Fukugata Tokoname Yokode Kyuusu.

In other words: a Side-handled Japanese teapot made in Tokoname, Japan.


For a long time now I have been enjoying Japanese greens. My favorite of which is Sencha. I will admit that I enjoy Gyokuro more, but Gyokuro is so expensive that it's not a practical tea to drink. The lower price of Sencha allows me to enjoy it more often and to entertain my palate with a wider variety of such greens.
When I first started drinking Sencha, I would use a glass infuser to prepare it. After a few months of tea-drinking, I found that Sencha was the tea I drank the most. When I realized this, I also realized that I should get more serious about my Sencha drinking by buying a teapot made especially for Sencha. I looked through over 50 teapots before deciding on Rishi Tea's Fukugata. I decided on the Fukugata because of it's low price, smooth and elegant style, and the fact that many tea-enthusiasts have the same pot and are quite happy with it.

After 9 days and a UPS reschedule, the pot arrived, packed with an abundance of protection (as shown in the last post).



Upon examination, I was hit by it's perfection through simplicity. The spout and the handle, by no means intricate, are flawlessly crafted to the body, exhibiting nothing but the intention of use.


A pot made to be used. I felt a sudden dire need to pour out cup after cup of air:



The lid was even more delightful, fitting as snuggly as possible into it's proper place.



With the lid off, the sasame is exposed:


The sasame (clay filter) is of much importance when brewing Senchas. This is because Senchas are very often composed of small pieces that need to get filtered out. Typically, the best filter is a stainless steel mesh screen, traditionally however, the filters are made of clay, and known as sasame. These clay sasame are preferred by many who believe metal to affect the taste of Sencha. This is why very serious Sencha drinkers also boil their water in a clay pot as opposed to a metal pot.



As can be seen in the pictures, the sasame is riddled with small holes. At first I gleefully cheered at such fine work, however I then realized (after touching it a little too roughly), that this had also made it moderately fragile. Now luckily nothing that is ever placed in a teapot (tea and water) will ever damage it. I will, however, have to watch my own fingers If I ever feel the need to "investigate."
The only real problem with the sasame is with the tea leaves that get stuck in it. So far there are about 6 leaves stuck in random holes. I could very carefully poke them through, but this would risk breaking the sasame. For now, my plan is to wait it out and determine whether the holes will eventually all be filled, or if it will stay around a constant 6 holes.

At 300ml it is a bit larger than most other asian teapots, and quite a bit larger than my gaiwan:







The feel of the Fukugata is perfect. The side-handle provides a solid grip on a light pot that allows for easy pouring.

With the tight-fitting lid, I can flip the teapot 90° with no fear of spilling (as long as a slight thumb is applied).

To be used for comparison purposes, I decided on Adagio's Sencha Overture. It was a good pick because Sencha overture is between a "good" sencha and a "bad" sencha. Being closer to "bad" allows easy determination of when a process has improved the quality of the tea.







I decided on one steeping in the gaiwan, and one steeping in the Fukugata, fresh tea leaves in each.

Notice the amount of leaves used.


The amount of leaves is roughly proportionate to the amount of water to be used.

85 seconds with just under 180° water for each.

Gaiwan brewed tea:


And the following are the Fukugata brewed teas:


Notice how these...

Compare to this:

The second picture here shows an obviously darker brew, yet all the tea shown in these images was from the same pot/steeping.


The darker tea actually was the last from the pot and is to be expected because of the components that color tea often sit near the leaves. Thus pouring out of the pot last. Since the gaiwan brewed tea was all poured into a single vessel, this was not noted.

Here the gaiwan brew is in the middle:


I then combined the tea from all the vessels holding the fukugata brewed tea into a single vessel (gaiwan brewed tea is in the cup):


Gaiwan brewed tea in cup on right, Fukugata brewed tea in cup on left:


Birdseye view:

Although much harder to distinguish, the Fukugata brewed tea is still a might bit darker.

Differences in temperature interfered greatly in the tea-tasting comparison. As such, none of my notes are definite differences.
What I did note as a near-definite difference was that the Fukugata brewed a tea that was more "vegetal" while tasting cleaner, and airy. The flavor of the tea from the gaiwan leaned more towards "grassy" carrying with it a peck of astringency and an undertone of a grahammy-bite.
These differences are not at all extreme, and are describing a roughly 5% difference between the teas.

In summary, the Fukugata is a solidly constructed pot, lacking in durability only by having a somewhat fragile sasame (clay filiter). The many holes of the sasame also allow for tea leaves to get stuck, which is expected, yet the fragility of the sasame make it a difficult and careful job to remove such leaves.
The handling of the Fukugata during use was extremely pleasing. The handle is long and thin, which helps it to keep cool, yet is also firm and durable. The lid fits very snugly, allowing the pot to be turned 90°(as long as a thumb is reasonable applied to the ever-cool ball on top). The fukugata's capacity (10oz) allows it to brew a larger cup of tea than the average asian teapot, yet for cases such as gongfu brewing, will require greater precision and more spacious equipment.
While not being intricately designed, the Fukugata still holds beauty in its simplicity.
My conclusion is that the Fukugata is a wonderful purchase. For the price ($35 from Rishi-Tea), I do not believe one can find a better pot. Although I have no experience of other pots of it's kind, I strongly recommend the Fukugata over other Japanese teapots in it's price range. It has proven to be a solid, well put together pot whose spirit begs for it to be put to use.

Teaware

Too much time drinking, not enough time writing. Sigh. Well, I guarantee there will be many posts to come as I have just placed multiple online orders.
Today I got my first shipment from Rishi Tea: six teas and my brand new Fukugata Japanese Kyuusu teapot.

First off, the package was marvelously packed:


And under the peanuts? Airbags! Alright!


...wow, it just keeps coming.


...OK, skipping two more wrappings.


This thing is wonderful. So wonderful that I've decided to write up the full review of it tomorrow. :)
And the 6 teas:

As you can see, there are already many reviews to look forward to. However, today I'm not going to review any teas. The tea reviews will be put on hold for a moment while I take my time to show you all of my "equipment."
What came first, the tea or the teapot? Well, that's an easy one. But presently neither one is more important than the other. The way one brews tea directly affects everything about the tea. From flavor to caffeine content, it all depends on the measures used.
I have gone with a simplistic view, I want my tea making equipment to help make the process easier, quicker, so I can have more time to enjoy the actual tea. This view may have led to the teabag, however, to truly indulge oneself in the world of tea one must place importance into the tea-making process, everyone should have their own ceremony. Versatility is often great, but having specialized equipment for any task is down-right fun. So here is my small, yet ever-growing collection of specialty tea-making supplies.

As nice teaware is downright expensive, one of the most difficult decisions is whether or not to just spend the money on tea. For a long time I was under the impression that tea is more important, creating a tea collection that is slowly taking over a whole set of cabinets:



Many, many hours have gone by when I stare at this cabinet and contemplate my future...



If there is one thing I laud, it's finding a balance in life. In everything in life, eating, excercising, learning, experiencing, there are limits where there can be too much of a good thing. A great scientist who can also write well and clearly and enthusastically deliver speeches is a much stronger person than a scientist who confines themself to their lab at all times. And thus I have decided to not slow down on my tea purchasing, but instead to start buying more teaware to try to balance the tea collection. :)
I knew there would come a day when "Old Faithful" could no longer cut it:



Or shall I say crack it:


Chip it:


Forseeing such chaotic destruction beforehand, I took a trip up to portland to purchase some fun new teaware.
It all began with the gaiwan:

A cool looking and very versatile tea-brewing device.

This gaiwan has already paid for itself many times over.


For anyone needing a true tea-brewing device, a gaiwan is the way to go. They're very cheap, and very versatile, often getting more use than the more expensive, more aesthetically pleasing pots.
When the tea is done steeping in the gaiwan it needs to go somewhere, and thus the samashi. Samashi are USUALLY water-cooling devices used to achieve that tea-perfect temperature, however, I use my samashi as a tea-cooler and tea-pitcher, bringing my tea down to a drinkable temperature, and refilling my cup multiple times. Also used is a mesh filter to keep little tea bits from following the tea:

The extra cups are to give my family and friends a pleasant cuppa:

Still, one cannot be happy only brewing with a gaiwan, and thus, we have a whole happy family:

The kyuusu on the lower left should look familiar. A full review is on the way. On the lower right we have a specialized Chinese Yixing teapot.

This pot was fairly cheap and as such I'm unsure of whether or not it is truly a Yixing pot. However, Yixing pots need to be dedicated to a certain type of tea, and this one is my "dark oolong/wuyi" pot.

Sitting pretty in the middle of the previous picture is my "green/light oolong" pot.



I use it with my larger Yixing "Stone" cup for my deliciously sweet green oolong drinking experiences. The first steeping fills the cup halfway, second steeping slightly overflows the cup...

The cup is magnificent and a great treasure of my teaware collection. It is my "curl up with tea" teacup.


For my green tea, I enjoy drinking out of a cup that carries a quite distinct personality:


I give much love to all my teaware, however, as many people do with hobbies, I have that "way too expensive" specialty something.
That something is my water heater:

Ahh, my Zojirushi. It has everything I could want in a water heater. With green tea it gets very annoying standing over the stove with a thermometer everytime I want a cup, essentially ruining my whole tea ceremony. My Zojirushi has changed everything. Keeping my tea at a constant temperature of 175°, 195°, or 208°, I never again have to wait by that stove. This thing doesn't only keep my tea at a constant temperature, but dechlorinates the water, pours slow or fast, and even has a timer. Before my head meets pillow at the end of a long day, I punch in the time I want my hot water by and the Zojirushi does the rest, never disappointing.


I may post a full review and fun walkthrough of all it's features once I bond with it a little more. :)


Mmmm, green.

Well, it's time for me to depart. If you need me, you know where to find me:


Tomorrow, after a few hours of green tea with the new Tokoname Fukugata Kyuusu, I'll write up a nice juicy report on how it handles.


For now, it is time to depart.

They will be watching.

J-Tea International

Ah, the time has come to review a tea that can be made readily available for purchase, J-Tea International's Green Spring Oolong.

A note about myself: As you have undoubtedly noticed by now, I'm a green variety of tea-addict. As a result of this, whenever I shop for tea, I look for green, and I look for cheap. My purchase of this tea is a direct result of this. As I searched through the J-Tea teas, I rooted out the greenest, then selectively considered the cheaper two, and then determined the vacuum sealed bag to be preferable.
And thus:


The bag is very nicely sealed, with no air in the package, and no light allowed to hurt the little greens within. The use of scissors and a swift hand movement allowed the spilling.



The dried leaves give off the common sweet smell associated with green oolongs, yet accompanying this common smell was an odd one. Also noted is a hint of an earthen-graham smell. The odd undertone was that of floral astringency: the everyday light floral tone had been marked by an almost salty astringency, leaving a quite intriguing smell, one that I hoped would develop in the steeping process (for sake of tasting something so intriguing).

Here's the 80g bag and some rolled up leaves next to a DVD for comparison:


A very nice looking green oolong, which has unavoidably made me a bit thirsty...

My preferred way to drink a green oolong at the time is with my trusty glass cup and infusor cup. Combined with a measuring teaspoon and a thermometer, this is a very convenient way to drink a big glass of tea.

There it is, hot water already added.

Then we measure about 1.5 teaspoons of tea per cup, place the rolled leaves into the glass infusor.

After that, one needs only to put the infusor into the cup and let it do it's job.


After about 30 seconds:


And here it is, after four minutes of steep-time.

Then we take out the infusor, press the leaves into the side over the cup to let out as much tea as possible (in order to have good subsequent infusions, we must get as much water out of the leaves as possible. The method I use is to first squeeze the leaves, then move them around in the infusor while blowing on them).

And the final product...

As it is normally very hard to match the color of tea in the pictures to the actual color (especially in a glass cup), many photos of tea you will see online will not be accurate depictions of the color of the tea, I took plenty of time to make sure this one was 99% accurate.

During the first steeping, the leaves aren't given much time or heat to expand, so they are still left slightly curled:


A note about myself: A big problem with these wet leaf pictures is that people pick out the better/best looking leaves from the infusion. What I'm trying to do is to give the most accurate depiction of what is actually supplied from the tea shops. Because I believe that my readers should receive the most accurate information, the tea leaves wont always be the most aesthetically pleasing, but they will be the most accurate.

Even after the second infusion, the leaves are not fully opened, yet many large leaves have been exposed:




And more from another day:



After the second steeping, the leaves look fairly nice. Not amazing, but not really bad at all. I did find a tad bit of brown in two of the leaves though, yet thats two out of what could be 50 or more.

Here's a fairly accurate depiction after the first steeping:

The smell of the steeped infusion is that of a sweet, floral cream. Mellowly smooth, devoid of anything resembling bitterness, and predominantly a sweet, green oolong. However, interestingly enough, the faint floral astringency is still lurking in undertones.

Sipping on the tea at a lower temperature of around 150°f allows one to identify a wider palate of tastes. As the tongue first meets with the tea, the taste is nothing but a creamy, smooth-sweet liquid, which immediately is followed by the mellow, greener, floral notes of honey. Thick and rich, this tea is able to induce much salivation during it's consumption. While smelling the faint floral astringency, the sides of the tongue pick up it up, only to be greatly surprised by the lack of the salty astringency, finding there only to be the open floral notes and a seperate light, breezy astringency. As the temperature of the tea reaches the optimal 115°f, we are left with nothing but the honey-sweet, light florally green taste. This is the taste which is desired in a light oolong.

In conclusion, there is very little to dislike about this tea. In fact, my only disappointment was not being able to taste the so intriguing "floral astringency." I feel, however, that the tea is better without it. The light breezy astringency that is present in the taste only adds to the character of the tea, making it quite original.
They say first impressions are the most important, which is good for J-Tea, because this tea has left me with no complaints. More reviews of J-Tea's products can be expected in the future, for J-Tea has proven, thus far, to be the local quality teashop.


J-Tea's products can be found at http://www.jteainternational.com/
If you would like for me to do a review of another one of his greener oolongs, shoot a note to thegreenteaman@gmail.com and I'll see what I can do.

Lots of pictures!

Today I headed back to Market of Choice to cash in on the Dragonwell. At $26/lb It's the best deal I've found.
I got all this for $5!




I have to say I am most pleased. Had I bought this good of tea from anywhere else, the price most likely would have quadrupled, putting it around $20! The strangest thing about this store is that they sell a Sencha for $62/lb! I picked up a small bag today which turned out to be over $5 and far less tea than the Dragonwell.



The cat's name is Lucifer. He's very sweet and in many ways resembles an owl. In the pictures, however, he seems more pantherish.

See what I mean? Kind of cute there, although most of the time he's a bit demonic...


The cat always follows me around while I attend to my tea duties in the kitchen, this is how I justify the tea-less pictures.
Momentarily taking me away from the felines was a prospect of trying that gruesomely overpriced Sencha.
A slight misfortune is that there will be no teapot usage due to (quite visible) unfortunate reasons:



Residing on that spoon is something that no tea should ever meet. (And yes, that was just one scoop from the side of the kettle).

For the routine tea-session pictures:


There it is, dry and ready for some H20. Adding a little water brings about a fantastic product:

Ah, the marvelous virescence.

Here we see some particulate matter in the tea:

The wet leaves really aren't much to look at:


To my disappointment, the tea was nothing special, tasting somewhere inbetween a good Sencha and a bad one. Between Adagio's Sencha Premier, and Sencha Overture. Between fresh fruit and frozen fruit. This tea doesn't get the grin of approval.
Instead:

Not quite worthy of such a sorrowful expression, I just couldn't resist.

To take me away from that frown was the beautiful Oregon weather:


Ahh, I had to go outside. Whilst in the wild, I found a couple feathers (from birds of prey?):

My, is that a pen?


Heh, has to get tied in to tea somehow!

And look who decided to greet me in the outdoors:

Mad?

No, just hanging in the shade.


Well, thats it. I've got a very interesting "Making of Yixing" movie I'm looking forward to.

Here's a taste of what I've got lined up for next time:

-From the man who claims to have "the best tea in the world." (http://www.registerguard.com/news/2007/08/08/b1.bz.teahouse.0808.p2.php?section=business)

Dragonwell-Market of Choice

Time for a photo-review. I had to buy milk and tortillas at the local "Market of Choice," to my surprise I found a Sencha and a Dragonwell in the spice section. I decided to save the Sencha for next time, but purchased a small amount of the Dragonwell, which ended up being $1. The Dragonwell was attractively priced at $25/lb while the Sencha was over twice that at $56/lb.


And then I steep it and turn one thing into two!


The color is lighter than the picture shows, yellower. The tea is a great example of Dragonwell, having a light flavor while carrying with it a reminiscence of spice. I feel that the tea is very fresh.

I put it into an old Adagio tin, and this is the picture of what was left after the first steeping (keep in mind that I steep into a 2.5 cup mug, using on average three teaspoons of leaves).
-"Grin of Approval"-

Great, clean taste, very inexpensive, locally available: my cup of tea.
A taste of what's to come:

Two of them are oolongs, I know, yet we must give them a chance, hidden under those wrappers may be the marvelous virescence of a great tea.
Have any questions? Want more/specific pictures? Let me know!

Welcome!

Hello TEAmates.
This is the first post of a blog that will be first and foremost a photo-blog. This means that I will detail my day-to-day experiences with tea through photographs. The pictures will range anywhere from the average 'dry leaf-wet leaf-liquor' sequences, to pictures of my tea buddies, local tea shops and their products, the sink (which is clogged with tea leaves), the floor (which has been strewn with tea leaves), the growth of my tea plants, random commercial products which have been laced with tea... you get the idea. Pictures of anything relating to tea are fair game here. Green tea will be the most photogenic of the teas, yet green oolongs will be common, and some .dark. teas will also be shown.
I will also give readers my opinion of the tea that is detailed in the photographs. To stay true to the idea of a photo-blog, I will try to keep the words short and the pictures many. However, if any readers wish for me to write a full review of something shown on the site, I will be disposed to give them what they want.
By the way, this will be the only post that lacks pictures. Actually...

My bugs would like to welcome everybody to this aesthetically pleasing photo-blog.
Questions, comments, regards, and suggestions can all be directed to: thegreenteaman@gmail.com
Enjoy!