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. 😊😊😊(😊)