Taste profile Nose: Full, refreshing aroma with floral accents on an herbal overtone with distinctive notes of cream, dried shiitake, roasted nori (that popular kind of thin seaweed used in snacks and sushi). Palate: Full, savoury and round body with accents of nuts, shiitake and nori. Distinctive umami undertone of cream and chicken broth with optimal bitterness and astringency for added depth. Finish: Sweet and quenching aftertaste. Infusion suggestion 5g of tea to each 150ml water As with all other Japanese leaf teas, always preheat the infusion vessel before the actual infusion. First round: 70°C (158°F), 50 seconds Second round: 65°C (149°F) , 70 seconds Third round: 70°C (158°F), 100 seconds… Use a higher temperature water for sharper body. Use longer duration for more bites of astringency. * Notes: Generally speaking, the caffeine content in a green tea made up of petioles and leaves, such as our Karigane Gyokuro, is about 0.5~1.6% of the tea in dry weight, while it is 3~4% in leaf green teas like gyokuro or sencha. It is less than 30% than that of the leaf teas when comparing the content in the infusions. Lower infusion temperature, such as 70°C in our recommendation, also draws less caffeine into the teacup, by as much as almost 50% than in high temperature. Information sources: “Contents of Individual Tea Catechins and Caffeine in Japanese Green Tea” Goto T. et al., Tea Research Journal 83 (1996) “Comparison of Flavor Components between Kukicha (Stalk Green Tea) and Sencha” Hara T. et al., Tea Research Journal 78 (1993) “Effect of Tea Stems on the Quality Formation of Large‑Leaf Yellow Tea” Huang W. et al., Food Chemistry X 24 (2024)
