Japanese Green Tea

Yes, of course, we have all heard that one of the very healthiest things you could ever put in your body is green tea, a virtual cluster-bomb of anti-oxidants. However, that wan stuff we've all been served at sushi bars--sorry!--just ain't as delicious as it is healthful. I've even scoured top-drawer American tea shops, and have never found any real green-tea inspiration.

Then I went to Japan, in the spring of 2007. You can be sure I drank green tea there every day, searching for thrills--and finally started finding them. Towards the end of my trip, I thought I'd reached green-tea nirvana--when I visited a tea master and purveyor, just outside of Kyoto, in Uji, the historic tea town that is a mecca for tea aficionados. What I tasted there was several notches above any green tea I'd ever tasted before--like some kind of sublime green vegetable soup. I flipped, made arrangements on the spot for mail orders, and told Rosengarten Report readers to get in on the action.

But that was only Step One.....and before my life-changing visit several days later to Osaka.

Oh....my....God. On the trip's last night, at a well-known Osaka restaurant, the home of a famous Iron Chef challenger, I was served a small cup of green tea that knocked me onto my tatami. This was not only the greatest cup of green tea I'd ever tasted.....but, honestly, the greatest single gastronomic discovery I've made in years. It was, however, a bittersweet moment.....for I firmly believed that the only way I'd ever experience this astonishing stuff again was to return to Osaka.

I told the staff how I felt about this cup, and they rewarded me with a small box of the stuff, covered with Japanese characters, to take home with me. For months, I dazzled my stateside friends--drawing reactions like "that's the most amazing tea I've ever tasted"--and sadly watched my supply dwindle.

Then I got mad. I don't read Japanese....but, through a series of fortuitous consultations, I figured out how to contact the Hiroshima company that makes this miraculous product. Very luckily, there is an executive at Hiroshima Senchaso who writes good enough English.....so we began a correspondence.....on the subject of their tea being shipped to America. So I could share this incredible secret with others. So I could get some to you.

Before I knew it, twenty different varieties of this company's tea--twenty!--were at my office, ready for tasting. I was ecstatic. I was beyond ecstatic, just looking at them. I was beyond beyond ecstatic when I tasted them, found the subtle but exquisite differences.....and was faced with the delicious task of picking out the best.

Now.....I am delighted to tell you....all negotiations have been done with Hiroshima Senchaso, all customs have been cleared. I am in actual possession of commercial quantities of five different varieties of the greatest tea I have ever tasted--tea, I swear to you, that wakes me up in the morning, puts me to sleep at night, induces meditation, makes me dream, even makes me think (in the midst of a busy day) about getting home to drink some tea. It's not exactly addiction, but man is it close.

What makes this tea so extraordinary is a combination of organoleptic factors.

First, there's the look of it: it takes only ten seconds to brew, but you cannot believe the depth of jade-green color in the cup. Absolutely beautiful.

Then there's the taste, which has at least three exciting dimensions. Every cup has a vegetable quality to it.....though it's impossible to pick out which vegetables.....other than super-fresh, top-of-the-line, farmers' market vegetables! You may perceive asparagus, or spinach, or artichokes, or brussels sprouts.....or some Platonic vegetable never seen on earth......for this is truly Vegetable Broth of the Gods.

Mix in to that the subtle seaweed quality that some of these teas have. For in the midst of your vegetable reverie, you wake up to the fact that there's a taste of sushi-bar nori....or hijiki.....or dashi.....or some marvelous marine essence rolling across your taste buds, teasing you, driving your imagination.

Finally, The Big One hits you: This stuff is almost sweet, in a way that re-defines sweetness! No, it's not the sugary-dessert kind of sweetness. It starts with a richness, a viscosity, almost an oiliness that I have never experienced in any other beverage, let alone any other tea. As it settles on your palate--doing wild things to your head at the same time--the outer edges of your tongue began to glow, ecstatically, in the same way that they glow in response to, say, a bowl of whipped cream. It is an extraordinary sensation on your palate. The texture of this tea may very well contain even more thrills than the flavor!

How does Hiroshima Senchaso do it......produce tea like this, that stands above all others?

I'm convinced that the secret is in their blending. Any one of their teas may have the following elements in it:

SENCHA. This is the Japanese name for green tea leaves processed in the usual green-tea way: steamed lightly, not fermented. But when the Sencha is picked, and where it is picked, makes all the difference. Hiroshima Senchaso uses leaves from the most timely harvests.....and selects them from plantations in Japan's tippy-top prefectures for tea-growing. Any single tea of theirs may have one or more types of top-grade Sencha.

GYOKURO. This is a very special type of Sencha--for the leaves are shaded from the sun in the latter stages of the growing season, giving them a more intense but less coarse flavor. Hiroshima Senchaso often blends Sencha leaves with Gyokuro leaves, creating levels of complexity.

MATCHA. Perhaps the secret ingredient? Matcha is the powdered form of green tea, hideously expensive--like the caviar of tea. It is the tea that's used in Buddhist tea ceremonies, the tea that's ritualistically whipped in a special bowl with a bamboo whisk. Oddly, despite its foamy top, it never appeals to me as much as a great Sencha. However....the trick here......is that Hiroshima Senchaso often dusts its Sencha leaves with Matcha powder! This electrifies the color, bolsters the body, deepens the flavor, and, best of all, sweetens the pot.

For now, I'm importing five different varieties of this magic brew from my Hiroshima company:

GOLD MIDORI

This is the perfect starter green tea--a blend of Sencha leaves, from three of Japan's top prefectures for tea......PLUS Gyokura leaves from Shizuoka, Japan's most famous tea-growing area.....PLUS Matcha from Uji, the epicenter of green tea for the connoisseur.

Before brewing, the thin, medium-length leaves are medium-green--some a little darker, some a little lighter.

After ten seconds of brewing, the tea is a drop-dead gorgeous honeydew color--the darkest-colored brew that I'm offering. The taste is a smorgasbjord of vegetable essences, with lovely richness and sweetness. Touch of tannin in the long, persistent finish.

MANYOUNOUTA MIDORI

This one's a step up the scale.....for it is made from Uji-grown Gyokuro mixed with Uji-grown Matcha.....with no regular Sencha leaves in the mix.

Before brewing, the extra-thin leaves have a medium-dark, pine-needle kind of hue. They are very, very pure, with no stems whatsoever.

After ten seconds of brewing, a very light-green tea emerges, almost green-yellow (rule of thumb from this company: the darker the leaves, the lighter the brew). This is the most complex tea I tasted from Hiroshima Senchaso (which makes it the most complex green tea I've ever tasted!)--fresh raw vegetables, cucumbers and grass leap out of the field blend, along with mysterious marine notes. It is also the brightest tasting tea of the lot--while, at the same time, one of the richest and sweetest teas ever. Remarkable lingering flavors.

AONOTUKASA

And this is a tea for true connoisseurs, a bit different from the others--for it is made from the highest-quality Sencha leaves only (no Gyokuro or Matcha), grown in tiny amounts at a single estate that is renowned for its quality. In other words....this is like getting a Grand Cru Burgundy.

Before brewing, the super-thin-cut leaves are intensely dark-green-black, with a dried herb aroma leaping out of the batch.

After ten seconds of brewing, the tea is very light in color--but green all the way, with no yellow overtones.

Wow! Though not quite as complex as the MANYOUNOUTA MIDORI, the special feature here is the penetration of flavors in this tea. It makes you forget that you're drinking tea essence suspended in water--somehow, the water just disappears, and a sensation of pure tea slithers across your palate. This hyper-green-vegetable broth is the most velvety of all, the most unctuous.....an experience not to be missed by anyone interested in the pleasures of the palate.

GYOKUROGENMAITYA

The three teas above are for the quality-crazed purist....which is not very difficult to become, after you taste them! But I'm also importing a green tea that is mixed with nuggets of roasted brown rice.....which makes it less expensive, less green-tea-pure.....but fabulous in its own right. GYOKUROGENMAITYA is, truly, the most delicious version of roasted or toasted tea--and I've tasted many from Japan, Korea, China--that I've ever experienced.

That is so, in part, because very high-quality green tea is used as the base: a blend of Ise-grown Sencha, Shizuoka-grown Gyokuro, and Uji-grown Matcha. To this, my company, Hiroshima Senchaso, adds roasted high-quality brown rice.

The rice nuggets look green in the blend, no doubt from their Matcha-dusting. The leaves that accompany them are fairly dark, fairly stubby.

After ten seconds of brewing, the tea is a dull jade color, a bit cloudy (and the rice in the pot has turned to brown). The beautiful thing here is the perfect blend of roasted flavor and big-league green-tea flavor--vegetables, nuts and sushi bar all magically come together with sweetness and harmony. Also, if you like your green tea a little more "tannic"--say, 20-30 seconds of brewing--the roasted rice acts as a tannin buffer, making the extra edge of bitterness more palatable.

MIDORI TEA BAGS

The four teas above are all loose-leaf teas. They are extremely easy to brew, since the infusion time is only ten seconds or so.

However.....should you be looking for the extra convenience of a tea bag.....Hiroshima Senchaso accommodates with yet another high-powered blend of ultra-quality green tea.

Your little triangular bag (quite beautiful in itself) contains a blend of Sencha from four areas, and Matcha from Uji.

The tea bag takes a little longer to brew--20 or 30 seconds should do the trick--which brings out a lovely sweetness in the tea, without forming any birtterness. The flavors are exactly like the flavors of loose-leaf tea: a haunting blend of organic gardens and wild sea--perhaps with a note or two missing. In other words--for your extra convenience, you get a tea that's almost as good as the loose-leaf ones.