Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Hachiju Hachiya (88 Nights) Shincha from Sugimoto USA | Reader Poll

Class: Green
Origin: Not sure. Shizuoka? Blend?
Year: 2009
Vendor: Sugimoto, USA
Price: Free for me! (Thanks Chip and Pentox)

Dry leaf
This shincha comes courtesy of Chip and Pentox of Teachat-- thanks guys! Hachiju hachiya means "88 nights" and, in this context, is a claim that this tea was picked on the very traditional 88th night from the beginning of spring. Mmm, history.

I liked this tea quite a bit. For those who like precise parameters, I brewed 5.3g of leaf in 10oz of water (between 165-175F) for 60s, 30s, 60s, and 90s.

Second infusion
Second infusion.

I'm not feeling very prosey right now, so here are my verb-less and adjective-heavy tasting notes:

1st Infusion: A little creamy, clean, good solid foundation flavor.
2nd: Nice green color. Bright flavor, intense, "chewy". A little muddled, not clean like the first. Slightly grassy, slightly sweet. A bit marine.
3rd: Best flavor, still pretty green in color. Sweeter and less intense than the 2nd, also cleaner.
4th: Yellow-green color. Still pleasant and sweet, not a whole lot else though.

Based on the leaves and the flavor, this is probably in-between chumushi and fukamushi. Between this tea and Zencha's Takumi, I think I prefer Takumi, but only by a slim margin. They are different beasts; this one seems sweeter and more candy-like than Takumi, while Takumi has a more satisfying "round" or balanced quality.

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I added a poll to the sidebar of this blog. I'm curious whether you would like or dislike the occasional post on other topics like photography, wet-shaving, etc. (Not crap about the pathetic minutiae of my daily life.) I would still mostly post about tea; I'm not trying to drastically change the focus of this blog, I'm just thinking of diversifying a bit. Thanks for voting!

4 comments:

hanny said...

wow! new template!
very beautiful!

Unknown said...

Hi!

First of all, I’d like to congratulate you on the blog—it’s proved not only to be an interesting and engaging read for tea aficionados and food enthusiasts alike, but a reliable source of information as well. It’s always exciting to come upon people so passionate about something that they can’t help but share it to the world.

And seeing as how one of your passions is tea, I just wanted to make sure you knew about our upcoming tea exhibition here at UCLA’s Fowler Museum, aptly named Steeped In History: The Art of Tea. The exhibition will be on display from August 6 to November 29, 2009 and will feature everything related to tea—oil paintings, prints, photographs, ceramics, as well as other tea-serving paraphernalia, all gathered from around the world. And the best part aside from everything I’ve mentioned? Tea will be served! I’ve attached the official press release for the event and I’m hoping you’ll be able attend the exhibit and see everything for yourself.

We at the Fowler would also be more than grateful if you can forward this information to family and friends that might be interested in viewing the exhibition, or perhaps discuss this upcoming event in your blog/site for all of your tea-loving readers to see. I’m sure they’ll be very interested and thankful for the information you’d be able to provide regarding this.

Best of luck in your site, and may everything go tea-rrificly!

Sincerely,
Beatrice Eyales
UCLA Fowler Museum, Marketing and Communications Dept.
E-mail: beatrice.eyales@berkeley.edu
For pictures and other information, e-mail Stacey Abarbanel at staceyra@arts.ucla.edu

Bamboo Grove said...

This is so cool! You're so detailed, I love those polaroids...

Georgia said...

Although the color of the 2d infusion is eye-catching, seems like the 3d infusion tasted better.

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