Limited Karigane Gyokuro Super Premium

It’s quite a time I haven’t written anything. Probably a sort of laziness I developed in most recent times. But it caused not only stopped blogging, but also drove me to some easier ways to prepare tea, than gong fu.

But spring is finally here, as you can see from pictures. Yes, it's real sunlight. And as the nature wakes up this time of year, I finally gathered enough will to continue writing about tea.



Last month or two I tried Japanese green teas - I ordered a tokoname kyusu teapot and few teas from Hibiki-An and O-Cha and experimented with preparation. Actually, it’s really easy – you just boil the water, let it cool down, pour the water into teapot, let it infuse and drink.

All I need now is to perfect my skill, learn the right water temperature, amount of leaves, infusion times.



Today I had Karigane Gyokure Super Premium from Hibiki-An. Karigane is made from leftover stems and veins of gyukuro (shaded) leaves. Because the karigane is by-product, it’s cheaper than equally good gyokuro or sencha. Also, karigane is made only from high grade of Japanese green teas, so you get good value for your money.

As seen on dry leaves, the tea consist mostly of soft, short, light green stems and dark green leaves. The smell of these leaves if fresh and vegetal, yet very subtle.

Subtle is good description for this tea. The liquor is very light green in colour, clear, like spring water, the smell reminds me of citrus fruits. The taste is sweet, again the slightly acidic, refreshing taste predominates. Fortunately for me, the fishy, sea smell sometimes found in Japanese tea is absent in this tea.



This tea isn’t really complex and it’s quite easy to ruin it into potato sweetness, but I still like it. Interesting experiment, I have to compare it with other karigane teas I have sampled.

Blink Bonnie Green

This is another tea sample I got from Salsero. Originally sold by Tea Source this green tea is quite expensive being more than $15 for 2 Oz. Most interesting about this tea (maybe except its name) are the tea leaves, each one rolled in spiral form. The Tea Source claims this tea was made in Ceylon. Actually Ceylon is former name of that island, but since 1972 it's known as Sri Lanka.



The tea leaves are interesting, but the tea is not. I believe it's just old and go stale. It smells funny and the taste is flat and uninteresting. The vegetal taste of green teas is long gone from this one. I do not find this tea appealing and personally do not suggest buying it.

2008 Top Grade Mao Jian

I’m not a big fan of green teas. I dislike their floral, grassy taste caused by chlorophyll. While at home I prefer kung fu cha in yixing teapots, I also believe, that green teas are best prepared in gaiwan or bigger teapot. That’s why I drink green teas mostly at my work prepared in tetsubin.



But once in a while I afford a good quality green tea. Today was quite hot out there, so I wanted to end the day with lighter fresh tea. It’s hand processed tea made from tip and top leaf. Mao Jian is much more term of grade then name of tea meaning ‘Downy tip’.

Immediately after opening the vacuum sealed pack I felt the smell of the tea – dark chocolate with peanuts. I never had tea like this, not with such intensive smell, though I like it very much. It’s nice surprise.

The leaves are small, dark green, even and unbroken; most of them are a tip with small top leaf. Because of the size the silver hair aren’t visible.

The liquor is greenish because of the chlorophyll, but most of fresh and tender green teas have more green than yellow liquor. The chocolate in smell of the tea vanished; it was replaced with delicate but definite floral and flowery fragrance. Fortunately, the grassy scent did not dominated the brew, so this tea could be savored by irregular tea-drinkers, too.



The tea lasted quite a few infusions, cheering me up with the sight of its fresh green leaves. I found this tea being similar to higher quality Japanese sencha. After all, this tea is harvested at Zhenjiang province on eastern coast of China near Japan.

I like this tea quite a lot; however it’s quite expensive ($15 per 2 oz) the even taste, number of infusions and high quality craftsmanship makes this tea worth of purchase.

2007 Dragon Pearls

I do not drink green tea too often – mostly because I need a water of certain rather low but constant temperature. Also, I prepare green tea in gaiwan – but I like to use yixing teapot more.



And I certainly do not like jasmine teas. The ones I tried before were just too aromatic using artificial jasmine flavor. Not my cup of tea.
So when I received this jasmine tea – Dragon Pearls from Hobbes my first thought was to try it and then donate the rest of the tea to some, who can fully appreciate it. Sorry for that, Hobbes.



I prepare green teas in my office mostly using very few leaves - just about three grams. I brew the tea in my flat red tetsubin with rather cool water and doing only one long infusion.

The reason I decided to keep all this tea to me is its aroma. Wild strawberries. I do not know if they grow in other parts of world but here in Slovakia you can find them growing in forests. These strawberries are very small, but the taste of one huge domestic strawberry is concentrated in fruit ten times smaller. I love them and I love this tea. It brings me back memories when as a kid I used to eat those strawberries each spring.


Picture : Flickr