Sencha Overture

I can haz stealth tea!

As in I once mentioned not being very familiar with japanese greens apart from some sencha way back when and a few assorted and barely remembered samples. And genmaicha, of course, which is almost a category all to itself. This lead to a swap between EvaPeva and myself, only yours truly sent out a package and then forgot all about.

Imagine my surprise when I find a big yellow envelope in my letterbox this afternoon! This day started out with some pretty solid reluctance to go to work, finding out that work wasn’t actually so bad (following up Uber-Bad tuesday with a day in which everything just works.) and then coming home to this! Only downside is now I’m wondering if I’ve ripped EvaPeva off, because… pokes selection Wow. Let’s just say that I am most definitely about to be edumacated in japanese greens!

Anyway, after wibbling for a while about which one to try first (and writing the intro to this post), I decided on a sencha because that’s always the first one that comes to my mind when I think ‘japanese green’ and because there seems to have been an outbreak of people singing the praises of sencha lately. I was feeling a little inspired by that.

The leaves have a lovely colour. Such a deep, dark green, like pine needles. That’s one of my favourite colours, so that’s a few points in favour right there. They have a sweet, grassy smell too which is actually really nice. It’s funny, I’m sure I’ve used the word ‘grassy’ before, but it wasn’t until I smelled this one that I really feel like I figured out what I actually mean with that.

I don’t own a fancy-pants thermometer and usually when I need water of a lower temperature than boiling I just wait and let it cool off for a bit and wing it from there. I have a funny instinct that with this one I should wait just a wee bit longer than I usually do. Not sure why, it’s just an feeling, so I’m going with that and arming myself with patience here. (Maybe at this point I ought to actually go to Adagio’s site and look it up…). So here we are. Waiting. Patiently. Or something.

Okay, I’ve waited long enough!

It has that funny radioactive neon yellow-y green colour that makes me wonder if tea can actually glow in the dark (wouldn’t it we cool if it could?). I always thought that the smell of genmaicha must be largely due to the popped rice, because it had this toasted sort of smell. Not like popcorn, but something kind of along the lines. I’ve just discovered that that wasn’t really the rice at all. Not unless someone invented invisible rice. It’s a green sort of toasty though. I have a suspicion that I ought to be able to recognise this aroma as being similar to something else. Just can’t think what it could be. Asparagus maybe? Or something like that.

For such a relatively pale tea it sure does have a lot of flavour. A LOT lot! I’m thinking spinach here. And a little butter.
Second cup has a bit of a bite to it what with the way I have the leaves loose in the pot and all, but it’s still that same spinach-y flavour underneath. With a little butter. And a lot of bite. This is also where that toasty, slightly nutty, flavour comes out more. I don’t think I’ve been oversteeping my genmaicha, as I was barely even steeping it at all, but I’m definitely recognising the flavour from there.

…Sooo, if I drink a tea that smells like asparagus and tastes like spinach, does that mean I can get out of eating my greens?

Anyway, lesson the first in japanese green: Very nice! I could fall for this one. Next will be to see how this particular one holds up to other senchas. An adventure for another day.

So I ordered a ton of Japanese green tea to try out in my new Kyusu that I bought myself for destroying finals.

Dry Smell: Smells like fruit leather, strawberry fruit leather.

Wet Smell: Smells like Matcha with a little bit of sugar.

So I rather enjoyed this as my first Japanese green tea (outside of Matcha). It pretty much tasted just like Matcha only a little sweeter then I’m used to. It tasted nice and clean and distinctly different from how Chinese green tea tends to taste.

I’m pretty torn over this one. It smells good in the tin — to me, at least; I can definitely see how this flavor profile is one that people probably either love or hate — though I was worried it was going to have that weird seaweed-fish flavor that some green teas seem to have. I don’t even know enough about green tea to know which varieties produce that fishy taste, though I know they’re supposed to be Japanese.

I got distracted toward the end of the steep time and I’m not certain by how long. 30 seconds is my guess, but it could’ve been more. I guess I shouldn’t have worried though…my lack of enthusiasm isn’t that it’s too strong, but that I wanted it to taste just the way it smelled after it brewed, and it doesn’t. Maybe that’s because the water wasn’t quite hot enough (though the recommendation is 180, so the five degrees seems like it shouldn’t matter)? I’m finding that I really really like the smell…‘vegetal’ doesn’t even begin to totally cover it…but it doesn’t seem thick and chewy the way that it smells, and that’s what it made me want. The taste isn’t bad, but the rift between what it promises and what it delivers is enough to make me sort of disappointed with what I’m getting. I won’t have any trouble finishing the tin, but if there are sencha teas out there that actually follow through on how pungent they are, I’d rather look for those than reorder this one. Not knowing enough about sencha makes it hard to know that for certain, but it should be fun to look!

This isn’t a bad tea by any means. It definitely tastes like sencha. Buuut, it’s not as full flavored as other senchas I’ve had.

Those distinctly grassy, vegetal notes are present. They’re just…not quite as opaque. Almost like they’re slightly translucent? Someone needs to adjust this tea’s alpha channel. [Apologies, horrid photoshop reference there.]

To be fair, and maybe it’s because I’ve been drinking a lot more black tea, most green tea has a sense of translucence to it. The flavor in greens is always absolutely present, but most have a kind of watery quality to them. Which makes sense in a way, I guess. That characteristic is just more present in this tea.

All of this leads me to conclude that this might be a very good starter tea for someone who is looking to get into greens. However, as someone who has grown to acquire the taste of sencha it just isn’t cutting it. It’d do in a pinch, though.

This is as basic sencha as you can get. It smells nice from the tin, sweet and creamy and looks fresh with deep green colored leaf.

I’m brewing it as I usually brew senchas – 3 consecutive steepings at 160F in a kyusu.

1st infusion – 1 min 20 secs – sweet creamy taste, not bad but not complex either.
2nd infusion- 10 secs – deeper color, somewhat murky brew with noticeable bitterness that I don’t appreciate at all.
3d infusion – 30 secs – lighter, still bitter, flavor is almost non-existent.

Summarizing everything I said above this sencha can be brewed only once and should be considered as an introduction tea for those who haven’t tried Japanese teas before.

Putting off work and back logging tea.
I had this last night and was only half way paying attention. From my recollection, it is very very vegetal. In fact, I felt like I got my daily serving. But, as a veggie person I wasn’t terribly bother by it.
As for being a sencha, my plate isn’t well rounded enough to say it was good or bad, but from my one prior experience with sencha (at Texlux now that I think of it) this is what I think of when I imagine sencha.
Again, I might have over steeped it and will aim for about only a minute next time round.

Ok, I’m having trouble really explaining what I want to, here. (I’ve restarted this note like 5 times only to erase and begin again.)

So, the gist: ordered Samurai sampler because I was dreadfully curious about Adagio’s products, and also because I was pretty positive I liked green tea, but hadn’t tried enough variety to really be sure.

This is my first one of the four samples, and I am super excited about the other three after trying this. I got that steamed green smell right away after steeping, it smelled a bit like spinach to me, honestly. Which is a good thing; I love spinach. I drank it straight, which is another good thing. I normally have to use sweetener of some kind in tea to get the flavor I like – but this was just so good I downed the cup before I gave it any thought.

So yummy!

I brewed this tea to accommodate my lunch and my first impression is that it has a very interesting flavor profile. I followed Adagio’s recommendations (1 tsp per cup of water, 180º, 3 minutes) and I’m getting grassy, smoky, vegetal notes along with as one user put it a “tolerable bitterness.” I’m curious to see how it does with a second steeping and the next time I do a first steep of the tea I’m planning to reduce steep time by one minute.

I haven’t been drinking many green teas lately so this tea is kind of becoming a bridge to more green teas that I’ll try in the future. I have good impressions so far but I’d like to see how I can customize this tea enough so that it gets a better rating from me.

First sencha. I bought a sampler and it is an ok tea. I like the salt air smell and the slight veggie taste. I gather from the reviews, there are many better senchas out there.

Finally, I’ve found a green tea I like! For years I’ve not been the biggest green tea fan, or any kind of fan at all. Bitter and dusty would be the two words I’d have attributed to green tea before today. So, understandably, this tea came as a bit of a revelation.

The dry leaves are very long and thin, and look like they’ve been rolled. They’re mostly dark green, but there are some lighter ones in there. The smell is very pleasant — sweet and hay-like, like fresh cut grass.

Brewed, the smell is equally pleasant, like freshly steamed green veg. The liquor is very light yellow-green in colour, which took me completely by surprise as the leaves are so dark.

The taste is very light and delicate, slightly grassy. I think I was so shocked that I actually liked it to really absorb everything about the flavour. Sweet, grassy, maybe slightly vegetal — I think I might brew it a little longer next time. I feel the flavour could be a little more significant, but I’m sure it’ll be trial and error. Either way, I’m not complaining. I like it like this anyway!

Going into this tea I was expecting not to like Senchas, or any other Japanese green teas for that matter. I’m generally not a fan of seaweed. So far I prefer the Chinese green teas that are more nutty, more sweet, and more buttery.

I was surprised when I opened this tea and it really had a nose of hay. And I like hay, so I was happy. After 2 minutes of steeping the vegetal notes come out, but they are complimented by more hay and nuttiness that I expected. Bitterness is minimal. Not as sweet as some of the Chinese greens I’ve had but I actually really like this tea.

The second steep (2 minutes) was not as strong as the first, with the hay even more pronounced than the first go-round.

Tasty! A nice gentle spinachy flavor, with a hint of seaweed. Not as grassy as I expected.

The hot water spout at the office runs about 175-180 degrees. I was worried this would be too hot, since the package suggests 170.

Not a good one to leave long, or to have very hot water for! Nonetheless, when made with proper water temperature and steep time, it’s a good little tea. Definitely vegetal. I prefer Sleeping Dragon over this one, but, that’s just me.

The aroma I like the most about this tea. Smells like a warm, rainy evening, with a high note of something sweet. The tea is a subdued green, which I don’t find anything especially noteworthy about. It’s still a great tasting tea.

Standard fare sencha. Not quite sure why I purchased this particular sencha because the name ‘overture’ implied to me that it would set the mood. Regrettably, it has not done so. However, I managed to do a swap with a co-worker for some kickass oolong. Waste not, want not.

This is my first real green tea. It has a very smooth taste, worlds better than the packaged green tea I am used to. It has a very fresh taste, with a buttery type of after taste. Hopefully I’ll be able to provide better descriptions as I go, but this is very good for my introduction. Nothing amazing to the flavor, but just a very fresh full bodied taste that is relaxing and refreshing.

I thought I really liked green tea until I got the green tea sampler from adagio. It turns out that I like flavored green tea. I am sure that this tea, like many of the others in the green tea sampler, are very good for those who like the grassy green tea flavor, that person is not me. It was not bad. I just did not like it.

I agree with other comments stating this sencha isn’t the best. To me, Sencha is a full bodied tea with a strong grassy flavor and pungent, almost seaweedy, aroma. The price is not horrible but, in order to get any flavor, I have to use a ton of tea which ends up being more expensive than a higher grade sencha.

The seaweed arome is there but I have to get close to the cup to smell it, unlike other senchas I can smell as soon as I pour the tea. If you like sencha don’t be a cheapskate and get a higher grade one, which will in fact be cheaper. I have no problem drinking what I have left as this tea is not unpleasant, but I will not get Sencha from Adagio again, there are other senchas I like better.

In the tin it has a distinctly grassy smell about it. That isn’t too surprising and I ventured on to steep this tea.

First, I steeped according to Adagio’s guidelines for 3min @ 180. Not bad, but a bit one note. I definitely get the vegetal/grass taste and it wasn’t bitter. That’s about it.

Second, I steeped for a much shorter time— 1min @ 180. Pretty much the same, but weaker.

The tea is by no means bad, but it just doesn’t do much for me.

“I’m a fan of green teas and I’ve tried a fair share of the Adagio stock, but this is by far my favorite so far. Great green flavor with a slightly sweet hint without being too grassy. Certainly deserves and has earned its everyday tea moniker.