Gyokuro Video!

When I first started doing these youtube video's the first request I got was a request to show off how I brew Gyokuro.  Well happy to always oblige any requests I feasibly can, yesterday I set up the camera again, turned on the kettle, and took out my favorite gyokuro set up. 

I think I may venture into Chinese teas soon, as the waiting game waiting for water to cool is getting a little tiresome.  But I have taken to trying to include some notes in the wait time about what exactly I am waiting for and how I would tell when it is the temperature I want.  I still haven't quite worked up the courage to attempt to narrate my own videos yet.  That may still be to come. 

Get him on a Theanine Drip Pronto

Thursday night into Friday I did a bonehead move, I ordered Chinese food at 11pm, then felt so uncomfortable the rest of the night I didn't even consider going to bed until after 3 am.  So Friday was not a fun day at all, and in general I felt sluggish, and overly tired.  Friday night I went to bed around my usual time and slept in on Saturday morning, but things still were not right.  Thats when I decided to implement the Theanine drip.

In my mind no healthy session of Theanine is complete unless it involves matcha, usually as a starter just to make sure you are awake, and ready to go through the rest of the marathon tea drinking session.  But I needed theanine bad, so for my second tea, I turned to Gyokuro.  Matcha and gyokuro is such a wonderful combination to have back to back, and wow you feel calm, cool, and collected after drinking those, but ready to do anything you set your mind to.

Big revelation I had today, is that over time through lack of practice with matcha I had moved to brewing it with too high of a temperature.  Although matcha is a bit tricky, it is made with leaves shaded like gyokuro, so you think go cool, but the froth from whisking does not come out properly if it gets too cool.  Its a tougher act to carry off than brewing gyokuro, as matcha infuses completely near instantly, matcha can not be reconciled for too cool of a water temp by simply letting the bowl sit longer after whisking. 

Go Go Gyokuro

So I did it, I broke open my first gyokuro of the season, and now begins the journey that I feel many seasonal gyokuro drinkers undergo. That is getting the brewing parameters fine tuned, as with many teas that require a higher leaf to water ratio getting things exact can be rather difficult when it is not done regularly. Gyokuro also seems to have an additional difficulty of getting the temperature right, as with that much leaf, I feel gyokuro is extra sensitive to even slight changes in temperature.

Fitting the bill that gyokuro is a winter tea, I opened it up on the first day we had snow here in this part of Western Michigan. As I am writing this we have quite a bit more snow falling, and I am starting to get excited for the holidays. Though after having a few sessions of Gyokuro a few questions have been arising.

I love in the middle of winter holding onto a nice hot cup of tea, and enjoying it thoroughly. But Gyokuro is brewed in such small amounts and at such low temps, that the entire warming effects are lost on me. The only reasons I feel why it is considered more of a winter tea is its robust umami like flavor, and the fact that Gyokuro should be aged for at least half a year, likely more for it to be in its prime.

Either way I am excited that it is gyokuro season, and I hope all of you are enjoying the start of winter and the holiday season.

Ippodo Gyokuro Kakurei

From Hagi in Use

It is spring and that says Green tea, to some people. While I am excited about the incoming new harvests, and hopefully Shincha getting in within the next two months, it is time to try and clear out some old stock. Japanese greens I seem to have no problems finishing, as this is my last bag and its close to half finished already.

Chinese greens are sadly a bit different, I have plenty of Everyday Dragonwell, and Bi Lo Chun.


The aroma of this tea is impeccable, and very characteristic of a Japanese green, sweet and slightly grassy/vegetal. The taste is quite good for a gyokuro of its price per gram. Great dose of umami but rounded out nicely with a great sweetness. It does a good job sticking to the tongue and mouth, and it sticks around with a flavor that is rather biting and reminiscent of strong spinach.


Green before the grass,
soon the northern breeze will quit,
promoting the tea.
--Adam Yusko

Ippodo Mantoku

This is one of their lower priced Gyokuro's which seems more expensive comparatively as the bags are 100 grams not 50 grams. The Dry leaf smells delicious, everything that I have come to like about Japanese Greens. One thing Ippodo themselves say is that this tea can take warmer water than typical gyokuro.

I think that is generally the case when it comes to less expensive gyokuro, it is close and closer to Sencha in nature and abilities.

In truth I am amazed at the strength of the umami taste in this tea, it seems to be bolstered by the extra tinge of bitterness. Though aroma leaves much to be desired.

It was much the same through the second steep.


But I want to say that this tea is an umami bomb, but it seems to have given up the ghost by the 3rd infusion, I'm going to try and give it a fourth.

Gyokuro Kanro

This is a Gyokuro offered by Ippodo, I did have the chance to try this before and thought it was excellent, but as I was dealing with samples I was scared to make it as strong as it is recommended.

In the prep I added only enough water to barely cover the leaves in the pot, as per brewing instructions.

The aroma is decidedly different like toasted sesame seeds and vegetables, there was also something distinctively oily about the aroma. The taste is wow, it is so incredibly concentrated it is unbelievable. This is the Japanese equivalent of Chouzhou style gong fu. Its so concentrated that it seems oily like a Extra Virgin Olive Oil. And it is one of those teas that is such a taste explosion its hard to do it justice. But I got a fair bit of sesame seeds, the EVOO like stated earlier, and perhaps a slight seaweed flavor.

The Strength unnerving
The taste uber intriguing
Such is Gyokuro.
--Adam Yusko