Review: Ocha & Co. Organic Japanese Fukamushi Sencha

It's been quite cold in NYC lately, and I've mostly been sipping on roasted, darker teas. But this blustery weather also has me craving something deeply vegetal, fresh, and sweet. Cue this beautiful Fukamushi Sencha from Ocha & Co., which entered my life at just the right time.

Ocha & Co. is an online business focusing on selling the freshest Japanese tea possible. Based in Japan, the company procures their teas on a weekly basis so customers from around the world will receive their teas shortly after they've been processed. The company recently reached out to me to try a few samples, and I decided to start with the Fukamushi Sencha as this is also part of a holiday giveaway we are hosting together (be sure to check it out!).

Japanese green teas can be tricky for me- sometimes they upset my stomach, and if they aren't prepared correctly (which happens much too often in restaurants), they can be bitter and almost undrinkable. But when it's prepared carefully, sencha can be a symphony of greenness (is that a thing? Well, it is now).

This is a 'deep steam' green tea, which is a little bit different from a typical sencha. From Ocha & Co.'s website:

The steaming process is twice as long as usual, breaks down the structure of the leaf, releasing valuable healthy nutrients and bioactives such as beta-carotene and Vitamin E into the brew.

The dry leaves are a rich, deep green. The flat, needle-like leaves are soft and delicate. The scent of these leaves are certain to help cure the wintertime blues. Sweet fresh green peas, tender baby spinach, and spring grass after a soaking rain.

The brewed tea is a vibrant green, with lots of little dark green bits. The liquor tastes as deeply steamed as the name implies. It tastes as if I took the freshest baby spinach I could find and steamed it until it was thick and concentrated. Not a crispy leaf to be found, just lush, soothing greenness (a symphony of it, shall we say?). There is a savory hint to the brew, as if I added a dash of soy sauce to the greens.

I prepared this tea in a glass teapot outfitted with a very fine mesh strainer, similar to a kyusu teapot. This tea needs short steeps, and water no hotter than 185° (I prefer using closer to 170°). You can certainly use a gaiwan, but I'd recommend pouring through a strainer if you don't want to have bits of broken leaf in the brew. This is a good tea for the morning or early afternoon; it's mild in flavor but complex.

If you are intrigued by this tea, please be sure to enter the giveaway I'm hosting with Ocha & Co.! You can win a 100g packet of this tea, as well as a beautiful Tokonameyaki teapot. Thank you to Ocha & Co. for this tea, I greatly enjoyed it. To learn more about this tea, please visit the Ocha & Co. website.

Holiday Giveaway: Tea and Teapot from Ocha & Co.

photo courtesy of Ocha & Co

Last week in my Tea Happiness 2018 Holiday Gift Guide I mentioned teas from Ocha & Co., an online business based in Japan. Ocha & Co. sells small batches of tea that they order on a weekly basis, so customers from around the world will receive their teas shortly after the teas have been processed. I enjoyed Ocha & Co's products so much that I've teamed up with them to offer you a fun holiday giveaway! The winner will receive two prizes- first a 100g pack of the beautiful Fukamushi Sencha, a deep-steamed sencha with a soul-warming vegetal flavor that's packed with umami (review coming this Thursday). Plus you'll also receive a lovely Tokonameyaki teapot, pictured above. This teapot is perfect for preparing Japanese green teas!

Click HERE to enter the giveaway!! 

The winner will be announced at the end of the month. Wouldn't it be fun to win this set after the holiday whirlwind is over? This giveaway is sponsored and managed by Ocha & Co. Best of luck to everyone!

Flights of Fancy: A Green Tea Tasting

 

Imagine a day where you get to drink green teas all afternoon, chat with some of your favorite people, and munch on perfectly paired sweets. I won't deny it, being a tea blogger has its advantages. It's always an adventure when tea people get together, and our last tasting is no exception. I had the privilege of joining some of my favorite tea friends for an extremely memorable afternoon, and thought it would be fun to share it with all of you.

To begin the day we started with a tasting of the new Matcha Gyokuro selection at La Colombe, expertly prepared by Alexis of Teaspoons and Petals, the resident tea consultant. She brewed the tea to perfection using a Silverton pour-over brewer, which was also fun to watch. I arrived late to our first tasting, so sadly I didn't get any good images. Needless to say, after a few sips of this well-balanced tea and exchanging hugs with some friends, I was ready for the adventure yet to come. 

We made our way to the International Culinary Center (ICC) and up to library, the perfect venue for our Rishi Tea tasting. The ICC library is a special place. The walls are made of glass and lined with shelves upon shelves of culinary books. I think this is what the library looks like in foodie heaven! We were greeted by the always elegant Keiko from Rishi Tea, and were sat at a long table decorated with flowers and adorned with plates of decadent French macarons and mochi. Like I said earlier, being a tea blogger has its advantages. 

Keiko chose the sweets well. The macaron flavors paired perfectly with each green tea, highlighting savory and vegetal notes. We had the chance to try Rishi green teas of various cultivars, something I've never done before. I don't know as much about Japanese green teas as I should (except that they are delicious), and I was grateful to learn and taste so many high-quality teas. This was a unique opportunity.

The teas were broken down into 'flights', small groups of tastings where we could compare and contrast (many of you have had either tea, beer, or wine flights before, I'm sure). I won't go too deep into specifics so be sure to check out Nicole's post for a look at the entire tea flight menu, as well as more photos from the day. I was focused on the experience and not as much on notes and photography.

The first flight had Sincha Machiko and Matcha Okumidori. The Shizu (aka machiko) cultivar is known for its cherry blossom floral flavor, and the tea certainly kept its promise. It was like tasting a fresh blossom. The okumidori cultivar made a chocolatey thick matcha, which reminded me of a roasted tea. After these two teas, I was eager for more. A great way to start.

The second flight was dedicated to teas of the Sae Midori cultivar.  We had a hand-picked shincha which surprised me with its delicate flavor. It wasn't grassy or the slightest bit bitter. We then had an extremely savory and light gyokuro, and a matcha that was a touch more bitter than the first, but still chocolatey with an interesting buckwheat note. I usually stick with fairly cool water for teas such as these, but I was surprised to learn that Keiko slightly warmer water for the gyokuro, at 170°. It's a good reminder to keep an open mind about water temperature- experimenting a little bit can help enhance the flavor of the tea, or at least change the flavor to something your palate prefers. 

We then moved to the Yabukita flight, a cultivar that is more common than the others. But these teas were anything but standard. This flight started with a super sweet shincha without a hint of bitterness. We then moved to an even sweeter 'Nishi family Shincha' that was a bit deeper, with a little hint of bitterness. Oh and in case you were wondering, all the sips were interspersed with mochi and macaron goodness. Tough day, right? Unfortunately I had to leave the festivities early because responsibilities were calling. I didn't have a chance to try a few of the teas, but Keiko made sure I tasted one more before I left.

I finished the afternoon on a perfectly sweet note. Keiko whipped up Matcha Hekisui for me, and it tasted like vibrant sweet peas. It was my favorite of the various matchas we had. It wasn't easy to leave such a cheerful room of fabulous women, but obligations were calling.

Needless to say I was flying high on tea happiness by the end of our tasting, feeling grateful to have so many amazing women in my life. Thank you to La Colombe, Rishi, Keiko, and the ICC for such a dreamy afternoon. Being a tea blogger is, to quote Larry David, pretty, pretty, pretty... pretty good.

Interview: Tyas Huybrechts of The Tea Crane

Photo courtesy of Tyas Huybrechts

Tyas Huybrechts is not just someone that sells tea. He is a Belgian ex-pat living in Japan, teaching Japanese tea culture, and living the beautiful tea life. He also sells tea at The Tea Crane but, as he says, "I don’t actually consider myself a tea vendor, but rather something closer to a missionary spreading the value that tea can bring to our lives." These are the wise words of Tyas.

I'm excited to bring you our interview below. He explains the beauty of Japanese tea culture quite poetically. Find out what teas he recommends for Japanese tea newbies, the challenges of teaching the Japanese tea ceremony, and many more beautiful facts about his tea adventure.

Tasting: Organic Roasted Bancha by The Tea Crane

Last week's weather of 'sweltering hot and humid' seems to be hanging around. That's summer in NYC. I've been trying to catch up on tea reviews lately, which hasn't been easy since I have such an imposing pile to get through. But drinking hot tea actually cools the body, so I've been drinking hot tea just as much as the iced brews. Today's tasting is a roasted bancha tea from The Tea Crane. A mountain grown organic roasted bancha called 'The Mountains At Rest', to be exact. I love this name! It's poetic and quite visual. I can imagine a happily relaxed mountain, carefully tending to her tea trees surrounded by gently rolling mist.

The Tea Crane's owner Tyas Huybrechts has a wonderful blog that you should follow if you don't already know about it. He's a Belgian ex-pat living in Japan, and has become a certified Japanese tea instructor. His blog is extremely interesting and informative.

The Tea Crane's website describes the tea as:

Bancha employs that more fully-grown tea-leaf which is too mature, and has therefore become too bitter, for use in producing high-quality sencha, and is harvested later; such leaf is first processed just as for sencha – by means of a combination of steaming, rolling and drying – but is then stored until it is required, whereupon it is roasted immediately before packaging and shipping.  

The dry leaves are shades of dark army green and browns. There are some twigs, full, and broken leaves in the mix, which makes sense for a tea of this style. The leaves are quite large, and have an aroma similar to hojicha, but something slightly more vegetal and woody, not just earthy and toasty. I'm thinking of dried beans and old tree branches.

The brew gives off an amazingly strong roasty aroma, it reminds me of coffee. It's earthy but there is a hint of something vegetal. Maybe like those beans I mentioned?

The tea holds on to that roast, and coffee-inspired flavor. It is woodsy, earthy, roasted, with a toasted bread flavor. There is also a slight vegetal something, again I think of beans. I want to just put my feet up and sip it for hours. There is a lingering smoky flavor on my palate. It stuck around for a very long time. Quite impressive! This tea has a nice body and mouthfeel. It's comforting yet complex.

I can't wait to try and cold-brew this tea. I think it'll be incredibly refreshing, similar to the tea I reviewed last week. I would like to pair this tea with something smokey and savory, I'm thinking of a flavorful Chinese BBQ pork bun. Ok, now my tummy is rumbling...

Thank you Tias for the amazing sample! I have a few more to try, so stay tuned. I hope everyone is having a great week.