Miyazaki's Minamisayaka. Wakoucha Tasting Tea N°32: Minamisayaka Wakocha 2018, 2nd flush, The Tea Crane

When a producers masters the technique of making wakoucha he can start to experiment with different cultivars. He can use the beni-cultivars, easily adapting to black tea as they were once created for it, but there is also the whole range of cultivars for green tea. Some of these deliver quite surprising results.

Mr Miyazaki used the Minamisayaka 'South Freshness' cultivar in this case. It is a crossbreed between Miya A-6 and NN27. Miya A-6 comes from seedlings that were a crossbreed between Takachiho and an assamica parent, F1-9-4-48, and one of the parents of this one is Caucasian ! It is harvested a few days later than Yabukita, delivers a strong yield and is cold-resistant, but the flavor is very different than that of Yabukita.

Source: http://www.naro.affrc.go.jp

Miyazaki Minamisayaka Wakocha 2nd flush 2018, The Tea Crane:

About 42 euro for 100 gram (import taxes excluded). Harvested 10 july 2018 from 15 year old bushes in the Kengo-hirohata teagarden on the Miyazaki Sabou farm in Gokase. Orientation north, volcanic ash and soil layers from the Paleozoic era. Surrounded by mountains, 580m above sea level, with strong variation between day and night temperatures. Organic since 1985. This is a second flush, and I suppose that the first flush was used for green tea. Sun-dried, which is quite unusual for a Wakoucha, used to increase aroma's.

21st of August 2019, in the evening: 3 gram, 98°C, 150ml, 2 min. Wet leaves: a quite unusual aroma, fresh and floral, not sweet, and a high percentage of green leaves (uncompleted oxydation). The infusion is a clear and bright orange. The aroma is quite complex and very specific, with no fruit or honey at all, but very floral. When tasted it has a strong character, quite astringent, with grass and flowers but no sweetness at all. At first it seemed to be quite short, but then a very interesting aftertaste showed up. Interesting but not I did not fall for it, so I tried it again the day after with a slightly higher dosage, 4 grams, but with the same parameters. Still a very intriguing smell for the wet leaves, very complex, and this time with some sweetness but also with black tea bitterness. The infusion was still very nice and very complex, but very different from classic wakoucha with aroma's of flowers and hazelnut. In the mouth a very rigid start, not so friendly, but later some sweetness and complexity develops. Quite long, with some spiciness in the aftertaste. When the tea cools down it gets more interesting and the aftertaste becomes really fascinating, soft and round with a sweetness like that of freshly dried hay. A very peculiar black tea.

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The vendor, Tyas Sosen from The Tea Crane calls the tea 'balance in chaos' and that is a very good description. The tea is still available on his website: https://www.the-tea-crane.com/product/miyazaki-minamisayaka-wakocha-2018/