Tuesday, August 14, 2012

2012 Kim Jong Yeol (Butea) Saejak Hwagae Valley Green Tea




Ordered this tea from Pedro's new o5tea tea shop. He has been working on getting his new tea shop up and running for a long while now. It includes both an online tea shop and brick and mortor tea shop in Vancouver. The brick and mortar tea shop opens it doors today. So thought it appropriate to feature a fine Korean tea from his new outfit.


This tea is a saejak from Kim Jong Yeol (Butea). Pedro has opted for his own sleek o5tea packaging over Butea's Korean packaging. Opening the bag reveals a rich, vibrant fruit bouquet of odours. Sweet passion fruits and watermelon can be pulled from the distinct barrage of sweet smells. These leaves are added to the teapot and water is added.


The first infusion reveals soft, slightly creamy tastes with a faint forest aftertaste. There is a subtle suggestion of vague sour fruit along with pleasant bland pine wood. The mouthfeel is soft and the qi feels somewhat heavy in the stomach.


The second infusion is prepared and a creamy and distinct wood initial taste is found with slight underpinnings of sweetness. This taste traverses to a forest finish. Sweet, floral odours linger in the far distance minutes later. A sour fruit taste develops in the mouth along with distant flowers. The mouthfeel is light with a slightly pasty edge and carries the aftertaste for a long time in the mouth.


In the third infusion creamy-sour-sweet forest initial tastes slowly stretch into an aftertaste of faint creamy passion fruit tastes. Minutes later a sour edge develops. It tastes almost acidic like grapefruit with a floral quality as well. The qi is mild and can be felt in the torso, stomach, and chest. The mouthfeel is full in the mouth, just slightly opening the top throat. The lingering aftertaste seems plastered to the faintly sticky mouthfeel.

The fourth infusion develops more of a juiciness in the initial taste along with soft creamy forest notes. The aftertaste has more of a woodiness to it and then a slightly flatter floral finish.




The fifth has the wood taste becoming more distinct now with less sweet taste in the initial taste but has just as much creamy floral notes as previous infusions. There is also a slight sour edge that has moved from the aftertaste into the initial taste. The aftertaste is a long extension of this forest taste with a glob of sweetness at the back of the mouth.



The sixth infusion is mainly woody in the initial taste with a creamy floral aftertaste which begins to flatten out. The seventh has bland floral wood notes with smooth edges.

4 comments:

Centranthus said...

Excellent! I had ordered 35g as well, and it's sitting on my dining room table patiently waiting to be brewed. Looking forward to comparing tasting notes.

If you don't mind my asking - what were your parameters (if you can recall... I know so people wing it)

Jess.

Matt said...

Jess,

Yes, it was definitely winging it but to take a guess...

Maybe ...

1st infusion- sub 70 C, 35 sec

2nd- 70 C, 35 sec

3rd- 75 C, 40 sec

4th- 80 C, 45 sec

5th- 85 C, 50 sec

6th 85 C, 55 sec

The second time I steeped it longer for the 5th and 6th infusions.

Looking forward to reading and linking your notes on this very nice tea.

Peace

GoodGreenTea said...

o5tea.com

WOW! Very very impressive web design.

Matt said...

Sam,

That's pretty much the first thing that one said to Pedro- very nice and easy to navigate too...

and then there is, of course, all that good tea as well. Hahaha

Kinda the oppisite of MattCha's Blog... Hahaha.

Peace