Going to do a tea review today! I was reminded that I had this tea after drinking some really disappointing green tea (but that’s a story for another time). This tea was bought from the お茶の山口園 (Ocha no Yamaguchien) store at Daito Aeon and was a present for my granddad but we’re now all trying to finish it before it spoils :p

There are two different types of green tea. The one on the left (silver can) is called うれしのみどり(ureshino midori) and the one on the right is called 深緑 (shinryoku).

The うれしのみどり is a 玉緑茶 (tama ryokucha) from Ureshino, Saga [1]. I was really excited when I found this because Saga is really close to Sasebo, where I was staying. 玉緑茶 is very similar to the normal 緑茶  (ryokucha – green tea), with largely the same process. The only difference is that it doesn’t have a 精揉 (seijyuu) process [2], with the leaves going into a large rotating drum which has hot air blown into it. This gives it a different appearance from other varieties of green tea and the alternative names of 「ムシグリ」(mushiguri) and「ぐり茶」(guricha).

This tea felt hard and slightly coarse to touch.

The recommended brewing method for 2 people is:
5g of tea
60 ~ 70 degree water
120 ~ 140ml of water
Roughly 1 minute brewing time

And this taste section is where you realise just how much of a tea newbie I am because I have no idea what the correct vocabulary is. But here’s my best shot:

First reaction: The fragrance is amazing!
While drinking: This is a sweet and bright tea. When I say sweet, I don’t mean “has sugar sweet” (I find tea in Singapore way too sweet after years in Japan). This sweetness is a bit more subtle and is something inherent in the tea; a sort of mellow sweetness, if you will.

I would not have this with strong tasting foods because tea would be overpowered. Instead, I think this would do very well as a cup of after-dinner tea.

The other tea is the 深緑 and it’s a 煎茶 (sencha). 煎茶 is the most popularly drunk tea in Japan, and it’s made by steaming and rolling the tea leaves [3].

Compared to the 玉緑茶, the tea here feels silkier and softer to touch.

The recommended brewing method for 2 people is:
5g of tea
60 ~ 70 degree water
120 ~ 140 ml of water
Roughly 1 minute of brewing time.

To be honest, I steeped both teas for far longer than the recommended brewing time; I think about two or three minutes? At the one minute mark, both teas were still the colour of water, so I decided that it needed more time.

First reaction: The fragrance isn’t a strong as with the 玉緑茶 .
While drinking: This isn’t as sweet as the 玉緑茶. It still has a pretty good balance and would be a good after-dinner tea, but I would probably want to add more tea leaves when making this.

The teas also came with this tiny booklet. The booklet comes with information about the teas (more information than on the cans) and has some advice on how to store it. According to them, the most important thing is to drink the tea as soon as possible. As for storage, teas do not do well under hot and humid conditions, so store them in a can and try to put them in a cool and breezy place or in a fridge. And because tea absorbs fragrances easily, do not store them with items that have strong smells.

They also have a section on the origin of tea. According to them, tea came from China to Japan during the Heian era. It was originally only for the upper classes and used as medicine, and the practice of drinking tea only started in 1191 when a priest named Eisai brought back tea seeds and popularised tea. Tea became popular amoung the samurai-class during the Kamakura and Muromachi period and reached the rest of the Japanese during the Edo era.

Notes & References
[1] 玉緑茶 is produced in the northern Kyushu and Chubu region, with Ureshino, Saga being famous for it. This is another reason why I was so excited about this tea. Also, I should add that Wikipedia only lists northern Kyushu as the area where this tea is produced, while the お茶百課 listing both northern Kyushu and Chubu.

[2] The 精揉 (seijyuu) process is the part that turns the tea leaves into long, thin, and straight shapes.

[3] The Wikipedia page has some additional definitions of 煎茶. According to Wikipedia, the narrow definition of 煎茶 refers to tea that was grown under the full sun (as opposed to 玉露 (gyokuro), which is grown under shade). The wider definition refers more to the process of making the tea, as mentioned above.

Wikipedia Page for 玉緑茶
More information on the 玉緑茶
Wikipedia Page for 煎茶
More information on 煎茶