Tea eight??? Tea Eight??? We’re almost done with all nine teas, guys! And honestly, I am loving all the sencha. Today’s tea is Gokoh by Onishi-en, who also produced the Fukumidori that I love so much.

First Impressions

The first impressions for this tea were extremely positive. There were strong grassy scents, with something a little sharp – It reminded me of umami notes. I was super excited to try this after examining the dry leaves.

Tasting Notes

First Steep: Although the dry leaves made a huge impression, the tea wasn’t as dramatic. The tea liquor was very pale and the fragrance was a little week. In terms of taste, the tea was sweet (surprisingly so*) and grassy. There wasn’t much much umami here which is completely the opposite from what I expected. It’s probably also why I was reminded of a Chinese green tea (although it may also be because I don’t have as much experience with Chinese green teas as I do with Japanese green teas).

Second Steep: On my first session with this sencha, I managed to get a slightly stronger umami note on this second steep. At that time, I thought it would be interesting to compare this with the Haru-Midori, which also has a pretty strong umami note. In my second session with the tea, however, the umami didn’t really get stronger. Instead, the grassy notes were a little strong and there a hint of bitterness. In terms of sweetness, the tea was still pretty sweet during both sessions. One thing I noticed is that the aftertaste of this tea isn’t as distinct as other senchas.

Third Steep: The notes here are pretty much the same as before, though the grassy note has gotten stronger and I’m getting the sense that the tea is already reaching its limit.

Overall, I managed about 4 steeps from this tea before the leaves told me that it was time to stop. Comparing this to the previous six that I’ve had, it’s not my favourite tea (due to the lack of umami) but if you like a sweeter and grassier sencha, this may be up your alley

About the Tea

Information from the tea card:

“‘Gokoh’ is an old brand developed by Kyoto Tea Research Institute in 1953. It is mainly used for gyokuro or matcha, but [Ohnishi-en] process its leaves to make sencha Single Origin Tea. It is characterised by its rich umami taste and sweetness like milk.”

While I haven’t really gotten the umami notes from my sessions here, I have definitely gotten the sweetness!

Tea farm information can be found in my review of the Fukumidori.

*A Digression (on the T2 Teamaker)

I have been using mainly my T2 teamaker for the past few senchas because it’s incredibly easy to adjust the leaf to water ratio using the teamaker. However, the sweetness here threw me off because I thought that the teamaker had somehow retained the tea flavours from a previous flavoured tea.

For this tea, I switched to a different teapot (so technically I had 2.5 tea sessions and not 2) and got largely the same notes so I’m pretty sure my tea review is accurate. Still, even after dismantling and scrubbing the tea maker, I’m still a bit worried that it’s retained some smells from flavoured teas – does anyone have any tips on how to deep clean it? Or is it the end of the teamaker for straight teas?