Sencha

Really good for bagged tea.

I went to a coffee shop and ordered this, I expected a loose tea but they just threw the bag in the mug. I was disappointed at first, but I was quite satisfied.

The tea came out a very lovely green color. Which is really nice, most of the green tea I drink comes out a light amber. It tasted vegetal and smooth like a good Sencha should, but also went along really well with the muffin I ordered, with almost a buttery aftertaste.

It’s certainly not the most interesting tea you could get, but probably the best bagged Sencha I’ve had.

This is a sample from one of my recent orders. I like it. I have strayed away from green tea b/c of the bitterness I have experienced, but I have 2 sencha teas in my cupboard right now and I am really enjoying them. Tonight this cup is doing the trick as I curl up with my library hold that became available today, Artemis.

This stuff taught me the meaning of the phrase “tea drunk.” I picked it up to keep at the office, thinking it would be a nice, refreshing afternoon tea. But after I’d made a cup for the first time I was shuffling around the kitchen in a haze, like I’d slipped outside for a doobie or pounded an airplane bottle of scotch at my desk.

It felt amazing, like I was getting away with something, but I finally decided that I’d rather stay sharp on the job. And being obviously spacy during a meeting while trying to pin it on “tea” might raise an eyebrow or two. So home it came, where it’s been getting me buzzed intermittently ever since.

In case you’re the kind of weirdo who drinks tea to actually taste it, this is about what you’d expect — grassy, marine, and slightly savory, with a mouthfeel that’s somehow slightly soupy but also refreshing. I get some light bitterness and astringency, but that could be due to my over-leafing (to get that buzz on). It’s a good, middle-of-the-road tea at a fair price.

I go for this tea when I’m in the mood for a plain, grassy green tea with no added flavors. This one has a lovely clean smell and it’s far more green in color than most green teas. Very light tasting. Delish!

Sample cube 11/18

Trying to put a little more substance to these notes, otherwise they’re getting shorter and shorter…

Lunchtime brew. The dry leaf smells very vegetal and savory, and once brewed up, those qualities remain very strong. The liquor is a light spring green—much greener than the average non-sencha green tea. And while the brewed tea retains a vegetal aroma (I’ve never found much appeal in picking out whether it reminds me of individual vegetables, haha), the taste also has notes of dried seaweed, a distinct quality that I can’t describe better than “typical sencha flavor”, and a light astringency. It’s a very substantial green tea, and a good accompaniment to a meal. If not for this sample, I’m not sure when I would have next voluntarily reached for a sencha, but I’m quite glad I tried it.

I had a sachet of this that I received as a sample with my Harney and Sons order.
I’m not sure if I messed up brewing this one as it tastes like vegetable soup. All I can taste is the grassy veggyish notes. Am I missing something? Did I brew it wrong?

nice, clean green buttery snap pea bordering on spinach with a strong note of fresh grass. a very vegetal, satisfying cup of yummy vegetable (which i really can’t quite pinpoint!) which is definitely great after a meal. this is lovely.

not something i always reach for, as i need to be in the mood for it & i can’t drink this on an empty stomach as greens tend to make me a little hypoglycemic (they seem to have a diuretic effect on me) & then i start to feel dizzy. must always have this with food, but i find you can truly savor it as a digestif.

and savory this is! a savory, buttery silken green. the dry leaf smells of fresh cut grass (ultra green grass that’s been shining in the sun but has not dried out. it’s verdant and fresh, having retained its moisture from the last rain—that kind of grass.) the coolest thing about this tea is that it is truly a ‘green’ green tea! the liquor slowly transforms into a rather bright shade of peridot that becomes cloudy as bits of dust settle. it’s very neat to see. and really, the liquor this tea produces is an honest replication of peridot. a most splendid color!

though i am by no means an aficionado of greens, i did have several cups of Teavana’s Gyokuro Imperial earlier last year and this somehow reminds me of that. both share a richesse and silken texture with a highly vegetal flavor of seemingly high quality. from what i can remember, the differences between the two is that the liquor produced by the Gyokuro was much brighter, like a chartreuse, almost like someone dipped a highlighter pen in the water. though clearly green, it had a neon yellow essence, like the oily residue from a curry comprised mainly of turmeric and asafoetida. hard to believe such a supernatural shade of green can be produced from tea leaves!

would actually like to revisit Gyokuro just to see how much it differs from my memory of it vis a vis Sencha.

but all in all, this is a solid H&S offering which is quite nice in my book. i actually had my first infusion after some chocolate peanut butter ice cream by Haagen Dazs, which was absolutely decadent (!!!!). this Sencha somehow brought me back down to earth & was an interesting juxtaposition of flavor.

gonna have my second infusion after this tasting note!

H&S included a free sachet of this in my order, which is funny because I ordered a sample of the loose leaf version… So while I wish they would have chosen something else, at least I know I’ll like this. The leaves look like all senchas have to me – little dark green flat needles. The smell is similar also – quite sweet with spinach and squash. I steeped it for 1 minute in one of my new, cute noble cups.

I’m finding that I really enjoy the lighter steamed senchas versus the more heavily steamed ones. The flavor is a bit rougher or more grassy as opposed to super deep vegetal. This tea’s aroma is spinach, but I also find broccoli and carrot in there somewhere. It tastes different than others I’ve tried so far. There is that ubiquitous steamed spinach taste and the broccoli from the aroma, but I also taste autumn leaves. The aftertaste is spinachy but also slightly roasty. It’s almost like this tea has a bit of houjicha mixed in somewhere! Quite tasty.

Got this as a free sachet in my H&S order. I’m not terribly experienced with straight senchas; this seems like a solid one to me, very smooth, a little mineral tasting with a slight touch of astringency, but nothing unpleasant. I quite like it, but I’m not sure how it compares to the other senchas on the market.

Sipdown! (103)

Dude. Green tea is freakin weird, man.
See, the only green tea that I really enjoy is the Jasmine ones.
I kinda sorta just group sencha and matcha and dragonwell and those green dragon pearls from Adagio into one massive category in my brain. They all taste and look the same to me! Green… like very green in colour and taste.
This particular tea though turned out to be a bit bitter.