Organic Japan Benifuuki Black Tea

I've long been drinking teas from China, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Vietnam & Columbia, but I've never encountered a tea like this one. Brewed @ 212F. for 3 minutes, no sweetener, it's a strong, gutsy tea with generous astringency and full body. Perhaps my palette isn't as refined as the purveyors of this tea, but I don't sense much of the "marzipan and dried orange rind" flavor notes mentioned in the product description. I do get the "sweet yam, roasted barley, wheat, floral plum jam" notes. I also get a fat middle note of something I can't find a word for, something earthy and vegetal that's unique to this tea. I find it's also got a long peppery taste that lingers. Closet comparison I could come with is a cross between a good Darjeeling and Vietnamese black tea. It's a winner IMO, try it for something and different.

Turns out I was brewing this tea wrong, it needs to be brewed with water below boiling. Water far below boiling with steep times of 24 hours! Where the hot brews lacked the complexity and depth of sweetness I normally associate with benifuki the cold brews brought out the true character of this tea. When brewed cold you get a red-orange tea with floral and fruity notes which is just wonderful. Thankfully this tea is affordable enough to make big batches as it is far too easy to drink when cold brewed. I may try dropping my brew temp when making it hot to somewhere between green tea and yerba mate to see if that eliminates that bitterness I came up against during my first impression as it was totally gone in my cold brew!

At about $0.15 per gram this is a good value but don't expect a "high value gong-fu red" Compared to the other benifuki I've tried this has smaller broken leaves and much less floral aroma. This also brews much darker much faster and would probably make a great tea for doing iced come summer. The other one I've tried was a bit too complex and delicate to mess around with, this one not so much, it's got "Irish Breakfast" punchy strength and could probably hold up to milk and sugar if brewed "western style". Using my small pot and straight sided cup (I use these for assessing teas as a control) it brews dark red easily in 5 seconds but has a strong bitter taste and an apricot and sweet potato finish. Where it lacks in flavor it makes up in energy, I'm only a few cups in and feeling a strong buzz.

When trying a new tea, I like to eat one of the dry leaves to establish a first impression. Nothing struck me as special. That changed with my first inhale. A delicate aroma of sweet potato intrigued me. The flavor of sweet potato was present and the smooth mouthfeel left a lingering presence of it on my palate. With the second infusion, the flavor was weaker, so I added a few grains of cane sugar to enhance it. Still pleasant! Now I am curious if adding some chai spice might transform this delightful cup into a dessert tea. I am so pleased I purchased a sample of this tea, and that I tasted my first cup during the Thanksgiving holiday. I anticipate purchasing more! I hope you will keep this tea in your curated selection of choices for us.

I had always wondered if Japan produced any other kind of tea besides green tea and Arbor Teas has found some unbelievable Japanese-grown black tea! I definitely taste the sweet yams. I can't quite put my finger on it as to why but this tea is special. Get your own bag NOW. I hope this tea remains in the catalog permanently.