TeaChat

Continuing my quest to clean out Green tea thats over a year old. 2011 Morning Crane Tea Daejak.

Poohblah wrote:last year's Kagoshima Sencha Ten from Zencha... nice and mild, aromatic with a little bit of sweetness to it, a good way to unwind and relax at the end of the day, as opposed to some other senchas which can be a real kick in the pants, like a strong cup of coffee or mate

Funny..felt that Ten was a tea that caused this most as compared to others in the Zencha OTTI...especially the Organics selections.

LOTS of green teas at the WTE in Vegas. WOO! Let me think.

Sugimoto's mother brewed up several sencha including Temomicha!!!

Den brewed up Kunpu and Houryoko.

Sara's Tea Caddie ... Lots of sencha selections including some newbies. Homare, Shirakawa, Kuritawase.

Matsushita organic Matcha. This vendor had a translator.

Aiya matcha and fukamushi (I think).

I am officially back to drinking shizuoka sencha!

And more to come.

Still working on cleaning out old Green Tea I have around. Brewing up some Clouds and Mist green tea from Teavana.

JohnnyChai wrote:

Poohblah wrote:last year's Kagoshima Sencha Ten from Zencha... nice and mild, aromatic with a little bit of sweetness to it, a good way to unwind and relax at the end of the day, as opposed to some other senchas which can be a real kick in the pants, like a strong cup of coffee or mate

Funny..felt that Ten was a tea that caused this most as compared to others in the Zencha OTTI...especially the Organics selections.

Perhaps, but I didn't participate in that OTTI, so I can't compare. In any event, it definitely has less caffeine than the only other sencha I have right now, so perhaps we'll say Ten was relatively relaxing.

A Mix of Ippodo's Sencha Hosen, and Zencha's Matsu Organic, as I did not have enough left in the Matsu Organic for a session even in my smallest Kyusu.

AdamMY wrote:A Mix of Ippodo's Sencha Hosen, and Zencha's Matsu Organic, as I did not have enough left in the Matsu Organic for a session even in my smallest Kyusu.

What do you think of the Matsu?

Thanks.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

sherubtse wrote:

AdamMY wrote:A Mix of Ippodo's Sencha Hosen, and Zencha's Matsu Organic, as I did not have enough left in the Matsu Organic for a session even in my smallest Kyusu.

What do you think of the Matsu?

Thanks.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

Matsu was tied with Fuku for my favorite from the bunch. Don't trust my memory enough to say much more than that.

Ippodo Sencha Hosen. Drinking it from my new Yunomi from a local artist ( see the Show off thread from a few days ago).

Hit the spot on this tea today, lots of buttered asparagus, with a hint of sweet pea's, with a touch of some sticky rice.

Den's Shin-ryoku sencha, from the Eiichi 'Mojave' cup, brewed in my Petr Novak kyusu. It's been a while since these lovely pieces got to work together with sencha, because I was trying to use up some other green teas. So nice to have some morning sencha with them again. Sweet, delicate, delicious, mellow. Mmmmm.

About to brew a first tasting of MIYABI shincha from O-Cha ... and OTTI 13!

Woo!

Debunix, it was fun speaking to Den at the Expo numerous times, each time he brewed up a shincha! Alternating between Kunpu (asa) and Houryoku (fuku) using his trademark set that we both own pieces of.

He also gave me a sample bag of Hashiri since I missed it (again).

Was in the middle of brewing up a Chinese green and a tea from Kenya-also green-when my mother knocked on the door. I'd promised her some Mac support so I offered her a cup of each of the teas. She liked both but couldn't distinguish between them other than saying one was more bitter.

So today we've had Kosabei green and Bao Hong. =)

Chip wrote: it was fun speaking to Den at the Expo numerous times, each time he brewed up a shincha! Alternating between Kunpu (asa) and Houryoku (fuku) using his trademark set that we both own pieces of.

He also gave me a sample bag of Hashiri since I missed it (again).

Very nice! I've missed shincha this year due to leftover sencha from last year....and don't want to stock up now, too close to a pending move.

Curious about Den, and other vendors too: how did they brew up their samples at the show? Single infusions using kettles or larger devices set to a single temperature? Thermometers, eyeballing bubbles, yuzamashi? And do they give you just the first infusion, or actually chat through several infusions of a nice shincha?

Curious because I'm sure they want their teas to be absolutely at their best for the show audience.

Most of the Japanese exhibitors had either yuzamashi or used cups to cool very hot water. They all had kettles of some kind. All used kyusu-s. Den used the exact same kyusu over and over. Others would switch up. Completely rinsing out the kyusu between "sessions" was not realistic so no attempt was made to do so.

It was equally interesting watching as none used any measuring "devices" such as thermometers, scales, etc. and simply poured or spooned leaf into the kyusu. This was predictable/expected and the results were predictably uncertain. But always very good.

The one thing I took from the experience ... WATER. I will post a green tea topic on this subject.

Gifts from Japan this morning!
My step sister returned from Kyoto with presents from Ippodo. Shincha, gyo, and a matcha starter kit.
Just made my first matcha, Kimmo-no-mukashi. I have nothing to compare it too, but I really enjoyed it. Not as strong tasting as I expected. Enjoying the buzz.