Origin: Uji, Japan
Year: 2007
Vendor: Hibiki-an (Product page)
Price: $15.00 (40g)
It's been a while since I posted any notes about sencha, so here goes. I just got this tea today, so I don't have a lot of experience with it, but I liked it enough the first time around to write about it.The dry leaf is, well, fukamushi. It doesn't look pretty. This is just a result of the deeper steaming, though, so it's nothing to worry about. The aroma is a bit grassy, vegetal, and "marine." Mmmm!
I brewed this with more leaf than I would normally, on Chip's recommendation. I used 5.7g leaf (There wasn't much thought involved in picking this number, by the way, it's just what looked good at the time) and 200mL of 165-170°F water, and steeped for 60s, 30s, 50s, and 90s.
The liquor brews to be a lovely emerald color, even without the help of the cloudiness, which sets in starting with the second infusion. The flavor is sweet and candy-like, though frankly it was a bit weak considering the amount of leaf I used&mdash perhaps a higher temperature would help that. There is a touch of astringency, but that is likely a result of my own brewing and not the tea's fault. The second infusion especially had a rich umami goodness, which made the tea feel quite robust in the mouth. One of the things I like about this tea is that it is more "active" than other senchas, in that it leaves a coolness in the throat and a pleasant oily sensation on the tongue. This does happen in some other senchas, but not usually this much.
By the fourth infusion, it started to get a bit watery. If you bumped up the temperature this tea could probably keep going, but I doubt it would be much longer. Anyway, I very much recommend trying this tea. It's not an everyday drinker at the price of 15 clams for 40g, but it's a nice treat.
[Also, I just added a new wallpaper of that fine-lookin' kyūsu to the Wallpapers section. Enjoy!]
Scruff, the tea looks so beautiful in those cups. Wow, you got that selection from Hibiki, I've never had it, but it has to be excellent.
ReplyDeleteGreat review, Brent! I love Sencha so I think that this particular tea is going to be added to my Christmas list.
ReplyDelete-sits in awe at the deep green color-
I'm a big fukamushi fan, and I'm torn between vendors. I stumbled on Hibiki-an about 3 weeks back and now that you've posted this review, I'm almost swayed in their favor.
ReplyDeleteHow would you rate this fukamushi in comparison to the one you reviewed from O-Cha?
I'm also looking at zencha.net. They look to have an interesting selection as well.
Thanks for the comments, everyone!
ReplyDeleteDavid, I'm not sure I feel right comparing this to the myou-kou (O-Cha's fukamushi), since I haven't had it for about a year. If I had to guess though, I'd say this is better, perhaps a bit "cleaner" tasting.
Also, I have tried zencha.net's sencha "Takumi," from Yame. It wasn't fukamushi, but it was quite good, and I would recommend it.
All three of these vendors (O-Cha, Hibiki-an, and Zencha.net) are top quality, in my opinion, so whichever you choose should work out well.