Kyobancha - Iced

Tea: Kyobancha Iced- 7433
Vendor: Lupicia USA
Price: $6.50 / 100g
Source: Kyoto, Japan
Vendor Description: Typical Bancha tea in Kyoto. The tea leaves are sun-dried and look almost like dead leaves, but their uneven roasting process makes the tea's flavor richly alluring.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea reminds me of the fallen leaves in a forest. It's a mix of leaves, large twigs, and lots of large full leaf. The leaves aren't rolled, folded, compressed, or otherwise manipulated like most teas are. The leaves are all dark brown / black in color. There are a few greener leaves in the mix.

1st Infusion Parameters: 15g, 2L, 3 min, Rolling Boil

Infusion Instructions: The infusion for this tea is very different than most teas. The water used was boiling, but the brewing instructions were to boil it rather than infuse with boiling water. And 15g of leaf are used to make 2 Liters of tea. Quite a lot of tea for that amount of leaf.

1st Infusion: After infusing I placed this tea in the refrigerator overnight. The infusion had a clear brown color with no murkiness. The flavor was very smooth and it reminded me of a mugicha in flavor. The flavor was much richer than when it was hot. It is full bodied and has a woodiness to it. The woodiness reminds me of a scotch in a way.

Rating: 6/10

Conclusion: Based on this tea before and after icing, it's apparent that it should be iced. It develops more flavor when stored and given the pricing of it, generates a rather large amount of tea for very cheap. Still it is not an amazing tea, although a very nice summer tea for when it's hot out.