I wanted a bulk Japanese green tea that wouldn’t hurt my wallet, sorry Sencha, you’re just a bit too expensive at times.
Luckily, Bancha is sold cheap by the pound, and you get what you pay for. I appreciated how I saw a good range of leaves and stems in the rather low grass-woodlike scent it gave off. I brewed it at the green zone from 180º-200º at two minutes. I hate playing by seconds, so I leave my listed temperature at 185º. I doubled the time, and upped the temperature, on the second steep.
It tastes like green tea. Not much to delve into. But agreed, it cannot take a lot of steeps. I say stop at two brews, or treat it like a black and just brew it once! If you’re a cheepstake, you can go ahead and brew this more than three times, but you should reconsider and just go ahead and pour yourself some flat hot water to drink instead.
On my count, this is a decent, very affordable Japanese green tea. I often make this for the thermos in the morning, so I can skip a trip to Peet’s during lunch. Perhaps it is a good pair for a Japanese meal if you want the grass tone, but I can imagine it would go cold quickly once you hit your second toro nigiri. For that reason, I would take a Houjicha over this in a meal. Strictly sushi however, I would take Mecha.
My scoring is based upon it’s price, quantity, and production, (it’s organic! and if you haven’t noticed I love organic tea.)
