TTN: Two teas from Ippodo-cha

[MLipton]

In December, Jean traveled to Kyoto for a conference* and, on my urging, took herself to Ippodo-Cha, a purveyor of high quality green teas, of which Jean is an avid consumer. As I had discovered a decade earlier, Ippodo-Cha offers a stunning array of teas with the upper range fetching gag-inspiring prices. Jean returned with two teas, a top notch Sencha and a middling Gyokuro. Upon her return, we did a comparative tasting of the two, preparing them according to the direction supplied:

Sencha Kaboku was vividly grassy, with an appealing freshness

Gyokuro Rimpo, prepared and served at a lower temperature, smelled of seaweed (specifically, wakame with a hint of nori) with a somewhat herbal character

Both were fascinating and delicious, with the sencha being the more familiar of the two.

Mark Lipton

* Joel, you were in Seattle at the time.

 

[Levi Dalton]

Cool.

 

[Brian C]

I love that you tease out specific seaweed aromas. I've been harvesting those two for years and can't say that I can put smell memories on them!

 

[MLipton]

originally posted by Brian C:
I love that you tease out specific seaweed aromas. I've been harvesting those two for years and can't say that I can put smell memories on them!

As with all organoleptic description, it's groping in the dark for meaningful vocabulary. I eat a fair amount of wakame in miso soup and occasionally ochazuke and likewise have eaten a lot of nori in various preparations. To me, wakame is quite "green" and redolent of the sea whereas nori has those "bass" umami flavors that I also get in dried chili peppers such as mulato and New Mexican red.

YMMV of course.

Mark Lipton

 

[Brian C]

wakame is quite "green" and redolent of the sea

Mark Lipton

Indeed. Nori is most often toasted too which changes the aroma and taste quite a bit.

A low tide at a heavily wakame populated rocky shore is a beautiful thing to behold.

 

[Joel Stewart]

Ippodo is quite a lovely shop to walk into, Mark, isn't it? The big ceramic tea containers along the wall always captivate me the most. Too bad we couldn't hook up with Jean...I enjoy tea but sounds like Jean would have been sensei, which would have been fun. Will make a point of trying those teas you wrote of...they sound great in their own ways.

As for the seaweed notes, we get various kinds of fresh seaweed in the markets, plus the "pickled" tuskudani's...love it all. The konbu tsukudani's really have the bass notes (though the shoyu influence is strong of course)...and in summer, we get some funky spiral type konbu from Okinawa that really brings it in it's raw state. Crunchy too. It's great how such a variety of this stuff is accessed and relished here...and with good reason.

edit: for a Korean tea house thing, take a look at this...mostly berry teas...http://www.deepkyoto.com/?p=3184#more-3184

 

[MLipton]

originally posted by Joel Stewart:
Ippodo is quite a lovely shop to walk into, Mark, isn't it? The big ceramic tea containers along the wall always captivate me the most. Too bad we couldn't hook up with Jean...I enjoy tea but sounds like Jean would have been sensei, which would have been fun. Will make a point of trying those teas you wrote of...they sound great in their own ways.

Yes, Ippodo is quite the experience. When I visited there, I was staying at a classic Ryokan in the Gion, so I truly felt as if I had traveled back in time.

As for the seaweed notes, we get various kinds of fresh seaweed in the markets, plus the "pickled" tuskudani's...love it all. The konbu tsukudani's really have the bass notes (though the shoyu influence is strong of course)...and in summer, we get some funky spiral type konbu from Okinawa that really brings it in it's raw state. Crunchy too. It's great how such a variety of this stuff is accessed and relished here...and with good reason.

Wow. My seaweed education is still in its infancy, I'm afraid. I look forward to furthering my education upon my next visit to the land of the rising sun, however.

edit: for a Korean tea house thing, take a look at this...mostly berry teas...http://www.deepkyoto.com/?p=3184#more-3184

Cool! Thanks.

Mark Lipton

 

[Joel Stewart]

Cheers and let us know when you'll be back...

 

[SFJoe]

Mark,
My real seaweed education began when I stayed on the Mendocino coast years ago with mighty forager Yutaka W. Despite having been up drinking with the tough guys in the group until 3, he got up again at 5:30 and went down to the beach at low tide. He harvested 9 kinds of seaweed and prepared them 9 different ways for our lunch.

Not to mention the uni.

Fresh seaweed is doubtless tougher to come by in your current location, but when you visit your native haunts you may want to try again.

 

[MLipton]

originally posted by SFJoe:
Mark,
My real seaweed education began when I stayed on the Mendocino coast years ago with mighty forager Yutaka W. Despite having been up drinking with the tough guys in the group until 3, he got up again at 5:30 and went down to the beach at low tide. He harvested 9 kinds of seaweed and prepared them 9 different ways for our lunch.

Not to mention the uni.

Fresh seaweed is doubtless tougher to come by in your current location, but when you visit your native haunts you may want to try again.

Sage advice, Dai-Sensei. I'm mostly familiar with the kelp that populates my native shores, but I readily confess to not delving too deeply into the topic -- despite having spent many hours scraping mussels off the rocks with my sainted mother.

Mark Lipton

 

[Brian C]

originally posted by SFJoe:
Mark,
My real seaweed education began when I stayed on the Mendocino coast years ago with mighty forager Yutaka W. Despite having been up drinking with the tough guys in the group until 3, he got up again at 5:30 and went down to the beach at low tide. He harvested 9 kinds of seaweed and prepared them 9 different ways for our lunch.

Not to mention the uni.

Fresh seaweed is doubtless tougher to come by in your current location, but when you visit your native haunts you may want to try again.

Toasted Mendocino coast sea palm with tamari almonds is one of the world's great snack foods.

A couple years ago I harvested a pretty big load with the intention to dry it and bring it home to WA. Cloudy weather kept me from getting it dry at the coast. We got a little bit of sun on our way back through SF and put it out on a big tarp in Golden Gate Park amidst many strange looks. Only got it half dry before having to put it (about 30#) in a checked duffel to fly home. I can only imagine what they thought in baggage security.

Also the soda pop guy got some air time a while back here. Here's the seaweed episode

Brian