Kimberley's Kyusu

Hey there Teacups! Day 7 of Teamas is here can you believe how close we are to Christmas now? For todays post I will be reviewing AOI Seicha’s – Gyokuro Konacha. Before the box of teas for this series arrived at my door I had of course tried Gyokuro but I had never heard of Gyokuro Konacha so before doing this tasting session I did have to do a little bit of research and see what this teas was all about. After a quick google search I came to find that Konacha itself is made up of the smallest, broken bits of tea leaves (not quite powder) left over after processing so its technically Gyokuro Fanning’s and because of the small size, it steeps very quickly.

Because it is sorted from high grade tea leaves it has a better flavour than tea leaves of a similarly low price.Here’s what Yunomi have to say about this tea over on their website: ” The fanning’s filtered out during the refinement of premium Gyokuro themselves make a great, quick steeping tea. The flavour fades fast after the first steeping, but a great way to taste the umami of Gyokuro at a reasonable price.”

Tea Tasting Notes

I don’t know why I didn’t expect to enjoy this very much, don’t get me wrong Gyokuro is one of my favourite green teas but I think the tea snob on me saw that is was essentially fannings and before even tasting it I had made a judgement that just like other tea fannings it was going to be bad. I deffinelty should not have judge it without tasting it because I actually ended up enjoying it, it isn’t perfect but it’s not the worst I’ve ever tried. I wouldn’t pick it over Sencha or Gyokuro itself but it’s nice and the fact that you can do super quick steeps is really convenient. There’s only one word I can really use to describe this and that word is intense. If you are looking a green tea that is delicate and relaxing to drink then this is certainly not the tea for you.

I won’t lie this isn’t my favourite but it also isn’t the worst green tea that I have ever had. I did two steeps overall with it and the second much lighter steep was by far my favourite. I enjoyed the first steep but some elements of it were a little too strong for me and I found that a little bit off putting. I only did 30 second steeps with this so I was expecting it to be a intense as you would think; there is bitterness and astringency present but I won’t lie I was expecting that as black tea fannings are the same.

I’m considering trying to cold brew this or brew it with ice to see if it will become a little bit sweeter and more palatable for me. I will obviously drink what I have left because this is so convenient to steep but I think going into future steeps I will get rid of the first and stronger steep and just drink the second because the second steep I did in this tasting session was much more my cup of tea. The vegetal and Umami notes were much lighter and less intense than the first steep and the bitterness and astringency were the same making this much more drinkable for me.

What I will say though is that this is one I will remember for a long time because it taught me something new and it showed me just how temperamental a fine dust version of Gyokuro can be and, if harshly prepared, how unforgiving it can be. If you like strong and intense vegetal notes I highly recommend this tea. Though if like me you are looking for something a little lighter try just drinking the second steep I promise you that you will enjoy it.

Overall Teacup Rating: 4/5

If you want to find out more about Yunomi and purchase some of this tea for yourself you can do both here. As always if you have any questions at all either stick them in the comments or send them to me over on Twitter/Instagram @teaisawishblog and I’ll answer them all as soon as I can.

Speak to you all again soon. Happy Steeping – Kimberley