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I broke 7g off of my cake to try this one for the first time and put it in my 120mL gaiwan, using boiling water. This tea was not bad, but it was a little bit boring for my tastes.

The dry leaves had a light hay aroma. After a rinse, they took on a bit of a floral smell as well. Those were about the only flavors I got throughout my ~11 steep session with this tea. Light and sweet hay notes with a sometimes floral finish. It was a bit of a peculiar floral flavor…maybe orchids. The body of this tea was alright, though compares unfavorably with just about every other W2T production I’ve tried.

Again, I don’t think this is a bad tea, but not one that I think I’ll be too excited to drink most of the time.

The leaf from this tea looks quite similar to the other Malawi oolong I’ve tried – the Father Zambezi’s Mission oolong. Green with lots of visible redness evincing the partial oxidation of the tea. I got this in a swap with JK7Ray on reddit.

This one was pretty interesting. Started out with some light malty and fruity notes. I got a hint of cinnamon in one of the early steeps. By the third steep, the fruity notes started seeming like green grape to me. Through the meat of the session, this tea had a nice and refreshing brisk taste to it. Malty with slight floral notes and a crisp fruit finish, mostly the green grapes. For a couple steeps, the fruitiness acquired a bit of sourness which made it seem more like raisins to me.

Looking at other reviews, I can see how people might taste some tropical fruitiness in this one. I didn’t get pineapple or mango from it, but the sourness could make it seem a little tropical. Good tea either way.

Man, I came close to ordering one of these…I ended up with two samples from two different puerhshop orders. I had pretty fond memories of my first try, but after having it a second time, I don’t think it’s anything I need to pick up. The dry aroma was nice and minty smelling. After a rinse, the leaves had a leathery slightly smoky smell – smelled like kind of old sheng I guess.

The liquid had a decent orange tint going on, indicating this sheng’s entrance into middle-agedness. First couple steeps were slightly thick, smooth, with leathery and menthol notes. The taste got pretty pungent a few steeps in, with the leathery becoming more tobacco. It started to gain a bit of a sour undercurrent that reminded me of raisins or craisins, without much sweetness. I got a bit of feeling from this tea in my throat – a slight constricting feeling. Not much otherwise in terms of body feel. Later steeps were pretty clean tasting, with tobacco and an “aged” note. Not bad tea, but not one I need to pick up a whole 250g of. I might have snagged one if they were 100g tuos, but there’s honestly much better tea I could spend $20 on.

This tea was alright. It didn’t work with a long first steep, got way too bitter and died really fast. I really need to start trying the parameters on the bag before trying weird stuff. Brewed a little more gently, it had a very thick texture with grassy flavor. Not particularly interesting throughout – just grassy really. Not bad though!

This one was pretty good, though it seemed a little finicky when it came to brewing. I got it pretty good the first time using the instructions on the bag, then changed them up a bit the second time and it wasn’t as good. I did steeps of 45s and 20s at 160F, followed by steeps of 30s and 1m at 175F. These are pretty low for what I normally do with sencha, but even with the 45s first steep, it was decently bitter.

The first steep was a pretty creamy grassy brew with, as I said, a healthy touch of astringency and a tad bit of fruitiness in the aftertaste, lasting about 15 seconds. The next steep had a crisp grassy taste with hints of the fruitiness mid-steep. After that, the last steeps were comparatively weaker, retaining a bit of a grassy taste, but without the good creamy texture I got earlier.

Starting with a longer first steep, even when I kept the temperature down at 160F for the duration of the session, led to an awkward dance with bitterness that kept creeping out of control.

Tried this with different, less drastic brewing parameters. 1st steep, 2m at 150F, then steeps of 20s, 40s, 75s at 175F. First steep was still quite tasty, and the subsequent steeps didn’t have that nearly overpowering astringency to them that made them a little tougher to drink. Made for a smoother overall session. Pretty good either way though.

I drank this one today using the recommended parameters on Yunomi – uncharacteristically specific ones. 2m steep at 140F, followed by steeps of 5s, 5s at 195F. They then said it might be wise to stop drinking, as this tea contains a lot of caffeine. I disregarded this, considering I had already had two other sencha sessions earlier…figured I’d be fine. So I did another couple steeps, still 195F at 20s then 45s I believe.

First steep was a tad bitter, just enough to provide good balance, with toasty cucumber or zucchini vegetal notes. The second steep was quite astringent – it made me shudder on the first sip. As it cooled, the astringency got a little less aggressive and I was able to make out some grassy and bright cucumber notes. The next steep had some lighter cucumber vegetal notes, and the next two steeps were wimpy, slightly bitter echoes of this tea’s previous self.

Another good one. I’ll give it a try with different parameters tomorrow. I’m finding that if I have 3+ Japanese green tea sessions in one day, there’s about a 50% chance I’ll start to feel ill lol. I ordered way too many 2016 samples, trying to drink them before they go bad. Gonna have to have my stomach pumped by the time I get through them all.

Fuckin worth it though.

Really enjoyed this sencha. Equally good with both a long first steep and shorter first steep. With that longer first steep, it was decently bitter with heavy umami and a full-feeling thickness. Shorter steep gave it a lighter grassy/toasty flavor. Subsequent steeps either way were grassy with a smooth and drinkable character. Toward the end, the grassy flavor got more vegetal, as in less vibrantly green tasting.

My favorite aspect of this tea was the delayed aftertaste I got on the first 2-3 steeps with either method. It wasn’t an immediate aftertaste, but about 2 minutes after finishing a cup, my mouth started to fill up with a pretty distinct peachy/nectarine flavor. It was so good. Made my sessions take longer, as I didn’t want to start the next cup and wash that aftertaste out. Succulent and delicious. Not something I’ve gotten from a sencha before. I’m glad I got the Morita Tea Garden Sampler.

Much better the second time around. I’m sorry little Cannonballs, I treated you harshly yesterday. You didn’t deserve my hate! This time I used my 120mL gaiwan and 160F water. I was also much more careful with my steep times, knowing that this tea can turn into a bitter mess as soon as the little cannonballs begin to open up.

I started this off with a 20 second rinse to get it going and then the next 8 or so steeps stayed at or below 10 sec. Before the cannonballs opened up all the way, the tea was light and a little vegetal with a good sweetness. As they started opening up, the tea definitely got thick, a tad bitter, and picked up a savory and brothy characteristic. A couple steeps later, the savory flavor started mixing with a renewed sweetness, which soon developed a nice floral characteristic.

I suspect this tea is quick to bitterness because, as I saw looking at the spent tea, the cannonballs are comprised of very small and fragmentary leaves. Thus, once they open up, you’re hit with a bitter-bomb if you aren’t careful. Pretty tasty once I knew how to handle it.

Another nice sencha from Yunomi. I’m starting to think I should try all of my sencha with a long first steep (2m), because I almost always prefer the results with that long first steep. This tea had the classic buttery, nutty, grassy sencha aroma. The first steep was thick with buttery grassy notes and a deep umami flavor. In the next steep, that umami tended more towards bitterness, and I also picked up a bit of a vegetal flavor along with the grassiness. A couple subsequent steeps gave me thinner liquid but still decent grassy flavor. I’m finding it quite fun to pound through these sencha :)

Also, I got an instagram now!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BIXzEkxBpP4/?taken-by=matuhg