Premium Green Tea – Extra Roast

The current lot of this tea is harvested in spring 2022 and roasted over multiple times to develop deep nutty flavor.

This is made in the same traditional style, two leaves and a bud as the Premium Green tea harvest, and is hand picked and hand processed.  It has mild oxidation, slowly roasted to create balance with a rich nutty aroma and full flavor.

Our spring weather has lots of rain and sun as you might expect on windward side of Mauna Kea.  Some mornings start with blue sky, and cool ocean breeze and fogs roll in in the afternoon with occasional sprinkle.

Fresh tea leaves start to oxidize naturally once they are harvested.  Young spring tips are more delicate and temperature and humidity difference causes the leaves to oxidize at different rate.

Oxidation causes the leaves to develop unique aroma.  We slowly roast over a long period to develop deep flavor and nutty sweetness balanced with oxidation.

We like to use the tea slightly aged (6 month – 2 years) based on Japanese Kuradashi storage that the tea develops milder flavor in cool mountain storage condition.  This moderately aged tea accepts roast more readily and oxidation and freshness of the leaves are milder.

Our Premium Green Tea is made from traditional two leaves and a bud and small batch processing. Young tender tips are harvested with utmost care to retain their freshness, which contains high level of antioxidants. Harvested leaves are then processed in a small batch to give unique twist and curves to the leaves as they dry. Repeated rolling and unique drying motion slowly removes moisture from the leaves.

Over time our tea making has evolved and aligned more with our traditional tea making values.  Elderly tea makers from Japan say, “That is how tea used to taste.”  They did not have factory automation to maintain consistency and fresh green quality, yet they seemed to be more content with their lives.

Without chemicals to enhance tea flavors and colors, our tea plants maintain very humble look yet surprise many people with purity and potency.  It is pure hand made quality that preserve seasonality and the conditions of natural surroundings.

Steeping:

Please note that PG Extra roast will steep quicker than other Premium Green Tea. The tea will first exhibit strong roast.  It will nicely hold up multiple steeping (3-5 steeping).

We recommend you use good quality spring water with moderate amount of minerals (50-100mg/L).  In tea ceremony, practitioners often say that the best way to evaluate the quality of water is through tea.

Start with 2-3 grams of tea leaf per 8oz cup.  Bring water to light boil (200F) and steep tea for 1-2 minutes.  Hot water expresses stronger flavor and aroma.  If bitterness is your concern, reduce the temperature or steeping time.  You can also extend steeping time for stronger flavor.