Umami-Chaya - New Vendor - UPDATED!

[ryan]

I ordered two items from their eBay store:

Yame Gyokuro Hoshino Fuka-Supreme Green Tea
Sayama Fukamushi Sencha Japanese Green Tea

Both reasonably priced and arrived quickly with free shipping. I opened the Yame Gyokuru and it is indeed very different from any gyokuru I have had before (very steamed). The smell is very nice and it makes a nice cup of tea...

The bad: The Yame Gyokuru is advertised as 100g and comes in two 50g bags... On the back of both packages is the date 10.02.07... Maybe this isn't a date but it seems very likely this is old tea!

I haven't opened the sayama sencha but the packaging also looks suspect. There is no date on the back but the 100g bag is hard as a rock. Either it is highly vacuumed sealed or its filled with a hardened gel. Its really strange. I have no idea what to expect when I open it.

[ryan]

[beachape]

Ha thats a little strange. That certainly looks like a date. And sometimes asian dates are listed year-month-day....but that would put your tea in february (too early in the year)...and in the future....
Sounds like a case for the Hardy boys.

[puerhking]

My sencha yutaka midori has a date. It is in the same format 10.04.23. Based on that mine would be good until April 23 2010 which makes sense. So yours would be good or best if consumed by Feb 7 2010.

[beachape]

I was thinking the same thing "best by" date. But because I instantly assumed all "best by" dates for tea were one year, i got confused. That would put the tea produced in February which is too early. Why did it not pop into my head that they might choose something other than a year for "best by"...not too sure. Maybe because I'm getting sleepy.

Long story short consume by Feb 7 2010 and not a day later (or else you will suffer the consequences).

[olivierco]

The bad: The Yame Gyokuru is advertised as 100g and comes in two 50g bags... On the back of both packages is the date 10.02.07... Maybe this isn't a date but it seems very likely this is old tea!

Receiving two 50g packages instead of one 100g package is a good thing.

As for the consumption date (feb 2010) they sell it on their site as 2009 harvest, what is the same on their ebay store?
Some shop have anyway very short "best before dates". For instance Ippodo (120 days for gyokuro)
http://www.ippodo-tea.co.jp/en/tea/bestbefore.html

[Domn]

I would agree with oliverco on this one!
Its very good indeed that you got your gyokuro in 50g packs. I would appreciate if all their teas would be packed like that, because a 100g pack of tea lasts roughly a month, which is by my opinion long time for tea to sit in tea canister.
And by date i am very curious what it mean. Maybe its just like olivecro said, some vendors do not use 1 year best before date but rather shorter to achieve best freshness. But if this tea would really be from 2008 harvest it would certainly reflect in taste and aroma of tea. Try to contact vendor and ask him about the date.
I am waiting my package of yutaka midori and i will certainly report about date... I've become rather interested in this "mystery".

[ryan]

I assumed the date was October 2nd 2007 and thought it was perhaps very old tea. Should have occurred to me that I may be using the wrong date format. I have made the gyokuru several times and like it a lot. It certainly doesn't seem like its two years old. =) I actually switched to my smaller cups as the theanine intake is way too high if I use my normal 6 oz cup and corresponding leaf quantity.

I agree the two packages is ideal however I wasn't expecting it based on the description. I will post back once I open the sayama sencha.

[Ritva]

At least some Japanese tea merchants keep their tea refridgerated in a sort of semi-ready state, so it's not fully processed. They take out a batch and process it ready for consumption and print the processing date on tea packs (or calculate the expiry date from processing date). That's how the date can be different from harvest date and seem like the tea was harvested during wrong season.

[Domn]

Today i recieved my yutaka midori. I've noticed that expiry date was 2010 04, so there is no problem with this tea. I will open it and write a short review soon.

[beachape]

I got the yutaka midori and opened it up today. Not too thrilled about it. It really tastes roasted which isn't what I expected. Its a fukamushi so it should be steamed but this one looks more "death steamed." Also the leaves don't have that shinny green waxy appearance, but are rather dull. Also because it has a roasted taste it lacks the fresh sencha taste that I enjoy. If you're looking for that light roasted flavor then this might be a good tea for you, but I guess it wasn't what I was expecting. For 13$ w/ free shipping, I can't really complain.

[Oni]

I had experiences when I paid less and got "more", maiko`s gyokuro Fugenji midori was last year 20 $ and it was really great and unique, and horaido`s teas are really great and lower priced than other competition, when I long for a good japanese tea I always buy from horaido.

[iannon]

I have really been wanting to try some from Horaido myself..maybe in the spring

[guitar9876]

Got a bunch of Horaido tea coming along with one of their little Banko houhins. So excited!