Unique to the city of Kyoto from which it gets name, Kyobancha is harvested from tea leaves and twigs that have matured over the winter months and then roasted producing a very woodsy flavor.
Often called ‘bancha for babies’ (akachan bancha 赤ちゃん番茶) because it has almost no caffeine, it is also called ‘spring bancha’ (haru bancha 春番茶) because it is harvested in March from winter matured leaves. Rarely offered outside of Japan, it is even quite rare to find it in supermarkets in Japan as well.
Shinichi Kihara’s Kyobancha gives off a smoky aroma, but surprises you with a flavor that is both smoky as well as sweet. (See our steeping notes.)
Please note that because the leaves are unrolled and sold in 200 gram quantities, to protect them from being crushed, we need to ship them in boxes rather than cushioned bags resulting in a slightly higher shipping price than 200 grams for other products.
Tea Stories
One of the Yunomi.us staff was joking about how the kyobancha tea leaves look like dried leaves you might find in your garden, right before she (and she shall remain anonymous) took a sip and exclaimed, ‘Ah! Oishii! (Delicious!)’ — You can’t judge a book by its cover…
The post Kihara #3: Organic Kyobancha (Winter-roasted green tea leaves) (bulk, 1kg) appeared first on Yunomius.
