Finally a fishy green

It's an old thread, but Yamamoto teas come from Brazil which in itself makes them 'fishy' if you didn't know that.

Jim

Dom> My search has lasted over 6 months to try to find a solid "fishy"

Dominic snipped-for-privacy@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com10/25/06

08: snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com

That's just what I thought: Fishy/seaweedy is a mark of some of the cheaper offerings. BTW, your tea was most likely grown in Brazil, but what the hay.

They are a large firm, growing much tea in Brazil, but supposedly by Japanese growers, applying a Japanese sensitivity to the process.

Thanks. I like that style, too.

Michael

I originally thought this too, but over the years I have been proven wrong over and over. I have had tea hand delivered from a Japanese friend that was only a week old and it was the most splendidly fishy green ever. It was fresh, expensive, and ultra high-quality. Then through the years a lot of my seasonal fresh greens from certain Japanese farms (many in Uji) have produced fishy teas one year and then completely non-fishy teas the next.I have also tried many cheap greens that have no fishyness either.

It's basically a crap shoot, which is why it drives me so insane. Other people have go-to teas for certain flavors, but with this there are none... except this Yamamotoyama (the yama thing is really quite redundant :) I vow to one day pin it down to either nature or nurture as to the fishyness of green tea because it has to be something concrete that causes it.

- Dominic

Aha! I may be on to something here... part of the answer may be very simple after all!!! A quick read of the Yamamotoyama website

turns up very quickly that they sell only two products: Green Tea and Nori (seaweed)!

I never knew this but the long half-clear pouches of sencha sometimes found in asian markets are also made by Yamamotoyama which I never realized and also I buy for a more subtle fishy taste!

Now, I sent my friend in Japan an email asking if the Tea grower he frequents also processes or sells nori!

It may taste fishy, because it is! If it is processed in around or on the same equipment that the nori is then the flavor is easily traced. If it is this simple after all this time I could cry. It makes sense in that delicate greens would easily pick up other flavors and aroma's and of they are in close proximity to nori... then BINGO. I'm almost speechless at this simple finding and how basic it all may be.

I have a quarter pound of a sencha that I'm not all that keen on, and I think I'm going to store the bag in a ziplock with a couple sheets of nori and see if I can create my own nirvana!

... can't wait to get home and experiment.

- Dominic

It's funny the way YamaMotoYama works in Japanese. It translate as YamaMoto mountain. The character for both Yama is the chinese shan(yama) for mountain but Moto says use the preceding literal and not the meaning. I have a box of green tea teabags in aluminum foil that is at least 10 years old. One of these days I'll make a point to see if they taste fishy and report back. I wished all teabags came in aluminum foil. These are the only guys I know doing it in their entire product line from what I remember seeing on the shelves.

Jim

Dom> > That's just what I thought: Fishy/seaweedy is a mark of

I was unaware of that rule in Japanese... it has never really come up before in anything I've seen... but thanks for the explaination I appreciate it, I like that kind of stuff.

As for the tea, I like it. Even if it wasn't fishy it is actually a consistent and solid green tea. Even though I'm not a snobbish tea person, I'm still not a fan of many teas that come in tea bags... but this tea is quite acceptable. It seems like a lot of people are a bit down on the company but after reading the brief info on their website and some other online resources I think they are actually a respectable tea company. The foil pouches is another plus, and whether it is Brazil or Japan really doesn't affect my opinion.

- Dominic

Basically any character in Japanese can have the Chinese or the Japanese sound if it is common to both languages. The two characters for Japan are Nippon in Japanese. That is the Chinese sound. You'll never hear the Japanese sound Hinomoto. Marco Polo gave us Japan.

Jim

Dom> > It's funny the way YamaMotoYama works in Japanese. It translate as

[Michael] [Dominic] [M] Two things: First, I wasn't saying that an inexpensive tea is necessarily not fresh; it might be plentiful or lacking in name recognition, or drunk locally. Second, I wasn't saying that Brazil is necessarily associated with "fishy" teas, but that Yamamotoyama is, although not entirely. Your last point is on target: You win a few, you lose a few, and some get rained out. [D] [M] May we switch to calling it "seaweedy"? It would make me happy. May we switch to calling it "seaweedy"? It would make me happy.

Michael

We may switch to calling it "seaweedy." We may switch to calling it "seaweedy."

;)

- Dominic

I vote for seakelpy which makes it taste better.

Jim

Dom> > [M]

Seakelpy works as well. I hold to my "fishy" description because for a few years it was always referred to as "that fish tea" when I would go into the little pan-asian market and try to describe the one I wanted in limited vocabulary.

The owner found it amusing and we always knew what I was talking about. But I agree there are much more appealing terms. I kinda like seakelpy or nori-ish over fishy or seaweedy.

I'm still amazed that it may all really be related to seaweed being processed around or on the same equipment as the tea after all this time. I used to say that jokingly and now it may be reality! crazy.

- Dominic

[Jim] [Dominic] [Dominic] [Dominic] [Michael] "Seakelpy" is great! From now on it's seakelpy for me. BTW, did you know that if you produce nori in the vecinity of tea, the nori will begin strangely to taste a bit like a seaklepy oolong? It's really worth looking into.

Did you try the Ka-Me (turtle) brand loose sencha? It's inexpensive, and it really does taste offensively fishy to my tongue.

--scott

As far as I knew Ka-Me only sold two packaged teabag teas one labeled "Chinese Restaurant Tea" and one as "Green Tea." Where can I get the loose stuff? If you could provide a link or some lead I'll be buying some up instantly. I think I may be fairly alone in that "Offensively fishy" sparks a feverish desire to buy a tea, but hey why fight it ? :)

...or is that "offensively seakelpy" ;)

- Dominic

Hmm... I have a box in my cabinet... but it turns out to be HIME and not KAME. This is what I was referring to:

--scott