TealyraHandmade Premium First Flush - Gyokuro Green Tea - Grown in Yame Japan - Loose Leaf Tea - Caffeine Medium - 100g (3.5-ounce)

Update 2016-4-21 - after sitting with several Gyokuros, senchas and a matcha/sencha mix for a few months. This one is may favorite. A Rishi sencha is a close second, and the Rishi matcha/sencha mix is great when I need a lift. This one has the best grass/hay scent and flavor. It still has a lot a particles but I don't mind that any more. Its good for three steeps. I will buy it again. Just make sure your water is 165-175 F and steep for 1.5 to 2 minutes.It seems the descriptions and source have changed. This may or may not be due to some funny business, but I have bought this tea three times. It has always been listed as organic, but now I find no mention of organic. And, the quality has degraded. The first order was great. The last one has a lot of powder. I do not trust the source any longer. So, I will look for another organic Gyokuro. That said, the flavor is still pretty good. Trust is hard to come by with so many online choices. For as much as I drink, I am going to spend a little more from a more trusted source.Update - 2016-3-21 - Tried a similar tea for Rishi. This one is much better. Still not sure if it is still organic , but it is certainly very good, particularly for the price.

As a Chinese, I drink green tea every day, there are different types of green tea, Gyokuro'' is my favitate. This Japanese tea is not like regular green tea with bitter taste, it with a bit of sweet and flavor. The reason is about 3 week ago before the tea leaves been cut off, tea farmer will use some material like a cover in front of whole tea trees to block the sunshine onto tea leaves, the tea is lack of sunshine burn that the tannin in tea leaves is less, that's why the unique flavor come out. I'm happy that there are so many people in US also like Gyokuro, I cannot live without tea that in my 4 weeks trip in Michigan is really a challenge for me to find a real green tea here. Thanks for Amazon for me to get this, it's really same taste like what I drink every day in Japan and China.I read some review to talk about price, I should say, this is NOT expensive, it's really a regular normal price if compare with the price in Japan. Gyokuro is premium green tea, much expensive than Sencha. Green tea is never cheap even in China and Japan. If any green tea is lower than 20 dollar per 100g, it will never be a good one. A medium level green tea in China will be at least 15 dollar per 50g. Gyokuro is almost same, high level Gyokuro is very expensive. It spend me at least 50 dollars on green tea leaves per month, like you have coffee : )Another thing regarding to Gyokuro and Sencha. I won't talk about Chinese tea here lol. if makes Sencha, the hot water can be around 70 or 80 degree, but for Gyokuro, which should be made more gentle, please use cooler hot water, no more than 60c, otherwise the taste will change, the sweetie will gone. Also Gyokuro can be made by water even with ice, just put the leaves into water and wait for 6 hours or more, it's possible to enjoy the cold tea, we call it Mitzu dashi '''. Please enjoy it. This is really good, true Gyokuro taste : )

This is some of the finest tea I have tried and I love it!I struggled between buying from this brand v.s.buying from another trustworthy tea company that I have been its long term customer. I personally like the taste of the Gyokuro, from the same grade, offer by another company but the Tealyra's is about 1/3 cheaper in price than the other brand I like. I figured the money I could save by sticking with Tealyra is more than the quality I forgo, so I have been sticking with Tealyra for my Gyokuro since my first purchase.Yame is a region in Japan where the gyokuro is well famous for so you can't go wrong buying from Tealyra. The package comes with clear instruction on brewing time/method. I'd strongly suggest follow the instruction the first time then adjust the amount of tea leaves to suit one's taste. Just remember, using the correct timing to brew gyokuro is extremely important. NEVER brew the tea for over 2 mins for the first steep. The second steep could be slightly longer, about 30 secs more, to retain the strong flavor.When I tried it the first time few years ago, I didn't like gyokuro that much as I thought it tasted too "grassy" to my liking. I then adjusted the brewing time and temperature and I realized the water temperature I used was a little too warm. This tea is delicate and so fine that slightly cooler than hot water is the ideal temperature to use. A two minutes steeping is more than enough. There is a subtle "smokey" taste to the freshness of the nice Japanese green tea. The combination is simply unique and gratifying. Granted, the tea is more on the expansive side and I don't consume it every day. But for $28, I'd say this is totally a bang for your buck splurging on some of the finest green tea on the market. I am so spoiled drinking the gyokuro that I hardly want to switch back to regular green tea these days. Be warned :)

I rotate among 10 different teas; I generally make 3 cups and pour 2 into a Thermos that I use only for tea. I finally ran out of my supply of Teavana's Gyukoro Imperial and needed to find a replacement. I chose this gyukoro tea from Tealyra.Wow! It is much better than the Teavana gyukoro I liked a lot. The flavor is more subtle, yet changes as it sits in your mouth, the color is the textbook color for gyukoro tea, and the texture is heavenly. This is truly a treasure.The only reason I gave 4 stars for value is that it is expensive. However, the expense is worth it to me for a gyukoro this majestic.

This green tea is delicious, but can be very strong if you are not careful with measuring or the length of time for steeping. I find this has a bold flavor and the packaging helps to maintain the freshness of the product. I have other green tea products, but this by far, is the most superior in taste.