiny appaloosa Kim Eung Chul pot. I've always thought of this unglazed porcelain pot as best for yancha, possibly because of the size, but I'm very pleased at how well the gyokuro turned out.
Interesting. :D I never would have thought of using that pot for gyokuro, but why not!

I've been drinking Thes du Japon gyokuro from Hoshino village, Yame. It is a Yamakai cultivar. To my great surprise it is a May, 2016 picking. Well worth trying. Smooth, tasty, with no shincha astringency.

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Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

by victoria3 » Jul 8th, '16, 14:11

Tead Off wrote:
JRS22 wrote:This morning I'm drinking the last of my O-Cha Gyokuro Uji Gyoko-Hou. There was just a little bit left so I brewed it in my tiny appaloosa Kim Eung Chul pot. I've always thought of this unglazed porcelain pot as best for yancha, possibly because of the size, but I'm very pleased at how well the gyokuro turned out.
Interesting. :D I never would have thought of using that pot for gyokuro, but why not!

I've been drinking Thes du Japon gyokuro from Hoshino village, Yame. It is a Yamakai cultivar. To my great surprise it is a May, 2016 picking. Well worth trying. Smooth, tasty, with no shincha astringency.
Interesting, I thought Gyokuro was stored for +-4 months, to let it sit and mellow out, and then only sold in September October. Or is this a Sincha Gyokuro? i.e. Shaded Sincha.

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Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

by daidokorocha » Jul 8th, '16, 17:36

victoria3 wrote:
Tead Off wrote:
JRS22 wrote:This morning I'm drinking the last of my O-Cha Gyokuro Uji Gyoko-Hou. There was just a little bit left so I brewed it in my tiny appaloosa Kim Eung Chul pot. I've always thought of this unglazed porcelain pot as best for yancha, possibly because of the size, but I'm very pleased at how well the gyokuro turned out.
Interesting. :D I never would have thought of using that pot for gyokuro, but why not!

I've been drinking Thes du Japon gyokuro from Hoshino village, Yame. It is a Yamakai cultivar. To my great surprise it is a May, 2016 picking. Well worth trying. Smooth, tasty, with no shincha astringency.
Interesting, I thought Gyokuro was stored for +-4 months, to let it sit and mellow out, and then only sold in September October. Or is this a Sincha Gyokuro? i.e. Shaded Sincha.
:| People really need to stop coming up with new names for things. Shincha gyokuro? I googled this figuring what it was and I have no idea why hibiki-an is peddling their tea with this ridiculous name. Gyokuro by no means has to be stored and what they are peddling as "shincha gyokuro" is merely kabusecha. It almost seems like a marketing scam to me. Hibiki-an basically outs themselves on their page for kuradashi tea, showing that gyokuro isn't often aged. http://www.hibiki-an.com/contents.php/cnID/7

They state that basically no one does this (except them of course!). And yet, for some reason on their "shincha gyokuro" page they say that this is a way you can enjoy gyokuro now without having to wait, despite the fact that almost all of their gyokuro on their website is not kuradashi. Though, I'm not sure how much one can say that "no one else does this" considering one of the most popular brands of bottled green tea in Japan released a kuradashi version a few years back. Again, it all seems too much like marketing.

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Re: Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

by Tead Off » Jul 8th, '16, 23:29

victoria3 wrote:
Tead Off wrote:
JRS22 wrote:This morning I'm drinking the last of my O-Cha Gyokuro Uji Gyoko-Hou. There was just a little bit left so I brewed it in my tiny appaloosa Kim Eung Chul pot. I've always thought of this unglazed porcelain pot as best for yancha, possibly because of the size, but I'm very pleased at how well the gyokuro turned out.
Interesting. :D I never would have thought of using that pot for gyokuro, but why not!

I've been drinking Thes du Japon gyokuro from Hoshino village, Yame. It is a Yamakai cultivar. To my great surprise it is a May, 2016 picking. Well worth trying. Smooth, tasty, with no shincha astringency.
Interesting, I thought Gyokuro was stored for +-4 months, to let it sit and mellow out, and then only sold in September October. Or is this a Sincha Gyokuro? i.e. Shaded Sincha.
Most sellers do store their gyokuros for several months before release. This is a more unusual case using a different cultivar with full shading and gyokuro processing as done in Yame. It is surprisingly delicious. As far as I know, it is not a shincha sencha which has been shaded, which would make it a kabusecha.

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