Click here to check out O-Cha’s range of shinchas (some of which are unfortunately already sold out).

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Post categories: Green tea, Miscellaneous
Post tags: O-Cha

O-Cha’s Organic Sencha “Warashima Supreme” is a light-steamed shincha with a seductive aroma of white chocolate and berries and slender leaves resembling broken pine leaves. This sencha comes from Shizuoka and steeps into a mellow, light green cup, whose most dominant flavour is that of steamed spinach, accented by a hint of pepper and a slight sweetness.

Unlike the Kagoshima Sencha Yutaka Midori that I reviewed earlier this week, this shincha is much more forgiving of lengthened brewing times, largely because its flavour is not nearly as forthright as that of the other shincha. In fact, the longer brewing times (I’m still only suggesting an extra 20 to 30 seconds) help tease a little more out of the tea.

Available from O-Cha

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | Shincha 2010: Organic Sencha “Warashima Supreme” from O-Cha | No comment |
Post categories: Green tea, Tea reviews
Post tags: 2010 Shincha, First flush 2010, Japanese green tea, Japanese teas, O-Cha, shincha, Shizuoka tea

Open up your packet of Kagoshima Sencha Yutaka Midori, draw in deeply, and you’ll be hit with the heavenly aroma of extraordinary tea: forest freshness, met by the syrupy sweetness of blackcurrant and the tartier overtones of tropical fruits. You only get this kind of rich aroma when the tea is this fresh ? and this good.

Precision pays off with this shincha: oversteep it by 10 or 20 seconds and you’ll find that the tea has developed a sharpness that can be off-putting. But get it just right and you’ll be rewarded with a wonderful sencha, a broth with flavours of steamed vegetables and a chewy texture.

Available from O-Cha

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | Shincha 2010: Kagoshima Sencha Yutaka Midori | No comment |
Post categories: Green tea, Tea reviews
Post tags: 2010 Shincha, First flush 2010, Japanese green tea, Japanese teas, Kagoshima tea, Kagoshima Yutaka Midori, O-Cha, shincha

Shincha 2010 is now shipping!

Bec and I received our pair of shinchas from O-Cha on Thursday: a 100 gram packet of Kagoshima Sencha Yutaka Midori, and a 50 gram packet of Organic Asamushi Sencha.

I’ll have some reviews for you soon, but just wanted to post a quick note for those of you who haven’t ordered your fresh batch of shincha yet. Shincha is the freshest tea around at the moment, and the good stuff never lasts that long. Head over to O-Cha (my favourite supplier of Japanese green teas) and view their selection of shinchas now.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | Shincha 2010 is here | No comment |
Post categories: Green tea
Post tags: 2010 Shincha, First flush 2010, shincha

If you want to learn more about tea, spend a week studying one specific variety. That’s what I’ve been doing this week with mao feng green teas, and it’s what I did in early March with ti kuan yin oolong teas. Both times, it has been rewarding to focus in one variety, sampling similar teas from different merchants. It’s a journey of small discoveries.

Today’s small discovery is this: Mao feng is not a very aromatic tea. It shares this characteristic with most Chinese green teas, but mao feng is particularly light in the nose. Mao Feng Reserve from Teas Etc, has a mildly sweet aroma hinting at chocolate or sweet corn, but you’ll barely detect it.

As with the mao feng from Oriental Tea House, this mao feng consists of long, wiry leaves twisted into thin spears. There are a few pairs, but not as many as in Life in Teacup’s mao feng.

I decided to make this mao feng in a gaiwan, with a higher leaf to water ratio and a slightly shorter steeping time. With the previous two mao fengs, I opted for a larger teapot (a 2-person pot) with about a teaspoon and a half of leaf. The teas turned out well, but they required a longer steeping of about three minutes, and couldn’t handle much more than two infusions. Using the gaiwan and more leaf has let me get three solid steepings already, and I think I’ll be able to extract a pretty good fourth steeping as well.

What struck me on first tasting this tea is how much bolder its flavour is in comparison with the previous two mao fengs I reviewed. It bursts with vegetal flavours ? think green beans and bok choy. There’s a sweetness, the kind you get from stir-fried vegetables. It makes for pleasant, easy-going drinking.

Mao Feng Reserve is available from Teas Etc.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | Mao Feng Reserve from Teas Etc | 2 comments |
Post categories: Green tea, Tea reviews
Post tags: Mao Feng, Teas Etc

Huangshan Mao Feng has the special distinction of being of China’s famous Tribute Teas, teas which were hand-picked by Chinese emperors to become their tea of choice.

Huangshan is a mountain range in southern Anhui Province, and as such, Huangshan Mao Feng is a location-specific tea. Mao feng is produced elsewhere (I will be reviewing one from Zhejiang Province later this week), but Huangshan Mao Feng can be considered the heartland of mao feng teas.

Huang Shan Mao Feng from Life in Teacup

Life in Teacup’s mao feng (received as a free sample) is markedly different to that of Oriental Tea House. The latter was characterized by long, spindly leaves twisted into curling shapes, while today’s mao feng features much smaller leaves. There are also many more pairs, suggesting that this might be a truer example of the mao feng variety.

The most surprising aspect of this tea is its similarity to genmaicha. While it is much lighter in flavour, and is not astringent in the least, it has a mild roasted flavour that reminded Bec and I of the Japanese green. But it also has a sweetness – a nutty, gentle sweetness – that was absent in the mao feng from Oriental Tea House.

As with yesterday’s mao feng, the character of Life in Teacup’s mao feng is light and mild ? the word “serene” comes to mind. One to drink and be still with.

You can get 2010 pre-Qingming Huang Shan Mao Feng from Life in Teacup. Browse more tea from Life in Teacup in the Marketplace.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | Huangshan Mao Feng from Life in Teacup | No comment |
Post categories: Green tea, Tea reviews
Post tags: Life in Teacup, Mao Feng

Oriental Tea House is one of the finer establishments for tea lovers in Melbourne. I’ve eaten there a few times now, and have usually spent more than I’d intended, thanks to the trappings of yum cha. One minute you’re sitting there with a wallet full of cash, then they tempt you with some alluring peking duck, and before you know it, you’re back at the ATM pulling out more cash so you can buy a train ticket home. But man, that peking duck was tasty!

Their tea is pretty good, too, though I would recommend sticking to their Chinese teas. I bought their Earl Grey and was sorely disappointed. But I have enjoyed their lapsang souchong, their longjing, and now, their mao feng.

Mao feng is a green tea made from leaves plucked during the early harvest. A pair of small leaves and a bud – the finest picking – is used for mao feng.

Oriental Tea House’s mao feng has a dry aroma of white chocolate. Funny that, considering the almost complete lack of sweetness in the tea’s flavour ? but such are the curiosities of tea. It infuses into a pale green liquor with a gentle, warming character. It has none of the verbosity of oolongs or black teas, and even in the realm of green tea it makes a mellow cup. It’s a humble tea.

The flavour is savoury, with notes of Chinese greens like bok choy and a subtle suggestion of sweet potato. Unfortunately, it also strikes me as somewhat washed-out, as if the tea has lost some of its finer flavours since it was harvested. Certainly, this tea doesn’t strike me as fresh ? but then freshness is a rare thing to come by in tea bought from shops in Melbourne.

Mao feng is available from Oriental Tea House.

I will be reviewing a series of other mao feng teas over the coming days, including Life in Teacup’s Huang Shan Mao Feng, Teas Etc’s Mao Feng and Narien Teas’ Zhejiang Mao Feng (which I am revisiting, after I reviewed it last year).

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | Mao Feng from Oriental Tea House | 4 comments |
Post categories: Green tea, Tea reviews
Post tags: Mao Feng, Oriental Tea House

In Hawaii, 2010′s first tea harvest has come. The kind folks from Mauna Kea Tea, a small family-owned and operated tea company in Hawaii, sent me a sampling of this year’s first flush teas, as well as their sweet roast green tea. Today’s tea is their first flush green tea.

Right off the bat, I should note one thing: this tea doesn’t come cheap. At $20 for a 15-gram bag, each cup is costing a few dollars (depending on how many steepings you can get out of your leaves). But there are a few good reasons for this: the tea is organic; the cost of labour in Hawaii is higher than in India or China; and the tea is in short supply. This is the kind of tea you buy out of curiosity, to see what Hawaiian tea tastes like.

All that aside, let’s focus on the tea. We have lent out our photo camera at the moment, so I have borrowed a photo from Mauna Kea’s website to show you what the dry leaf looks like. It has a lovely appearance, with the kind of meticulous quality you would expect from a hand-harvested and hand-processed tea.

The tea infuses into a pale green brew, but surprises with a full-bodied flavour. A shot of lemon, underpinned by the vegetal flavours of steamed spinach or kale and accompanied by the taste of walnuts. There’s hardly a hint of sweetness to this, though there is a note of roasted sweet potato in the aroma.

2010 First Flush Hawaiian Green Tea is available from Mauna Kea Tea.

Related posts:

• Kilinoe: Hawaiian Green Tea (review)
• Big Island Tea: Interview with a Hawaiian Tea Farmer
• 2010 Shincha: Pre-Order Now with a 10% Discount

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | 2010 First Flush Hawaiian Green Tea from Mauna Kea Tea | 3 comments |
Post categories: Green tea, Tea reviews
Post tags: First flush 2010, Hawaii tea, Hawaiian tea, Mauna Kea Tea

It’s spring time in Japan, which means that the 2010 shincha harvest is just around corner. O-Cha.com have just started their pre-order sale, and you can get 10% off if you order now with this discount code: shincha2010.

Shincha comes from the year’s first harvest of green tea. Unlike other green teas, which are put into cold storage to maintain freshness, shincha is packaged immediately and sold as quickly as possible. It truly is the freshest of the fresh.

Last year, Bec and I tried O-Cha’s Yutaka Midori, which was exceptional. I think this year we’ll be getting that one again, as well as one or two other ones. There are eleven shinchas to choose from this year:

• Uji Asamushi Sencha “Kirameki” – $37.95
• Kagoshima Sencha Sae Midori – $24.95
• Kagoshima Sencha Yutaka Midori – $24.95
• Fukamushi Sencha Supreme – $22.95
• Shizuoka Sencha “Hatsumi” – $22.95
• Kabusecha – $18.95
• Chiran Sencha – $17.95
• Organic Sencha “Fuushun” – $17.95
• Organic Sencha “Oku Yutaka” – $17.95
• Organic Asamushi Sencha – $14.95
• Organic Sencha “Ooigawa Supreme – $14.95

The pre-order sale online April 21, so if you want to save yourself some money, go to O-Cha now and get your orders in early.

You can also browse O-Cha teas in the Tea Finely Brewed Marketplace.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | 2010 Shincha: Pre-Order Now with a 10% Discount | One comment |
Post categories: Green tea
Post tags: 2010 Shincha, Chiran Sencha, Fukamushi Sencha, Kabusecha, Kagoshima Sae Midori, Kagoshima Yutaka Midori, O-Cha, Organic Asamushi Sencha, Organic Sencha, Sencha, shincha, Shizuoka Sencha Hatsumi, Uji Asamushi Sencha

Just a few weeks after reviewing Chicago Tea Garden’s Golden Bi Lo, I turn to Teas Etc’s Bi Lo Chun Reserve, a delightful green tea with a remarkable nose.

Bi Lo Chun is a specialty of tea makers in Jiangsu Province, China. This particular sample from Teas Etc (a free sample, by the way) features lovely white downy leaves, indicating that the leaves were harvested at a young age.

Teas Etc’s notes on this tea suggest that the aroma is “unassuming”, while Mary Lou and Robert Heiss describe Bi Lo Chun’s aroma as “deceptively soft and mild”, yet I find that this tea has a remarkable dry aroma of rich dark chocolate. It’s one of the most enjoyable aspects of drinking this tea.

Given the sweetness of the dry aroma, it’s surprising how little sweetness there is to the flavour. This is a very savoury tea, with strong notes of vegetal flavours and a milder hint of something like sweet potato or yam. There is a little bit of astringent bite to the tea, but it’s nicely balanced (provided you don’t oversteep it).

The Story of Tea describes Bi Lo Chun as the Darjeeling of green teas ? they have that briskness and demanding character of Darjeeling teas, but they’re well worth the effort. I’m inclined to agree. You need to take special care not to oversteep this tea, or its astringency will make it nasty, but if you’re careful enough it’s a rewarding, unique and delicate tea.

Bi Lo Chun is available from Teas Etc.

© Eric for Tea Finely Brewed, 2010. | Bi Lo Chun Reserve from Teas Etc | No comment |
Post categories: Green tea, Tea reviews
Post tags: Bi Lo Chun, Pi Lo Chun, Teas Etc