Request help with Japanese Tea ID

[brlarson]

Can any of you read enough Japanese to tell what kind of tea this is and where it came from?

MY wife and I stayed in a Bed and Breakfast in Brooktondale, NY last week and the owners gave us an unopened bag of Japanese mystery tea.

Here is the front of the package


and here is the back


I googled the telephone on the back, <0544> 26-4324, but I was brought to a Japanese phone directory and I don't read Japanese.

I will appreciate any light that you shed on this.

Thank you,

Bruce

EDIT: I updated the images of the front and back of the bag so the characters are now easier to see.

[Chip]

I bet genmaicha.

[brlarson]

I bet genmaicha.

It is vac-packed very tightly. Chip, do you read any Japanese? Did you recognize any of the characters?

[Chip]

Nope, but genmaicha is the most common food service tea and least expensive. It is often vacuum packed.

[scruffmcgruff]

If nobody can help here, you might try posting on the Green Tea Forum.

[brlarson]

If nobody can help here, you might try posting on the Green Tea Forum.

OK. Maybe I'll try that late today.

Thanks Scruff.

Bruce

[TokyoB]

The second line on the front says "ya bu kita cha" or yabukita tea. The first line is probably a place name. I can't read the first character. It is "*chi no" where * is the first character and chi is the last part of the place name. "no" means "of" or "from" in this case.

[chingwa]

the back says something about a tea processing facility in ishikawa...

[Chip]

Yabukita is a breed, by far the most common breed used in Japan. I think I read recently that around 80% of their tea plants are Yabukita.

[brlarson]

(Thank you, TokyoB and Chingwa)

I opened the bag and it is definitely tea

Its color seems dark, and my first impression of the scent was a fleeting glimpse of anise followed by wheat and cloth car interior from cars from the thirties (without the camphor).

I just tried brewing 4gr/3.3oz at 140F for 60seconds with higher temps on subsequent brews (150F and 165F). It tastes flat and lifeless. I might try it again with half the leaf (2gr/3.3oz) at 165F.

B

EDIT: I updated the images of the front and back of the bag. The characters are now easier to read.

[brlarson]

2gr/3.3oz at 170F seems to be about right brew formula, but this tea is dead.

It would be nice to tell the folks who gave it to me where it originated, which company produced it, but yabukita processed in Ishikawa Prefecture is much better than what I had.

Thank you all.

Bruce

[hong.tea.dao]

I can't read Japanese too but I can read Chinese.

The manufacturer is :石川秀樹製茶工場
you can overview the details by this link: http://local.yahoo.co.jp/detail/spot/2e ... 18f5d94a5/

and don't know the tea name yet.

hong.tea.dao
Chinese tea farmer