1319 Tasting Notes
Thank you Marshall for the trade! I am comparing this to the sencha I had before and wow. Having an eye to determine the difference between these two is absolutely amazing. Now when it comes to taste I am getting closer to being able to tell the difference without being told which is which first. Still, I’m in awe of the farmers.
Dry Leaf: Umami!
Appearance: Long (mostly) needle-shaped leaves. Glossy, dark green with a few vibrant greens mixed in.
Mouth Feel: Very smooth.
Flavor: Lots of umami.
Infusing tea: Slight fresh melon notes. Fresh-cut grass. Umami.
This one is lovely.
Thank you for the trade, Marshall!!! I’m currently looking at this one and the Gyokuro side by side and being absolutely mind-blown. I mean, it’s not like this is the first gyokuro or sencha I’ve seen but knowing the work they go through to make the minor differences… Just wow.
Dry appearance is amazing. I would not have guessed this to be a sencha because that is stellar coloring. Guess I need to study up more. Needless thin and tight. Dark green with a few light greens.
Dry aroma: nice. Fresh. Bits of umami.
Flavor: Umami. Fresh cut grass.
Mouth feel: smooth.
Thank you, Marshall, for this trade! The simple joy of getting tea in the mail is so nice.
Dry Appearance: The leaves on this one are so long! Definitely 3rd, 4th, and 6th leaf on the branch. Even some cute stems! They are dusty-looking with rich, deep chocolate brown notes.
Initial rinse: 1880s house. Lots of old wood notes.
Mouth Feel: Very smooth. Blanketing.
Flavor: Bits of charcoal. Burnt toast. If you steep it too long you really feel like you’re licking a very old wood house.
Sheng is a category I think I would have to explore more deeply to pull out some of the nuanced notes.
Sometimes teas hide under other teas. Like playing hide and seek until they know you can fully appreciate them. This one was hiding in plain sight.
Wet Leaf Aroma: Buttered Popcorn. My husband disagrees. He says it’s nutty. Just can’t pin down what nut. Maybe Brazil nut? Also dried apricots and tropical fruits and flora.
Flavor: I’ve had better Jin Xuan in the past but besides the name, this is still a nice oolong. It lacks minerality in the beginning but kicks into gear as it enters your throat. More apricot notes emerge with more steeping.
Thank you to Davidson’s for donating tea to the MN Tea Society. It comes in good time too because everyone else has been sick and so now with all the anxiety and depression I’ve been dealing with the past few weeks, I’ve caught it too.
The aroma is very nice. Calming. Full of licorice root notes and ayurvedic herbal notes.
The flavoring is nice. Spicy and healing.
Today is a good day for drinking tea labeled with the word heart. My heart hurts right now.
For many reasons.
But this tea helps to warm a weary heart.
Dry Aroma: A bit of warm hay, sweet grass,
Dry Appearance: Mostly flat leaf with some light green stems. Some leaves have twisting.
Temp: 120 F. Infusion Time: 3 Mins
Liquor Aroma: I could sit here and smell this all day. Fruity notes, grassy notes, vegetal notes. My mouth is watering.
Flavor: Umami! All about the umami. Fresh grass and some spinach but mainly umami.
Mouthfeel: SMOOTH!
This was part of a four tea series. Once you have tried sencha enough to the point that you can differentiate it from other Japanese green teas I highly suggest trying different sencha from different areas in Japan. Or even sencha from the same area but different farmers.
While I’ve had plenty of sencha, this is the first time I’ve had one from this farmer and of this cultivar: Yamakai.
Dry Appearance: Muted Green. Deep olive green. Broken.
Dry aroma: Fresh-cut grass, fresh herbaceous notes
Flavor: Vegetal, slight butter, buttered corn, steamed wilted spinach. And a bit of long summer grass.
Mouth feel: A bit astringent. Light and airy.
Wet Leaf aroma: Slight green pepper and wilting tea leaves. Perhaps that is a terrible description but after smelling the steaming of the leaves… It reminds me of the aroma of the tea while it is processed in the factory in Wazuka.
As I sit here drinking this tea I am having an odd thought. Last year (2024) I had a tencha from 2023 and it was phenomenal. I couldn’t help thinking to myself, this tea is fantastic perhaps if I stored it properly would it age nicely like that? So we are going to try.
1/31/2025 Tasting notes:
Dry Leaf aroma: Slight tropical fruit. Mango. Fresh pile of grass.
Dry Leaf Appearance: Shiny, tightly twisted. Dark and creamy light green.
Wet Leaf: Very vegetal. Freshly steamed asparagus and spinach. Makes my mouth water.
Flavor: High in umami. Heavy in spinach notes. Mainly wilted spinach.
Mouthfeel: Soft. Filling. A slight astringency.
Dry Aroma: Herbal. A bit of black pepper without the sneezing.
Dry Appearance: Dark brown with a few hints of tan and an interesting leather brown look on 1/3 of them. Twisting, curling, and some a bit open. Mostly broken in medium-sized pieces.
Infusing leaves: ARTICHOKE! Cream.
Flavor: More artichoke. Kinda herbal. It has a bit of minerality but is different from other oolongs in that it takes a backseat.
Mouth feel: Silky and very filling, like a Chinese silk comforter. Btw… as amazing as they feel they don’t don’t make good bed comforter. They’re slippery. And any time you try to look cool by sliding across it will end up with you faceplanting into the wall or floor.
Liquor color: O_O that’s dark! Not as dark as some pu er or dark teas can be but darker than some black (red) teas.
Wet Leaf Aroma: Kinda… sour? Not quite as high as a goishicha but something in the aroma is slightly sour. But in a good way. There is also a bit of raisin.
After visiting Wazuka and seeing the Obubu Tea farm in action I am excited to give this one a try and also it makes me miss Wazuka. It’s a quaint little town that I highly suggest anyone to visit but more so to those who love tea. It is a deeply enriching experience. (Btw I helped fund a bus that now runs to Wazuka to make it a bit more convenient.)
This one says it will last till 2025, Dec 4th. Quite a while for matcha. If you can find expiration dates or ask when it was ground, do it.
The coloring on this one is nice. Bright green. Soft in texture. The aroma is full of umami and a slight hint of grass and veggies. Oh, and some cream.
The flavor is very rich. The mouth feel is filling and smooth. Slight silt but nothing annoying. If you are looking for a higher-grade matcha for lattes this would be a good one. It is fine to drink on its own but it doesn’t have some of the more nuanced notes that I look for.
Actually, I might come back and edit this in another session. As I sit here drinking this more other notes and starting to pop out. The umami is really making a show of its self.