We just need more people like you who’s willing to make a deal with these farmers to get these amazing teas to the international market and give them a chance to truly thrive.
I agree with you. This concept goes beyond tea too. When people strive for one specific standard, creativity and uniqueness dies. Tea, food, art and even people should never strive to be the exact same, being unique is far more desirable.
I'd love to see more diversity in the Japanese tea market, I think it'll bring so much more abundance in flavours whilst also keeping the more traditional ones. And I would have more Japanese teas in my cabinet, now I have matcha, two senchas en the rest is Chinese tea.
I just realized that, before watching this video, I not only bought 2 bags of this sencha, but that same kyusu. Love both. This sencha threw me off at first, because it was different and not your typical homogenized sencha, but it's grown on me.
I am in love with more experimental Japanese green tea. Gaba tea, Sunrouge, Japanese white tea, dark tea... There is a whole world of unusual cultivars and tea making that remains marginal and this is especially true within the domestic Japanese market.
Very interesting! I appreciate that you stand with your thoughts and bring new points to the discussion. Also in other videos, f.e. about Long Jing, you regret the disappearance of older, less profitable varieties. I can’t forget the scenes with the uprooted old bushes. So sad to watch. I absolutely agree with you, variety of plants and aromas is a thing to appreciate. Since it’s all about supply and demand, I really respect your interest in variation as a tea seller, and to share this thoughts!! In terms of sencha and shincha (which are the big sellers) i am with you: they tend to uniformity, which is a bit sad and boring. But there are also some interesting underdogs like Tamaryokucha or Kamairicha.
Honestly shopping around for Japanese teas feels exactly how you described it. I’m sure there’s plenty I don’t know about Japanese teas, but shopping online for me is too overwhelming. Due to the homogeneity of most products, it seems as though, there’s less value in buying a more expensive product. Which is something I genuinely feel is a plus for something like matcha, but sometimes less so for loose leaf tea. Definitely love Japanese teas, but haven’t tried enough, or learned enough to be as addicted to them as I am with the abundance of character, and distinguished archetypes of the various styles in Chinese teas.
Quick suggestion: I find my sencha tastes the best at around 60C, rather than the usual 70-80C recommended by most sellers. More unami, less bitter. Over time, this has evolved into what I call "half-gong fu brewing", with more leave and lower temperature than is typically recommended, and lasting 3 infusions rather than 1-2. Typically, I brew something like this 1st infusion: 1min 2nd infusion: 20 sec 3rd infusion: 2min
i gotta say, you got me really into tea a few years ago. I'm pretty obsessed now. I'm embarrassed to say that until recently I still bought my tea elsewhere (raretea) But recently bought meileaf and now im not going back :) amazing quality. Would love to see you stock Moriuchi Koucha, amazing japanese black tea, is the reason it took me a while to come over from raretea... Wildwood gold is really doing it for me in the meanwhile, might have to get a crate of it
I love an oddball japanese tea! I once had a fantastic Tsuyuhikari Shincha, which was just... different. It smelled so fruity, yet brothy, also had this candied character, syroupy almost. It was an uplifting experience to try something different with all of these generic senchas, kabusechas and so on. I appreciate that you've found something that may polarize the teahead community 😀
There's a Japanese black tea I've been buying on Amazon lately and I love it, it's fuckin lovely. I hope we continue to see more exploration of new styles of tea out of Japan.
I saw this tea go up on the website, and I am so happy you made a video for it. I am extremely excited to try this tea, but it may be a month or so before I make my next order. Hopefully it doesn't sell out by then! P.S. Don, I hope your daughter is doing well!
Totally agree with you, Japan needs to bring their consistently high quality to the sort of range you get with Chinese teas. For a country that invented gaba, they produce none basically! Time to throw out tradition and experiment! Brave new world!
I hope that Japan would start experimenting with Black, Oolong, and Puer tea more often. I know they prize efficiency/tradition over innovation in tea, but there has to be a balance between the two. This is a balance I think China strikes well, and other countries are following suit. That's why I'd happily try Cherry Yamakai. The more variety that comes from Japan, the more it mutually benefits the Consumer, and the Farmers. Oddly enough, I've seen more variety come out of Japan this year than I have previously, so perhaps the talks you've had with the Farmers is bearing fruit. :) Cherry, specifically.
6:05 I am an exchange student in Japan and I focus on a reasearch work and my beachlor thesis and its so sad to see that especially in the young people, the intrest for tee is declining rapidly. There is a huge loss of culture and tradition going on and no intrest in revieving it...
I agree Japan needs to diversify. Also I think they know that if they do not give the opportunity to new or different ideas their market will be dead in a few years. But things like this tea (and other not so explored cultivars), koucha and the venturing ideas of younger producers is what the Japanese tea needs. I love all of the classic Japanese green tea profiles, but I'm with you on diversifying their offer. Btw, recently on the RUclips channel of NHK they uploaded a video on the growing Japanese koucha market, is in English so everyone can see it
We just need more people like you who’s willing to make a deal with these farmers to get these amazing teas to the international market and give them a chance to truly thrive.
I agree with you. This concept goes beyond tea too. When people strive for one specific standard, creativity and uniqueness dies. Tea, food, art and even people should never strive to be the exact same, being unique is far more desirable.
There's a niche market in Japan with their own oolongs and Dark Teas, Would be interested in you exploring that area.
Could you tell me more about this?
A green tea that tastes like Kombu and rose petals sounds very intriguing
Variety is the spicy of life!
The ashikubo sencha and yame saemidori I had from mei leaf were the best Japanese green tea I have ever had. Hope to see it return someday
You had me at Lu An Gua Pian meets Japanese green tea. We want the funk!
Korean tea is worth exploring. I've had some interesting traditional yellow teas from there.
I'd love to see more diversity in the Japanese tea market, I think it'll bring so much more abundance in flavours whilst also keeping the more traditional ones. And I would have more Japanese teas in my cabinet, now I have matcha, two senchas en the rest is Chinese tea.
I just realized that, before watching this video, I not only bought 2 bags of this sencha, but that same kyusu. Love both. This sencha threw me off at first, because it was different and not your typical homogenized sencha, but it's grown on me.
Such an enjoyable watch! Will buy this tea, you had me at "pork stew with cherries". that's an image that became a desire in my brain.
I am in love with more experimental Japanese green tea. Gaba tea, Sunrouge, Japanese white tea, dark tea... There is a whole world of unusual cultivars and tea making that remains marginal and this is especially true within the domestic Japanese market.
Very interesting! I appreciate that you stand with your thoughts and bring new points to the discussion. Also in other videos, f.e. about Long Jing, you regret the disappearance of older, less profitable varieties. I can’t forget the scenes with the uprooted old bushes. So sad to watch. I absolutely agree with you, variety of plants and aromas is a thing to appreciate. Since it’s all about supply and demand, I really respect your interest in variation as a tea seller, and to share this thoughts!!
In terms of sencha and shincha (which are the big sellers) i am with you: they tend to uniformity, which is a bit sad and boring. But there are also some interesting underdogs like Tamaryokucha or Kamairicha.
Honestly shopping around for Japanese teas feels exactly how you described it. I’m sure there’s plenty I don’t know about Japanese teas, but shopping online for me is too overwhelming. Due to the homogeneity of most products, it seems as though, there’s less value in buying a more expensive product. Which is something I genuinely feel is a plus for something like matcha, but sometimes less so for loose leaf tea. Definitely love Japanese teas, but haven’t tried enough, or learned enough to be as addicted to them as I am with the abundance of character, and distinguished archetypes of the various styles in Chinese teas.
Quick suggestion: I find my sencha tastes the best at around 60C, rather than the usual 70-80C recommended by most sellers. More unami, less bitter. Over time, this has evolved into what I call "half-gong fu brewing", with more leave and lower temperature than is typically recommended, and lasting 3 infusions rather than 1-2. Typically, I brew something like this
1st infusion: 1min
2nd infusion: 20 sec
3rd infusion: 2min
i gotta say, you got me really into tea a few years ago. I'm pretty obsessed now.
I'm embarrassed to say that until recently I still bought my tea elsewhere (raretea) But recently bought meileaf and now im not going back :)
amazing quality.
Would love to see you stock Moriuchi Koucha, amazing japanese black tea, is the reason it took me a while to come over from raretea...
Wildwood gold is really doing it for me in the meanwhile, might have to get a crate of it
I love an oddball japanese tea! I once had a fantastic Tsuyuhikari Shincha, which was just... different. It smelled so fruity, yet brothy, also had this candied character, syroupy almost. It was an uplifting experience to try something different with all of these generic senchas, kabusechas and so on. I appreciate that you've found something that may polarize the teahead community 😀
Well said !! 👍🏻
There's a Japanese black tea I've been buying on Amazon lately and I love it, it's fuckin lovely. I hope we continue to see more exploration of new styles of tea out of Japan.
I saw this tea go up on the website, and I am so happy you made a video for it. I am extremely excited to try this tea, but it may be a month or so before I make my next order. Hopefully it doesn't sell out by then!
P.S. Don, I hope your daughter is doing well!
Totally agree with you, Japan needs to bring their consistently high quality to the sort of range you get with Chinese teas. For a country that invented gaba, they produce none basically! Time to throw out tradition and experiment! Brave new world!
POCARI SWEAT?! im copping IMMEDIATELY
Suggestion for a future video: could you do a comparison between several types of oolong tea from Taiwan?
Would like to see you make a video about passion flower herbal tea please!
Explore "head feel", psychoactive effects, also. 😂 (my obsession, sorry)
Wonder if you’ve ever tried this smoked black tea from
Japan? I had a bag years ago that a company was “testing” in surveys with people
@@taifu13781 yes it was a bit harsh to my tastes
I hope that Japan would start experimenting with Black, Oolong, and Puer tea more often. I know they prize efficiency/tradition over innovation in tea, but there has to be a balance between the two. This is a balance I think China strikes well, and other countries are following suit. That's why I'd happily try Cherry Yamakai. The more variety that comes from Japan, the more it mutually benefits the Consumer, and the Farmers.
Oddly enough, I've seen more variety come out of Japan this year than I have previously, so perhaps the talks you've had with the Farmers is bearing fruit. :) Cherry, specifically.
Umami is caused by Monosodium glutamate, so no wonder you are feeling some stew ;)
👍
6:05 I am an exchange student in Japan and I focus on a reasearch work and my beachlor thesis and its so sad to see that especially in the young people, the intrest for tee is declining rapidly. There is a huge loss of culture and tradition going on and no intrest in revieving it...
I agree Japan needs to diversify. Also I think they know that if they do not give the opportunity to new or different ideas their market will be dead in a few years. But things like this tea (and other not so explored cultivars), koucha and the venturing ideas of younger producers is what the Japanese tea needs. I love all of the classic Japanese green tea profiles, but I'm with you on diversifying their offer. Btw, recently on the RUclips channel of NHK they uploaded a video on the growing Japanese koucha market, is in English so everyone can see it
Welcome to the hell that is corruption
Context?
@@TheJasonian big salvia