Earlier this year, the online book club I'm in read the book Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile. I know that it's also a drama series, which I haven't watched, but I very much enjoyed the book that centered around a young woman who inherited a sugar cane farm in Louisiana. For that reason, I was particularly delighted when I heard from Kei Nishida of Japanese Green Tea In, a new company that imports some of the highest-grade green teas in Japan—teas that are grown using sugar cane as a fertilizer! This process is called the "Chagusaba Method," and I was naturally eager to try these teas, which soon arrived in some particularly lovely packaging.
The first of the teas I tried was the Issaku Premium Japanese Green Tea. As soon as I opened the packet, I inhaled a whiff of what was clearly very fresh green tea. I used a filter bag to steep these bright green leaves, and the result was a super smooth tasting green with a very rich mouth feel. And rare for a green, I found no astringency in this tea. It was terrific!
Next I tried the Gokuzyo First Crop Japanese Green Tea. This tea had a lighter, more subtle green tea taste, but as with the other tea, I was delighted by the fresh taste and absence of any astringency. I think that lingering astringency you get with some greens is one of the reasons more people don't drink green tea, so this was a wonderful green and one I am quite happy to be able to recommend. And if, like me, you're intrigued by the idea of tea grown with sugar cane as a fertilizer, click here to learn more about this process!
I would never have expected to see sugar cane used as fertilizer, but it evidently works well!
ReplyDeleteSounds like nice teas. Sugar cane as fertilizer sounds interesting. I'm off to read your link.
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