I love green tea. It was the first and only tea I drank regularly in sachet or bagged form until I discovered loose leaf (and that teas besides green exist. . lol, not really, but…). Back in the day, I’d leave my teabags in the cup the whole time while I drank. Fortunately, many of them were forgiving to my ignorance. The very first loose tea I purchased, naturally, was a sencha. The staple every-day tea of Japan, I thought it would be my one and only. But Sencha and I, we had a rough start. Several bitter and astringent cups later, I ended up getting rid of my very first bag of sencha (and it was a big bag, as I expected to like it). As I got more experienced with tea brewing methods, I gave sencha another shot. Sencha tends to be the most picky of my green teas to brew just right. Could be just the specific ones that I’ve tried, I don’t know. At any rate, when I brewed them just right, they are the best cup of green tea.
So here I am confronted with a sachet of sencha (free sample from H&S). I quite mindfully heated my water to exactly 165F and steeped my sachet for 1min30sec in an 8oz mug. The flavor is surprisingly sweet and not the least bit bitter, but it is weak. If only I could guarantee a way to increase the strength of flavor without adding bitterness, this could be a worthwhile repurchase.
