Goishicha from the Otoyo Town Goishicha Producer's Association

大豊町碁石茶協同組合 『本場の本物』碁石茶

20g 

For over 400 years, the producers in Otoyo Town spend two months in early autumn to create this Puerh-like post-fermented tea. This tea was almost lost as the demand for it decreased but thanks to local government support plus a trend for healthy teas, it is now available again.

This tea has a strong dried plum aroma when dry and a slightly sour and earthy savoury flavour with notes of sour plum in the liquor. 

Goishicha is a rare dark (post-fermented) tea that comes in small square bricks. It is made from thick bancha leaves. Unlike other teas, the leaves are picked from the whole tea bush rather than just the tops of the branches. 

The tea gained its name as the small tea bricks resemble the black stones used to play the game "GO"

Process:

• After being deeply steamed, this tea goes through two stages of fermentation. The juice from the leaves is kept to be used later in the process. 
• The steamed leaves are then stacked and covered, this starts the first mould fermentation 
• After this, the second fermentation process takes place by lactic acid bacteria. During this step the leaves are packed into a barrel, the juice from the steaming is sprinkled over and they are pressed with a heavy weight. This process pickles the leaves resulting in a slightly sour flavour in the final tea liquor.  
  
• These compressed leaves are then cut out of the barrel and separated into small blocks. 
• These small squares of compressed tea cakes are then dried out under the sun.

Steeping Notes: 

Place 1 block (approx 3g) of goishicha into a teapot (350 ml) and steep with hot water for 4-5 minutes. Multiple infusions possible

Alternatively, you can also brew this tea in a pan or a tea kettle: 1 block in 2 litres of water for 10 minutes.

• Ingredients: Tea leaves
• Harvest: Autumn
• Region: Otoyo Town, Kochi Prefecture

Notes: Traditionally this tea was used as an ingredient in chagayu - a Japanese rice porridge similar to congee. Unline Ochazuke the rice is actually cooked with the tea giving the dish additional flavour and a softer rice porridge consistency.