The leafhopper did it. Wakoucha Tasting Tea N°19: Korogi Planthopper Yabukita, 2nd flush 2017, The Tea Crane

Strange things can happen to tea. Taiwan is famous for its Oriental Beauty, a tea that becomes sweet in taste because of the attack of the Jacobiasca Formosiana, a leafhopper that attacks the teaplants and makes holes in the leaves to extract the juice. The plant reacts by making sugar so the leaves begin to taste sweet, what the grasshopper doesn't like, so he leaves the leafs* alone.

The official name of our leafhopper friend is Empoasca (Matsumurasca) onukii Matsuda. In China he is considered as a pest, and he can destroy or damage up to 50% of a harvest destined for green tea, but in Taiwan and Japan organically working famers noticed that their (second flush) oxydized teas were becoming sweeter, and they learned to harvest at the best moment to capture these aromatic profiles. If you really want to go scientific, you can find something about our friend here https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4589377/.

A very complete article about the Tea leafhopper: http://www.teageek.net/blog/2016/02/bug-bitten-teas-why-are-leafhoppers-only-sometimes-a-good-thing/

Korogi Planthopper Yabukita, 2nd Flush 2017, The Teacrane

Harvested 22 september 2017. 41.5 euro for 100 gram (excl import taxes). 40 year old bushes from a 20acre tea garden called Tabako-ya at a height of 630m, orientation north-south. The top layer consists of crumbled lava, and the leaves are harvested before the garden is fertilized for next year. Made by Yoichi Korogi in the village of Gokase. He is a kamairicha-specialist with 30 years experience. I talked about one of his other teas here and you can find some general info about him here.

August 14th, 2019, late afternoon, raining, a root day. 98°C, 2 min, 3 gram, 150ml, in a kyusu. The dry leaves are small, fragmented and darkbrown with a few lightbrown ones and a few greyish-green. The wet leaves smell like a black tea, a bit woody, but with fruit and the sweetness of honey (or of grasshopper !). The colour of the infusion is a quite light caramelbrown with an orange hue. The aroma is light and elegant, with very nice fruity tones, very elegant and fine. A bit of swirling in a tasting cup or a wine glass makes the smell very complex. In the taste all elements seem to have melted together, and they only give themselves up after a while. Very nice attaque, a nice woody tone in the middle. The sweetness comes at the end, after the elegance. Beautiful atertaste or echo, very thick and sweet, especially when the tea is cooled down, and when this happens even the finish itself gets this. This is quite a fascinating tea, and very agreeable.
The second brew was still beautiful, and a very nice brew.
😊😊😊😊

Still on stock with The Teacrane: https://www.the-tea-crane.com/product/korogi-planthopper-yabukita-wakocha/

* Joke. 😑Playing with words. Couldn't stop myself.