TeaChat

This evening, the house quiet, my son asleep in the blanket fort in his room, I sit and pour Hankook Tea's Gamnong Green tea (http://www.hankooktea.com/gamnong-green ... ister.html) in a round 美光 Korean celadon infuser cup. It's a truly wonderful tea sampled and bought during World Tea Expo at the close of the show from the very friendly women of Hankook tea. A very healing infusion!

I'm loving this fall weather, (mid-sixties here, and full of fall colors). It's inspired me to try some genmaicha that a friend sent me. The light, toasty flavor is perfect for a crisp afternoon.


Casual Genmaicha by Devoted135, on Flickr

O-Cha order arrived I'd ordered the beginner's kit for my first of all the basics, and tried it out today with the delicious Yutaka Midori. I brewed 2.8g in ~100mL, going off Chip's parameters in this post. First try at verbalizing my impressions, so bear with me.

1st infusion (60s @ 158* into pre-heated kyusu) was a tad weak, although all the flavours (vegetal, marine, umami) were coming through without a hint of bitterness. The leaves smelled amazing, strongly, with all the same flavours. As the brew cooled, more of the tastes came out, I'm guessing as the particles in the cup continued to infuse. I decided to run the 2nd infusion on the longer side...

2nd infusion (30s @ 165*) - fantastic. The brew was much fuller, with a brothy mouthfeel and stronger umami. The taste was on the cusp of bitterness - not there yet, but just around the corner, wonderfully balanced. The brew did not improve as it cooled - on the contrary, the flavour moved towards "fishy". I'll stick to drinking this quite warm. The leaves began giving up their vegetal aroma, leaving room for buttercream.

3rd infusion (60s @ 175*) had a touch more bitterness, "there and not there" at first, but progressed into a distinct presence as the brew cooled. Not unpleasant, but I prefer without. The leaves continued to shift their aroma more towards a warm sweetness - beautiful.
Given the slight bitterness on this round, I backed off on the next...

4th infusion (60s @ 175*) - definitely too weak. Curiously, though, the bitterness remained. Not at first - at first I was back to that "cusp" - but as the brew cooled. This infusion felt drier as well. Tasting this, I realized some dryness was also present in the previous infusion, but it took its stronger presence here to bring it to my attention. As for the leaves, curiously again, a vegetal aroma returned. Overall, this round felt understeeped. Could this be a case of "too hot too fast"? Next time, I will try infusing longer, at lower temp, in hopes of extracting the rest of the leaves' sweetness before their bitterness.

Here's a picture of my setup-in-progress. I debated removing the pyrex cup, but in the interests of tea honesty , all is there.


Next up - Kabusecha!

dRummie wrote:O-Cha order arrived I'd ordered the beginner's kit for my first of all the basics, and tried it out today with the delicious Yutaka Midori. I brewed 2.8g in ~100mL, going off Chip's parameters in this post. First try at verbalizing my impressions, so bear with me.

1st infusion (60s @ 158* into pre-heated kyusu) was a tad weak, although all the flavours (vegetal, marine, umami) were coming through without a hint of bitterness. The leaves smelled amazing, strongly, with all the same flavours. As the brew cooled, more of the tastes came out, I'm guessing as the particles in the cup continued to infuse. I decided to run the 2nd infusion on the longer side...

2nd infusion (30s @ 165*) - fantastic. The brew was much fuller, with a brothy mouthfeel and stronger umami. The taste was on the cusp of bitterness - not there yet, but just around the corner, wonderfully balanced. The brew did not improve as it cooled - on the contrary, the flavour moved towards "fishy". I'll stick to drinking this quite warm. The leaves began giving up their vegetal aroma, leaving room for buttercream.

3rd infusion (60s @ 175*) had a touch more bitterness, "there and not there" at first, but progressed into a distinct presence as the brew cooled. Not unpleasant, but I prefer without. The leaves continued to shift their aroma more towards a warm sweetness - beautiful.
Given the slight bitterness on this round, I backed off on the next...

4th infusion (60s @ 175*) - definitely too weak. Curiously, though, the bitterness remained. Not at first - at first I was back to that "cusp" - but as the brew cooled. This infusion felt drier as well. Tasting this, I realized some dryness was also present in the previous infusion, but it took its stronger presence here to bring it to my attention. As for the leaves, curiously again, a vegetal aroma returned. Overall, this round felt understeeped. Could this be a case of "too hot too fast"? Next time, I will try infusing longer, at lower temp, in hopes of extracting the rest of the leaves' sweetness before their bitterness.

Here's a picture of my setup-in-progress. I debated removing the pyrex cup, but in the interests of tea honesty , all is there.


Next up - Kabusecha!

The Yutaka Midori is one of my favorites. Next time, if you want, try it at 165 degrees for 50 seconds.

... or increase the brew time or increase the leaf to water ratio ...

I think this year's is a tad softer than last year's which was an excellent year for YM. Thus adjusting parameters will likely give it more punch if that is what you are looking for.

An Ji Bai Cha this afternoon, mellowing and helping me to not scream as I fight with the computer.

I am drinking gyokuro superior from Hibiki-an. I drink it every morning. 1st brew: 140 degrees for 1 minute 40 seconds. Second brew: 30 seconds at the same temperature. is anyone else drinking this tea?

Oops- I forgot to say that I am using 1 1/2-2 TB of gyokuro to 7 oz. of water.

davidglass wrote:I am drinking gyokuro superior from Hibiki-an. I drink it every morning. 1st brew: 140 degrees for 1 minute 40 seconds. Second brew: 30 seconds at the same temperature. is anyone else drinking this tea?

I only tried gyokuro once...I don't think it was good quality, plus I had no idea how to brew it. Since then, however, I've gotten into greens...actually have two unopened bags from o-cha of the tea mentioned further up the page (can't wait to compare!).

But on the topic of gyokuro, I would like to try a few different ones, pay attention to brewing parameters and see if I do in fact like this tea. I need to search the forums for some mid-range gyokuro recommendations.

Testing my Beros Hobin with O-cha karigane Asa-giri. This tea doesn't require as much care to brew as true gyo, and the little bits of tea that escape through the filter don't cause any bitterness.

I'm playing with the camera on my new iPad Air and so far I'm satisfied with the results, at least for tea time.

davidglass wrote:Oops- I forgot to say that I am using 1 1/2-2 TB of gyokuro to 7 oz. of water.

If TB is tablespoons you are brewing more like sencha than gyokuro, though that would be on the low end even for sencha. I believe the standard is 1g of leaf to 1oz of water. So that would be seven grams of leaf. Of course, it all depends on individual taste.

I debated removing the pyrex cup, but in the interests of tea honesty

I also use a pyrex cup... it helps keep me grounded.

Testing my Beros Hobin

Wow, that's a beauty!

2013 Imperial wild growing Long Jing from JKTeas -

Water chestnuts, a bit of fruit, and some sweetness on the finish. Pretty good stuff.

Hankook Tea's Spring 2013 Gamnong Green tea: I load 3 grams into my 90ml, Andrzej Bero, glazed kyusu and pour the infusion into some glazed 50ml cups for some delicious rounds. Very clarifying!