Hairs in your tea

If you watch the surface of your green tea carefully, and look at the right angle, you'll see there is tiny lint-like hairs floating. That's a good sign. You should be glad that you have hairs in your tea. It's proof that your Sencha is made from fresh young leaves.

Quality Japanese Sencha is made from the top three leaves, new shoots, and young fresh leaves. When the tea leaves are very young, they are covered with tiny hairs to protect against natural enemies until they grow big and strong.

Right after the harvest to stop oxidation, tea leaves are rushed to the processing center to go through the steaming machine. Those tiny hairs will stay with the tea leaves through out the tea making process until you pour the hot water, and then they will float to the surface as the tea leaves sink.

That's why you have hairs in your fresh quality Sencha.

Indian Summer and Cold Soaking

We have had over 100 degrees the past 2 days here in Laytonville, Mendocino County, California.
It's the usual hot Indian Summer days after experiencing a rather mild summer this year.

Brewing, Steeping, or Infusing, these are all actions of soaking in a liquid. So I named it "Cold Soaking" for this tea bag steeping.
The cold brewed Gyokuro was great, so I tried tea bags instead of the loose tea leaves.
I left it in a refrigerator just over night, not 24 hours. It turned out to be another great tasting cold Sencha in a handy plastic bottle for a hot Indian Summer day.

Have you tried cold brewing?

Brewing with cold water is simple and easy way to make a liquor like drink.

First, get a mountain spring water in a plastic bottle, take a little water out to make a room for the green tea leaves. Put double amount of Gyokuro or high quality Sencha in the bottle, then lay it down in a refrigerator.

Wait for 24 hours, then you will be ready for a surprising taste of Umami essence in the green tea. You never tasted a green tea like it before.

How was it discovered?

The health benefits of green tea is widely know today. But how it became known in public is not so well known.

It was started when the researchers in Japan working on stomach cancer (which was one of the leading causes of death among Japanese at the time) noticed the significant low numbers of cancer patients in the area of Shizuoka where famous for the green tea production.
After decades of more researchs and lab tests following that lead, it was confirmed that a polyphenol antioxidant in green tea does help cancer prevention.

So now you know.

37 days in Japan

That’s how long I was in Japan so far this year. It’s the fun part of my project to visit Japan and find a good tea.

This year we have selected PacLeaf Gyokuro Green from Shizuoka.
As soon as the labels are printed, it will go “online”.
In order to bring out Gyokuro’s sensitive taste, selecting right water temperature is must.

I always wanted have a real good tasty Genmaicha in PacLeaf Brand line up. We are getting close to having one, we are final stage of choosing one soon.

Sencha Meadow Green TB is also upgraded this year. Meadow teabag is one of the first to introduce high grade Sencha in tetrahedron shape, mesh teabag in US.

No Sugar or Add Sugar?

Lexus like “The relentless Pursuit of Perfection” of the natural taste in tea leaf is how Japanese green teas are produced; it makes sense to drink and enjoy the pure natural taste without any additives.

But there is always exception in life, and in this case is no exception. I think that KonaSencha tastes a bit too grassy, but if I add a little sugar or milk it makes very tasty nice sweet cold drink. Also Matcha goes well with cream as you know how good the Matcha Ice Cream is.

“No Sugar or Add Sugar?” is like another “Tea First or Milk First quest?

PacLeaf Tea Time Talk Blog

I like my tea time.

As I sip a cup of good tea, hot or cold, sit back and relax.

That’s my kind of tea time, it’s the quality moments in life that I enjoy.

It’s also one of the affordable luxuries that we can still share.