Naturally Grown Kyobancha- Surprisingly Delicious

This naturally grown Kyobancha from the tea farmer Sinichi Kihara was a nice surprise tea! I purchased this after looking for hojicha (online at yunomi.life) and found the dry leaves to be quite unique.  The leaves are not rolled but after steaming they are dried as is or flat. It's interesting that they don't roll the leaves as this results in quite a large volume.  I'm still trying to learn more about the different kinds of Japanese tea but "Kyo" refers to Kyoto and "bancha" is unprocessed leaf meaning not rolled.  It is a type of hojicha (roasted green tea) but the main difference in hojicha, the roasting is of processed or rolled leaves.  These leaves are also older and thus bigger than other Japanese teas.  You can read more here.

The first time I brewed it, I used about 3g of leaf in my 175ml gaiwan and 90 degree water for 1 minute.  The tea soup was a yellow/light brown shade which surprised me because I was expecting it to be darker.  It was also very clear and bright looking.

Subsequent sessions, I used 5g of dry leaf...almost filled my 4oz ramekin!

 The steeped tea leaves...looks very similar to the dry and very dark.

 My most recent brew using 5g...

The tea soup is amber in colour and still very clear and bright.  Aroma is roasted and slightly smoky as you would expect.  The taste is less roasted than I would have thought and there is some cooked grain taste, barley possibly.  Soon after, there is a subtle sweet finish to it which is surprising as it's not what I would expect.  Brewed 3 times and still had good flavour.  

I quite like this tea and see this as a daily tea but also one for guests that aren't familiar with tea.  And for the price it's very good value!  This was part of my first order with Yunomi last year and the experience and quality has been very good.  I also like that they have many small vendors/farmers on the site that you wouldn't normally hear of in North America.  Definitely recommend checking them out for other Japanese teas.