Hirumaen - Sayama cha from Iruma

[fortunato]

Hello,

I would like to talk a little about Sayama cha especially the tea made by Mr Yoshiaki Hiruma from Iruma (Saitama), I order the tea from him since september 2009 and I can't order from others since I tasted his tea. I was fortunate to find his website by chance !!!

He is famous in Japan and he won many prizes with his Temomicha and Sencha :

http://hiruma-en.ddo.jp/jusyoureki10.html

A charming and amazing person, a true gentleman and awesome tea artist, he also made a kind of Japanese Wulong named Hanhakkoucha with different kind of cultivars and one tea between a Wulong and a Futsumushi Sencha (Asamushi Sencha) named Bihakkou Sencha !

He also produces different kind of Fukamushi Sencha, Futsumushi or Asamushi Sencha, a very thick and sweet Kukicha and many other teas.

His blog link :

http://gokuchanin.no-blog.jp/

And his website :

http://hiruma-en.ddo.jp/

With this link you can check (in japanese) the different kind of tea that he produces :

http://hiruma-en.ddo.jp/kodawarinosyouh ... %2033.html

You can try to translate this page with a web translation software to figure out about his teas.

A link with a Temomicha list that he sells with it's own Temomicha too :

http://hiruma-en.ddo.jp/chougokujoucha1.html

You can also translate with a software this page.

Here you can see Mr Yoshiaki Hiruma doing his Temomicha :

http://hiruma-en.ddo.jp/temomi-k9.html

Here the different kind of cultivars he's using for his teas :

http://hiruma-en.ddo.jp/saibaihinsyu%2013.html

Left to right and top to down : Hokumei, Yumewakaba, Musashikaori, Toyoka, Fukumidori, Sayamakaori, Yabukita, Okumusashi, Sayamamidori wich are 9 best suited cultivars for Iruma (Saitama) climate.

If you want you can write him here in Japanese or English :

hirumaen@ictv.ne.jp

It will be possible to order the Shincha around May 10th, but weather is hard actually, the cold weather should stop now !

With Mr Yoshiaki Hiruma you are directly ordering from the tea artisan/producer, since the crop until the tea in your package : all by Yoshiaki Hiruma.

I found an interesting link about Sayama cha to understand that tea production :

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

(sorry for my poor english)

[debunix]

Babelfish translations, of course, are quite amusing.

From this page

http://hiruma-en.ddo.jp/kodawarinosyouh ... %2033.html

I get, among other things, the following:

Dream [wa] hippopotamus 1,050 Yen 40g Taste of flower fragrance and the 煎 brown which the bud which you see it picks, are easy

Will I dream of hippopotamus if I drink it, or do hippos dream of drinking it, or....well....er.....have you ever seen a hippo do what we all must do underwater?

Anyway, thanks for the interesting links. I don't think I'm ready for the really special handmade teas yet, as I'm just stumbling among my first steps with senchas, but one has to dream, right?

And dreaming of hippos drinking japanese oolong tea could be quite fun!

[iannon]

holy...I am seriously laughing in my office right now and peeps are staring at me like im nuts..hippo dreaming..
but seriously..Fortun..what have you tried from them personally?

[fortunato]

OK OK guys, easy...

But I think some people will be interesting by this tea of Mr Yoshiaki Hiruma than to do some jokes that I can understand.

I only said about using web software to help a little, I knew already the mistakes with traductions, I think babelfish and google with others are more funny than what we should imagine between Japanese and english.

If you need a help I can do it...

IANNON : I tried all I talked about and the variety YUMEWAKABA is amazing ! As Hanhakkoucha, Bihakkou sencha, Fukamushi Sencha ! He has also a wonderful Kukicha named Honeppoiyatsu with a wonderful taste, it's an "assemblage" as we say in french between Hokumei, Yabukita and Sayamakaori...

Yoshiaki Hiruma Temomicha is wonderful more than an Ultimate Gyokuro ! He has different kind of grades to sell...

[fortunato]

Dream [wa] hippopotamus 1,050 Yen 40g Taste of flower fragrance and the 煎 brown which the bud which you see it picks, are easy

Dream [wa] hippopotamus = Sayamakaori cultivar

40 gramms for 1050 yen

A strong taste of flower fragrance, only buds are picked for that 煎 brown = Sencha

etc...

[AdamMY]

Don't forget guys sometimes foreign people are trying to share with you their passion simply, sorry to repeat, I would see so many than yours to do the same with other languages.

I can not speak for everyone, but I think the others were laughing at the translations of the site, and not really saying anything about the tea's themselves. For anyone that is learning or knows more than one language know that translation software is far from perfect.

Thank you for the post and interesting links, I can only hope to try some someday.

Adam.

[fortunato]

I can not speak for everyone, but I think the others were laughing at the translations of the site, and not really saying anything about the tea's themselves. For anyone that is learning or knows more than one language know that translation software is far from perfect.

Thank you for the post and interesting links, I can only hope to try some someday.

Adam.

I hear you thanks !

[iannon]

Don't forget guys sometimes foreign people are trying to share with you their passion simply, sorry to repeat, I would see so many than yours to do the same with other languages.

I can not speak for everyone, but I think the others were laughing at the translations of the site, and not really saying anything about the tea's themselves. For anyone that is learning or knows more than one language know that translation software is far from perfect.

Thank you for the post and interesting links, I can only hope to try some someday.

Adam.

EXACTLY! the translations sometimes leave much to be desired which is cause for some amusement you must admit. I was trying to go through some of it with google myself to see what i could learn as i AM interested myself! Have you tried the asamushi one (shallow wilt?)..i think they called it "grand prix" ?
I tried to translate another page but it was an image so no luck there.
the Yoshiaki Hiruma Temomicha is that the grade 1-5 one listed? at what..3g's for 1050 yen?

[debunix]

I was definitely not laughing at the original poster, or the teas, but at the translations, as was already suggested above.

I looked at the translated page, thought the teas sounded marvelous, and will watch some of the videos later when I am done with work.

I would like to try some of these teas, but do not feel like my palate is worthy of them yet. I'm still quite a novice with Japanese green teas.

[fortunato]

Yes I tried his Asamushi Sencha (or Futsumushi Sencha) means Taishou = grand prix.

If you follow Mr Yoshiaki Hiruma brewing instructions you will have at 1st a very deep UMAMI taste and for the 2nd an amazing typically Shincha refreshing taste, but as usual the best way to understand a tea itself is to try it at least one time.

A french friend posted a topic about his Yumewakaba cultivar Fukamushi Sencha here :

http://galettedethe.blogspot.com/2010/0 ... ieres.html

A lot of flowery and sweet thick taste !

As I posted Mr Yoshiaki Hiruma e-mail you can join him directly, don't forget he's not trained to sell to people from Europe or US, I was the 1st one to order his tea outside Japan :

hirumaen@ictv.ne.jp

Around the May 10th it will be possible to order his Shincha, I will let you know which ones are available.

His own Temomicha is very expensive because he won a prize and it's very difficult to do, you need also a lot of time and tea for a few hundred gramms of Temomicha.

But you can ask him directly different kind of Temomicha i.e. I have one for 420 yen/3 gramms !

PS : By the way to understand what Temomicha is exactly I posted a few months ago video about that here :

http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11007

And Mr Yoshiaki Hiruma doing the same work as I posted above :

http://hiruma-en.ddo.jp/temomi-k9.html

[fortunato]

I would like to try some of these teas, but do not feel like my palate is worthy of them yet. I'm still quite a novice with Japanese green teas.

You don't need to try very intricate Sencha or Temomicha.

That is possible to taste different kind of Fukamushi Sencha with different cultivars as Hokumei, Yumewakaba or Fukumidori that are very flowery fruity and sweet taste, or blended w/Yabukita+Sayamakaori easy to brew or a Kukicha Honeppoiyatsu 100 gramms/840 yen with Yabukita+Sayamakaori+Hokumei blend wich is very sweet and thick with a big refreshing taste to drink only for pleasure, no need to be a tea connoisseur for that.

[iannon]

very interesting fortunato. I remember the video..super cool! i may have to look into some of his hand rolled if i can get it

[fortunato]

very interesting fortunato. I remember the video..super cool! i may have to look into some of his hand rolled if i can get it

Different grade of Temomicha are made with different kind of Yabukita.

[iannon]

I reached out via email and he has responded back very quickly.. I hope to try some soon!

[OchameTaiken]

I mentioned this already to Fortunato, but Mr. Hiruma (he goes by the trade name Gokuchanin, or Goku for short) is one of the finest examples of an artist that I know.
He is changing the very meaning of "ocha" or "nihoncha" and the way we will perceive Japanese tea in the years to come.
My absolute hero, and a good friend. =]