Yamane-En: Sugabow, Gyokuro Karigane Hojicha

Drank this for the monthly sipdown challenge: April 5th, National Caramel Day!

Ended my day with this tea, as it’s the closest thing I have to a caramel flavored tea. The roasty notes really sing when they meet the sweet caramel body of this brew. I got three different new hojichas to try with my latest Yunomi purchase, so they have some big shoes to fill when I finish this tea. If they aren’t up to snuff, I will absolutely re-order this one. Price of postage be damned!

Last weekend my sister was visiting, and the weather was so nice that we went and had tea in the park. This was the tea I brought along, which we steeped out in my shiboridashi until the hot water from the thermos was out. As my focus was my sister and not the tea, I didn’t take any session notes.

Very different weather today — rain! — but it also puts me in the mood for hojicha, so I steeped up a couple cups for my work thermos. 5g for 500ml 195F water, steeped 3 minutes western-style.

The dry leaf has a strong “freshly cut” cedar wood sort of aroma, with the vaguest hint of cinnamon. The steeped liquor is a lovely deep brown, somewhere between maple syrup and coffee in shade.

Has a lovely fresh woody flavor, trending to a sweet nutty taste at the end of the sip. Also a mild autumn leaf flavor. A nice roasty tea for a dreary day.

Thank you, Derk :D

Was getting close to midnight and decided for a low caffeine option. Still working hard at getting some tea off my shelf so I can buy more without having that overwhelming feeling of having too much on my shelf. Good luck, right? hehe

The golden sticks (stems) after the first infusion smelled like roasted nori, sweet tobacco. The cloudy, dark amber liquor produced infusions that had a toasty sweet flavor, along with roasted rice, umami, roasted malt and nuts, and smokey notes.

The site suggested 5 grams, 60s, 194°F, 200 ml. I went with a little more concentrated preparation of 5g, 100ml, beginning at 194°F (and later ramping up the temperature), 7 steeps, no rinse, 15s, 20s, 35s, 45s, 55s, 65s, 90s. The first couple of quick infusions introduced the roasted rice, fresh sweetness, bright notes, and at the end, I used close to boiling water for the longer infusions, the result was darker notes of roasted nuts, caramel-like, a different type of sweetness, more intense sweetness. Throughout all the infusions, the bitterness was at a perfect level of enjoyment. Mellow, smooth, calming, satisfying.

Note: Still a lot of flavor, I’ll probably keep drinking this throughout the night. It’s really good :D. Also, I’m biased… I grew up on Japanese tea so take that into consideration. ^^

This tea was a new experience for me and I can’t wrap my thoughts around it. Very complex and different from the Obubu Dark Roast Houjicha I bought from What-Cha. I can say I really enjoyed this following Togo’s parameters in his latest review of this tea. I also simmered the leaves for 10 minutes to produce a mug of smooth, roasty and pleasantly bitter tea this morning. Want more, that’s all I really know. Thank you, Togo.

I feel like the more I drink this tea, the more I like it. It fares well with various different parameters. This time I tried a high leaf/water ratio and cooler temperature for first two steeps. Namely, 1st steep at 80°C, 2nd at 86°C, 3rd straight off the boil and 4th was a 10 minute simmer, now my standard ending of Hojicha sessions.

All infusions were very thick, but also very different from each other. It started off mild and roasty, yet complex and finished with a dark woody brew with competing coffee bitterness, green tea astringency and caramel sweetness.

This is one of the best Hojichas I have ever had. It’s not pedestrian stuff, it took me two different times to get used to it. It’s slightly smoky, slightly sweet as it cools and roasted and toasty to it’s core. I highly recommend cooking with it! I made some bomb pork chops with it.
I had some the other night with my man, and he likened it to ‘you know, schwag weed.’ which may be completely accurate.

Full fancy review:
http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/04/20/yamane-en-sugabou-gyokuro-karigane-houjicha-green-tea-yunomi/