Mark B select Send Message

My favorite of the bunch from the 1st Steepster Select offering. As Japanese greens go, this really epitomizes the wonderful vegetal flavors and thick mouthfeel of shade grown teas. Not familiar with a Kabuse tea, front the Tea Wing site, this appears to be a type of less refined Gyokuro (including some stem pieces). I like me some Gyokuro and I like this. As per the directions on the sample, I’d a say a minute and a half is a long first steep for my 5oz Finum. Maybe that’d work with an 8-10oz glass? Sticking with a smaller more traditional glass, one could get away with 30 secs to a min, which is how I brewed it the first time and it was exquisite, later steeps were extended by 30-45 seconds. The next sample pack I followed the directions, and though it was still good, I think it condensed the delicate flavors too much. I’ll be surprised to get a reasonable 3rd steep this time around. The first time I tried it, the leaf yielded 3 solid infusions. The colors is lovely and looks alive, with a clearly green hue. I’d say it’s fairly true to the packages description of Nori and cut grass, though I didn’t get the hazelnut. I picked up on spinach and some edamame. I put off embarking on my second sample, as I so enjoyed the first one. If I didn’t have such a huge backlog of tea, I’d purchase some of this. The price is really reasonable at $22/100g.