Sayamakaori Shincha

Another delicious shincha. I ordered a quartet of these from Yuuki-cha this year, and have enjoyed them all. This one is very similar to the Sayamakaori—it has sweetness, delicate vegetal flavors, and milder umami than many of the other senchas & gyokuros I’ve tried. I am happy through at least 4 infusions in the morning, about 1 gram per ounce of water at 160 degrees in my kyusu, 30" to start, then 10-20", 30-45", 60-90 seconds.

I prefer the lighter profile of this one to the Tenryu Misakubo as well: it has less dominant umami, which permits more of the flavors that I prefer—the sweet and delicate vegetal tastes—to come to the fore. It does not have a lot of stamina, but in the morning I generally don’t have time for more than 4 infusions.

I think I prefer the Honoyama to this one, but this and the Okuyutaka were both about equally delightful.

I put together a tea tasting note on my web site here (no adds, no sales, just plain tea notes with some photos):

http://www.well.com/user/debunix/recipes/YuukiChaShinchas.html

good balance again by these Yuuki Asa’s. this one didnt get quite the amount of steeps the higher quality/priced ones like the Tenryu Misakubo but still not a bad Organic choice in a “lower priced” asa. i think I may have actually enjoyed the flavor profile of this one more than the higher priced hand picked tenryo. Just got more longevity out of the tenryo..