Tencha Chiyo no Sakae

YAY! MY FIRST SAMOVAR ORDER IS HERE!!! It took forever to get here though! The tracking said it was out for delivery at 7:48am, but didn’t get here til 1:30pm. My UPS guy is normally here ~11.

After forcefully pulling myself away from my (first) yixing pot, I made this. Someone (takgoti?) said that steeping instructions come on the packaging, but I was deeply disappointed that it did not. Also, it’s in a silver bag that is not resealable… bummer… 2 disappointments already and I haven’t even opened it. I went online to contact them, but the only contact info they give there is email and I wanted to drink this now so I looked them up in the yellow pages and called. Meg, the woman I spoke to, said I should steep it using the steeping parameters: 1tsp/160 degrees/1-3min… argh… generalized steeping parameters. Another disappointment. Oh well, this is not “3 strikes and you’re out” so I use the other suggestion I got, from Networld and steeped it like a premium Gyokuro (2g/140 degrees/2.5 min.

Mmmm… The yellowish green may look like a lot of ordinary green teas, but it definitely smells like matcha as the raw leaf does. The aroma is very grassy and vegetal w/ just a bit of bitterness. My brain just doesn’t know what to think of tencha yet. On one hand, it tastes a lot like matcha, but the mouth feel is so much thinner… Definitely a tea for those that love matcha as well as those that don’t like the texture of matcha. I can’t wait to nail the steeping parameters for this!

Semi-Unrelated Tea Log Apology: I think this log should be turned into a drinking game. Everyone take a shot (of tea perhaps?) each time I type ‘fukamushi’. Sigh. Sorry. I just can’t help it. It’s my favorite style of sencha so everything gets compared to it.

This looks like a mix of fukamushi sencha and nori furikake. It’s kind of fun – little silty bits and little flaky bits. I am unsure how to brew this so I’m doing it a bit like gyokuro but a little shorter steep time since the pieces are smaller.

Tossed in a preheated pot, the leaves smell awesome. So thick and rich. Really delightful. I love the smell of green tea in a preheated pot. If you’ve never smelled it before, give it a shot. It’s awesome. Anyway, as I pour the tea into my cup, little flecks escape through my filter and flurry around inside my teacup. It looks like a green tea snowglobe which I find kind of charming. I like this tea so far. It’s cute.

Mmm, tastewise this is like a mix of different sencha styles. It’s got the smoothness and utter lack of astringency of a fukamushi sencha. But there is a nori-like endnote that makes me think of something less steamed. I think, if steeped too long, this endnote could develop into an unpleasantly pungent bitterness, but as it is, it just gives a nice counterpoint to the fresh feeling I’m getting from this tea.

I’m actually liking this one. I tend to go for the sweet fukamushi senchas so this isn’t my typical Japanese green, but the lack of astringency makes it very friendly for me. Sort of like the fukamushi lover’s asamushi or something. I think next time I’m going to treat it like a fukamushi and see how it goes. So far I could see having some of this on hand to break up the potential monotony of a tea pantry that usually ends up all sweet fukamushi.
^2.5g/5oz

Anyone drunk (or over-caffeinated) yet?

And I’m Back! Hiatus over! And I’m sooo angry!
…BECAUSE… every tea I LOVE is a limited run or gets discontinued. Like this one.
Moving on!
This is not something I would have ever normally ordered but I was dealing with a lot of crap in my head and read a lot of reviews stating that matcha and high grade Japanese greens can help with things like seasonal depression and other things like that. Was that vague enough? ;) So this was my lets drink it every day… it’s being discontinued so I can’t beat the price… experiment tea. I should probably add in here that I’m not usually the biggest Japanese green fan so when I first got it I did not like it.
But! for the sake of behavioral science I kept drinking it. And now… I like it. I know that the flavor puts a smile on my face but I have no idea if those studies mean anything. I guess if I suddenly get very sad starting tomorrow we’ll have an answer.
So yea! I’m actually finding I like it better than matcha because I’m learning I’m not the biggest fan of the texture of it. This kind of tea gives me that kinda flavor with out me choking on my own saliva. AWESOME.
Also like matcha… if you let this tea hang out in a cup or pot too long it does develop some bitterness. So I try to drink it as quickly as I can without burning my esophagus to a cinder.
:)

This is an outstanding tea. The green color and the smell is just about perfect. It reminds me how much I love Japanese sencha with its grassy flavor.

It is a delicate tea so I would recommend steeping at a a lower temp and a little less time than usual.