Umami-Chaya - New Vendor - UPDATED!

[teaisme]

Good to hear you are happy with the quality Oni. Is it really asamushi?

Every Chinese restaurant I go to disappoints me because no one seems to know anything about tea.

Of course.
They specialize in food not tea. Tea is a side thing, often brewed as casually as possible with little care. You are expecting too much from the wrong immigrant demographic. Remember tea knowledge is often passed down secretly to direct family. Successful, large, well known tea families in their native country would not have the need or desire to immigrate away from their family tea farms. Those that slip away and do have good knowledge would likely be working/running a teashop/house instead of a restaurant.

Find a Chinese tea house instead and you probably wont be disappointed with their knowledge, unless they feel like you are not worth talking to

[aKnightWhoSaysNi]

Good to hear you are happy with the quality Oni. Is it really asamushi?

Every Chinese restaurant I go to disappoints me because no one seems to know anything about tea.

Of course.
They specialize in food not tea. Tea is a side thing, often brewed as casually as possible with little care. You are expecting too much from the wrong immigrant demographic. Remember tea knowledge is often passed down secretly to direct family. Successful, large, well known tea families in their native country would not have the need or desire to immigrate away from their family tea farms. Those that slip away and do have good knowledge would likely be working/running a teashop/house instead of a restaurant.

Find a Chinese tea house instead and you probably wont be disappointed with their knowledge, unless they feel like you are not worth talking to

I've always found this sort of banter amusing. I mean, we don't ASSUME that all french guys are wine savvy.

[Chip]

Heh, yeah but ...

Went to a very nice Chinese restuarant recently and asked about the tea that was poured into HUGE 20+ ounce coffee MUGS with "coffee" written all over the outside (could they try any less to impress?).

So, I asked what tea is this?
The nice female Chinese server says "hot!"
I smile and clarify my question.
She says "Chinese!"

Seriously, if tea is served, how hard is it to at least say or know what it is.

I suspect it was some floral pu-erh ... likely cheap Chinatown type stuff that had its name all over the tin. It was weird tasting, earthy yet floral.

OK ... sorry, way off topic.

[Oni]

Pictures speak louder than words, this was kurogi, I liked it a bit better than the hoshino, but both are at the same category of mid to high quality gyokuro, well worth their price.

[olivierco]

Nice pictures.
Do you always use the yusamashi as a fair cup or was it just for the pictures?

[tastysencha]

based on opinions given by members here, I ordered two packages of Yutaka Midori off this vendor's ebay store. I look forward to trying them, though it'll have to wait as I just opened a fresh package of Miyabi.

[guitar9876]

Awesome Oni! Thx for the pics!

[Oni]

When I use the houhin at absolute full capacity, I need to press on the leaves with the lid to separate them and squeeze out the remaining water, so there will be nothing left until next infusion, when I use the 5 grams 40 ml 40 C one person pleasure method I pour directly to the cups, this method is max for two person, but one is better, some suggest this for 4 person, but that is too little juice.

[ryan]

I ordered 100g of their yutaka midori from ebay. I am very happy with the tea, it is a great value at $13.00 with free shipping. It is apparent the yutaka midori from ocha is better quality but it is also a step above in price.

[Ed]

I'm drinking the very last bit of the umami-chaya Tensuiraku organic sencha. This was really a good organic fukamushi. It was a steal at 12.99 w/free shipping. I'm also drinking the Shizuoka Okumidori which is also very good. Has anyone tried the new Sayama fukamushi yet?

[Domn]

I've ordered 100g of yutaka midori. Its really cheap at 12.99$ and free shipping. Cant wait to see if its worth the money!!

[guitar9876]

I've been wondering about that Sayama. According to them it's one of Japan's best kept secrets...

[Domn]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayama,_Saitama

Link about Sayama. Never heard before about this region/town. They may be just talking big...

[teaisme]

Well I don't know if its one of Japan's big secrets if someone with less then one year experience in japanese greens like me has heard about Sayama.
I think there must be some truth to the fact that sayama tea is good. How good I don't know I have never tried.
From what I heard the tea growing areas are on a plateau, the soil has more plentiful volcanic ash (which i think is good for almost any plant), and the weather is a little colder (which in teas case seems to make the leaves thicker, flavor sweeter/deeper).

Ok I found this informative article.

http://modernnipponproject.com/en/lifei ... sayama-tea

Apperently production is very low but much care is taken with these teas. It seems to be a region where there is much traditional tea history and "Saitama is highly active in the research and making of new kinds of tea plants, among which, as many as 8 of the new varieties were registered there, and whereas the most circulated is called Sayama-kaori (fragrance of Sayama)."

[guitar9876]

Cool article! Thanks churng!