Japanese Gyokuro Loose Leaf Green Tea

Name: Japanese Gyokuro
Brand: Rare Tea Company
Price: 41.99 GBP
Availability: InStock
Rating: 1 (1 reviews)

£41.99

(56p per cup)

Style

50g Pouch

Quantity

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.

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30 November 2023

Bill O.

Canada

Very subtle even with long steeping

Won’t order again as it was too subtle even after a 5 minute steep and 4+grams for 16 ounces.

Tasting Notes

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

Quantity

Use 2 grams of tea per 150ml of water.

Temperature

The ideal temperature is around 60°C (140°F).

(Although you might want to try as low as 34°C for the first infusion and raise the temperature 5°C 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.

Cost Per Cup

56p per cup based on 2g of tea per 150ml of water and 6 infusions.

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.