Tea and Zen

Even though I still have more Verdant Tea stuffs to go through, I decided to break into this tea. It's been calling my name since it is a 5g sample and a Japanese varietal processed like a Taiwanese oolong. Sounds amazing, right?

It is. It was very deserving of the award "Best Overall Green Tea."

Dry leaf

Since green teas have the shortest shelf life, I decided that I'm going to go through my greens, whites, and my one yellow tea before breaking into my blacks, oolongs, and puerh.

I think that this tea is so cool. I didn't even know that there was anyone in Australia that grew tea! I'm really hoping that I like this tea as the price is nice and it's grown in a very interesting part of the world as far as tea goes. That, and the fact it is Japanese varietal's that are processed similar to that of something from Taiwan! 

This tea has a very interesting smell.

From the website:

Although Arakai exclusively use Japanese cultivars, they have drawn inspiration from Taiwanese processing techniques and their tea as a result exhibits unique characteristics with notes reminiscent of both Japanese and Taiwanese teas.

Even though I haven't tasted the tea yet, this is a very good description. I can't say that the smell reminds me more of a Taiwanese high mountain oolong honestly or a Japanese green. It is a very even mixture. It smells delicately green like a light roasted high mountain Taiwanese oolong, yet at the same time has that sweet, floral scent to it like a Japanese green. It just isn't as strong.

It is very rare where I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing when making a tea and well, this was one of those times. The one complaint I have about What-Cha is that the instructions are in tsp/cup.

I hate that. Just give me the gram weight, please! This tea is so fluffy that my teaspoons won't even give me a gram. 

So I went with the good old standard starting point when brewing western style: 1g/100ml. I used a 237ml (8oz) pitcher, so I rounded it up and used 2.5g. I used 80C water and brewed the tea for 45 seconds to start and added on 30 seconds for each additional brewing.

Brewings

The liquor of the first cup smelt just like a brewing Japanese green. The leaves didn't open much yet. The liquor was a clear, bright yellow color. It had a very smooth, full, and buttery mouth feel with a slight astringency. It was lightly green and tasted like green beans with a lingering after taste of collard greens and sencha. Once the liquor wasn't in your mouth for a minute or so there was a very light sweetness that lingered, reminiscent of what you'd expect from a sencha. It sat in my stomach the same way a sencha does as well. My stomach has never appreciated Japanese greens, or anything rich, as much as my mouth does, so it was kind of heavy. This tea is so rich that by the end my stomach was most unhappy with me.

The leaves opened up a lot more for the second brewing. They're very pretty if you ask me.

The tea evolved a lot too! I was expecting it to still taste more like a sencha, but no! It was almost exactly like a high mountain Taiwanese oolong. The liquor had a hint of cinnamon mingled in with the green beans. The cinnamon hits the tip of your tongue and your lips. After that it isn't as noticeable anymore as it lightly floats on your pallet. I dare say there are hints of cardamon as well. The aftertaste was the same as before except it was much more vegetale and a little less sweet. Definitely one of the most interesting cups I've had. It was a tad more astringent than before but the liquor remained buttery and smooth with a long, somewhat sour finish like a TieGuanYin.

I am pretty sure I started to get a little tea drunk after this cup. When I get tea drunk I become very relaxed and don't feel like doing anything. That's how I began to feel.

The aroma was lightly reminiscent of cinnamon. The liquor reminded me more of a sencha than a Taiwanese oolong here. It more or less tasted like a mid-grade sencha with a hint of cinnamon. There wasn't much after taste.  Quite a bit of the leaf fuzzies had gathered on my strainer. Seeing them is always a nice sign of quality.

I decided to call it quits on the fourth cup. The liquor smelt of sugarcane and spinach. It was very much like the third cup except it was less vegetale and was a little sweeter like the sugarcane I smelt in the aroma. I am sure that this tea could've gone on for at least another two brews. Based off the fact I managed to get just shy of a liter or tea out of 2.5g of leaf is pretty damn impressive if you ask me! I had to stop because the richness of this tea was beginning to really bother my stomach. I even stopped after the second cup to eat something. It didn't help all that much.

Another thing I really liked about this tea was how beautiful it is when it steeps. The leaves are so plump and green with red mingled in. I could stare at these leaves brewing for practically forever! I feel very comfortable saying this is one of the prettiest greens I've ever seen. That alone gives this tea brownie points on top of all of its positives.

Brewing leaves, so pretty!

Rating

Overall I really liked this tea. It caught me by surprise in the second cup considering the first was fairly familiar to my pallet. If you've ever wondered what a Japanese varietal processed like a high mountain Taiwanese oolong tastes like, this is your tea!

I give this tea a 9.5. It was very interesting to try. I'd buy this tea again in a heart beat. Everything about it is just fantastic. 

Leaf samples

The liquor was consistently smooth and buttery-- by far one of the most buttery teas I've ever had, it was insane. As I said not once, but twice, this tea is extremely rich. This goes hand in hand with the butteriness. I got a little tea drunk off of this tea and it was nice. In terms of richness I put this up there with a high end gyokuro, sencha, or high mountain Taiwanese oolong. As it is a Japanese varietal processed like a Taiwanese tea this shouldn't surprise you. I can't get over how rich this tea is.

The liquor was equally flavorful and it's evolution over the four steepings was pleasing. The second cup is still blowing my mind because damn what an interesting flavor! I was not expecting that. I've never had a green tea like this before and I am a very avid green tea drinker.

If this tea had a stronger after taste I'd have given it a 10. Even without it, this tea is absolutely amazing.

Seriously, this was an awesome tea. I'm glad I had the pleasure of trying it.Australia Arakai is a brand new favorite of mine. I can't wait to try the black tea from them later, and hopefully try their summer green tea this year.

If you are interested you can purchase this tea What-Cha or from Arakai themselves As of today only 5g samples are available at What-Cha. Arakai has 25-100g available as well as 10g samples.