Yame Dentou Hon Gyokuro - Kirari 31

Gyokuro is known as the king of Japanese green tea, due to the extended shading period before harvest (16-30 days) and the extra care and attention paid during growing, harvesting, and processing. The shading process is very stressful for the tea plant and can cause damage or disease if not done with enough care. Furthermore, many high grade gyokuro are hand-picked rather than scissors or machine cut, and hand processed to avoid damage during what can usually be quite rigorous drying and rolling processes. The amino acids inside the tea - responsible for umami and sweetness - change into catechins under direct sunlight, so shading tea can achieve much higher amino acid levels, which can be isolated by brewing the tea with very low temperatures. There is nowhere more famous in Japan for producing high quality gyokuro than Yame, Fukuoka. In annual nationwide competitions it is not uncommon to see 27-29 out of the highest 30 scoring gyokuro being from Yame.

This single cultivar Kirari 31 gyokuro is from Hoshinomura in Yame and is a prize winner in the 2021 Hinpyoukai national tea competition, scoring 188 out of 200 marks to come 11th out of 105 submissions in the gyokuro category. Kirari 31 is crossbred from Sakimidori and Saemidori, originally made in Miyazaki prefecture in 1994. It has an excellent deep green colour but also has better cold resistance than its parent Saemidori. Kirari 31 is known to have a higher amino acid content in first and second harvests than both Yabukita (accounting for 70% of all Japanese green tea) and Saemidori, making it great to use for kabusecha and gyokuro which both use shading before harvest to emphasise the amino acids in the tea. This gyokuro is also a Yame Dentou Hon Gyokuro, and to be able to use this title there are strict guidelines that must be followed. These inclue ensuring at least 95% of sunlight is blocked during a minimum of 16 (but usually around 25) non-direct shaded days with traditional rice straw, and its quality must be checked and accepted by the local tea co-op.

Due to the extreme effort and care taken to produce this tea, please also put in care and attention while brewing. We recommend starting at room temperature to brew an intense liquor. We believe brewing Japanese green tea is a pleasure for all five senses, and this is especially true for a gyokuro like this. Enjoy the incredible aroma that the tea oozes, the deep green of the tightly rolled leaves and watch them unfurl infusion by infusion, climaxed by the explosion of freshness and flavour in each sip.

After your final infusion, the leaves still have a lot to give and it would be a shame to waste the hard work of the farmers and producers. Consider eating them with ponzu (citrus based soy sauce), with sea salt, on their own, or any of the previous suggestions over rice. 

By all means experiment to find your personal brewing preferences – our recommendation is:

Brewing guide:
Gyokuro 5 grams
Water 25-50ml
First infusion 25ml @ 20°C for 120sec
Second infusion 35ml @ 65°C for 45sec (pre-heat your cup with hot water first for this infusion)
Third infusion 50ml @ 80°C for 10sec

Storage:
Store in a cold environment (6-10°C) and avoid exposure to sunlight and air - both of these will degrade your tea. This tea is packaged in individual servings of 5g in the sachet so you don’t have to worry about the freshness of any leftover tea in the pack! If you do have any other gyokuro, however, we usually recommend squeezing out excess air, sealing well (and possibly storing in an extra container like a zip lock bag), storing in the fridge and consuming within 4-8 weeks of opening. Consume by the best before date on the back of the sachet, or freeze if you wish to keep for longer. If you will be freezing the tea, place in the fridge for two hours to allow the temperature to warm gently before opening.