Sayama Japanese black tea Yume Wakaba, 50 g

Taste profile

Nose: Lively, flowery aroma with a glutenous rice overtone. Fruity notes. Distinctive accents of dried Chinese licorice and other herbal barks. Undertones of wheat bread crust. Palate: Soft, silky body with a cooling sensation. Fruity with tints of minerals. Light, but consistent accents of dried Chinese licorice and herbal barks. Finish: Cooling, refreshing with that ‘minty’ effect of those dried barks and roots.

Infusion suggestion

Try to get the most of the leaves from the first infusion. Use a 2.5g leaves to each 100ml water ratio for at least 5 minutes infusion. Use a Yixing teapot if you have one. Otherwise a non-glazed stoneware would help as well. 95°C water temperature and always preheat your teapot/infusion ware. Enjoy.

The humble tea master rarely smiles

Master Shimizu — a tea professional with a principle

When I first tasted old Master Shimizu’s Yume Wakaba black tea I told him that I was very interested. It was the most taste-worthy “wakocha” — Japanese black tea — I have tried through the three years I have been looking for a proper candidate to include in my collection. He said he would not sell me the tea. Not just yet. He insisted that the tea needed to be rested at least till winter before it had its full profile. Hearing that from a Japanese tea professional was a great relief. There are serious practioners here who are also serious enough to not follow the market craze for the fresher the better myth.

Maybe that’s a tradition of his family: the family name Shimizu 清水 — Clear Water — resonates an East Asian dissident virtue of staying uncontaminated in a murky world. I suspect that is a name his forefather made during the Edo period when they first farm tea in the area. Will find out later.