Sencha Fuka-midori

I brewed this tea following Den’s tea instructions (2 grams of tea in 3 oz water for 1 min) and it was just perfect. It’s a really sweet green tea with no bitterness at all. It was very flavourful and I enjoyed it a lot.

I also tried brewing it using 2 grams of tea in 6 oz water and it was still sweet and delicious but not as flavourful.

This is the fourth from the sample pack that I’ve tasted. I must comment on the tea leaves: wet, they are a stunning dark green color! They are absolutely beautiful (and a pleasure to smell).

Naturally, the aroma is grassy, vegetal. The liquor takes on a light green and is somewhat cloudy. As for the flavor, this sencha lives up to its name: It is quite bitter, but not so in a bad way! It is also full-bodied and broth-like, leaves a strong aftertaste, and is slightly astringent.

As for the second steeping, the liquor is a bit more cloudy, and the flavor is silky, creamy, and slightly (very slightly) less bitter.

I drank these two cups of sencha while watching snow fall. Combining these two activities has made me feel doubly relaxed on this late afternoon.

My first Den’s Tea and my first Sencha. The dry leaves are small and thin and smell like dried grass clipping to me. I brewed about 2 Tsp in 6 oz of water for one minute. The leaves expanded quickly and have a sweet vegetal smell. The liquor was a slightly murky bright green. Looked radioactive.

The taste of this is amazing. I’m just getting into loose leaf greens so this is much better than anything I’ve had… (Not Verdant’s Laoshan Green, but that completely different) It has a slightly dry mouth feel but its balanced by how sweet and fresh it tastes. Reminds me of spinach.

Second steep I did for 15 seconds with boiling water per Den’s brewing instructions. Tastes a lot like the first cup. Still very good and grassy tasting.

I kept getting an intensely medicinal taste with this one, I’m assuming I did something wrong, but I can’t figure out what..

I’m getting started on the novice sampler from Den’s Tea now that I’ve run out of matcha. (Sadness.) I’m glad there’s enough tea in the samples for more than one serving because I think my water was too hot for this one, which resulted in some pretty serious bitterness. I really need to get a proper thermometer so I can be a bit more precise.

This tea on the first infusion was completely unexpected. The flavor I tasted was initially just smooth and mouthing fillingly viscous, almost a buttery texture and . But what happened next was completely unexpected, sweetness came in and then a distinct flavor of dried pineapple. And the empty cup smells of sweet clover honey. A second shorter infusion was less than stellar and had a bitter and astringent quality to it, though the sweetness and pineapple flavor came back, but not as intensely. The mouth feel now is similar to the mouth coating quality of artichokes. Third infusion still has some of the fine white hairs from the leaves floating at the top of the cup. Third infusion was also less bitter and a almost as good as the first.

I made this tea almost immediately after getting my order in the mail this afternoon.

It is the perfect tea for getting me into homework mode due to its light flavor and smooth drink. The tea leaves themselves do not give off a particular noteworthy smell, but that does not mean in any way that it is not still amazing.

If you are thinking of drinking some tea to set yourself to the “getting things done” mode, then this is the tea for you.

Not for me.

A very nice medium quality sencha. Affordable and delicious.

This is one of my favorite green teas because it is so easy. I brew it at ~160 for about a minute (less for additional steeps) and it is always delicious. It is pretty sweet in flavor, and has a very grassy, vegetal aroma. I thought I disliked sencha for awhile, before I tried this tea. I think there were two issues- not brewing correctly (too hot and ending up with a bitter brew) and using low-quality sencha. This is good stuff, and very well priced from Den’s.

For a long time I wasn’t a fan of sencha. Now I realize that my first few attempts were with relatively low quality tea. Den’s has always seemed to be THE source for green tea so I ordered their green tea sampler and this tea was included. The leaves were a dark emerald color and smelled fresh but not quite the freshly mowed lawn smell I was expecting. I brewed this tea in a cast iron tea pot called a testubin with 170 degree water for two and a half minutes. This was longer than Den’s directions but my testubin is fairly large and I was worried about ending up with a weak brew.

The brewed tea had a slight roasted aroma but also retained the fresh smell of the dry leaves. This tea was naturally sweet and had a taste that lingered long after taking a sip. It was not bitter in the least. I compared a cooled cup and a still hot cup and they were both equally delicious. I think I would be hard pressed to find a green tea that was a refreshing as this selection. It was perfect for a warm northeastern day like today.

This sencha is pretty good. There is a slightly sweet aroma that is hard for me to pick up in the taste. Slight bitterness with a vegetable, grassy quality. It is what I was expecting when I got this tea.

Sample. Ordered more. Of all the plain green teas in the sampler I got last week, this is my favorite. Not as grassy as some. I like the flavored Senchas much more, but wanted a plain one to have on hand. Definitely going to try drinking more green teas for all the health benefits. The pamphlet Den’s sent with the sampler definitely did it’s job!

This tea is actually more, well, plain than I expected. There’s the taste of Japanese greens that no matter what always reminds me of pot liquor, but its not overwhelmingly bitter. No strong aftertaste, a pleasant smell and a mild flavor.

Not my favorite, but still a nice tea to try. Was too weak, had to add extra tea for my liking. Not the best of Den’s. It was too bitter, and I like a bitter edge usually.

Very good Sencha.

My first loose-leaf green… delicious!