Kiwami Shincha

Tea: Kiwami Shincha
Vendor: Zencha
Price: $25.00 / 100g
Source: Yame, Japan
Vendor Description: The Premium Sencha produced only from the first flush leaves of Asagiri, a variety of tea plant. You can enjoy excellent natural sweet aroma and cleanly astringent taste.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea is borderline between a chumushi and a fukamushi. It has a very fresh aroma as is expected from a shincha. There is a little bit of flat leaf in the mix.

1st Infusion Parameters: 3g, 5oz, 185F, 45s

1st Infusion: The infusion has a clear bright green hue to it. It is radiant and brilliant as is expected from a shincha. The aroma is sweet and fresh. The flavor matches well to the aroma in terms of a very clean and fresh flavor with a hint of vibrance to it. There is a hint of marine flavor lingering in the background.

2nd Infusion Parameters: 15s, 185F

2nd Infusion: This infusion has a murkier, more characteristic fukamushi color to it. the hue is a deep green color. The aroma is very bold and intense. The flavor is a lot lighter, but the weight of the fukamushi portion of the flavor seems to almost conflict with the freshness of the shincha. It finishes with a light sense of astringency.

Rating: 7/10

Conclusion: This is a pretty good shincha, nothing spectacular, but nothing terrible. It expresses the freshness and vibrance that should be in a shincha, but the fukamushi aspect seems to conflict with the freshness feel of the shincha. This is partly due to my preference for an asamushi, but with a shincha this seems to be expressing itself a bit more. At it's price it doesn't feel particularly cheap or expensive, but leans toward the pricey side. I was somewhat expecting a more defined flavor for a Yame shincha.