I hope you are enjoying this series of tea reviews where I alternate between a flavoured tea and a straight tea because I am definitely enjoying them! I’m getting a lot of variety in my tea and that makes me happy.

So today’s tea is another one of the samples that I received from The Tea Crane’s kickstarter. It’s a kamairicha, one of the few (only?) Japanese teas where the leaves are pan-fried instead of steamed to stop oxidisation. This is how The Tea Crane website describes the tea:

Kamairicha is a tea that is produced not by steaming the fresh leaves, but by heating them directly in a large frying pan. This tea is characterised by a clear and vivid yellow-green liquor and a fresh aftertaste with a sweet aroma. Today, the kamairicha tradition is only practiced and continued in a small part of Kyushu.

[…] The name of this tea is “Denshō” and refers to the tradition and folklore that is expressed through the age of the native tea bush used to create this tea. The garden was planted 60 years ago at the foundation of this farm, using solely native seeds as a means of reproduction.

First Impressions

Unlike most senchas, this green tea has small, curled leaves. But much like the Nara Native Mountain-grown Sencha, these leaves have a very rich sent – just more vegetal and less umami than the sencha. It is a very positive first impression.

Tasting Notes

The tea liquor from the first steep was yellow-green (leaning to the yellow-side, rather than the green). The tea isn’t sweet, but rather leans to the savoury side. In fact, I could feel the umami around the edges of my mouth. There were also distinct toasted and vegetal notes as well as a strong aftertaste.

The second steep was very much like the first. In one session, I managed to get a slight floral note here, but I didn’t notice it in the second session (both times, I used a gaiwan so I suppose it could be an issue of water temperature?). But in both cases, I noted a slight bitter note that gave the tea some depth, and it was clear that the vegetal note from the first steep had gotten stronger.

When it came to the third steep, the umami/savouriness in the first two steeps had basically disappeared and I got mostly sweet and vegetal notes. I don’t know if it’s because I have it in my head that kamairicha and Chinese green teas are both pan-fried, but I was reminded of a Chinese green tea at this point.

The spent leaves had a warm tint to them, and I thought it was interesting that I could see mostly whole leaves in there, unlike other types of Japanese green teas, which seem a bit more chopped up to me.

Overall thoughts

I enjoyed trying this tea, and it’s always fun to try a Japanese tea that’s not a typical sencha. I’m actually pretty motivated to try different types of kamairicha now, because I’d like to see how diverse this subgenre of Japanese tea can be (one day, when the tea cupboard allows for it!)