SenchaMatcha

Opened one of the packages, took some whiffs, and it is identical to the mystery oolong that I have been drinking for almost a year.
This one has a slightly greener smell to it.
I will update the rating later once i brew it.
I ended up with approx. 4 oz or 1/2 cup dry volume of tea.
I have about 1 cup and 1/4 of mystery oolong left as well. So I probably started with like… 3-5 dry cups of tea leaves when I first got my canister. :( I drink too much tea.

2013 shincha.
It tastes to me: Grassy, vegetal (zuchinni/cucumber), Floral (perfume), sweet, Marine (my friend said it tasted a bit like seaweed, it just tastes marine to me), and a slight kick of umami at the back that makes for a very sweet after taste.
the first infusion tastes like sour fish.

I don’t know how much i used, i just dumped the last bits from the sample bag into a pot with some Oolong (that had been steeped maybe 5 times? i kind of lost track). The resulting liquid was dark, like puerh DARK. I added lots of milk and sugar and wow it’s knock your socks off good. I def. like the subtle flavor that the oolong added. P: Wish i had more of this chai :(

Very nice black tea base, and the spices are flavorful. Very good little sample size, I may try it double strength next time. It’s milder than tazo but still has lotsa flavor.

Pretty good.
It has a nutty, sweet, green, rice cake/rice crispy flavor.
I drank this mostly while i wasn’t feeling well. It really does make you feel like you’ve eaten something. Which made me feel better when I couldn’t handle much :(
I discovered that (after I got better of course) it’s pretty dang good with milk and sugar in it. P: but i like it both ways.

:) yummy.

Prep: Hot water from hot water spigot (probably 180-190* F or so)
It tastes like a cookie. a really weird cookie. Reminds me of Graham crackers. or some cheap ginger snap cookies that have a bit of cinnamon in them. It maybe the Chicory or the vanilla, but for now I am going to say it is the chicory that is throwing the flavor off.
I have a whole box that I received for Christmas. It may go up for swap soon.

ok, much better.
EXACTLY 1 tsp Toyo Mukashi, EXACTLY 4oz hot water straight out of the water dispenser, AND EXACTLY clean palatte. 3 hours prior to drinking matcha i had some oolong sweetened and drowned in milk. pretty sure that didn’t influence my taste buds though.
Official flavor: enjoyable, sweet, vegetal… tasted like zucchini soup! velvety and rich.
www [dot] mountaintea [dot] com/blogs/tea/6993384-how-to-taste-tea-the-tea-flavor-wheel <———- this thing is very helpful ;)
i would rate it…
Sweet, slight Floral- perfume, and very vegetal-vegetables-zuchini. and i could be mistaken but i tasted a bit of umami, and earthy-marine. shall keep trying this matcha to see how it tastes. i may change my mind in the future but for now that is what I tasted.

Ugh second bowl. After a whiff test with Ito en matcha I have decided Ito en matcha has a strong grassy fishy smell and not sweet note where as toyo smells like veggies and zuchini and a background hint of sweetness. I sifted the matcha this time and I am not sure if I measured 1 tsp or 1tsp and a half. This bowl of toyo hits in stages: bitter→ zuchinni→ slightly sweet. I’m getting some umami but toyo is not as sweet at kiri :(. I might need to knock it down to 1/2 tsp. this is slight better quality than the Ito en but I still prefer my kiri no mori.
If you don’t mid bitter than this one is good for you.

EDIT: I just realized earlier my bowl had a funky hot paper smell so I sprinkled a small amount of Ito en in it to freshen it up…. I never rinsed or dusted that out!!! Oops! Because toyo doesn’t smell nearly as bitter as what I just drank! I just finished washing and rinsing it very well as well as drying it out with more paper towels. I wasn’t paying attention when I was cleaning up and stuck my plastic measuring teaspoon in my mouth to lick te last bits of matcha off before I washed it. It tastes pretty good, a strong flavor somewhat more bitter than kiri but with a soft sweetness. Really thinking that the dusting of the other matcha threw the flavor off (or I am going insane!). I will try this again tomorrow maybe. Maybe I will have a small cube of sugar or some pallate cleaner before I drink this.

After one bowl….I don’t know how I feel about this one.
When I opened the bag yesterday it smelled strongly of vegetables, I had a small amount that didn’t fit into the new canister so I decided to brew it like regular tea. Tasted like zuchinni! And matcha.
Tossed it in the tea cabinet. Opened it up today to make a bowl. Not as heavily sweet as kiri no mori and I detect more bitterness. It does not taste like veggies but has a slight zuchinni smell to it.
I will def. try this again before passing a verdict and give it a rating number. It was interesting. I opened my can of Ito en matcha and did a sniff test. Yesterday the toyo smelled like veggies and sweet matcha while the Ito en smelled blah and grassy. For some reason today they smell identical. I guess my nose must be off today! We are cooking ham and other strong smelling foods and I ate chocolate not too log ago, so that might be affecting my perseption of smells. Shall try again tomorrow. Or later this evening. After we eat some ham :)

yum.
two bowls. two teaspoons total. poor whisking :’( my arm is tired.
but good tea none-the less.

made a bowl today.
1 tsp as usual.
whisked it 3 maybe for times. just to take some matcha pictures. was cold by the time i drank it. very….. weird tasting. not pleasant. wont be doing that again.

Wow…. It’s been like…. a whole month since i last drank this… unless i am missing something.
had two bowls today.
first- 1 tsp matcha, 4oz 160* f water, and whisked for about 20-30 seconds. i had trouble getting the whisking motion down today. Kept telling my self “think violin, think violin, think VIOLIN 16th notes at 180, think violin 16th NOTES at 180…” so i over whisked this one. some how i had a few lumps in it and it was slightly unpleasantly bitter. not the usual faint bitterness, it was just matcha, umami, sweetness, and POW BiTtEr. after tastes was actually a little better than the tea it’s self.
second- got the whisk motion down, whisked about 10-15 seconds. the usual 1 tsp and 4oz water though i didn’t measure the temp but it felt warmer than the last bowl. much sweeter, back to the usual faint bitterness that isn’t really bitterness that also isn’t really there but it is there. this tea confuses me. It’s very sweet (when i get lumps they taste like tea and powdered sugar), a nice umami taste (that rivals my theanine and sugar chewables i have), and only a pleasant hint of bitterness (thats not really bitter…), and as far as i can tell no astringency! It has a rich almost “sweet tea” flavor with a brothy soup aspect. and then that wonderful wonderful velvet texture. ahhhhhhhhh. i wish i had been brave and tried this tea years ago. I thought i would hate it but it turns out i just love it! it’s been 20 minutes and it still have a faint aftertaste. I don’t want to eat anything. i just want this flavor to last a little longer.

1 tsp super. ah. so good. i wonder how many servings i will get out of this 30 gram container. i think if i just keep track on here i can check and order the right amount to last me for a while.
my poor chasen has two broken tines. :’( poor thing. ah, well its still usable. when they all break and it looks like crap i will purchase a new one. maybe by then i will have a real chawan that wont wear down my whisk.
3/4 tsp in ~60ml. yuck. not enough liquid in my bowl to whisk this so it came out pretty bad and super lumpy. it would have been fine if i had a real chawan that was the right size. meh.

made this afternoon before work.
1 tsp. in 4oz water. ah, i could really taste the creamyness today. no lumps in the bottom of the bowl when i was done. :D i must be getting really good at this whisking thing. had a very pleasant and long after taste today (5-10 minutes). it’s been a half hour and i can still feel it in my mouth. rich. creamy. yum. perfect way to start my afternoon.
oh, and i used hot water straight out of the dispenser. i think whisking cools it down.

Smokey. Just like liquid smoke. I did a 10 second ore steep followed by a one minute steep. Whew! Not my kin of tea! I might try brewing it again, on a day where I Can do multiple steeps and have the patience to see if this gets better. Has a slight nutty coffee smell.
Might give this sample away to a friend.

Had two bowls tonight.
1tsp each one at 142 *f and the other was hot water straight out of the dispenser.
First bowl was sweet, then I ate a piece of chocolate, and had a second hotter bowl that actually foamed!!! But was a little more bitter ( it may have been from the chocolate I ate just before). But it was still very very good. I usually can’t stand anything even remotely bitter but these matcha teas have such a nice balance that it usually makes up for it ( unlike English black tea) .

Has a spoonful of honey. You are supposed to eat something sweet before matcha.
Used 4oz of hot water straight out of the hot side of my water cooler and 1 teaspoon matcha powder.
I need to log everytime I drink this so i know how many servings i am getting out of it.
I was very good. the aftertaste from the honey didn’t go especially well with the tea. a bit meh. but the tea tasted fantastic this way. I could feel the silkyness.
So… next time i will have something sweet but that is neutral flavored. It’s really good this way. Today I made it in a soup bowl and for the very first time I have a nice foam! wow was the flavor and texture different!!!!!!

I used 15 pieces, each brew was made with 4oz of hot water (somewhere between 160 and 180* F, i guessed at the temp because that is the temp that usually comes out of the hot side of my water dispenser), each brew was for 1 minute.
Pre infusion- 10 seconds, smells alittle fishy. tastes fishy.
1st infusion- clear, has a strange but interesting flavor.
2nd infusion- very pale clear green, leaves are really starting to unfurl. they are actually pretty big! :D the tea has a stronger smell, tastes a bit like veggies… almost like watery spinach… but its not unpleasant.
3rd infusion- still smells like veggies, tastes like salty veggies now. a slightly perfumy aftertaste.
4th infusion- lost the funny smell, tastes “better” and sweeter, still green liquid, has not lost any color yet.
5th infusion- still green! now it has a jasmine floral smell. less veggie taste and a much more floral taste (but not unpleasant, very soft).
6th infusion- still floral and same as 5th.
7th infusion- same as 5th, no change or weakening of flavor
8th infusion- supposedly last infusion. very floral, sweet very vegetal, and has a faint jasmine flower smell to it but it does not show up in the flavor.
At this point i had run out of hot water as i had been using a very large glass tea pot of o hold the hot water so i would not have to get up to get more water. I refilled the pot with hot water from the water dispenser for this infusion so the water is probably a little hotter than in the last 2-3 infusions.
9th infusion- yep. decided to keep brewing it. the flavor is too strong to give up yet! :D the flavor changed, its very different almost like a completely different tea!! has a floral smell, but it lost its floral flavor. the taste is strong but pleasant, I can’t quite place the flavor though. its familiar yet nothing specific comes to mind.
I brewed a 10th and 11th infusion, but by this point I was sweating profusely and my stomach full of tea.
10th infusion & 11th infusion- I got bored and stopped drinking the tea. It has a new flavor and smell. Its good. but I don’t know what it is….. very very interesting. I ended up dumping both infusions on some plants in my garden. I put my wet tea leaves in a sealed cup in the fridge so that i might try infusing them again this evening. I want to know what that third flavor is!

As an after thought from my notes: I looked at the description for the tea. It says it has a fruity flavor and now that i think about it… that is probably the flavor i was experiencing. that is some freaking good tea. I have never had a tea infuse so many times with out tasting like hot water. why have i never had this type of tea before?

I do not own a gofu set so i used a small english tea pot and cup plus 2 japanese tea cups (4oz each) to measure water and hold the hot tea until it was cool enough for me to drink without getting burned. I left the tea leaves to float freely in the water and only used a strainer to catch the leaves when pouring into my cups. All fallen leaves were replaced into the tea pot for more brewing. The leaves are actually quite big once they fully unfurl. I saw twig pieces attached to the leaves as well. I can identify some of the leaves as being the “three” top leaves (one good sized leaf and 2 smaller bud leaves). very interesting to look at the leaves.

tried to day with water straight out of the cooler (~165*f) and 1/2 teaspoon (4oz water). very yummy. Might try 1/2 teaspoon with water temp ~150 to see if that does better. I had more foam today, a light…. “bitterness” that wasn’t really bitterness (i think the water was too hot), and a lovely silk beverage despite the lumps I missed >.<.
Much richer taste than yesterday. I might try using a whole teaspoon one day when i find the perfect temperature.

Dried my Chawan, scooped more matcha (1/4 teaspoon), 140*f water, made sure i was only using 4 oz of water, whisked for 15-30 seconds, no foam showed up.
Flavor was richer but still a bit weak for my tastes, flavor was nice i would just like a bit more. Next time I will use 1/2 teaspoon I think. I really think a whole teaspoon is over kill though (might try it just to see).
I will continue to try different amounts of tea to water. and adjust my score accordingly.

on a weird note… I am really enjoying the after taste. It has left behind a very creamy mouth feel. hmmm.

1/4 teaspoon to 8 oz 140*f water.
very weak but pleasant flavor. the whole 8oz was a mistake, i have meant to grab the measuring cup with 4oz water and not the second full one. sigh. the full one was used to preheat the chawan and i accidentally tossed it in with my matcha.
I think I spent about 15-30 seconds whisking it. My Chasen worked well for me. the result was palatable but very watery. meh.

Wow! what a difference the chasen makes to matcha! def. worth every yen i spent on it!!!!!! <3

Made two mugs of this for breakfast along with a slice of Matcha cake with cream cheese frosting.