Tea Review: Limited Edition Handpicked Mountain-Grown Kabusecha (Yunomi/Murakami Tea Garden)

Limited Edition Handpicked Mountain-Grown Kabusecha/かぶせ茶
Murakami Tea Garden/Yunomi
Type: Green
Origin: Japan, Shizuoka Prefecture, Yoshiwara
Product Description:

According to Hiroki Murakami, who will become the farm's 4th generation master, the family doesn't know exactly when they started farming tea, though his great-grandfather was the one who built their first processing factory in the late 19th century.

Based in the Yoshiwara district, a mountainous region famous for its sea of clouds within the municipality of Shizuoka City, the family produces about 2 tons of tea altogether per year (first and second flushes).

Their leaves are mostly processed as a near-fukamushi (deep steamed), a steaming technique that creates a tea that has fukashimicha's deep, opaque green color and sweetness, but while also retaining much of the leaf's shape.

Temperature: 160° F
Amount: 3 grams
Steeping Time: 1 minute

The dry leaf aroma is nutty and green with notes that remind me of brown bread.

The pale green liquor has an aroma of fresh green vegetables, edamame, and nuts.  The taste is savory with notes of nuts, sesame, edamame, and steamed green vegetables with no astringency and a refreshing lightly nutty finish.  

The flavor deepened after each infusion, becoming more savory by the third.  Often, the fullest flavor is in the first two infusions, so this was a pleasant surprise and that third steep was easily my favorite.  I was also intrigued by the more vegetal green notes as opposed to the marine, nori, or grassy green notes I usually encounter.  

This tea was purchased by me.