Sencha "Matsuri"

This note is probably much too long for the tea. But you have to understand, I have been out of sencha for what feels like ages. I don’t know how much longer I can wait on my shincha pre-orders to get harvested and turn into actual orders, especially since the weather has virtually been begging me to have sencha. Thankfully, Lupicia to the rescue! This little teabag of joy came in the mail with their newsletter – a bright spot of green in an otherwise black and murky landscape.

Opening the packaging was delightful. The smell was so sweet! Ah! Even if the tea was horrid, just having such a delicious whiff made my sencha-less existence easier to bear. The sweet smell plus the tea being in tiny little dusty particles makes me think that this is a fukamushi. Which is awesome because I much prefer fuka- to asamushi. So not only do I get random sencha in my time of need, I get random fukamushi sencha in my time of need! Rejoice!

With much anticipation, I popped the teabag in a half-way preheated cup, poured in the water and did a little I’ve-got-sencha dance for 45 seconds, pulled out the teabag, gave it very gentle hug to stop the dripping and yay! Sencha!

Oh yes. Yes. Fukamushi. Oh. How I’ve missed you. Sweet, pungent, thick. Ahhh. Just give me a moment…

This is a nice, standard (though not really stand out) fukamushi – thick, strong and sweet. I could have dealt with it being a little thicker but that’s a personal taste thing… I sometimes enjoy my sencha the consistency of used motor oil. But you can do that with a fukamushi since they tend to lack astringent, just like this one – zero astringency or bitterness. Just delightful sweetness.

Okay, it’s probably not the absolute best sencha I’ve ever had but as a teabag, it totally rocks. And I’d even pick this up loose if there was nothing else that just screamed “BUY ME!” when meandering through the virtual aisle at Lupicia. It’s not really a special tea but rather a solid daily-type tea. And considering when it came, this was probably my most perfect cup of tea ever.

Though now that I have used my free teabag, I am once again sencha-less. So sad.

A nice sencha. A right enjoyable cup. Salty, sweet, thick but not overly so. I prefer mine a bit thicker but this will do. Came in my Lupicia Happy Bag.
I would order it again for sure but I can’t say it is THE best sencha I have ever had, still very lovely.
I do love a good sencha – I am asking myself why I don’t have it more often. Hummmm I shall start drinking more sencha. :)

This is Lupicia’s April 2010 ‘Tea of the Month’, so I got a free teabag with their newsletter. It uses very small shavings in the teabag; the leaves are nearly dust and leak out of the teabag. That’s rather annoying.

This is a salty tea. I drink it and instead of my thirst being quenched, I feel like drinking more. I wonder if I prepared this wrong? Three minutes, hot-but-not-boiling water…

Salty and grassy. A little bitter. Meh.

(Also, hi everybody! I haven’t been here for a while now…stupid school takes over EVERYTHING.)

This is a pretty good tea. I haven’t had a solid bright green tea in a while. This made me happy today. I love when the color of the tea is bright green. This tastes great! It is sweet and thick. There is no astringency to this as well.

I’m finally feeling well enough to be adventurous with tea again, so this is the first new tea I’ve tried for a while.

The liquor is a typical sort of sencha colour, maybe a little more yellowish than usual. The aroma of the dry leaves is strongly vegetal, and really put me in the mood for that distinctive sencha taste. Sadly, the brewed tea really didn’t quite deliver. I’m used to delicate teas, but this one wasn’t just delicate; it was dull. While the taste wasn’t at all astringent it also didn’t have a lot of sweetness or personality. Once it had cooled, there was a little more sharpness to it. All in all, really not a memorable tea. I liked the last sencha I tried – Ariake, also from Lupicia – a lot more.

Damn. I really wanted to like this more. I might go and dig out something else to drink to finish the evening on a less disappointed note.

I tried all my Lupicia senchas on the same day, so I’m going to compare them to each other.

“Matsuri” is not as spicy as “Nara,” but better than “Chiran.” It is very mellow, as the package describes. I can’t comment on the full-bodied part. My taste buds are only just now becoming accustomed to green teas.

I think flavored green tea is more my preference than pure, authentic sencha.

Let me preface this note by saying that my experience is probably just a matter of personal preference, so I’m not rating this tea. I love some green teas, but they tend to be mild and sweet varieties, with delicate vegetal and/or floral notes. The stronger a green becomes, the less likely I am to love it.

I wanted to like this tea. There was a strong green-bean aroma in the dry leaf and the broth was very green, thick, and salty, like soup. Unfortunately, with each sip it took on a bitterness that crept in incrementally until its presence was overpowering. I actually had to spit out the last sip I took because I thought about it too hard and the bitter notes in the cooling tea activated a gag reflex (I’m sure you wanted to know that…?).

The good news is there’s probably someone out there who would love this freshly-opened package of tea.

This is my first cup of tea today. :) I like drinking sencha in the morning because it is mellow and calming… it allows me to enjoy the beginning of the day (in contrast to breakfast tea which instantly shakes your drowsiness off with its astringency, as if it is pushing you to work! work! work!). This tea has a beautiful yellow-green liquor. It tastes vegetal but the flavour is not as strong as most other Japanese sencha – kinda tastes(?) like a grassy park in a cool morning. :) I am happy with it.

Third tea from the Lupicia pack.

This ‘festival’ sencha is clearly a fukamushi sencha as it is written on the leaves and in Japanese on the package. (One thing that strikes me is how much that I could have missed if I did not know Japanese. Usually, they write a lot in Japanese, but leave only a small English translation. Oh well.) The leaves are tiny, almost like powder, and the smell is good.

The amount recommended was about 110 cc for 3-4g of tea. I guess that means about 2 dl for 5g, being generous with water. I might have used a bit to much water as the cup I use usually use contains about 2.5 dl, and I poured in enough water to fill the whole cup.

As a result I guess the first cup, although very good, without any trace of bitterness, was perhaps just a bit bleak. I would have wanted it to be a bit stronger. The second cup went to my Japanese resident manager as we often enjoy tea together. The third cup, however, was strong, sweet and deilicious! Especially, the aftertaste, or umami if you want, was what made this tea special.

I might not buy this right away, as I have loads of tea to consume, but it is a tea I will keep in mind when shopping sencha.