Takumi

Tea: Takumi
Vendor: Zencha
Price: $31.00 / 100g (shipping included)
Source: Yame, Japan
Vendor Description: This premium sencha is produced from leaves of Gokou, a variety of tea plant. Only first two leaves and buds are carefully picked by hands.
Rich in natural sweet aroma and fresh scent with excellent astringent taste.

Leaf: This tea is very distinctively a fukamushi. There are primiarly small particulate pieces to this tea with a few larger, longer leaves. The larger leaves are all long and narrow. The dry leaf as a whole has a sweet aroma to it.

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

1st Infusion: The infusion is lightly murky in color, somewhat expected of a fukamushi. It has a yellow-green hue to it with a light snappy aroma. The aroma feels a bit like there are hints of the sweetness of a yutaka midori in it, but the aroma is very light overall. There is a light marine flavor to the tea. The flavor overall is very delicate and complex. It finishes with a light astringency.

2nd Infusion Parameters: 185F, 15s

2nd Infusion: This infusion has the characteristic dark green murky hue of a fukamushi. It is almost dark enough to be a forest green hue. The aroma is not very strong, but it is thick. The flavor of the tea is sharp and almost stinging in nature. There is a strong and bold central flavor to it with a light aftertaste. The tea finishes with a medium sense of astringency.

Rating: 8/10

Conclusion: This tea was very interesting. It's another example of the somewhat hard to fine Yame sencha. It shows the complexity found in some of the other Yame Senchas, and performs pretty much as expected. The price for this tea is well within range for it's quality. I would love to see this tea as an asamushi though.