Sencha Ariake

I had some pretty negative apprehensions when I was about to try this tea,

As many others, I find most Japanese teas to be too herbal, vegetably even; having that typical astringency that you find in especially cheap ones.

For Matchas and Senchas, it’s not uncommon to find herbalness mixed with a strong and direct bitterness that rules over every other subtleties.

But this wasn’t one of those cases, in fact it is one of the only senchas I was able to drink gong fu style — albeit with some consequences.

There are many reasons why Sencha isn’t really compatible with gong fu style, its finely cut needle-like leaves are hard to block and Sencha is usually infused for long periods of time, a kyusu thusly being the more logical vessel to be used and more generally, the tea itself doesn’t benefit much from a tea “cleaning” per se since the leaves are already broken, so I’m gonna drink that 1st steep anyways.

With all that in mind, I tried a different method. First, I would infuse for 2 minutes at 70C, then I would make two more 20s steeps, any more would be too bitter.
Here’s how it went:

1st Steep: The herbalness is particularly clear here, with surprisingly almost no bitterness — Airing the tea a little bit gradually makes the tea more and more bitter however.
2nd Steep: Now the bitterness took over completely, it’s almost undrinkable, the vegetable-like taste is still however completely present.
3rd Steep: No herbalness whatsoever now, it’s completely bitter, like drinking ear wax I guess…? Cannot describe what could possibly be worse that this.

Alright, although it may seem as if I hated this tea, this is truly one of the most suprising ones I’ve tried so far. The first thing that came to my mind when I drank that first steep was “fresh”, it was just fresh and very vegetably, like cucumber water. Just for that first steep, and the shock that it caused, this tea deserves more recognition.

Oh, dear. My husband bought this as part of a set for me back in… 2021. I think. I’ve decided I can’t buy anything else till I really go through things. When I first had this I thought it was meh. Still think it is meh. The marine attributes have tapered off quite a bit. The grassiness is a bit more buttery and creamy. It’s not a bad sencha. Just nothing worth a second buy in my opinion. Would be good for a genmaicha blend. Ooo… I’m going to try to make my own hojicha!

One of my Christmas treats from my son was a beautifully boxed tasting set from Palais des Thes—all single-origin teas in little metal tubes that scratch the itch to fidget and play with toys. All of these are ones I want to pay attention to, so I took a little attention break after a morning of post-holiday pitching and organizing.

The dry leaves were a delicious, deep pine green and the fresh scent reminded me of the big bowls of peas and green beans Mom would bring in for us to snap and shell. (Shelling peas is the most satisfying sensory experience—you really need to try it once.) Tasted almost exactly the same as its scent, with the addition of a little sweet, woody aftertaste on the tip of the tongue.

I keep forgetting that un-tampered, fresh, unflavored green teas can be really fine. I think I’ll hang on to the rest for a gloomy, freezing winter day when I need a reminder that spring is out there somewhere.

As part of my Hannukah gift, my sister got me a box of single origin teas from Palais Des Thes. Thankfully the box is mostly black teas, which are really the ones I tend to drink straight. However, a couple plain greens are in there, including this one. With that in mind, I am working on filling a TTB and am trying to include both straight teas and flavored. I am also trying to have a variety of tea types and so I figured that I would give this a try and toss the rest into the TTB, since the likelihood I would drink it over other options, even if I like it, is low.

As someone who doesn’t drink greens, I think this is decent quality. Mild flavor. Not overly grassy. No bitterness. It has notes of sweet spinach. Sort of creamy. Honestly, as far as greens go, its nice but it is still a plain green tea that I don’t care to drink again.

Palais Des Thes Advent Calendar Day 8:
The steeping parameters on the sachet and the website do differ a little bit so keep that in mind.
I was happy to see that today’s tea is a Sencha. Sencha is one of my favorite teas and I especially love plain green teas. I feel like I need to point out that it’s been quite awhile since I’ve had a plain Sencha and have been wanting to get some for my cupboard for quite awhile now.
This is a really nice Sencha no bitterness and has a lovely delicate flavor. This one doesn’t have as many of the strong vegetal or seaweed notes that a lot of people don’t care for in green tea. I would definitely consider purchasing this but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get this one specifically. The Resteep was nice as well!

Muslin sachet, 75 degrees, 90+ seconds.

I unpacked it from foil wrapping expexting at most pyramid sachet. But It was muslin one. At least I think it is a muslin one. That was nice surprise. I boiled the water and let it cool down on its own. No fridge, no ice – just slowly cooling down. Then it hit 75 °C mark and I put the bag in.

After recommended (half between Cameron B’s and half what is written) I took from yellowish-green liquor sachet out. It is clear, nice colour.

In taste it is nice grassy tea with notes of spinach I think. Quite unexpected – sweet.

Pretty easydrinking sencha – with not so complex flavours. But I understand it is nice for morning – they even suggest it. Let’s see how it will wake me up :)

Palais des Thés Advent Calendar – Day 8 (from November backlog)

Hmm, a plain sencha. Don’t get me wrong, I love sencha, but I certainly wouldn’t order it from Palais des Thés…

That being said, this is a very pleasant sencha with a simple flavor of vegetal spinach and grass. There’s a nice sweetness and a creamy body, and a little hint of umami as well, in the form of roasted seaweed.

Is it complex? No. But it is very enjoyable to casually sip on the couch.

This is ok. It’s a little weaker than I typically like for this time of year especially. This might be a nice summer tea.

It’s… fine? It tastes fine, it’s not bad or anything. It’s just not noteworthy. It tastes like a basic Japanese sencha. Lightly grassy. I feel like this can become bitter more easily than average, but once you figure out what works for you it’s fine.

It’s probably not fair to imbibe Palais des Thés Sencha Ariake so soon after having enjoyed ichiban sencha and gyokuro, but it was the luck of the brew.

Sencha Ariake brews up quite a bit more yellow than I was expecting. The temperature was lower than their prescribed 75C, and I kept the brewing time short. Still, the liquor ended up looking more like the color (bright yellow veering gold, not green) I expect to see in a second infusion of many green teas…

The taste is good but less smooth and closer to a bagged green than a true sencha. I am using the muslin cotton sachets, which have the same sort of cotton stitching as the Mighty Leaf Sachets and have the same droopy look. The size is similar to that of the Kusmi muslin sachets.

I don’t know, but the dried tea seemed heartier than I am accustomed to seeing for sencha. It might be that they need to use something a bit more rough-hewn so that the particles will not all rush through the large pores of these cotton sacks.

This tea is pretty good for a bagged green tea, not so great for a sencha. Will not restock once this small supply (from two large sample set boxes) has been depleted.

(Blazing New Rating #47)