This is the third and final tea in the ‘Aged Wakoucha’ trio that I got from The Tea Crane! It’s been a very enjoyable first box, and although these teas seem really different (drinking them individually), I’m going to see if I have time this weekend to do a comparison of the three and see if anything new comes out.

Today’s tea is made from the Benihomare, which according to this article on note.com is a legend in the world of domestically produced (Japanese produced) black tea, with a distinctive rose and/or geranium-like fragrance.

First Impressions

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The dry leaves have a very strong woody and medicinal scent. I think I’ve mentioned that some leaves seem a bit green, but here it looks like the green may be from the ageing rather than lack of oxidation of the leaves? I’ve uploaded an additional picture here – hope you can see what I mean because it’s pretty hard to describe!

Tasting Notes

The first steep produced a amber tea liquor that had very strong woody notes. I did get a little medicinal note, but not much. Oddly enough, what I noticed was the absence of sweetness, bitterness, and astringency. It’s a very smooth tea, but so far, not really my cup of tea.

The second steep produced a tea very similar to the first, but with a slightly stronger medicinal note. You can probably tell from my reviews but medicinal notes in teas do not fall in the “flavour notes I enjoy” category. Reading up about this tea and comparing it to my notes (when I tasted the tea ‘blind’ to its reputation) makes me wonder if I’m missing out on something. I can see this being part of a blend with a malty, sweet tea, but it’s not very impressive as a single-cultivar tea.

By the third steep, the tea has reverted back to a dominant woody note. But, this woody note is a lot mellower and I’m starting to notice the tea lingering in the throat a bit more. The tea continued to mellow out through steeps four and five, and I realised that I like the second half of my tea session a lot more than the first!

The spent leaves looked very warm and there was no hint of the green that I saw on the dry leaves.

Overall

In my head, I know that this is a famous tea and has its own characteristics, but if I judge this tea solely by my personal preference (because as someone who no longer works in a tea-related company, all tea I drink is solely for myself or to share with friends), this isn’t really up my alley. I would, however, be interested in seeing this tea as part of a blend because I can see it adding some interesting notes to tea with a very different flavour profile.