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Honoyama Organic Shincha from Yuuki-Cha today, my first tasting of this one.

Dry leaves are needlelike, very dark, rich sweet vegetal scent

4 grams of tea in 5 oz preheated kyusu

30" 160°F /71°C sweet, vegetal, delicate

10" 160°F/71°C umami, sweet, vegetal, nothing overpowering,

30" 168°F/76°C sweet, vegetal, hint of astringency aftertaste

1 minute 168°F/76°C sweet, vegetal, no astringency

a 5th infusion, with water that had cooled to 130°F/54°C in the kettle, for about 2 minutes, was losing steam, very dilute, but still sweet, vegetal, mellow.

Leaves after infusion are light green, small, few are entirely whole, but not very small pieces, with mild vegetal scent

This is wonderful, wonderful stuff, and my tastebuds are dancing with happiness.

I can’t remember which grade of the Tung Ting I bought at TenRen at this time—I think one of the best—and today I infused it in bulk to fill my thermos for work. So this note does not reflect trying to get the absolute best from the tea, but of it’s service filling a very practical need. The leaves are dark, tightly rolled, and smell like the dark roast TGY that I used to drink all the time. It tastes a lot like that TGY too, dark earthy toasty, quite nice and mellow. Good stuff, but not terribly special.

Another day, another lovely series of infusions. This is a very very nice tea.

Infusing 4.5 gram of tea in my 5 oz kyusu (about 150 mL water) with water at 160 degrees, after 30" the first is light and sweet and vegetal; the second (15") is sweet, a bit heavier with some sweet vegetal flavor and a bit of vanilla, a touch of umami but not much (a 30" second infusion was too heavy bodied when I tried that yesterday), and the third infusion (again 30") is more like the second, but the astringency starts to increase a little, but not enough to interfere with my enjoyment of the sweet vegetal flavors.

Delicious.

I think that shorter 2nd infusion allows the elements that have already started to leak from the wet leaves to be recovered without too much more coming out of the leaves (which would result in in an infusion strongly biased towards the umami, too much so for my taste), and then the 3rd infusion, there is not so much rushing out into the water, so an infusion the length of the first works fine.

Hard to believe I missed rating this one already. It’s simply brilliant. Warm strong Rooibos bass notes, then highlighted by intense, wonderful lemon WOW. The combination of the lemon and the Rooibos is just amazing. It’s got zing to make you sing. I shared it with colleagues at work last week and everyone liked it, and most said WOW. I know what to stuff everyone’s stocking with this year.

It doesn’t get bitter if left to steep for a long time, and you can resteep it a few times before it starts to lose the lemon zing.

Steep about one teaspoon of tea, 5-8 ounces of boiling water, about 3-5 minutes, and enjoy.

I can really think of only two knocks on this tea: one, the little bits of rooibos can escape unless finely strained after brewing; and two, the boiling water infusion means it is hot enough to burn my fingers when I drink it from my handleless cups, if I don’t let it cool long enough.

The notes from Norbu identify this tea as a varietal “usually processed into a mildly fragrant oolong tea”, but what this one reminded me of was an Alishan oolong, but without the oolong—if that makes sense. There is a strongly floral undertone here that reminds me of the Alishan teas, more than a typical mainland green tea. And, like the Alishan teas, this one steeped and steeped—my first brewing was informal (i.e., did not weigh the leaves, sorry), and with enough balls of leaf to lightly cover the bottom of the gaiwan, water 160-170 degrees, my friend and I were able to enjoy probably 8 infusions before we were done, with the first one maybe 15 second and later infusions up to a minute. Sweet, vegetal, occasional hints of astringency, but no bitterness, and that floral/haylike undertone that was so nice, over and over.

This is what I said about the tea when doing a comparative tasting in March:

Used 1.8 grams of tea in small 40 mL gaiwan
Infusions 160°F/71°C-170°F/77°C
30”, 30” (probably too long, with all the bitterness coming out in the 2nd infusion), 30”
Dry Leaves: flat thin small leaves and fragments, some stems, scent of hay, grass
Liquor, 1st infusion: yellow liquor; thicker body; hay, warm, less camphor, but very similar to the Jade Pole (also a Yunnan green tea from Yunnan Sourcing)
Liquor, 2nd infusion: nutty, dark, vegetal, astringent
Liquor, 3rd infusion: sweet, vegetal, bit nutty, but much less astringent
Wet Leaves: more broken pieces, leaves are quite small, yellow-green,and also mostly buds and small leaves

Tonight used a lot of leaf, water about 170 degrees, filled the gaiwan with leaf and steeped enough infusions to fill the quart thermos with nutty warm lightly sweet tea. Mellow and tasty, but not as good a control of the sweet as I sometimes can get with my chinese green teas—under very difficult performance conditions, of course, with the ‘bulk’ brewing.