What makes a first flush bancha a bancha?

Made from leaves that have not been oxidized.


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Sep 26th, '11, 23:51
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Re: What makes a first flush bancha a bancha?

by rdl » Sep 26th, '11, 23:51

teaisme,
i just looked at yuuki-cha's website and is this the tea you are refering to:
Haru Bancha (Haru meaning Spring) is a rather rare speciality pan-fired organic bancha from Miyazaki. It contains the established coarse winter leaves, stems, and twigs that were harvested from the parent branches of kanayamidori tea bushes in late March each year"?
if so - it is a winter, not first flush, tea.

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Sep 27th, '11, 15:56
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Re: What makes a first flush bancha a bancha?

by teaisme » Sep 27th, '11, 15:56

ahhhhh that would make more sense rdl...I was just really perplexed at how different it was from sencha.
rdl wrote: Genmaicha and Houjicha do have a place, but you have to remember that these teas were created to make bad or old tea drinkable, not because people thought adding toasted grains to their sencha would make great tea better (which I am sure it does not).
It would all depend on the mind of the maker and drinker wouldn't it...I imagine there is a % out there that really enjoys genmaicha (to the point where they want the best they can get). There are also people who enjoy tea but cannot handle the sencha on its own (older, caffeine sensitive etc) This then would require good first flush leaf right? Made with great care?

I once had the brief opinion that houjicha and genmaicha were 'lower' teas but that whole idea is kinda flawed with my way of thinking as of late.....
Add to that the fact that I have blended some delicious sencha with genmai and the two married very well and one did not destroy the other.
And then a certain genmaicha I had about two years ago shifted my opinion even further. It was made with good first flush, very very very fine and soft kukicha, and rice. Amazing to brew with very cool water on the first few steeps then step up the temp and let the rice shine through and enhance the later infusions when the sencha is starting to fade.

I still haven't found a houjicha that was wow (to me), but I am sure there is one out there for anyone who desires it (the tencha kuki houjicha at den's is pretty nice though)

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Sep 27th, '11, 16:31
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Re: What makes a first flush bancha a bancha?

by rdl » Sep 27th, '11, 16:31

teaisme wrote:
rdl wrote: Genmaicha and Houjicha do have a place, but you have to remember that these teas were created to make bad or old tea drinkable, not because people thought adding toasted grains to their sencha would make great tea better (which I am sure it does not).
It would all depend on the mind of the maker and drinker wouldn't it...This then would require good first flush leaf right? Made with great care?
I once had the brief opinion that houjicha and genmaicha were 'lower' teas but that whole idea is kinda flawed with my way of thinking as of late.....
teaisme - just to correct the attribution of the above quote - that was adamMY who wrote that, not me. i respect his opinion, i just do not share it.
if you ever order from hibiki-an, their first flush houjicha is really good. i have tried the karigane, and like you say, making a houjicha with great care delivers a really fine tea. the only problem is they sell it in 200g quantity. i would prefer 100g.

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Sep 27th, '11, 17:43
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Re: What makes a first flush bancha a bancha?

by teaisme » Sep 27th, '11, 17:43

rdl wrote: if you ever order from hibiki-an, their first flush houjicha is really good.
that's the second time I've been told that, it's deff on the list to try someday!

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Sep 27th, '11, 19:58
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Re: What makes a first flush bancha a bancha?

by AdamMY » Sep 27th, '11, 19:58

teaisme wrote:
It would all depend on the mind of the maker and drinker wouldn't it...I imagine there is a % out there that really enjoys genmaicha (to the point where they want the best they can get). There are also people who enjoy tea but cannot handle the sencha on its own (older, caffeine sensitive etc) This then would require good first flush leaf right? Made with great care?
What I am saying is, why would someone take quality tea then do something to it that is designed to cover up its flavor? Its a kin to taking a good quality whisky only to mix it with coke. Or building a beautiful building then cover it with billboards and posters, and tarps. Sure people do it but it doesn't make sense when you think about it.

Just because leaves are second or later harvest, or byproduct teas does not make them suddenly taste awful. They may lack a little bit of nuance, which the roasting or rice may add, but its not like a second harvest tea will if prepared like sencha will be so incredibly bitter that you couldn't touch it. In fact if you are following along in another thread if you want to drink the tea for the health benefits you may want to actually go with later flushes for the possibility of a marginal increase in Cachetin levels.

rdl wrote: adam,
hibiki-an does not buy their tea from anyone, as they own the tea farms, and they carry two first flush banchas. a simple response from hibiki-an can answer this but i am sure they do not "take quality first flush leaves, and destroy them by toasting them or adding rice," rather they use the leaves remaining after picking the best for ichibancha. you made reference to this in an earlier post.
Yes when I referenced it in an earlier post those first flush bancha's I were referring to were what I recall from an earlier thread we referred to as byproduct teas. Its the stuff from ichibancha that is not up to snuff to be called sencha or shincha.

Sep 30th, '11, 04:36
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Re: What makes a first flush bancha a bancha?

by arronbond » Sep 30th, '11, 04:36

Nowadays, many people are worried about their skin beauty and they use skin care product or antioxidants. Sancha tea is not a beauty aid but it contains rich concentration of antioxidants that do amazing for your body when consume on daily basis.

first flush

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