Premium Fukamushi-Sencha Maki from Den's Tea

This is going to be a bit of an unusual post, containing a couple of youtube vids of how I brewed the tea. The first of the vids goes dark during the tea pour, but I had someone else hold the camera during the recording of the 3rd infusion.

So now anyone who cares can see how I arrived at the brew I'm describing here.

I tried three infusions from one flat teaspoon of leaf last night, and did the same again this morning.

I have been told that o-cha has a fukamushi better than this one by some slim margin, but this from Den's is quite possibly the finest tea that has passed my lips to date.

The flavor is full, but not overpowering. The smell is good, but in that sencha kinda way that you may or may not care for.

But the complexity of this tea just astonished me by the end of the second infusion last night. After knocking back the last ounce or so from my 2nd cup, an ineffable bouquet danced up into my nose and literally resulted in my tear ducts activating.

I was so stunned by the beauty of that moment that I was unable to do anything much beyond sit there and float in it for a minute before I could go start the 3rd infusion.

This stuff has powerful magic, I tell ya.

This morning, I attempted to more or less recreate the conditions of last night's tasting for youtube videos. The videos are clumsy and don't adequately represent how I make the tea under normal conditions, but I think the basic gist of the mechanics comes across.

The first infusion:



The third infusion:



Even with the fumbling about with the camera and resultant dodgy steep times, this morning's tastings were on par with those of last night.

I offer an extremely favorable rating to this tea, even more so because it can be obtained in a 2 oz. (56 gram) hermetically sealed sample pouch. Stop what you're doing right now and obtain some.