Maiko Tea Yashiki no Cha Gyokuro

I had the pleasure to try the best gyokuro from Maiko Tea: Yashiki no cha.

Mr. Yamashita watches these tea plants daily.

Only a few kilograms are made each year with the utmost care.

It’s as if this was a competition grade gyokuro.

Tasting an exclusive gyokuro

This tea has an intense sweet aroma. It’s almost fruity.

Too bad that I received a small amount as a sample.

Otherwise the aroma would be more intense.

The tea leaves are small, fairly uniform, and have a dark green color.

It’s a desirable appearance.

But will it taste as good as it looks?

I used a teaspoon of tea, and infused it in 20 ml (2/3 oz) of water at 60°C (140°F) for 2 minutes.

Now I feel a vegetal freshness with marine notes.

Unlike most gyokuro, this one doesn’t have a strong asparagus smell.

And so I now have a small cup with a clear yellow liquor.

It’s time to taste it.

There’s an intense umami taste, along with a lingering sweetness in the aftertaste.

It has a lot of body, but without any astringency nor bitterness whatsoever.

Very easy to drink, because it has a good balance.

Let’s make a second infusion.

I decide to go with 70°C (158°F) for a minute and a half.

Amazingly, it’s as enjoyable as the first infusion.

It holds the flavor well.

So, I made another infusion with the same temperature for one minute.

This time there’s much less umami taste.

It tastes as if it was a good sencha.

I did the fourth infusion with 80ºC (176ºF) for only 30 seconds.

It was sort of light, but still worth drinking.

And for the last infusion I poured boiling water for 10 seconds.

While this last infusion was too light for my taste, the amazing thing was that the tea never became bitter nor astringent.

Since it is such a good gyokuro, I decided to eat the spent tea leaves even though it was late at night.

While I risked losing sleep because of the excess caffeine, I wanted to try the wet leaves right away before their flavor changed.

I placed them on a small saucer, and then sprinkled some ponzu sauce.

They were delicious. I still couldn’t taste any bitterness.

Luckily, I was able to sleep well.

It was definitely a satisfying experience.

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