Yes. I said I would give Jackee Muntz a second try after taking care of the Yunnan-infestation. This was indeed my intention, but then I came over feeling all green-like. This one is also from Auggy and a reminder that I have yet to find the best green tea. But I think it must definitely be one of the japanese ones, although that bolivian one I had rather grew on me as well. I thought for the longest time that the green for me was the bi lou chun, but… I don’t know. These days it doesn’t feel like it.
That’s a feeling that sencha has brought me closer to. I rather like how they go all radioactive in colour and that grassy, almost salty seaweed-y flavour. It makes them taste outdoors-y and active, where the chinese ones have a more sort of inactiveness about them. The sencha is the one that goes to the beach on an autumn day to see how big the waves are, while the average chinese green seems happier with hiding inside just in case the rain might actually turn out be harmful after all.
(And I know someone is likely to come charging in at this point, screaming “MATCHA!!!!!!!” so I’ll just point that I’ve tried that and wasn’t convinced. Seems highly overrated to me with much the same flavour as a traditionally brewed sencha. In which case I prefer the traditional brew. Much easier to deal with in the end. So, no. I’ve lost all interest in matcha.)
So sencha. Seems to be the one I come back to time and time again. It doesn’t hurt that it seems to carry flavouring quite well also, for example with berries or with rhubarb, the latter of which I’m slowly becoming rather partial to. There’s just something about it.
ANYWAY! This one is a plain sencha. The leaves are lovely dark green colour, like that of a coniferous forest, but they are rather small resulting in a deep green porridge like substance in the strainer. Half of which then missed the pot when I tried to tip it back in…
It’s quite strong actually. It must be the small leaves that does it. I only gave it 30 seconds but it still feels a little bit over the top. And this is where I notice that Auggy suggested starting at instant pour… Tea brewing doesn’t really seem to be going well for me today! It doesn’t taste oversteeped though. Just rather on the strong side of things.
The flavour itself is familiar. Grassy and somewhat salty. It’s a flavour with substance again. Like the sticky rice pu-erh, this is something where I have to remind myself that I’m having tea. Not some sort of tea-soup. It’s not a meal, self.
I like this one. It’s an interesting flavour but also a straight-forward one. It doesn’t demand brain capacity of me that I don’t have and it forgives my initial unintended strength of brew. It tastes a bit, actually, like it might be rather difficult to ruin.
I should definitely start shopping around for the perfect Sencha (and possibly also familiarise myself a bit more with gyokuru which I’ve only tried once but found extremely pleasant). It’s quite a treasure hunt I’m setting out for myself here. I need to find the perfect sencha, the perfect keemun, the perfect yunnan and the perfect assam (I think I’m close on this one). That’s the rest of my life laid out right there.
Also, either I’ve been good at keeping up with the dashboard or you lot have all been very quiet for a while now. I think I’ll risk my neck and add some more interesting people to follow. Who are your favourite steepsterite to follow?
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It makes them taste outdoors-y and active, where the chinese ones have a more sort of inactiveness about them.
Okay, I think you’ve just summed up my thoughts on why I love Japanese greens so vs. Chinese ones without me even knowing I was trying to sum them up.
For this one, O-cha suggests 45s for the first steep. Hopefully I didn’t forget to include that in the directions (it’s possible that I forgot because I would have had to look it up). The instant pour thing is for the second steep. Sorry if I went straight to the second steep time! Though if you were heavy on the leaf, shorter steep time is good and it sounds like it went okay. Overbrewed sencha is evil and horribly bitter so drinkable usually means you did something right (even if it is strong)! :) Hopefully this one will prove to make as consistently tasty as their Yutaka Midori!
I don’t think I’ve ever really managed to truly oversteep a sencha. I’ve done it with chun mee which is not something I would recommend omg! O.o
You did include it, but I understood the 45 sec to be their recommendation and then the instant pour to be your suggestion, so two suggestions for both steeps. It seemed a bit odd to me to have the first steep significantly longer than the second one, but assume there’s some sort of waking of the leaves at play.
I think I’ll go make me the second one and we’ll see what happens with instant pour. :)
Totally correct on the waking of the leaves, at least how I understand it to go. Most senchas seem happiest for me at <15s second steep. And with the more steamed teas, my filter gets clogged quickly which leads to a slow pour so an instant pour takes about 12 – 15s to complete. But I also tend to be kind of sensitive to the potential bitterness of sencha, so that plays a part in how I treat it.
It makes them taste outdoors-y and active, where the chinese ones have a more sort of inactiveness about them.
Okay, I think you’ve just summed up my thoughts on why I love Japanese greens so vs. Chinese ones without me even knowing I was trying to sum them up.
For this one, O-cha suggests 45s for the first steep. Hopefully I didn’t forget to include that in the directions (it’s possible that I forgot because I would have had to look it up). The instant pour thing is for the second steep. Sorry if I went straight to the second steep time! Though if you were heavy on the leaf, shorter steep time is good and it sounds like it went okay. Overbrewed sencha is evil and horribly bitter so drinkable usually means you did something right (even if it is strong)! :) Hopefully this one will prove to make as consistently tasty as their Yutaka Midori!
I don’t think I’ve ever really managed to truly oversteep a sencha. I’ve done it with chun mee which is not something I would recommend omg! O.o
You did include it, but I understood the 45 sec to be their recommendation and then the instant pour to be your suggestion, so two suggestions for both steeps. It seemed a bit odd to me to have the first steep significantly longer than the second one, but assume there’s some sort of waking of the leaves at play.
I think I’ll go make me the second one and we’ll see what happens with instant pour. :)
Totally correct on the waking of the leaves, at least how I understand it to go. Most senchas seem happiest for me at <15s second steep. And with the more steamed teas, my filter gets clogged quickly which leads to a slow pour so an instant pour takes about 12 – 15s to complete. But I also tend to be kind of sensitive to the potential bitterness of sencha, so that plays a part in how I treat it.