Yixing clay for green tea??

[Tead Off]

Unless you have the mythic older zhuni pots, making greener and some moderate oxidized oolongs in the typically available commercial yixing clay pot appear to result in flavor/aroma suckout (porosity related). I don't see microporous high-fired and thin walled Banko or Tokoname clay pots as being particularly heat retentive or absorptive, or they wouldn't be suited for delicate Japanese greens.

Hojo makes a case for natural red clay (Sado) pots as being superior for all types of oolong, whereas he doesn't mention oolongs in the banko purple clay section.

Yes. The commercial modern yixing pots are not the same. But, the older zhuni (70's/80's) can be bought for less than the Hojo God sells his Sado pots for. By his admission, nothing beats zhuni for oolongs.

My red banko houhin( over 50 years old) is very good with sencha, better than my red Tokoname (also not new). I will have to try some sencha in one of my zhuni pots. Tomorow morning, I'll let you know what I discover, if anything.

This morning I had sencha in a zhuni pot at least 20 years old. In fact, even thinner than my Masaki banko kyusu. The immediate taste was very pronounced and complex with more astringency. No lack of flavor here. But, my bankos seem to smooth out and sweeten the tea in a way that is very pleasant to my palate. The main problem was the zhuni is single holed so you can imagine what the fukamushi was like pouring into cups. It was a mess and time control went out the window after the 1st pour.

I can see sencha used with zhuni or purple zisha but you would have to have a multi-holed pot and most of the older ones are single holed. The kyusu is a tool made for the green tea so I would stick with that given the choice but the Yixing can do it. It's a matter of taste and preference. I prefer the banko for sencha.

[Oni]

I agree, banko really smoothens the tea and it becomes sweeter, but you should try using asamushi with zhu ni, those handrolled exhibition grade are ok with any teaware, the leaves are big and intact enough.
P.S. I read that this years Uji and Shizuoka tea harvests went bad, the weather was the worst in the past 10 years and so is the quality, my teafriend gave up totally on this years gyokuro, he said he will drink kuradashi and last years stuff, so I will only order Yame tea until a better harvest, Yame had a good season this year, so zencha and o-cha here I come.

[Tead Off]

I agree, banko really smoothens the tea and it becomes sweeter, but you should try using asamushi with zhu ni, those handrolled exhibition grade are ok with any teaware, the leaves are big and intact enough.
P.S. I read that this years Uji and Shizuoka tea harvests went bad, the weather was the worst in the past 10 years and so is the quality, my teafriend gave up totally on this years gyokuro, he said he will drink kuradashi and last years stuff, so I will only order Yame tea until a better harvest, Yame had a good season this year, so zencha and o-cha here I come.

When is the best time to order gyokuro?

[Salsero]

Oddly, Imperial Tea Court just posted about this subject on their blog.

[TokyoB]

I agree, banko really smoothens the tea and it becomes sweeter, but you should try using asamushi with zhu ni, those handrolled exhibition grade are ok with any teaware, the leaves are big and intact enough.
P.S. I read that this years Uji and Shizuoka tea harvests went bad, the weather was the worst in the past 10 years and so is the quality, my teafriend gave up totally on this years gyokuro, he said he will drink kuradashi and last years stuff, so I will only order Yame tea until a better harvest, Yame had a good season this year, so zencha and o-cha here I come.

Oni - which season in Uji and Shizuoka are you referring to? Summer/Fall or Spring?

[olivierco]

When is the best time to order gyokuro?

Anytime.

[Tead Off]

When is the best time to order gyokuro?

Anytime.

I've read that gyokuro needs several months of storage before it is really good. Can you comment?

[olivierco]

Some gyokuro are aged (sometimes more than a year).kuradashi
Some are sold with quite no aging. You can even find some "shincha" gyokuro a few weeks after shincha.

Moreover storage techniques permit to have quality gyokuro (as well as matcha or sencha) during the whole year.

[Chip]

The proper aging is one reason I enjoy Gyokuro more in the Winter and leading up to the next Shincha. I try to generally obtain Gyokuro from the last harvest unless it is properly processed and stored Kuradashi.

Generally at least 3 months, but more like 6 is typical for traditionally aged (non Kuradashi which is usually well over a year) Gyokuro.

I have not had Shincha Gyokuro, a definite gap in what I need to try. But there is a reason why they have traditionally aged Gyokuro, so shincha could be a marketing ploy.

[Oni]

I read on a teafriends site that this years 2009 Uji tea is a very bad season, the weather was to cold before the harvest and it came early, although Kyusu and Yame had a similary good harvest compared to the years before, Uji and Shizuoka suffered because of the weather in certain categories of tea, for example their gyokuro hasn`t got the depth of previous years, the high level gyokuro taste like entry level.
From who I read this drinks and sells Horaido, Kambayashi and Marukyu Koyamaen teas, so I trust him enough, and he made his tasting with tetsubin water in the mountains with various teaware.

[Intuit]

Proinsias 4-oz hand-cast sasame-filter pot from Yuuki-cha is right at their break-even point, below which the tradeoff lies in clay quality, potter experience (apprentice finished) and filter type. It would have been at $42 (next pot up), but it's probably allowed due to it's dainty size.

If you are blessed with an older yixing that is high-fired (small pored, sintered 'glasslike') made with very fine silica sand and iron-rich small particled clay that is nonabsorbant and relatively thin-walled but strong, you have a pot that will work for quite a variety of teas.

I think I will try an unglazed red clay Japanese teapot for some of my teas other than Japanese greens.