Gyokuro Dejima-san

Japanese tea is not my cup of tea. As many (I think) tea drinkers, I have been put off by the overly grassy and fishy flavour these green teas can develop if brewed improperly. Not that the brewing window is narrower in this case than continental Chinese greens, but perhaps the failures are more unpleasant.

I have made a resolution to explore these teas in the coming season, so stay tuned for tasting notes appearing on this blog. Today I am starting at the very top – by a Gyokuro sourced from Eastteas. Any tea drinker will know that Gyokuro (tea made from shaded trees; when powdered it makes Matcha) is very particular in requiring a high dosage (which Japanese teas usually don’t) and surprisingly low brewing temperatures. Now, reaching those prescribed 45C is no easy task! From boiling water, it really takes long minutes of cooling the water (unless you want to mess up with several water coolers). For your effort, you get a very concentrated essence of vegetality, including a distinctive salty-savoury edge that embodies umami, the notorious ‘fifth taste’. (In this tea, it can be detected as tiny crystals of natural glutamate).

Tasting notes:
1m @ 40C: Colour is pale and aroma somewhat reticent but palate is indeed an explosion of umami taste: savoury, brothy (not salty!), glutamic, reminiscent of miso paste perhaps, with auxiliary notes of green peas and none of the grassiness of sencha. Good length, good intensity, good precision. Could actually have been brewed longer. (I started on the cautious side).
40s @ 50C: Less exciting than brewing #1, less intense though profile is consistent. No aggressivity or astringency whatsoever, this enters the mouth broad and flavourful with no hard edges. As often with second brewings of Japanese fragmented-leaf teas, this is a little murky in appearance and flavour now.
Further brewings are still pleasurable but you have to rise to 70C to obtain any intensity.
This is expensive tea, but the experience is interesting. Is it a top Gyokuro? I cannot by any stretch of the imagination be considered an expert in the subject but I would expect a bit more intensity and ‘bite’. But having been a little conservative with my dosage and brewing times, I guess this tea deserves the benefit of a doubt.