Tea from Japan

This week in my tea course we are reviewing tea from Japan.  Today I performed my preliminary tea tastings of 5 teas from Japan.  They are all green teas as that is what is predominately manufactured in Japan, and what they are most well known for.  The teas we tasted were: Sencha, Genmaicha, Hoji Cha, Gyokuro and Matcha.  Here is a photo of the dry leaves, are presented in the order of the list from top left to right and then bottom left to right.

Here is a photo of the tea liquor:

If you start with the big bowl, that is the Matcha, and if we rotate in a clockwise direction we have Gyokuro, Sencha, Genmaicha, and Hoji Cha.  All teas were steeped in water heated to 80 degree celcius for 3 minutes.

Sencha:  The most popular tea in Japan, has a light slightly vegetal aroma, and tastes similar.  I really enjoyed this tea, for it's light flavour.

Genmaicha:  I loved the toasted rice popcorn flavoured coupled with the fresh vegetal flavour of the green tea.  This is one tea that once you taste it you will easily recognize it every time.

Hoji Cha:  This tea is roasted in a procelain pot over charcoal and has a sweet nuttiness to its flavour.  The leaves are roasted until they are brown, and the liquor also has a brown colour to it.  I quite liked it.

Gyokuro:  The dry leaves of this tea are exceptionally green in colour.  The dry leaves have a soft silky feel to them and they already promise a high quality tea.  This tea is grown in the shade, as opposed to Sencha that is grown in the full sun.  I loved this tea.  It has a full see weedy/kelpy flavour to that is somehow still light on the pallet.

Matcha:  Apparently this was the ceremonial grade that we tried.  It had a bitterness to it, and was a bit grainy to drink due the powdered leaves not dissolving in the water.  The health benefits of Matcha are numerous, and I will definitely continue to drink this tea.  I hope I enjoy it more in the future!!

What are my top picks?  It's hard to say as I think green tea is one of my favourites all around.  For just green tea without any special roastings or flavourings I love the gyokuro.  It has such an amazing kelpy flavour that is strong yet subtle.  Bit I also really like the genmaicha for its roasted rice flavourings, and I liked the Hoji Cha for its sweet nuttiness.  Sencha is a great all around green tea that won't break the bank.  As for the Matcha - I will drink this and hope will soon learn to enjoy it more, but the health benefits from this superfood are far to great to ignore it!!

  This was just a quick synopsis of the teas I tasted this week.  As it turns out we are also covering the Teas from Sri Lanka this week so I'll have to get back to work shortly.  The Sri Lanka teas will be 5 black teas.