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Commercial Description
Featuring a naturally sweet taste, Gyokuro (meaning "Jade Dew") is the finest grade of Japanese loose leaf green tea.
Brewing Instructions: (from Aiya)
50°C/122°F, 1 heaping teaspoon (3g), 3 minutes in 120ml/4 oz of hot water.
Ratings & Reviews
Page 1 of 1 page with 2 reviews
73 Aroma: 7/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 3/5homais (21 reviews) on Feb. 10th, 2013
As a matter of preference, I should say that my 'ideal' Gyokuro tastes strongly umami, a bit sweet, and grassy/vegetal on the finish. I was able to get Aiya's Gyukuro to display something like this flavor profile - along with a pleasantly sharp, matcha-like aroma - when I brewed a relatively heaping teaspoon of it for 3 minutes at about 155 F, though the grassiness on the finish was not very prominent.
However, brewing it other ways produced different results, which I guess shouldn't be surprising given this is a high-end, complex tea. Brewing according to Aiya's instructions at about 122F made it smooth, and, at least to my taste buds, both very savory and very sweet.
Brewing it hotter (175 or more) muted the vegetal and savory qualities, and brought out more of a toasty and nutty quality to the flavor and aroma, though it started getting acrid as the brew temperature approached 190.
So, for me, what that adds up to is a versatile and complex tea. In general it's more nutty than I'm used to from Gyokuros, but depending on how you brew it, you can get a whole range of flavors, ranging from really sweet and savory, to very nutty and toasty. Somewhere on that spectrum may be a flavor profile you love, though replicating it exactly from brewing to brewing could be tricky.
80 Aroma: 8/10 Flavor: 5/5 Value: 2/5Alex Zorach (1448 reviews) on Dec. 6th, 2012
I had the opportunity to sample this and Harney and Sons' Heavenly Gyokuro side-by-side. The two teas are comparable in price, and are both top-notch teas, yet they were remarkably different! It's hard for me to say which one I preferred.
The dry leaf of this tea has an aroma peculiarly reminiscent of an airplane cabin, or the interior of one of the old 1950's trolleys that runs on Girard Avenue in West Philadelphia. I know that probably sounds strange, but it's the best descriptor I could come up with.
Upon brewing, this tea is very toasty. Much less vegetal than most Gyokuro I've tried; much more like a typical sencha, but toastier.
Aiya recommends brewing with a very low water temperature (122F) which almost tastes lukewarm to me. I tried this, and it results in less of the toasty quality, and an extremely spinachy brew with a slightly more umami (savory) flavor, but otherwise smoother character. Unlike most Gyokuro, I've found that this tea was not terribly picky about brewing temperature, and people with more American tastes might actually like brewing it at a higher temperature, because, contrary to how some Gyokuro seems to behave, this seems to diminish the vegetal tones. I also love the toasty aroma that comes out when the water is hotter (by hotter I mean 150-170F, still cooler than I brew most green teas).
Very grassy finish. Like, mowing-the-lawn grassy. To me, this is a good thing!
Steeped for 3 minutes, this tea was able to make a second flavorful infusion, but there wasn't much flavor left in the leaves for a third.
I think Aiya's recommendation of 1 heaping teaspoon results in too strong a cup for my tastes. I'd go with under a teaspoon, if you're brewing for 3 minutes--this tea is very strong and flavorful, and also has a decent caffeine kick. A little leaf goes a long way.
Lastly, comment on the price...it's pricey...like good Gyokuro is. My low value rating does not mean that I thought this was anything short of excellent--I just personally think this style of tea is too expensive relative to how much I enjoy it.
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