Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

[AdamMY]

Nichi Getsu from Ippodo.

[chado.my.teaway]

Nepal Asamushi Sencha - from Ilam City.

[brlarson]

Two pots today Zencha's 2011 Ultimate shincha.

[Stentor]

Just opened a new bag of O-Cha.com's Yutaka Midori which I purchased as a "reference Yutaka Midori" to prepare for the upcoming Zencha Kagoshima teas OTTI.

I haven't had this tea since shincha last year and the aroma of the dry leaf alone put a smile on my face when I opened the bag.

[Chip]

Just opened a new bag of O-Cha.com's Yutaka Midori which I purchased as a "reference Yutaka Midori" to prepare for the upcoming Zencha Kagoshima teas OTTI.

I haven't had this tea since shincha last year and the aroma of the dry leaf alone put a smile on my face when I opened the bag.

Just had an involuntary "Yutaka Midori smelling reflex." YM has a really strong memory aroma!!!!!

Taking breaks with prelim tastings of the Zencha Kagoshima teas as I work my way through weighing seemingly countless OTTI samples ...

[bagua7]

Has anyone brewed any Chinese greens of the 2012 first flush? Any feedback would be much appreciated?

Cheers.

[JRS22]

The question about 2012 mde me realize it's time to drink up all the 2011 Chinese greens I purchased and never opened. Those wuyi oolongs and puerhs will just have to wait until I finish the more delicate greens.

So in my cup this morning, a first session with 2011 Imperial Bi Lo Chun from Seven Cups. A good first session but I look forward to experimenting with different brewing parameters. I tried 165*, 1 m, lid on today. Tomorrow will be same temp but less time.

[iannon]

No greens for me..but I must say after my self-imposed-yearly-winter-sencha-deprival. that I am surely ready for some Shincha/sencha!

[chingwa]

i.e. O-Cha's Miyabi...

This was a remix batch from s new source caused by the problems in Japan. Kevin mentioned on his forum that he hopes the original Miyabi will be back by Shincha ...

This is good to know. The miyabi I had in year's past definitely seemed to be better than this batch. This isn't a bad tea, I don't think I've had a bad one from O-cha yet, but it certainly does not give me the close-your-eyes-and-forget-the-world moments of some of their other selections.

[Chip]

i.e. O-Cha's Miyabi...

This was a remix batch from s new source caused by the problems in Japan. Kevin mentioned on his forum that he hopes the original Miyabi will be back by Shincha ...

This is good to know. The miyabi I had in year's past definitely seemed to be better than this batch. This isn't a bad tea, I don't think I've had a bad one from O-cha yet, but it certainly does not give me the close-your-eyes-and-forget-the-world moments of some of their other selections.

As I recall from the O-Cha forum, there is a story behind the 2011 Miyabi. Kevin could not obtain the Miyabi 2011 from his usual source due to the series of disasters that hit Japan last Spring.

Tsuen sat down and went to work on trying to recreate Miyabi for O-Cha. Despite their best efforts, it is good to know that the original Miyabi remains a unique sencha ... IMHO!

[Kevangogh]

The original Miyabi comes from Uji, I used to get it through a broker. Since I don't like to get teas through a broker unless absolutely necessary, I tried to find the source but never could. That's okay, the middleman gave me a good price and it's simply a stunning tea so I went with it. That dried up after the earthquake, but after I moved to Uji I tried to find a replacement here. Tsuen, in collaboration with a very high-tech, top notch tea firm tried to re-blend that from samples I gave them. These folks are top tea tasters and they have won contests, they can sip a tea and tell you what breed, what harvest, what growing area a tea comes from, pretty amazing. The got it pretty close but it's still just not the same thing. People who never had the original really like this one we have now but those folks who had become accustomed to the original know the difference and prefer that.

I will go back to the original starting with shincha, but this one was always the very last shincha to come it - probably late May or maybe even early June. That's the story on Miyabi.

[debunix]

Enjoying some Yuuki-cha Honyama sencha to end the day, with some late evening paperwork, and after working through quite a bit of this tea in the last year, I no longer need to weigh every session--the eyeball is finally semi-calibrated. Or at least I can correct pretty quickly if I get the first infusions wrong.

[Chip]

Prelim tastings of 2 yuuki-cha-s (not Yuuki-Cha, just yuuki-cha which simply means organic) Matsu and Ume from Zencha.net. Due to an OTTI, I cannot say much more except both are very interesting offerings. I can tell they are organic immediately.

[SilentChaos]

Tsuen, in collaboration with a very high-tech, top notch tea firm tried to re-blend that from samples I gave them. These folks are top tea tasters and they have won contests, they can sip a tea and tell you what breed, what harvest, what growing area a tea comes from, pretty amazing. ...
I will go back to the original starting with shincha, but this one was always the very last shincha to come it - probably late May or maybe even early June. That's the story on Miyabi.

All that from one sip
Pity I didn't get some of this current Miyabi whilst it was still in stock so that I could compare it with the original Miyabi to come.

[Stentor]

Miyabi.

I'd be willing to give the recreated Miyabi another shot this year if it's that much better for you to get that over the original version.
I had last year's version and wasn't blown away at the time (expectations were very high from the previous year). I didn't reorder it since there were too many other new things to try (great new organics, like the "Gold") so I probably didn't give the 2011 Miyabi a fair shot.
I just love the idea of somebody having the ability to recreate a tea blend. That's awesome.