Premium Green Tea by Stash

A review of Premium Green Tea by Stash Tea Company

Company: Stash Tea Company
Tea Name: Premium Green Tea
Tea Type/Varietal: green
Steeping Vessel/Amt Leaf: cup/ tea bag
Liquor Color: light golden brown
Leaf Characteristic:

1st Steeping:
Water Temp: 170 Fahrenheit
Time: 2-3 minutes

Green tea seems to consume my day of late. When I am not having a cup of powdered juice than I am having a cup of Stash’s Premium Green Tea. I used freshly boiled water, after placing of one tea bag in my cup, and having added the boiled water into the cup, I leave it to steep for few minutes. The tea’s aroma is like that of seaweeds and astringency. As I sip of the tea it is warm on my palette and as I swallow there is that slightly bitter after taste. It is not unpleasant at all. I rather expect for it to taste exactly as it does.
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Overall tasting notes: freshly of the sea, salt, marine algae are what come to mind.

Cup’s characteristic: cup of medicinal tea and very astringent

Liquor color: light golden brown

Taste: This tea has a great ‘umami’ taste that is reveal with each sip or throughout its entirety; the flavor comes through and through, it does not dissipate.

I found a couple of errant bags of Stash Premium Green, permitting the propitious possibility of a steep-off with Harney & Sons Japanese Sencha (see below for the openers to this steep-off).

Now for the true test: the scent and the taste!

I find that the brewed Stash Premium Green has a stronger, richer aroma, with a slightly cerealesque facet to it, while the Harney & Sons smells lighter and more vegetal.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the taste, too, differs in that same regard. In fact, now that I sniff and sip these two green teas side by side, I am realizing that the Stash Premium Green lies just over the sencha line, veering toward the genmaicha side. I have always loved this tea, and I do affirm today that I could easily imbibe another 1000 bags!

Perhaps, though, I am comparing apples and oranges. It now seems pretty clear that Stash Premium Green is not a blend only of senchas, which the Harney & Sons Japanese Sencha certainly is.

I like them both. I really do, but the golden Stash brew strikes me as more substantial, with a more pronounced flavor and a richer texture than the brighter green Harney & Sons brew. This despite the fact that the spent Stash bag weighs about half as much as the spent Harney & Sons bag!

I guess that all of this goes to show:

on ne sait jamais!

Anybody have a clue where I got this? Me either. All the same, it’s a decent, low-fuss bagged green tea with a nice fresh-cut vegetal flavor. Today, when the AC choices (I use the term choices loosely—our environment is controlled remotely by capricious thermostat genies) at work are “hot soup” or “cold soup,” it worked well both hot and iced.

This is one of the better powdered and bagged green teas I’ve tasted (low-bar).
This is the green tea we stock at the office. It’s okay in a pinch, like when I’m traveling or in a hurry, but it pales in comparison to a high-quality whole-leaf green tea.

This tea very warming to the pallette, and carries a slightly bitter and salty after taste. I can see how others would classify this as seaweed. I love drinking this tea at night when I want to relax.

こんいちわ tea lovers! Stash. Stash is an interesting brand. They have an assortment of teas to choose from, a lot of which I tend to like. You can find them in pretty much any grocery store which is the nice thing. Stash is known as a “budget” tea. You’re not really going to find this at any tea tastings, but their premium green tea actually does put up a fight. Upon first consumption you taste a pleasant leafy green, with a grass like smell coming off it. It depends on how you brew it honestly. I find the longer I steep this tea, the better it taste, but you do not want to exceed 10 minutes! It produces a light grass green color, and has almost a sweet taste to it. You can tell this is more of a premium brand, especially for how cheap it is. Again, this will not compete with your big dogs, BUT Stash definitely came to play with this one. If you are looking for an easy to find, budget friendly green tea taste, or are just entering the tea world, well this is for you.

Once again, doing slightly-strange things with this tea in the name of “just wanting a pot of tea at my desk at work.” Two bags of this, two bags of Peet’s Earl Grey with Bergamot. Indeterminate steep time. Tastes decent to me!

The initial taste reminds me of seaweed. There is a light grassy, almost sweet quality to the aftertaste as well. The tea itself is a pleasant yellow-green color, and the smell of the brew makes me think of grass, specifically exotic grass from some far-away country. There isn’t much bitterness to this tea currently. As the cup moves on an odd, bittersweet flavor is coming to the forefront of the taste. It isn’t bad, just a bit unexpected. As I near the end of the cup the taste appears to be coming a bit closer to home. The exotic quality that was present before has been overtaken by a taste that reminds me, for lack of a better term, of a fresh-cut lawn. I’m noticing a bit of black powder at the bottom of the cup, I’m guessing from the bag. The scent has gotten noticeably fainter. The last drink also had a fainter taste than the tea did initially, and no scent has been left in my cup after the tea has been drank.

I tried this one at work today and I really wasn’t a fan. The smell and taste reminded me of seaweed (not that I’ve ever eaten seaweed, but there was a salty tang to it that made me think of the ocean.) There was also a good bit of astringency that left my mouth feeling puckery after I finished the cup. Overall, this was drinkable, but not something I’d reach for again.

This is a good inexpensive bagged green tea. I drink quite a few bagged black teas, but I go with loose leaf teas for green most of the time. If I do go with a bagged green tea, it’s usually this one or the Choice Premium Japanese Green Tea. It’s somewhat vegetal and pleasantly bitter, and a decent strength and flavor. It’s grassy, tastes like a Japanese tea to me, which of course I love.