After drinking the Hokumei, I learnt that Hiraoka-en also created a black tea. I was particularly interested in the tea because it’s bug-bitten, the way Beauty of the East is. So I wrote to NPO法人　埼玉農業おうえんしたい to ask if I could buy a packet to try, and they very kindly sent me a packet to sample (just to clarify, I bought all the other sencha and matcha, including the ones I’m giving away).

I actually googled this beforehand and found these recommended brewing guidelines:

• 3g of tea leaves
• 150ml water
• Steep for 5 min

It’s pretty interesting because 5 minutes is really long for me, especially since the water will be freshly boiled and the amount of water isn’t that much (it’s about one teacup-full, if you can’t visualise 150ml), so today’s post will be a kind of experiment. I’ll be weighing out the leaves and measuring the water, but I’ll vary the steeping time: the tea will be steeped for 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 4 minutes, and 5 minutes and we’ll see how things go.

First Impressions

The leaves are pretty big, but I don’t think they are whole leaves. I’m getting floral and woody notes, as well as something that I think is spiciness? (but then again, as someone who doesn’t like spicy food, I may be very, very off on this! But the word ‘spicy’ popped into my mind)

Taste Test

2 Minute Mark: The tea liquor is a medium amber. There is no bitterness and the notes are floral and woody.

3 Minute Mark: After a minute, the tea liquor is a slightly darker amber. There is still no bitterness and the sweetness of the tea is really noticeable now. I’m also getting something extra (especially at the back of the mouth as an aftertaste) that I can’t quite put my finger on. The word “spicy” comes to mind but as mentioned, I’m not exactly a spicy chilli eating person.

3 Minute Mark (as a second steep): I messed up the photo for the initial three-minute mark and didn’t realise it till I drank the tea! So I tried another three-minute steep using the same leaves and the differences are pretty stark! As you can see, three minutes for the second steep produces a much lighter tea liquor. The taste isn’t as flavourful as before (even if I’m comparing it to the tea that was steeped for two minutes) – it’s still sweet and I’m getting a floral/woody note, but it’s not as complex as the tea liquor produced from the first steep.

4 Minute Mark: I’m not going to lie, I approached this one with some trepidation because four minutes is normally far too long for a tea. I was so surprise when there was no bitterness in this tea, instead, it’s very sweet with that same indescribable flavour. I’m feeling motivated to try more types of food to expand my flavour palate so I can describe this properly.

5 Minute Mark: The tea liquor that was steeped for five minutes was very similar in terms of taste profile to the tea liquor steeped for four minutes. It’s a bit stronger and feels slightly more complex, but the same notes (and lack of bitterness) are present. The tea is full-bodied and it has a nice heft on the tongue. The aftertaste of this tea is amazing too!

The spent leaves looked like what I imagined – fairly large pieces of the whole leaf.

Overall

This is a really delicious tea but, and I surprise myself by writing this, not a tea to be steeped more than once! The difference in flavour between the first and second steep is so great I don’t think I can recommend doing a gongfu-brew, unless you’re going to cut the amount of water even further. I’ve steeped it Western-style for a group of five and gotten great feedback from it so I would recommend that instead.

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