Revisiting this tea after first trying it during my pre-gong fu “dark ages.” It definitely tastes different this time around. Part of it may be due to the variance in last year’s harvest, but ever since I adopted the gong fu approach – high leaf to water ratio and short steeps – my tea brewing has improved across the board. Japanese greens are no exception. I used to brew them the generic western style: a teaspoon per 8 oz of water for 1 minute or longer. But cutting steep times and doubling the leaf quantity really brings out their character.
This tea is very fragrant out of the bag. Wonderful sweet grass and fruity flavor. I begin by steeping 2g in a 150ml pot for 30s for the first infusion. This infusion packs a nice fruity punch. Reminds me of kamairicha but with warm grass in the background and umami. Texture in the mouth is like silk. The second infusion is a flash steep with water a tad cooler which produces a bright green liquor and deeper vegetal flavor as the fruitiness shifts to the background. Next 2 steeps are 40s and 55s at higher temperatures that give more of a standard sencha flavor with a good sweet/savory balance.
Teas like this are why Yuuki-Cha remains my favorite Japanese tea vendor. I really enjoyed the unique fruity-umami profile of this tea. It was a nice change of pace from the string of deep steamed senchas I’ve been drinking. Portioning out the 100g bag into foil zip pouches and refrigeration helped it retain a lot of freshness since I bought it over 4 months ago.
Flavors: Fruity, Sweet, Warm Grass, Umami
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Love Yuuki-cha’s senchas. They were my first online tea vendor. Too bad they don’t sell any more teas from Shizuoka like they used to, though. I think the Uji one is their only tea from Honshu.
I start every day with Yuuki-cha sencha! All the asatsuyu offerings are delicious and preferred over other green tea cultivars. However, this tea fades with age. When we get around to March, I can almost get 2-3 good steeps. The beautiful green persists through many steeps but the flavor is gone.
Time for spring tea!
Love Yuuki-cha’s senchas. They were my first online tea vendor. Too bad they don’t sell any more teas from Shizuoka like they used to, though. I think the Uji one is their only tea from Honshu.
I start every day with Yuuki-cha sencha! All the asatsuyu offerings are delicious and preferred over other green tea cultivars. However, this tea fades with age. When we get around to March, I can almost get 2-3 good steeps. The beautiful green persists through many steeps but the flavor is gone.
Time for spring tea!