Obukucha?

[Abracadaver!]

I just picked up some Obukucha from Ito En last week. I hadn't heard of this tea before--apparently it is a New Year's tea from Kyoto. According to the salesperson, it is made from Shincha that was stored in clay pots until the New Year. When I google it, however, it sounds like Okubacha is just tea with ume and sugar added, drunk at the start of the year. Does anyone have any more information about this tea?

Regardless, it is very, very tasty.

[Chip]

I would think you would taste added sugar? But it sounds similar to this tea ... it is ony available for a very short period of time around the holidays, and is already gone.

The 100g tea bag in Pink is a holiday season gift we gave out to customers. It is called Yama-garashi ("Mountain", "Rotting") Green Tea and it is only available during Autumn-Winter. A very unique name I must say.

A brief History, this tea is apparently one of Tokugawa Ieyasu (Shogun) favorite tea during the edo period. Harvested in summer, the materials are stored in pots and left to "rot" in the mountain over a few months or weeks. This tea process keeps the tea's natural flavor and aromas over time. Honestly I do not know much details of this tea, since it was introduced recently by one of our tea farmers in Shizuoka.

[olivierco]

It is indeed a seasonal tea.

According to Ippodo:

O-buku-cha is a type of tea that is drunk in Japan around
New Year's time in celebration of the beginning of a new year.
The auspicious name (literally, o-buku-cha means
"tea of great fortune") comes from a Japanese tradition telling
of a tea that was served by a Buddhist priest to heal victims
of an epidemic that was sweeping throughout Kyoto about 1,200
years ago. Around New Year's time, a variety of tea companies
in Kyoto sell o-buku-cha, but the type of tea used depends on
the shop. Ippodo's o-buku-cha is made from genmaicha.

And how does it taste?
Ippodo makes o-buku-cha using yanagi tea leaves, which are of a
superior quality to the tea leaves used in the genmaicha that is
normally sold throughout the year. In order to bring out the
flavor of the tea leaves, we reduce the amount of genmai (roasted
brown rice) in the mix. Brewed with boiling water, our o-buku-cha
gives off a slight fragrance characteristic of genmai, and when
drunk it disperses the refreshing flavor of the yanagi tea leaves
throughout your palate.

How to prepare o-buku-cha
Ippodo's o-buku-cha is a type of bancha, known as genmaicha.
Unlike Japanese green teas like gyokuro and sencha, which must be
brewed with water that has been cooled to around 80°C or 60°C
after boiling, the flavor of banchas like hojicha, genmaicha, and
yanagi tea can be brought out simply by adding boiling water. Just
add the boiling water to the right amount of tea leaves, put the
lid on the pot, and wait a little.

[Abracadaver!]

I would think you would taste added sugar? But it sounds similar to this tea ... it is ony available for a very short period of time around the holidays, and is already gone.

That's actually what I was curious about--there is no sugar or ume in the stuff that I bought from Ito-En, and unlike the Ippodo description, there is no genmai and I don't get the impression of genmaicha in the taste or odor. I need to take a closer look at the leaf. I'll try to put some photos up if I can.

Chip, this Yama-garashi "rot" tea sounds pretty interesting. The obukucha dry leaf smells fresh and the brew is very, very smooth.

Thanks for the information you guys!

[Chip]

I have this Ryu Mei "aged sencha" in cold storage, but should open it soon. LOL, it sounds like sencha pu-erh ...

[Salsero]

it sounds like sencha pu-erh ...

Don't the Koreans have an aged green tea too?

[battra]

As the text from ippodo explains, "obukucha" is not the name for a particular type of tea.

[olivierco]

Yes as they explain:

Around New Year's time, a variety of tea companies
in Kyoto sell o-buku-cha, but the type of tea used depends on
the shop.

[Abracadaver!]

Yes as they explain:

Around New Year's time, a variety of tea companies
in Kyoto sell o-buku-cha, but the type of tea used depends on
the shop.

Right, right. I was just saying that, whatever kind of leaf it is, it's definitely not genmaicha. At this point, I'm curious what kind of tea Ito En is using for their Obukucha, just to get a sense of what the whole clay-pot aging thing is doing to the flavor.

[Pentox]

Sounds kinda like a kuradashi, although pictures would probably help.

[silvermage2000]

This I's interesting I have not heard of this tea. The ifo Is nice here though.