Producer: Lupicia
Origin: Gokase, Japan
Brewing Parameters: 3-4 g; 85-90°C; 1-1.5 min.
Appearance: Dark green, medium-small curled leaves
Rating: A | 94/100
# of Brews: 4
Tasting Notes and Thoughts
Well, here's the last tea that I bought in Hawaii. Apparently, this is a special tea– made by a tea master whose specialty is pan-fried tea (which I'm assuming is somewhat of a rarity within Japan). From just looking at and smelling the dried leaves, you could tell they're quality; the smell was surprisingly strong, like basil and mint, and the leaves were a dark, deep green.
As this tea is pan-fried, it is a bit more forgiving during brewing than other standard Japanese teas (i.e. sencha, gyokuro). My first brew used relatively hot water and only brewed for a short amount of time– thirty seconds. Despite this, it came out surprisingly well. The color was a very bright highlighter yellow-green, with an aroma very similar to most senchas: grassy, a bit like the sea, and very slightly fruity. Similarly, the flavor was tangy, starting off with grassy, slightly bitter notes, which slowly gave way to a light, fishy taste. It's very smooth, with little aftertaste
I decided to make the next brew a bit shorter, considering that the leaves had opened up, and the tea came out an even brighter green color. It tasted a bit sweeter than before and had lost the fishy aftertaste, leaving the grassy notes as the dominant taste. I ended up stopping at four brews since I ran out of water, but surprisingly the tea was still relatively bright and moderately flavorful.
Overall, this has been one of the better teas I've had lately. Sadly, since this is a green tea, it's not really amenable to storage for long periods of time (which sucks, since I'd want to make this last as long as possible).
Other Notes
I hope everyone's having a great labor day weekend! All I've done was binge watch The Get Down (which was amazing, by the way).
This week, Fencing Club is going to be selling stuff at Pigskin, which is the school's big club event. Like previously, I'll be cooking yakisoba, and we'll also be selling Arizona. To be honest, we're probably going to lose money on this event (we as in me), which sucks but at least I am/will be pulling in $54/week rather than my usual $20 (TA for a teacher + tutor for the school district). Apparently most clubs make little money, and the thing with our booth is that there's (somewhat) high overhead costs.
Also, for the college search, my Comp Civics teacher recommended to me a few liberal arts schools. A few I'm interested in (like Amherst) since they're small, so it'll feel more personal in each class. However, the thing is cost, moving to the East Coast, and a few other issues. I'll figure it out, and talk about it in the next update.
This week, Fencing Club is going to be selling stuff at Pigskin, which is the school's big club event. Like previously, I'll be cooking yakisoba, and we'll also be selling Arizona. To be honest, we're probably going to lose money on this event (we as in me), which sucks but at least I am/will be pulling in $54/week rather than my usual $20 (TA for a teacher + tutor for the school district). Apparently most clubs make little money, and the thing with our booth is that there's (somewhat) high overhead costs.
Also, for the college search, my Comp Civics teacher recommended to me a few liberal arts schools. A few I'm interested in (like Amherst) since they're small, so it'll feel more personal in each class. However, the thing is cost, moving to the East Coast, and a few other issues. I'll figure it out, and talk about it in the next update.
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