Spring First Flush Sencha Blend

Home – 6:30 PM

The Great Cupboard Excavation
Untasted teas remaining: 10

I’m trying to taste at least one older cupboard tea per day, even though all I want to do is dive headlong into my pile of Bird & Blend sample packets…

This one is a pleasant enough Japanese sencha. It has a strong vegetal presence – mostly blanched spinach with a touch of asparagus. There is also a lovely umami note, and a bit of seaweed but also some grassy sweetness. Only the tiniest hint of pleasant bitterness near the end of the sip, and a light apricot astringency in the aftertaste.

It’s perhaps not the most nuanced Japanese green tea, but it does have the classic sencha flavors and I’m finding it quite enjoyable this evening.

Second time trying this tea and it came out better. Still not very complex, but possesses a good balance of flavours, which was probably intended by mixing various types of tea. There is not a huge difference between various steeps, but naturally umami gradually dies out while astringency appears around 3rd and especially 4th steep. The last, fifth, steep is lacking in many respect with respect to the previous ones, so I didn’t push it any further.

6 g of tea
1st steep, 70°C, 60 sec, 60 ml
2nd steep, 75°C, 30 sec, 100 ml
3rd steep, 80°C, 60 sec, 100 ml
4th steep, 80°C, 100 sec, 100 ml
5th steep, 90°C, 150 sec, 100 ml