Japanese Sencha (Organic)

I thought I had already reviewed this one – oh well! I’m trying to drink more straight greens in my semi-serious New Year’s resolution to drink green tea every day, and I realised I had some of this that came with one of my Christmas presents. I don’t mind this (gasp, shock), but I liked the Sencha Ashikubo far better. Naturally, because that one is so much more expensive, LOL. My thing with greens is getting the water temperature decent, and I’m not sure I did with this one. Sigh. Maybe next time.

GCTTB

This sencha is okay but it’s lacking the nice spinach and body of some of the richer sencha’s. I think I prefer those senchas that border a little bit on the gyokuro side.

Interesting. I did a comparison between this and the Ashikubo Sencha by David, as I bought 10g of each to sample. Both teas were steeped as recommended by the David’s Tea Thermometer – 74C for 2mins 30seconds. Just under a tsp of tea for each.I don’t always do that but for the sake of comparison, I followed the directions. I made them at exactly the same time in identical mugs, water from the same pot and all that jazz. Only thing is I forgot to give either of them a rinse!

The Ashikubo’s liquor was a shade darker, slightly murkier. It is very vegetal and woody, kind of bitter, with slight nutty notes, and a lot of astringency (which I hate). I’ve tried it before and felt meh about it and I still do.

The Japanese Sencha’s liquor is lighter in color and clearer. Lighter in flavour too but not in a bad way at all – light vegetal base, very slight sweet floral and wood notes (compared to Ashikubo), very smooth with no astringency. Really pleasant to drink. I’m not a green tea person because every one I’ve tried so far is too astringent (besides genmaicha) and I really don’t dig that, but this changes things.

Anyway, final result is – I dig this a million times more over the Ashikubo! Which is great because its a good 6 dollars cheaper per 50g, lol. If you don’t like astringency this is for you. I’d dig a stronger flavour but that can probably be adjusted with steeping. Both my brother and my dad preferred this one too.

Me and this tea are not having a cooperative morning.

My first cup I brewed 1tsp/8oz at 170F/75C for 2 min, and it came out so astringent that I couldn’t get through more than half the cup before drinking it.

Second steep of the same leaves I did for 1 min at 70C and it was less astringent, but still pretty astringent and otherwise pretty weak.

Third try is fresh leaf with 63C water for 1 minute. This cup is drinkable, yay! It has the nice vegetal and umami, with slightly roasty notes that I was craving. Still a touch astringent, but not bad.

It’s satisfying my morning craving, but this is super finicky and I’m regretting leaving my tin of gyokuro at my partner’s place.

Edit: NOPE. Half way through this cup and my mouth feels so dry I just want to brush my teeth. Time to make something new.

I felt like a plain tea this afternoon so I picked this one out of the Canadian Traveling Teabox. It’s a fairly standard sencha, mildly grassy with a bit of a seaweed flavour. I can tell that it’s decent quality and not harsh or bitter for all that it’s a bit uninspiring. For those who want an intro into Japanese greens and don’t feel like shelling out a ton of money right off the bat this would be a great place to start.

Yumm.. have always loved green tea! This is a nice cup of tea to relax with in the evening – hopefully will still be able to sleep tonight.

This is a light grassy sencha that’s pleasant to drink, but it did seem a little bit weak. It has a mild vegetal scent and flavor that was refreshing, though I could have done without the seaweed undertones in this one. It’s decent enough, but not my favorite sencha.

My go to tea is and always will be a good green tea. In a perfect world, I’d be drinking tip top Gyokuro… but my wallet says otherwise. So since I had run out of my Gyokuro (which I got from Teavana when I worked there. I was only able to afford it because of the discount) I have switched over to Sencha.

This tea is the most affordable loose-leaf sencha I have tried yet that doesn’t sacrifice too much flavour. I am still satisfied whenever I drink this tea. Though it doesn’t give that same rich, buttery aroma like a gyokuro does, it’s still a great plain green tea.

I stock up on this!

it tastes like classic green tea. I guess that is the goal right? I love green tea. I like it because it is clean, plain and rustic, not a whole mish mash of overwhelming flavors, so it’s good when you are just looking to relax a bit (but not too much because there is some caffeine in it).

It was ok but not something I would reach for often so probably not worth purchasing. Green teas are my favourite but David’s has spoiled me and now I only want flavoured green teas!