Sencha Ashikubo

This is the last of the samples from the DAVIDs order I placed a few months ago. Don’t tell me it’s time to get more…

Straight senchas are usually a bit too grassy and vegetal for me. This one’s good though. In the scent I’m picking up the usually straight grass notes, but there’s also something toasty and sweet, sort of like kettle corn. There’s a little fruitiness in the smell too. I can’t quite put my finger on it – apples, maybe, or grapes.

I think I steeped it a little too hot, as there is a bit of bitterness, but it’s good anyway. Primarily it’s vegetal, but there’s a toasted note to it, almost like a very light gyokuro. DAVIDs website says that it’s dried using wood fires, so that’s probably where it comes from.

It’s good. I probably won’t order it again, but it’s good nonetheless.

EDIT: Thanks to a suggestion from ScottTeaMan, I tried steeping it at a much lower temp. I guessed on my kettle to bring it to about 155, 160. Suddenly all the bitterness and much of the vegetal has gone away, and it’s buttery and sweet with notes of fruit, so I’m upping the rating!

Oh, this is good.

This is really good.

I really cannot stress enough that I do not need more tea. But I have a problem. I always need to keep a comfortable amount of my favourites on hand and I always feel compelled to try as many new teas as I can get my hands on. And, the new Toronto DT location is on my way to the Monday class I hate. I always stop in to cheer myself up on the way home. Thankfully/regrettably, that class is over as of next Monday’s exam and I will have to make more intentional trips up there.

Anyway, yes. I wanted a straight green this week as I hadn’t tried any from DT. I’m not sure why. I guess it’s for the same reason that there aren’t many reviews of this here; I kind of go to DT for my delicious and wild flavoured teas and elsewhere for most unflavoured ones since it is easy to overlook the understated classics when at DT. This was suggested to me and I was intrigued. I got some. I tried it tonight at work. This stuff is phenomenal. It’s gently sweet. Not very grassy, but maybe a bit of a hay thing going on. A little bit smoky and earthy, but so delicate and lovely and feels wonderful in my mouth, being just a little bit buttery. Oh man. I find it so refreshing.

This stuff is amazing. I can’t comment on subsequent infusions yet but I am now going to go re-steep my leaves.

David’s favourite.

It’s no surprise that David steeps a pot of this beautiful Ashikubo green each morning. With soft notes of fruits and an almost buttery undertone, this is one of the most prized teas in our collection.

Starting at 30 seconds, try resteeping this tea in 30 second intervals to optimize the experience. Each additional infusion brings forth an array of new scents and flavours, making it the perfect tea to begin experimenting with reinfusion.

Definitely a must have in any collection.

I got a sample of this in my latest order and this morning decided to try it out. I am new to loose tea overall but have been already introduced to straight green tea via Dragonwell.

This one did not disappoint. I love it. It has a beautiful light green color and a delicious aroma that I can compare to vegetables with butter. The taste is mild, vegetal with a hint of grass and spinach. There is a delicious aftertaste that lingers on the back of my tongue for a while… It reminds me of wood burning over the open fire, toasty and smoky somewhat.

The price tag is the only disappointment I have. At almost double the price of Dragonwell I don’t see this as my everyday green tea especially since I enjoy Dragonwell just as much… This one is simply too expensive. I would like to keep a small stock of it for special occasions though.

A little while later….

I just made my first successful resteep, although in less water than the first steep. The aroma is still buttery and vegetal and the taste still packs a punch… Lots of wonderful flavors going on there. The woody aftertaste that I noticed during the first steep is still there which makes me happy. Overall this tea is more cost effective than I previously thought. I resteeped at 82C for 5 min. My steeping times are usually longer and I tend to suck most of the flavors out of my teas during the first steep, if one doesn’t count the rinsing of the leaves which I do first for 15 sec or so. This tea is different though… It packs a lot of flavor in a little sample.

This is a very good, really smooth green tea. I steeped it for 3 minutes (recommended on the packet) and found that to be too long. I’m fairly sensitive to bitterness though. My second steeping for 90 seconds came out much better.

This has a wonderful fresh vegital aroma when dry with strong notes of grass and much lighter of spinach and smoke. The smokiness is there in the tea in the background. It doesn’t push to the front at all but does make itself known. Its definitely slightly sweet and grassy and very, very smooth. The after notes are exactly the same flavors as when drinking directly for a loooong finish.

If you’re looking for a medium flavored (as opposed to a delicate or strongly flavored) sencha that’s delightfully smooth, this is the one.

Not quite as high on my list of favourites as the Quangzhou Milk Oolong or Gyokuro Yamashiro, but definitely a close competitor!

I finally splurged on a tin of this after getting a $100 gift card for Christmas. In the same trip I also picked up an adorable glass gongfu tea pot. So I’ll give a quick recap of both my steeper-and-mug tasting and my gongfu session (as I finish off my last couple gongfu steeps)

First, my steeper-and-mug. I used the lowest setting on my new Breville Variable Temperature Kettle (not the tea maker, just the kettle). 175F. Because it’s such a delicate tea, and I wanted to do a decent steep (3m30sec) I didn’t want to go the next step up to 185F. It was a good call because I ended up over steeping a bit (almost 5 minutes), but it didn’t go off because of it. The beautiful vegetal notes came through first, followed by a slight butteriness, and finally finishing with a sweet alfalfa taste. I felt like I was sitting in Java’s stall, sharing it with him, inhaling his soft alfalfa-laced breath. It was a very comforting cup of tea!

Now, tonight, after a really negative dinner with my parents and sister, I shut myself in my room and pulled my sencha ashikubo off my shelf and sat down to do some gonfu steeps. I used a heaping Perfect Spoonful, and the second setting on my kettle (185F).

First steep: 30sec. bold vegetal qualities, like steamed asparagus? overwhelmingly vegetal, couldn’t pick up on the sweet butteriness I loved about my mug.

Second: 45 sec. Alfalfa and butter lettuce. Grassy, slightly less “steamed vegetables”. Sweet, like Java’s breath after he eats a handful of alfalfa pellets. Comforting!

Third: 1m20sec. PEAS! I actually had a bit of a flail over this one, it was just like eating buttery sweet peas at family dinners! This is possibly the best flavour profile I’ve gotten from this tea!

Fourth: Final steep. 3min. I had to run and pee, so it went a bit longer than originally intended, oops! Peas, but with a slight bitterness (without being astringent/drying), kind of like eating peas straight from the pod after they were on the plant for a little too long. You know, when they’re over ripe, kind of hard, and not as sweet as they were at peak ripeness? Still enjoyable though!

This is definitely the nicest sencha I’ve had. I generally prefer gyokuro or korean seyjak when I want a straight green, but this may be my go-to green for a while, at least until DT restocks the Gyokuro Yamashiro!

Maybe I got some of a bad batch but this one tasted horrid to me. I got a taste that was almost burnt. Thinking maybe I’d burnt the leaves despite what I was pretty sure was the right temperature water I tried again with a lower temperature. And got the burnt taste even more. I tried adding some sugar to see what notes that would bring and it did change the flavour to more of a nutty and less of a burn, but it still wasn’t one I enjoyed. Having had this right after Dragonwell, which I adored, probably didn’t do this tea any favours.

Sorry Sencha Ashikubo, but with this experience combined with your price point, I won’t be adding you to my cupboard.

buttery fruity and sweet. sadly this cup got abandonned after only a few sips and while it was good later when I sweetened it and drank it cold I don’t think I really appreciate it fully yet, so I will refrain from rating. Very excited to give it a second go

This is hands-down my favourite green tea! It’s a little bit buttery, but mostly grassy. It has incredible flavour, but don’t oversteep it! If it wasn’t so expensive, I’d drink this tea all day, every day!

So glad I chose to steep this green tea from David’s Tea first.

The aroma is very planty, less grassy and more fruitful, and softer than a green tea would be.

There are various details of fruits among it’s bright planty body, with a soft grounding buttery flavor, the hint of toast most would say.

It is not as strong as a regular straight green tea would be, an almost perfect level of taste, color and aroma.

I had this today as the $1 straight tea promo and I suspect that I let it steep a touch too long because while it was grassy and fresh there was an unfortunate hint of bitterness that I suspect could have been avoided had I removed the teabag a moment sooner. Besides that, this tea was lovely and light, brewing a beautiful pale golden green. I won’t rate it, since I messed up the steeping…

Second steep: Alright, so I saved the leaves for when I could steep them again and am I glad I did! It still has loads of flavour: grassy with the faintest hint of wood-fire, and a creaminess that reminds vaguely me of Quangzhou Milk Oolong. With the bitterness gone maybe I can get another steep…

Nope, no luck. My husband threw away the leaves before I had the chance. Oh well, 2 steeps was well worth the $1 I paid.

WOW 0_0

I got this shipped to me this week, and was kinda fretting about the price as a 25g bag of this cost ~$9.75 – more expensive than the 2 other 50g bags I had bought! I went ahead to try it out first thing Wednesday night around midnight, after having gotten back from a night out at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. I was a tad disappointed when I tasted it and found it pretty bland :( Mind you, i was very excited to try it and didn’t brew it following the instructions to the letter.

Here I am now at my computer with a freshly brewed cup in hand on a Saturday afternoon and I can’t get over the taste! I followed the directions to the letter this time and the difference is like day and night! The taste is so nice – very present leafy greens but with a nice subtle smoky finish that lingers forever! I’m new to tea and I love strong coffee (read: espresso, straight up) so I have a hard time with the sometimes very subtle flavors in tea, so I tend to like black teas like Earl Gray and Irish Breakfast over green and white teas, but this one is just amazing without being too strong – there is no bitterness in this whatsoever

I get the feeling my wallet is gonna take a beating buying larger quantities of this _’

This was part of a three set of samples I got from DAVIDsTEA. I have never really had a green tea and I was excited to try this in hopes of expanding my palate. Though my hopes were sadly dashed. I thought it was how I steeped it but no matter what I tried, one thing kept coming back…

It smelled like dead grass that had been toasted. It was making my stomach turn. I relented and took a sip and found it abominable. I couldn’t stomach it and the taste lingered. It tasted too much like cut, deceased grass on a hot, muggy summer day. I had to stop and accept defeat. This tea is not for me. Luckily it was a small packet but now I wonder if Green Teas are for me.

If I couldn’t bare this… What about others? At least this tea gave me thoughts to ponder…

I hate rating a tea so low as many people will know its not a bad tea; however it is certainly not one I found palatable either. I got a bunch of the straight green tea’s for my Grandma this Christmas as she is a huge fan of green tea and has never had any of DT’s blends it was a must. I grabbed Dragonwell, Korean Sejak and Sencha Ashikubo. Anyone who has bought Sencha Ashikubo knows its freaking expensive! So I had to sneak a small cup to try out to see if it was worth it. I even brewed it the gung fu method as recommended, but no matter what I did to me it tasted like seaweed or something. Not for me, but I can only imagine for straight Green Tea’s it must be pretty high up on the list.

I was a little worried when first looked at the tea. It was a dark green almost as dark as a black tea. I was afraid that it would have a very strong grassy flavor. But it just had a nice smooth, light green tea flavor. it is worth a try.

Love the buttery undertone on this delicate Japanese green tea. Be careful not to over steep.

First impressions were pleasant and fresh. The dry tea smelled like freshly cut grass with a hint of something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It took me to a time and a place that resided somewhere in my subconscious memories. The dry leaves were fine and playful, just begging to be steeped for my taste buds to enjoy. I even enjoyed the fine texture as I played my fingers through it, noting its teasing promise of the bliss soon to come.

After steeping, the aroma still had that fresh and pleasant whimsy that tickled my sense of smell. There were promises of being whisked away to a land of fantastical fiction. It was difficult to refrain from my first sip. I was sure to enjoy it. The liquid was a fresh and clear green, and that shade of green is my favourite colour. It reminded me of a fresh meadow and the hydrated leaves looked like they’d just been picked that morning.

Oh, what promises…

Then I savoured the moment as I brought that warm cup of magic closer to its destination. It was sure to impress my taste buds like no other. I relished the scent as the porcelain touched my lips, and, “OH MY GOD!”

This was the worst tea I’ve ever tasted. The bitterness lingered on my tongue for hours afterwards like a coating of unwanted sludge, and my stomach turned and churned as the day continued with dreadful regret.

This is the first tea I’ve tried from David’s Tea that never made it to the bottom of my cup. I’ll admit that I’m not a big ‘green tea’ fan, but I will drink them without complaining. I was even excited to try this cute little sample that accompanied my order. The price suggested it was of high quality. It had to be good!

It wasn’t.

The only guilt I feel for not liking this tea is that I convinced a co-worker to try it with a shorter steeping time to see if it was me. My taste buds could have been off, and I never told her I didn’t like it. All I said was, “Try this… Tell me what you think of it.”

Well, she’s mad at me now. She dumped hers halfway through and thinks I got her to drink it just so I could get rid of it. The nerve!

Anyways, it’s possible I had a bad sample. If not, this is obviously not everyone’s cup of tea.

Smells: vegetal, salty, and even sugary.
Taste: Very interesting-
I was skeptical a tea could taste “buttery” after reading some of the other reviews on this, but it does remind me a little bit of buttered shellfish (in a good way). I’m also getting a mild grassiness, and faint sweetness. I got this in a sample, and will have to buy some more and experiment with different temperatures and steep times. Overall I think this is a winner.

Very smooth straight green tea. The grassy taste is present but not overwhelming at all. It has a nice toasted flavor and a very mild aftertaste. This is the best green tea I have tried so far.

A very delicate green, with floral notes and hints of hay. While the grassiness has been reduced, its still clearly present. Very easy to oversteep, leading to some biterness – be careful. On the whole, while I do like it, I’m not as enamored as some. It’s a strong Japanese green, but not miraculous.