Kukicha from Adagio

Scent: very light, sweet, grassy scent
Brewed in: unbleached filter bag
Steeped: 3 min@180 degrees
Cup: Café mug at work

Continuing on with my sampling of Japanese green tea, I opened up my little tin of Kukicha this afternoon. Japanese green teas just don’t look like their Chinese counterparts at all. The leaves are thin, like strips rather than whole leaves, and this particular tea is mixed with white bits of tea twigs. Overall it’s a very pleasing mixture to the eye – the dark green of the tea leaves mixed with the stark white twigs. I used about a teaspoon and a half of the mixture, not wanting to make it too strong to begin with.

The taste is really very mellow – not crisp and fresh like the gyokuro, but rather smooth and sweet, very relaxing to the palate (and to the mind, by extension). The flavor is not “in your face”, but rather just lingers in the background. It’s not quite grassy, more “roasted asparagus” in nature. It does get slightly more astringent as it cools, but never turns bitter (I’m a slow sipper).

All in all, it is very good – and excellent for a break to kind of mellow out in the middle of the afternoon. Would be a good “before bed” tea as well, I think. It’s certainly not something I’d mind having on hand for daily drinking – and for a $2 sample, it won’t break the bank either. Very nice.