Echigo Boucha Roasted Stem Tea is a unique gem sold by Yunomi with amazing scent and airy light, roasted chestnut feeling.
Yunomi is definitely the best source for amazing and unique Japanese teas. I love trying their hidden beauties and discovering how tea is definitely not something that you can put into a certain category, but an individual experience, both for a producer and drinker.
Name: Echigo Boucha, Roasted Stem Tea
Producer: Seikoen Tea Factory (Japan)
Tea Vendor: Yunomi (Japan)
Type: Japanese green tea
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What is Echigo Boucha Roasted Stem Tea?
Echigo Boucha Roasted Stem Tea is very hard to put in any category. This Japanese tea is genmaicha, hojicha and kukicha at the same time. Plus, it is aged. Can it get more complicated? The best of all, the result is amazingly warming, pleasant, airy and flavorful tea. Price is 15 USD for 65 grams and 8 USD for 20 grams (free shipping for 20 grams). Leaves come from Shizuoka and the tea has been aged in Niigata, in a snow-cooled warehouse.
This tea has a beautiful sweet roasted scent with a cool reserved feeling. More refined and sophisticated, not just the pure roasted scent. Leaves are a mix of brown colors, from warm bright brown rice to yellowish-green-brown stems and a few little dark green leafparticles.
Discovering the flavor
Brewing: 5 grams, 150ml water, 90 degrees Celsius, 1,2.5,5 minutes
This tea has a very very interesting scent in a heated teapot. Something I truly like – a delicate nattou scent background with wonderful warm roasted chestnut note in focus and an icy touch. Imagine editing a photo and lowering saturation, this is how roast the scent feels like.
After the first steep, leaves have a wonderful intense scent of chestnuts roasted over fire. They give a pure late autumn feeling. Color of tea is intense, orange with a pinkish hue, clear and airy. The flavor is truly unique. Not really like hojicha teas, not really like genmaicha. A mix of both, with light feeling and airy background and full full flavor. Second infusion is a bit lighter, but amazing as well. Echigo Boucha is a perfect tea for snowy winter nights. It’s amazing how a tea aged during winter is the perfect choice for winter as well. This is one more proof that tea really offers a true connection with nature, and that nature has its own rules. Who are we but to accept it and respect it?
This tea is very low on caffeine because it contains stems and not leaves, and roasting lowers caffeine even more. It’s a very very good choice for evenings. It’s super airy and light, but full of flavor. I am really against adding anything to tea, but I have a feeling some molasses sugar or dark honey would be a a good idea for Echigo Boucha.
