Benihomare, the ancestor. Wakoucha Tasting, Tea N°6: Benihomare, Nara, 2018, The Tea Crane

The third of our 'black' cultivars is the oldest of them all. It is a direct descendant of one of the plants that Tada Motokichi brought from India in 1877, and its ancestor was an Camilla Sinensis var. Assamica, very different from the 'green' cultivars in Japan. It was a lot easier to make a black tea from an Assamica than from the other Japanese plants as the greens oxydate difficultly. For wakoucha a cultivar was needed that reacted well on oxydation. It was identified in 1942 in one of the teagarden's from Tada Motokichi and in 1953 it was one of the first cultivars to be registered in the new system for registration. Between 1955 and 1971 it was widely planted and quite popular but the demand collapsed and many Benihomare were pulled out to make place for more popular green cultivars as Yabukita. It is a late cultivar, an advantage for the farmer, but the productivity is low. It has become quite rare now, and of all the samples tasted only this was really identified as Benihomare. They come from a 2005 planting.

You can find a nice picture of this cultivar here: https://www.myjapanesegreentea.com/benihomare/benihomare-2

Benihomare, Nara, 2018, The Tea Crane:

Harvested May 21 2018 at Tsukigasé in Nara on the farm of the Iwata family. 37 euro for 100 gram.

The Iwata family owns their 7ha teagarden since 1971, and they work organic since 1984. Since 2001 Fumiaki Iwata is the farmer and he has continued the organic gardening. Teagardens on the higher parts of the hill are not fertilized at all, the lower gardens only receive forest material, not even animal waste. He likes to experiment with black teas and this Benihomare comes from the Iguchi Yama garden (10 acres at a height of 230m, a mixture of sand and red clay and surrounded by forest). They produce the tea in a small building on the farm to keep control and the withering process was kept short to limit assamica-astringency.

Tasted August 3 2019, variable summer weather, clouds, wind and sun, a fruit day. 98°C, 2 minutes, 3 gram, 150ml in a kyusu. The dry leaves tasted fleshy and sweet. They are greyish-green in colour with some brown ones and the material contains stems. The leaves appear to be quite complete. Wet, they smell delicious and the aroma from the lid of the kyusu is very sweet. The wet leaves themselves smell very floral and are dark green or brown in colour. The infusion is a nice redbrown. The smell of the tea is extremely pleasant and yummy, rich but also with the freshness of fruits and a very nice structure and balance. The taste is immediately sweet and soft, very intense and round, very persistent and long, and very complex. After a while it changes into a more smokey/fleshy element, most clearly perceived when slurping. The aftertaste is very long. A second brew with the same parameters is a bit shorter but still very sweet and delicious. When a spoon of semi-skimmed wilk was added the tea turned into a very complex and extremely delicious drink, like a high-complexity cacao-blend, and if anyone could make this in quantities and consistent in taste, this tea has the potential to please everybody. 😊😊😊😊
(Still) available at https://www.the-tea-crane.com/product-category/the-tea-crane-black/

 

Wakoucha Tasting, Tea N°5: Benihikari Gokase, first flush 2017, Thés du Japon

Benihikari is one of the other 'black' cultivars and one of my favourites. It is also known as #28 and is a crossing between Benikaore (an Assamica often used to make Hojicha) and a cultivar that is the result of a crossing between a Kagoshima Zairai and a Makura Cn1 from China. It was recognised in 1960. It flushes rather late but this is not a disadvantage, it allows the farmer to spread his harvests over a longer period, and it is very productive. The ability to harvest in waves, first the early green's like Yabukita and later the others simplifies the life of a farmer seriously. It is one of the farmer's reasons to produce black tea when the equipment is available.  

Source: https://www.bambootravel.co.uk/files/img_cache/47650/1400__1507886458_MtAso2.jpg?1507886493

Benihikari, 1st flush 2017, Gokase, Thés du Japon: 

21.5 euro for 100 gram at Thés du Japon https://www.thes-du-japon.com/index.php?main_page=index. Harvested 1st of June 2017, late for a first flush. The farmer is Mr Miyazaki from the Miyazaki Sabou teafarm, a kamairicha and wakoucha specialist. The farm is situated at a height of 650m in a mountainous region where the evenings are already cooler and the difference between night and day temperatures are bigger. The garden was founded in 1930 and is organic since 1985 (when a family-friend died from pesticides) and certified since 2001. Gokase is a village of 3800 inhabitants in the north of Miyazaki on the Island Kyushu, and it looks out on Mount Aso, Japan's largest active volcano.
Tasted 31 of July, windy with intermittant rain, cool but nice, a leaf day. 98°C, 3 gram, 150ml, 2 minutes, in a kyusu. The dry leaves have a very interesting smell with fruit, spices and a sniff of bacon. Their colour is a greyish dark green and there are lots of stems. The wet leaves smell beautiful, with fruit (raisins), spices (kitchen, cinnamon) and a great freshness (the vendor mentioned menthol). Some of them are quite big and green, the other ones are more cut up and brown. The infusion is complex, like spices that have already been blended into a sauce. There is a big difference when the aromas are liberated by swirling or sniffing them from the empty tasting glass. Beautiful coppery colour. Takes a subtle start in the mouth but opens very softly and easily in a nice complex taste pattern, no astringency. Nice evolution in the mouth and a rather striking aftertaste of menthol (from the stems ?). Clearly cinnamon in the echo. A tea for lovers of complexity and it reminded me a bit of the sensations of drinking a good and complex wine. A very civilised wakoucha. A second brew with identical parameters delivered a very different smell for the wet leaves, the samen kitchen but abandoned and cooled down. The taste and smell are mellow and nice, very pleasant but no longer complex. 😊😊😊(😊)

Wakoucha Tasting, Tea N°4: Gokase Benifuki 1st flush 2017, Thés du Japon

During the 20th century Japan developed lots of new cultivars. This can take a lot of time as the plant needs to grow and become adult to be really tested on its behaviour, and between the initial start with a promising development and the official registration of a new cultivar lay decades. Frequently the reason why a cultivar was developed has disappeared by the time it is registered, and there are quite a few 'unnecessary' cultivars around. This is also the case for cultivars for black tea. There is of course the ancester, the popular Benihomare, but there are more 'beni' (black in Japanese) cultivars than this. Some are now rare and with an uncertain future, but some developed into unexpected directions.

Benifuki is one of these. It is a crossing between Benihomare, the oldest registered black tea cultivar, and Makura Cd86, originating from Darjeeling. This is an interesting crossing, as it is one between an Assamica cultivar with Indian roots and a Sinensis var. Sinensis with Chinese roots. By the time of its registration the popularity of black tea was very low, but tests had revealed that when it was made as a green tea it was very efficient against allergies. For this reason it is widely planted and some people call it the yabukita of the black cultivars. Now that wakoucha is becoming more popular it is relatively easy to divert some of the production of a benifuki harvest to Wakoucha, and certainly for kamairicha-makers (more about this in a later blog). A small remark though: some vendors claim their Benifuki-wakoucha to be effective against allergies, but when produced as a black tea many of the active elements that achieved this disappear. So it's green you need when you want to stop sneezing !

Gokase Benifuki 1st flush, Thés du Japon: 

21.5 euro for 100 gram. Harvested 31May 2017 in Gokase in the Nishi-Usuki district. The farmer is Mr Miyazaki from the Miyazaki Sabou teafarm, a kamairicha and wakoucha specialist. The farm is situated at a height of 650m in a mountainous region where the evenings are already cooler and the difference between night and day temperatures are bigger. The garden is organic since 1985 and certified since 2001. Gokase is a village of 3800 inhabitants in the north of Miyazaki on the Island Kyushu.

Tasted 30th of July 2019, outside it is fresh and windy but dry, a leaf day. 3 gram, 150ml, 98°C, 2 minutes, in a kyusu. The dry leaves look dark grey but with a definite green touch, they are dry and rather fragemented. Quite a few stems. The wet leaves smell complex, with fruit and vanilla, and most of them now colour dark green with some brown ones. The infusion brings the same complexity in the nose, but the elements are interwoven, is this the aging ? The taste disappoints a bit, with no clear taste nor aftertaste. There is a light astringent touch. The mouthfeel is soft, the astringency is in the background, making it a bit more robust, and in the aftertast the smell of the wet leaves resurfaces. As the tea cools this aftertaste becomes fruitier and longer. Again the cold wet leaves smell very good, complex and special. I would have loved to taste this tea when it was younger. The second brew had a nice sweet touch when cooled down a bit, and was worth the trouble. 😊😊😊(😊)

Map and teagarden pictures from the Thés du Japon website https://www.thes-du-japon.com/index.php?main_page=index. Other pictures taken by the author.

Wakoucha Tasting, Tea N°3: Iwata Koshun, 2nd Flush, 2018, Thés du Japon

This tea was harvested on my birthday, the 27th of June 2018 ! But that's not why I liked it so much...

Iwata is the birthplace of the Yamaha Motor Corporation and is situated in the southwest of Shizuoka. Shizuoka is where 40% of all Japanese tea is produced, but we have no further information available about the teagarden, except that it is organic.

We do know the cultivar, Koshun, and we know that this tea is a Second Flush. It is not uncommon to see Wakoucha made from a second flush (harvested later than the first one in early spring). As an economic model this makes sense, it gives the farmer two occasions to harvest and sell at a good price from the same garden. The first harvest is used for green tea and the second, that will never deliver the freshness and umami of the first one for green tea, is used for black tea. The leaves are bigger now and are treated different, with a process of withering, rolling and drying.

Koshun, the cultivar used here, likes this. It is a cultivar that is often used for kamairicha where the tea is roasted and not steamed, and it is a very good choice for oolong and wakoucha. It is a crossing between Kanayamidor and Kurasawa, sometimes quite astringent as a green tea, with floral aroma's.

Iwata Koshun, 2nd Flush, Thés du Japon:

25 euro for 100 gram. No pesticides. Bought in a 50gr package, good until 20 april 2025. No pesticides nor chemical fertilizers were used, though the garden was not yet certified.

29 juli, evening of a beautiful summer day, a flower day. 150ml, 3 gram, 8 minutes, 98°C, in a kyusu. The dry leaves have almost no smell but look quite beautiful, quite big and complete, and with a nice amount of tip and some stems. Quite an enchanting smell for the wet leaves, sweet honey, frangipane and cooked fruits, and they are quite big and complete and look fantastic. The infusion colours beautifully, bright with a hint of orange, and has a spectacular smell that wafts from the cup. I put some tea in an INAO winetasting glass and then poured it out again, and the resulting smell was magical and beautiful. The infusion smelled complex and elegant like a dish with warm fruit and spices, never over the top, exactly as it should be. The taste is elegant and light and friendly and has a very interesting complexity. The changes in taste are spectacular, but always soft and friendly. The finish is beautiful. This is a beautiful tea that does not yell but caresses. Addictive. What a tea. A second infusion still was spectacular in the nose, but less complex in the mouth. But it was still extremely yummy with a very pleasant soft character. 😊😊😊😊

Wakoucha Tasting, Tea N°2: Nearai Karabeni, 2nd Flush, 2017, Thés du Japon

During the final quarter of the 19th century the Japanese government sent Tada Motokichi to China and India to study the production process of black tea so export from Japan to the USA could be boosted; in a later article we will talk about his trips. One of the problems for Japan was that their cultivars, ideal for green tea, had difficulties in oxydizing in the right way and it proved almost impossible to make the black teas the export market wanted with them. Mr Motokichi came back with seeds from Assam and Darjeeling but also from China and planted these in the regions deemed fit. In the 20th century Research Centres developed these into new cultivars fit for black tea, and most of them have 'beni' in their name, 'beni' standing for black.

This tea is made with Karabeni, a cultivar developed out of seeds from Hubei in China. Is it a coincidence that Hubei is the only place in China where tea is steamed, like in Japan ? As I don't know when the Chinese started doing this in this region I can't tell you, but I guess there is a link. Karabeni was not used a lot, by the time it was approved for planting and production the market had collapsed, but there is still some around. It is reported to be very different from most other wakocha-cultivars.

Nearai Karabeni 2017, 2nd Flush, Thés du Japon:


11,43 euro for 100 gram. Good until april 2024. Tea garden in het forested part of Kita-ku Ward, where the Miyakoda river enters the Hamana Lake. It is a part of Hamamatsu, the biggest town in Shizuoka, in the west of the prefecture. Subtropical climate. Organic agriculture.

28 july 2019, a root day. 150ml, 98°C, 2minutes, 3 grams of tea, in a kyusu. Quite a special smell for the dry leaves, with a sharp almost acidic twang. Very fragmented material, some stems and a little bit of tip. The aroma of the wet leaves is a bit strange but with a faint whiff of berry-jam. The infusion is bright red. Very subdued aroma with some honey in the background, changing into old musty beeswax. The taste was light and sweet, then a small astringency developed. The finish was creamy with a touch of that berry jam. A very quiet tea. 😊😊😊

We don't know a lot about this tea, but the fragmented material and some of the characteristics gave the impression that it tried to copy an Indian black tea. There are two reasons why Japan should not do this. First, even if 11.43 euro is cheap for a good Wakoucha it is way more expensive than Indian teas, and second, as a wakoucha the quality fails. Luckily an exception in the Thés du Japon range...

Florent Weugue, the owner of Thés du Japon, confirmed me later that this was a 2nd flush. 

Wakoucha Tasting, Tea N°1: Kanaya Midori, Mankichi Midori Watanabe, Koucha, Le Cha-Hû-Thé

This is the first of a series of tastings for my ITMA paper about Wakoucha, Japanese black tea. It is my feeling that Japanese black tea is so complex and interesting that it could be developed into the Pinot Noir of the teaworld: complex, sometimes fickle and difficult, but capable of incredible complexity and with enormous variation. Terroir, the decisions of the winemaker but also the cultivar used have an enormous impact on what you taste. On this blog I will publish also small articles about Wakoucha, and the whole series is in English as I want importers, farmers and specialists from over the world to read with me.

Kanaya Midori Mankichi Midori Watanabe, Black tea, Le Cha-Hû-Thé

17 euro's for 100gram, bought at Le Cha-Hû-Thé, an excellent teashop in Waterloo, Belgium. Here is their website https://www.cha-hu-the.be/fr/ Drink before june 2020. This tea comes from a very isolated organic tea garden on the volcanic Island of Yakushima, one of the Osimi islands off the South coast of Kyushu, and part of the Kagoshima prefecture. Large parts of the island are UNESCO World Heritage and famour for the cedar forest that contains some of Japan's oldest trees, the yakusugi. It is said that the oldest of these is about 2300 years old. The environment is subtropical and humid, and locals say it rains 35 days a month ! It is offically Japan's wettest place. There are not so many tea gardens on the Island as the only fertile land consists of small tracts of land between the mountains and the see.

Yakushima Island is the little red dot to the South

https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e4654.html

Mr Watanabe works organic since the 90ies. His tea garden is surrounded by forest and nature and he has no farmer-neighbours, and so there is no possibility of chemical contamination. Of the 6 cultivars in his garden only Kanayamidori is used for black tea. The tea is made in a small building at a 5 minutes drive of the garden. There is a nice video about that here:   https://vimeo.com/143646571 . The tea is made with a blend from first, second and third flus, and it is stocked two years before it is sold. 

Mankichi Watanabe

Copyright: Marimo GmbH

Kanayamidori is a cultivar that was first registered as N°30 in 1970, but it was created in the immediate post-war years, in 1949. It is a crossing of Yabukita and Shizuoka Zairai N°6. Yabukita is Japan's most widely planted cultivar, very productive and delivering a early harvest, ideal for green tea. A Zairai is a seed-grown 'wild' tea plant. In a later blog I will say more about the difference. Kanayamidori's leaves are smaller than those of Yabukita and it handles the cold better. It is harvested 4 days after Yabukita and it is more productive. 

Copyright: Marimo GmbH

Tasted 28 july 2019, a root day, it just stopped raining. 150ml, 3 gram, 2 minutes, 90°C, in a kyusu. The dry leaves are broken and fragmented, dark brown and good looking with some tip and a few stems. They smell very nice, fresh and complex with hints of caramel, sented wood and spices. The wet leaves also smell very spicy, like cinnamon, and they have a nice touch of freshness. When drinking the first thing one notices is the immediate attaque, with very clear notes of cigar box (cedar) but also of spices, and the tea is full and round without being heavy. There is a nice freshness in the finish. The taste is also very consistent and keeps well up. There is no astringency but there is certainly sweetness, and it is well structured, not cloying. A second brew was still ok but less complex, and with a strange tone not unlike the fermentation tones of a good pu'erh. Excellent and interesting tea with a nice story.  

All images (and a big part of the story) come from this website http://www.watanabe-yakushima.com/. The pictures of the tea are home-made.