Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

[William]

Thanks!

[bilochun]

Just got a 50g package of Ippodo's Kanro from Japan, thanks to a friend who visited Kyoto in early January. It is my favorite gyokuro, period Is there a way to order directly from Ippodo to the European Union?

http://shop.ippodo-tea.co.jp/kyoto/shop ... okuro.html

[Rui]

With my sushi lunch I am sipping a complementary Uji Asamushi Sencha "Ujibashi San no Ma" from O-Cha.

[Devoted135]

What happens when you find out you're pregnant in June of 2014? You find yourself opening the second to last bag of your shincha 2014 order in late January 2016....

Anyway, I have apparently forgotten how to brew fuka in my favorite Bero pot. Each steep is going better than the last, but wow am I rusty! Thankfully, this chiran sencha is being very forgiving, and I can tell that it will shine once my pouring skills are back up to snuff. Practice, practice practice.

[William]

Hojicha (deep fired) from Akira.

I can't literally live without this tea!
So far it fared well with Nosaka clay .. so curious to try with other clays!

[jayinhk]

Sanxia (Northern Taiwan) longjing brewed in a porcelain easy gaiwan. Brewed ten degrees cooler than usual (sencha temperature) and I'm getting sweet lychee, osmanthus and orchid. Really very pleasant. Definitely a much needed break from shu pu erh.

Grandpa brewing really seems to be preferable with Chinese greens. Brewing hotter and faster can lead to interesting results, but for a fuller, richer flavor and better aroma, longjing-style brewing is the way to go IMO.

[ethan]

If our samples had been prepared at that temperature, I may have liked it. Sounds good, enjoy.

[jayinhk]

If our samples had been prepared at that temperature, I may have liked it. Sounds good, enjoy.

Thanks ethan! The Sanxia green we tried in Taipei was indeed brewed cooler in a water glass (like longjing). Actually, I don't remember if you tried the green I bought, but it is really lovely tea.

This longjing is from my previous trip to Taipei (at the end of August). I think the green I bought on this last trip is even better, but I'm trying to get through my older green tea while it's still (relatively) fresh!

Since my experience with the Taiwanese longjing was so good, I decided to try brewing Vietnamese Thai Nguyen green at a lower temperature. This is a decent grade of Vietnamese green tea that was brought back from Hanoi by a friend of my sister's. Brewed at sencha temperature, my initial impression was...birthday cake. Very light bean aroma, along with vanilla and most of all, red date. Really very pleasant.

[willdabo]

I'm drinking Genmai cha from Adagio, one of my all time favorites http://www.adagio.com/green/genmai_cha.html
And my wife is drinking organic Sencha green tea from the farmer's market
https://www.californiateahouse.com/orga ... nic-sencha

[jayinhk]

Sanxia green in a glass. I got much better results in my gaiwan for some reason; higher leaf-to-water ratio I guess.

[CWarren]

Edited

[Frisbeehead]

So I am considering getting this Hokujo Tokoname shiboridashi:

http://www.tokoname.or.jp/teapot/maker_ ... kujo01.htm

and I was curious if you all think it would be alright for sencha as well? The volume is only 60ml, and I know that this would be great for gyokuro, but I wanted to ask you guys if it would be practical for sencha too.

I am thinking about ordering some of hirumaen's sencha soon, and I figured that owning a small shibo would be good for high quality senchas and gyokuro. Teadoff, I've been reading your posts in this thread about hirumaen's teas and I noticed you use a petr novak shibo that looks small in volume.

[debunix]

I generally enjoy my sencha with larger volume, most often in my 150mL kyusu, though sometimes I make it in a 90 mL shibo.

My volume preference says more about my habit of enjoying sencha in the morning, when I'm thirsty and want to drink a bit more, than about the requirements for brewing fine sencha, however. I also like to brew the last one or two infusions with water just off the boil, and I would be concerned that this lovely shibo might result in burnt fingertips doing so.

But....it's a gorgeous little piece, so sleek, and hard to resist!

[TORamarn]

and I was curious if you all think it would be alright for sencha as well? The volume is only 60ml, and I know that this would be great for gyokuro, but I wanted to ask you guys if it would be practical for sencha too.

I think it depends on your sencha drinking style. Some people like to drink their sencha very concentrated then a small vessel would be fine. Please note that with a 60ml vessel you'll get only 40-45ml of tea juice when the leaves are fully expanded in later infusions. From the photo of this shibo 60ml could be the volume before it overflows, not when you fill to the point where the lid meets the body so please reconfirm with the seller.

Hirumaen's temomichas come in 3g packets. He recommends using 30ml of water so this shibo should do just fine.

My personal sencha brewing style is 4-5g/70-80ml so I regularly use a 130ml red shudei Tokoname teapot.

Edited: I should add that some people like to use the lid to squeeze the juice from the leaves when pouring from a shibo.

[Frisbeehead]

Thanks for the responses, debunix and TORamarn.

I already have a nosaka kyusu that I typically use for sencha, and it's around 120ml or so. I may pass on this shibo, since I don't really need it that much. The original reason I started looking for a shibo was because I plan on ordering some tea from hiruma-en soon and I wanted something that wouldn't alter the flavor/texture of the tea at all, to be able to see what his tea is like naturally. This shibo is really nice, and I can get it for a good price (it ends up being like $63 after shipping, not bad for one of Hokujo's pieces). However that $63 could just be put towards tea from hiruma-en that I could brew in the Nosaka. Also, the shibo is clay anyway, so it would be similar to using my Nosaka I would imagine. There's plenty of cheaper glazed shibos/hohins out there that I could get if I wanted the tea to remain uncolored.

Thanks for the input guys