Japanese Black Tea

[MEversbergII]

I swear I've seen it mentioned here, but searching does not yield anything useful. Anyways, Japan's famous for green teas and related (genmai cha, houji cha, etc). They also make black teas / read teas:

http://www.yuuki-cha.com/japanese-black-tea

http://obubutea.com/what-is-japanese-black-tea/

Has anyone given these a try?

M.

[miig]

I've had some highly oxidized Oolongs from Yunomi which are very close to Black Tea, and liked them quite a bit!

[Teaism]

I swear I've seen it mentioned here, but searching does not yield anything useful. Anyways, Japan's famous for green teas and related (genmai cha, houji cha, etc). They also make black teas / read teas:

http://www.yuuki-cha.com/japanese-black-tea

http://obubutea.com/what-is-japanese-black-tea/

Has anyone given these a try?

M.

Thanks M,

Will surely give it a try. Not much experience in it. I have been drinking more Japanese tea for the last few weeks for a change. Can't get enough of the sweet gyukoru and also busy trying to perfect the gyukoru brewing method.

Will try the Japanese black tea when I get back end of this month from my tea travelling trip.

Cheers!

[bob]

I've tried a few Japanese black teas this year. All of them were from Yunomi.us. I find them very interesting, a bit different than my usual blacks I drink in the morning (mostly Darjeeling, Nepal, Ceylon stuff).

The one I liked the most was "Dokodemosora #4 Wakayama black", it's very aromatic and has a unique taste component that is very hard to describe but I like it a lot. I should buy more of that...

I also tried "Creha Tea: Ise Black Tea", but I found it to be very "one dimensional" in taste, similar to Assam teas, mostly just robust malty/bitter/astringent. But it's quite nice when I add a bit of milk and sugar, it turns into a smooth, mild drink. Dry leaves look like they are done in CTC style.

And I still have an unopened packet of "NaturaliTea #12: Organic Black Tea Setoya Momiji" that I should try soon...

I can also recommend the Yunomi.us shop, I've bought a few times from them in the past and was always satisfied. They have a very large selection, the quality is good, and the staff is very friendly and helpful.

[mcrdotcom]

Anyone know the processing? Is it different to chinese production?

[MEversbergII]

I can also recommend the Yunomi.us shop, I've bought a few times from them in the past and was always satisfied. They have a very large selection, the quality is good, and the staff is very friendly and helpful.

Thanks for the link; they have a good selection going on there. I had been wondering what the status was for Japan experimenting with alternative styles of tea. I figure if red, why not oolong (etc). No idea that there was a tradition of fermentation, however. I will have to look into that sometime.

Anyone know the processing? Is it different to chinese production?

The second article I linked up in post #1 has some info on it, but not very detailed. Seems like it is different from the Chinese way I'm familiar with.

M.

[Evan Draper]

Recently drank a fantastic Japanese black from Thés du Japon that does not seem to be currently available. Inaguchi cultivar, grown in Fuji, Shizuoka. Dazzlingly light and clean, sweet fresh plum flavors. Broken leaf grade, of course: Japanese are not fussy about pretty leaves like the Chinese, but reserve their energies for crazy precise flavor control.

[MEversbergII]

My next tea order will most certainly include some; tea trekker seems to have a form of it from Kagoshima.

M.

[Tead Off]

Try to find some Korean black teas. The ones I've had were very good.

[john.b]

I must have mentioned it somewhere else but I just visited Japan and Korea in April and tried to find different types of teas, so bought a black tea from both countries (and also a yellow tea in Seoul). I don't think I found an exceptional example of either; the Japanese tea I didn't like, and the Korean tea was ok, not great, but at least distinctive.

I guess that's how it goes when you just buy what you run across. Sometimes the surprises are pleasant, like finding a good Vietnamese black tea in a shop that didn't look that promising, but often not.

Anyway, the blog links for write-ups are here:

http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.co ... oucha.html

http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.co ... -haul.html

http://teaintheancientworld.blogspot.co ... black.html

[Tead Off]

I've had some of the most outstanding black and yellow teas in Korea, but the secret of finding them is to know tea people in the area that produces them. That means in the far south, Hadong, Jiri mountain and vicinity. Once you taste some of the better ones, you know the difference. Unfortunately, this is not often easy in Korea.

I would think in Japan, the same search in famous tea areas would lead you to small producers and private tea makers that work their particular magic on the teas. In both countries, these special teas are usually not found in the shops and can cost quite a bit.

If you PM me, I can try to dig up the contact for some special Korean black.

[john.b]

If the special teas cost more than what I paid for black and yellow teas visiting Korea in April I wouldn't want to try them. If I'm out travelling once in awhile I'll spend more than would usually make sense on a tea or two but that was a bit much, like $1 a gram for tea. Those two were decent at least, and quite interesting; would be a nasty experience to pay that for a tea you wouldn't even want to drink.

The Japanese black tea I bought (they called "wakoucha," as I recall) was a bit more reasonable but not as good, to me a below-average tea, more interesting than a Twinnings loose tea but probably not quite as good. I did some online research and networking prior to that trip, to both places, even talking to some relatively remote tea contacts in both, but dropping a week looking around online doesn't guarantee much for results. Some people even gave bad advice, like to look for tea in the traditional medicine market in Seoul (an interesting place to get lots of things but based on a bit of walking around not for decent tea). It doesn't help that I'm not actually taking tea vacations; I spend some time on family vacations looking for tea, but not much.

[AURELIO26]

I really liked!!

[ClarG]

I've never had Japanese black tea but it certainly sounds interesting.

[Tead Off]

From Hirumaen, 'Toyoka', a very lush & lively Japanese black tea that I found delicious and charming. Good nose and flavor of ripe fruits, honey sweet, brewed in a shiboridashi. Many brews from 3g. 25g/¥1084. This is something worth trying.