I’m back with more tea! I’ve been really enjoying this and my gastric seems okay now so hopefully I can have another review up for you on Thursday. Today, I’m talking about Toyoka Tea by Nakajima-en

First Impressions

The dry leaves look smaller than usual for some reason. Apart from the usual scents associated with sencha, I’m also getting something that I can only describe as “spicy”? Weird, this tea is fresh out of the packet and I’ve kept all the senchas in one cupboard away from the other teas so there should be no other smells.

Tasting Notes

First round: The tea liquor is very, very green, especially on the second round (not photographed). The tea itself is sweet and grassy with some umami notes and a hint of astringency. I didn’t get any of that ‘spicy’ note that I had from the dry leaves on both tea tastings so maybe it’s just me. The tea feels very fresh and it has a good aftertaste.

Second round: I’m getting a bit more of a bitter note in this round, but still getting the grassy notes and some sweetness. The scent, on the other hand, is considerably muted here. I can also feel some astringency, but it’s not enough to be unpleasant.

Third round: still thick but not heavy, in terms of body. Still getting grassy notes but sweetness and umami are not really there. The bitter note was around the same for my second tasting, but it had disappeared for the first.

I’m thinking that I need to continue experimenting with the teas to find the perfect brewing parameters. Generally, I’m using about 80 degrees water and steeping for about 30s on the first brew, and then slightly longer on the second and third. I think when I do my comparison of all nine teas and get myself thoroughly tea drunk, I’ll either do an ice brew (if I have enough ice) or a cold brew.

Tea Description

From the tea cards:

“Toyoka is an old brand developed by Saitama Tea Research institute. Although it was developed to be used for the highest quality tea (gyokuro), this brand is disappearing because gyokuro was not produced so much in Sayama. You can call this tea a brand that is in danger of extinction. Nakajima-en cultivates such a brand with love.

“Toyoka is rich in umami taste and deep in astringency. The merits of this tea is the aroma of the brewed tea, which has a strong vegetal note. You can take this as hot tea after meals or as afternoon tea. It is also nice to enjoy the fresh aroma by drinking this as cold tea.”

Okay, reading this, I think I may need to adjust my brewing temperatures down even more. Sounds like this tea may benefit from temperatures for brewing gyokuro.

Farm Description

As usual, from the tea cards:

“Nakashima-en is located in Negishi, in one corner of of the Kaneko plateau. It is one of the pioneering tea farms that started to produce tea at the end of Edo era. Now, the 16th owner, Mr Katsunori Nakajima, cultivates and produces tea with passion. In 2009, he was given the Prize from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries at the National Tea Exhibition.”