Sugimoto Tea offers rare teas for wholesale accounts only, and for a limited time.
Luckily, I get samples of those teas every now and then.
I tasted a kamairicha from them years ago, although from a different cultivar.
This one is made with the Yabukita cultivar in Shizuoka prefecture.
Kamairicha tea review
Kamairicha is a green tea made in the Chinese style. That is, by heating in a pan instead of steaming it.
Since I haven’t tasted that many, I’m not even sure if the appearance of the leaves is good or not.
But they look good to me. A fairly green color.
They have a sweet smell, it’s slightly fruity in my opinion.
If I didn’t know that it was a kamairicha, I would guess that it was a Japanese oolong.
The brewing parameters are one teaspoon of tea, 60 ml (2 oz) at 90 °C (194 °F), for one minute.
Now that the tea leaves are wet, I feel sweetness, notes of legumes and seaweed.
I think that it might also have a faint roasted aroma.
The picture I took of the liquor looks a little green for some reason, but in reality it’s a yellow color.
As for the taste, this tea has body. It feels buttery.
There’s also some sweetness.
It isn’t bitter, and the aftertaste is pleasant.
This doesn’t feel like a Chinese green tea, but it isn’t like a normal Japanese green tea either.
Let’s make another infusion.
I’ll infuse for 30 seconds at the same temperature.
The body is now lighter.
But the overall taste is good.
It seems that this will be the last infusion, so I’ll just use boiling water for 10 seconds.
Now there’s a light astringency. Still worth drinking, anyway.
I had a good experience with this tea.
It was even better than I expected.
