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“Happy belated new year! I’ve been absolutely slammed at work this week, so this tasting note is a few days late, meep! I’ve started a low-key tradition of beginning the year with a gyokuro. I have...” Read full tasting note
To achieve creation of the best of the best, it is not enough to simply cultivate the best leaves. The best leaves need to then be processed well and refined with extreme care to get only needles. That is the value a tea master — a master appraiser and blender of tea leaves — brings to the table, and few masters are more highly regarded than Hiroshi Kobayashi, the only 10-dan ranked master in Kyoto and one of only 13 in Japan.
Shogyoku is Kobayashi-san’s flagship gyokuro, cultivated by himself on the factory’s own tea field (dedicated to making this tea and their flagship matcha). Labeled “Heritage Grade” due the utilization of traditional shading — a canopy with yoshizu reeds layered in gradual steps, and then processed and refined with utmost attention to maintaining the perfect needle shape in the final tea leaves. Using an umami-rich cultivar, Uji Midori, only a few dozen kilograms are handpicked each year and only once a year allowing the plant an entire year to fully rejuvenate and enrich itself with flavor.
Steeping notes
Tea: 3 grams, Time: 3 minutes, Water: 40˚C/104˚F degrees, 30 ml
Resteep 2x at 30 sec, 70C/158F, 200 ml.
The first steeping parameter is meant to extract an umami syrup, an ambrosia of tea. Feel free to adjust the water amount, temperature etc to see what delicious flavors can be extracted. Subsequent steeps may be enjoyed as a sencha, steeping a full cup for 30 seconds at 70˚C/158˚F degrees.
Another way to achieve this tea ambrosia is by allowing ice to melt over the leaf, our favorite way of enjoying this leaf in fact while with friends. You make a few drops at a time every 30 minutes, and spend a leisurely entire afternoon enjoying the leaf.
Product Info
Ingredients: Green tea
Cultivar: Uji Midori
Harvest: May
Region: Kyotanabe, Kyoto.
Notes: Shaded for 30-40 days depending on the year
Vendor Info
Name: Shogyokuen
Type: Tea factory, family business
CEO: Hiroshi Kobayashi
Established: 1827
Employees: about 12
Company description not available.
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YunomiHappy belated new year! I’ve been absolutely slammed at work this week, so this tasting note is a few days late, meep!
I’ve started a low-key tradition of beginning the year with a gyokuro. I have no idea how I got into that habit but I like it. Something about a brothy, deep, green brew just fits conceptually with both the dead of winter and a fresh start. I didn’t take adequate notes on this one and unfortunately it was a sipdown so I won’t have a chance to take more, but one thing I specifically remember being struck by is that it wasn’t quite as thick as some other gyokuros I’ve had. Not the thinnest, but also not the richest. Very middle of the pack in that sense. Enjoyable though!
oh nice, gyokuro is a great new year tradition. :D