Gyokuro

A young monk once asked the wise tea master Lao Cha: 

— Sensei, how can we make green tea not only fresh and healthy but also delicately sweet?

— In the early Spring, when the tea bushes start to wake up from their long winter sleep and the first tea leaves begin to appear, make sure to shade them from the sun. Then the roots will start extracting more valuable nutrients from the soil to feed the leaves. The tea made from these very leaves will be gentle and sweet. This tea will be worthy of the Gods. You will call it Gyokuro.

Gyokuro is rightfully regarded as the highest grade of Japanese tea. It is made only with the first flush leaves — the tea's special processing results in a sweet, mild flavor and fresh, flowery-green aroma. Gyokuro tea bushes are being shaded from direct sunlight for 20 days before harvesting. This makes the tea plant stack on theanine which gives Gyokuro tea leaves their sweetness. Afterward, the leaves are immediately steamed, dried, and carefully rolled into distinctive shapes resembling pine needles. 

Shaded tea bushes

Our Dento Hon Gyokuro of Saemidori cultivar comes from Yame, Fukuoka prefecture. It is amazingly sweet, extremely rich in umami, and contains plenty of caffeine. 

       1g per 1oz/30ml 

  135-145℉ / 55-65℃ for the first infusion; 170ºF  / 75ºC for subsequent infusions 

 2min for the first infusion; then 30-45sec for subsequent infusions