A Warning: Den's Shincha Houryoku

[edkrueger]

The description claims: "... Shincha that is steamed longer than Shincha Kunpu. It gives a thick emerald liquid full of herbaceous flavor." The picture show big full leaves. The statement is misleading and the picture is not at all accurate. Kunpu is pretty lightly steamed, so one might expect a mid/light steamed tea. The size of the leaves in the picture reinforces this notion. The truth is that this tea is death steamed and the leaves are only a little larger than a Konacha. The liquor is not emerald, it is a dark opaque green.

[Oni]

I noticed the same thing with Shizuokatea, they sold fukamushi that was konacha, too small almost square leaves, fukamishi has small needles, preferably the leaf should break in two along the vein, I never ordered from them again, there are so many great japanese tea merchants.
Who sell lower quality tea will stand no chance against an experienced tea drinker.

[edkrueger]

Konacha was a bit of an exaggeration, but I think I like asa-konacha more than this.

[Ed]

There's a lot of this going on. The best thing to do is become an educated consumer. Some of the stuff being passed off as "fukamushi" is just lower grade sencha or mecha (or konacha, etc.). Check your leaves!

[edkrueger]

Well, the picture can only fool me once. It they had passed it off as fuka, then I wouldn't have bought it.

[Ed]

In all fairness, though, they did say it was deeper steamed. If the quality and flavor are decent then you can't really complain.

[edkrueger]

Deeper than asa means chu. The picture was inaccurate.

[scruffmcgruff]

Deeper than asa means chu. The picture was inaccurate.

So darker than white means grey, not black?

[edkrueger]

If someone was painting my house white and I asked for a darker shade I would expect grey.

[Chip]

On that day, I was searching for Fukamushi (deep steamed tea) that would produce a nice cloudy cup for blending Houryoku. I mainly visited the tables of the regions called Toyoda, Fuji and Hatsukura where Fukamushi teas are mainly produced.

I have Houryoku open currently and am looking at it as I post, the photo is fairly representative of what I have, lots of broken down needles and the pieces that broke away. Perhaps the wording should have clearly stated in the item description that it is Fuka, which I have always expected Houyoku to be, and Kunpu is Asa ... and up is up and down is down.

But needles are clearly present. Looking at the photo of Fukamushi Maki, those leaves are much further broken down and not what my Houryoku looks like.

Fuka is going to have smaller pieces along with the broken needles as the steaming breaks down the leaves into finer particals. The areas between the veins will crumple while the veins tend to stay more intact.

I do not see any misrepresentation with what I have.

As last year's, this is more astringent and has a tad of a bitter bite to it compared to other shincha fuka I have tried. I think this is what Den is looking for instead of sweetness. His balance has a bite to it.

[Ed]

Trying to get lightly-steamed sencha from Shizuoka is like trying to drink whiskey from a bottle of wine.

I do have to agree with Oni, though. Good fukamushi is not completely dust. There should still be some needle-form there. They might be broken needles but it should not be a bag of tea dust.

[Chip]

Trying to get lightly-steamed sencha from Shizuoka is like trying to drink whiskey from a bottle of wine.

Kunpu is Shizuoka and is clearly Asa. It is a pleasure to behold for those favoring the full needle type teas.

[Ed]

That's true but that's the exception rather than the rule. Shizuoka is the fukamushi mecca.

[Chip]

I guess I have to agree, a lot of great fuka comes from Shzuoka including Fukamushi Supreme from O-Cha and Fuka Maki from Den's.

Den's has 3 good asa, Kunpu and Zuiko and the next level down.

Also, and a bit off topic, Shizuoka is purported to have very good high grown organics ...

[edkrueger]

Chip. Mine does not have hardly any needles. Its almost entirely particles less than a mm in any direction.