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Japanese Gyokuro Loose Leaf Green Tea

5 reviews
$92.49
$92.49
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44p per cup

Style
ⓘYour precious tea really needs to be kept airtight and away from light once you open it - we'd strongly recommend one of our tins to keep it safe.
Do you need a tin to store your tea?

Prepare to be utterly astounded.

Gyokuro is the highest grade of Japanese green tea - a shade-grown sencha. This whole leaf green tea is shielded from the sun for a few weeks before being harvested. The slow, deliberate shade growth increases the amino acid L-theanine which has a "feel good" effect on our brains. It also increases the chlorophyll in the tea leaves and creates a sweeter, smoother flavour.

This Gyokuro is grown by the inestimable Sakamoto brothers in Kagoshima, Japan and is comprised solely of the Okumidori cultivar.

The complex flavours combine sweetness and umami notes with beautifully balanced vegetal depth.

44p per cup based on 2g of tea per 150ml of water and 6 infusions.

Sakamoto tea garden, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan

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Recommended Infusion Guide

  • Quantity

    Use 0.1 oz of leaf per 5.5 fl oz of water.

  • Temperature

    The ideal temperature is around 140°F.

    (Although you might want to try as low as 94°F for the first infusion and raise the temperature 41°F for each subsequent steep.)

  • Time

    Infuse for 1 - 2 minutes, tasting regularly.

  • Infusions

    You can infuse this tea at least six times, often more if doing multiple small infusions. With each careful infusion, different subtleties of flavour are revealed.

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How to infuse your tea is very personal, and these are just our recommendations based on experience. Please experiment with these variables to your heart's delight. These are our recommendations, not hard and fast rules. The most delicious tea is the one you love.

Our guide uses a standard tea cup size (150ml/5.5 oz) as a measure, please adjust the quantity of leaf accordingly for less or more water. Our whole loose leaves are of such a high quality that you can infuse our teas at least twice, and the second infusion is often better than the first, with different flavours revealed as the leaf softens. If you prefer your tea stronger, add more leaf, don’t leave it for longer (this will just make it bitter).

KAGOSHIMA, JAPAN

Sakamoto Tea Garden

A 3rd generation farm run by the two Sakamoto brothers. They moved to fully organic farming thirty years ago, realising that the soil and the tea plants were being ruined by pesticides & herbicides. They believe as we do that "healthy soil creates healthy plants and better tea."

They focus their attention on the soil as much as the intricate crafting of the leaf. You can taste the love and care they take in every aspect of this tea.

The Sakamoto brothers focus intensely on soil health as the key to growing healthy tea plants and making the most delicious tea. They create their own nutrient rich soil mix with natural fertilisers and carefully nestle each new tea plant in 2 metres deep. This allows for the tea plant's roots to fully develop in the soil mix.

The brothers only harvest once a year - the leaves that are pruned from the plant throughout the remainder of the year are used to make an organic fertiliser, and returned to the soil, helping maintain the mineral aroma of the tea leaves.

Gyokuro Shading

Twenty days prior to harvest the tea is shaded in the fields, as is the practice for all gyokuro teas. But the Sakamoto brothers developed a system to do this in three stages.

One layer of shading material is used in the first week and a new layer is added every few days, leaving the plants fully shaded for the very last week. This gently builds the chlorophyll production in the plant, preventing the L-theanine from turning into catechins through reaction with sunlight.

L-theanine is the reason for the umami notes in Gyokuro, and it is responsible for the "feel good" effect on our brains.

Customer Reviews
2.6 Based on 5 Reviews
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Filter Reviews:
JP
24 June 2024
Justin P.
United States

Updated Review

So I previously wrote a review on thier tea and i can't figure out how to update that review. The bag i recieved was compramised and my first cup was not great. I had a chance to sort throught the leaves and pick out some of the leaves that were not oxidized by sight and brewed it up for fun. It produced a highly vegital delicious tea. I will likely put in an order soon to try another bag of this tea. I reached out to Rare Tea regarding the issue and they sent me another very high grade tea. The customer service here is fantastic! The teas here are fantastic! I know we all want perfection, but when importing and transporting some of the best teas on the planet 10's of thousnads of miles around the globe... eventually even the best will have a packaging issue. I love this company and the Chinese Emerald Green has become my go to daily drinker! I can get 2-3 nice gaiwan out of it and then cold steep the same leaves overnight for a refreshing light morning cold green tea that is still full of flavor! That one goes a long way!!!

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JP
15 June 2024
Justin P.
United States

Disappointed!

This one was big disappointment for me. One of the most lack luster gyokuro tes I’ve had. The leaves looked beautiful and I steeped exactly as directed on the website… It was pretty much tasteless. It honestly tasted like drinking hot water with a hint of green tea. Super disappointing, especially for a tea that’s 50-60 bucks for 50grams. Loved all my other teas in this order but this one fell so flat. I’m almost wondering if I got a bad bag that wasn’t sealed correctly or something and it lost its flavor? I don’t know but I wouldn’t reorder this one at that price! LRC has an organic that is much better an almost half the price.

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VD
07 February 2024
Veronica D.
United Kingdom

Lovely!

Brilliant tea, really love it!

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R
29 December 2023
Ran
United Kingdom

Underwhelming

Very underwhelming. Agree with previous reviewer. I will not purchase it again either.

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The Rare Tea Lady believes that our teas are some of the greatest in the world, and that our range and service are second to none.

In the isolated case that you are not completely satisfied with any tea or teaware you purchase from our website, please get in contact with our customer services team to discuss returning your order.*

In most instances we will give you a full refund of the item’s cost excluding postage. We may ask you to return the item to us. Customers in the European Union have a statutory cooling-off period of fourteen days that is not affected by this guarantee, but any tea pouches much remained sealed for this to be in effect.

*We only accept returns/refunds for tea within two months of receipt, because it is impossible for us to know if the tea has been stored correctly.

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