Tencha Chiyo no Sakae

Tea type
Green Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Not available
Sold in
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Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Jason
Average preparation
160 °F / 71 °C 1 min, 30 sec

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5 Tasting Notes View all

  • “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...” Read full tasting note
    96
  • “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. ...” Read full tasting note
    88
  • “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...” Read full tasting note
    97
  • “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...” Read full tasting note
    94

From Samovar

Origin: Japan

Flavor Profile: The variegated, deep green bits of leaf that comprise tencha are traditionally ground into matcha, but they can also be brewed on their own. Brewed as loose-leaf tea, Tencha appears as a hazy, luminescent suspension of emerald flakes in a chartreuse liquor. It has a mild aroma and a clear, distinct, straightforward flavor with thick notes of umami-rich wakame, cream, malt and toast followed by a delicate, vegetal aftertaste.

Freshly ground with our Matcha Mill, its aroma and flavor lies between our seasonally available Fukamushi (“deep steamed”) Sencha and our Hekisui Matcha.

Tea Story: Like Gyokuro, Tencha is shade-grown for an umami-filled flavor and high levels of antioxidants, L-theanine and caffeine. After it is plucked, it is steamed until the leaves begin to break apart. The stems and veins are removed from the leaves.

Typically, the remaining leaf bits are ground into matcha powder in Japan. However, matcha has an extremely large surface area and is at its best when it is freshly ground. For that reason, we are amongst the first U.S. tea companies to offer Tencha to brew or grind with a Matcha Mill and whisk at home.

Samovarian Poetry: A rare find. A refined ritual. A simple pleasure.

Food Pairings: Tencha’s straihtforward, umami-packed flavor is ideally paired with seafood or mild sweets. Try it with raw or baked salmon, or with traditional Japanese “wagashi” (sweets such as mochi or adzuki bean).

About Samovar View company

Samovar's is dedicated to preserving the simplicity and integrity of the tea traditions and inspiring people to practice peace through drinking tea.

5 Tasting Notes

96
865 tasting notes

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!

Preparation
140 °F / 60 °C 2 min, 30 sec
SoccerMom

Sounds like your having an all around good day. New yixing pot and teas :)

~lauren.

Congrats on your first yixing teapot! Mine hasn’t arrived yet :( but if that other oolong glass teapot is any indication, should be a dear little thing! Can’t wait to try the tencha from Samovar! Things to look forward to!

Cofftea

The yixing smells like black pepper… yes I’m a tea dork and smelled my yixing…

~lauren.

And why not? Tea is all about the senses!!! Are you going to season your little yixing pot (maybe you already did)? You know, 15 minutes on the rolling boil w/ water, 15 minutes boiled with the tea of choice (oolong?), and the naming of the teapot ceremony, too!

Cofftea

I know what seasoning it is. This one will be for raw pu erh. No, I haven’t done it yet- but I’d be really upset if it smelled like pepper after I seasoned it. I don’t believe in naming objects though.

~lauren.

Ok. I named my yixing (21 oz) mugs. The one for Oolong, I named Serenity because I want to be serene when I drink from it, the one for Pu-erh Tuo Cha I named Tranquility because I want to be tranquil when I drink tea from it, and the one for Lapsang Souchong I named Harmony because I want to be harmonious with all when I drink from it. Silly, maybe, but something to strive for, too.

Cofftea

It’s not silly to strive for those things at all- I just don’t see the need to name things after desirable character traits. Harmony from Lapsang Souchong… hmmm…

Cofftea

I want to devote this mug http://www.stashtea.com/products/Yixing+Beehive+Tea+Mug.aspx?category=TEAPOTSCUPSMORE to 52teas Mayan Chocolate Chai… do you season your mugs as well?

~lauren.

What a charming mug (look at the little feet on it!)! Yes, I did do that whole seasoning procedure — the puerh mug smells good (like puerh) and so does the lapsang souchong (smells very smoky!) but unfortunately, the oolong mug doesn’t smell like it yet (only drank from it three times so far – I guess needs more time).

Cofftea

Do you fill the mug up to the top w/ tea when you season it? That would be a LOT of chai so I’d probably use a cheaper version to season it. I don’t want to waste all that wonderful chai! :(

Cofftea

2nd infusion, 3min 20 sec. More green liquor. Not bitter at all, so sweet and yummy!

~lauren.

I added like 6 tablespoons of the intended tea (and 6 pellets of the puerh tuo cha when I was doing that mug) in the boiling pot but I used a smaller pot that had sufficient space (about 3 inch clearance around the mug and tea towel) which submerged the mug totally. I know, I felt a moment’s hesitation, too, using up all that tea! And now, after I drink from a particular mug, I do a last infusion in the mug, full to the brim and leave it in the mug for 30 minutes to an hour (depending on when I get to it again) before dumping.

AmazonV

@Lauren i name everything, my car, my computer, if i need to use it daily i want to call it something! not just ‘one of the multiple pots’

~lauren.

@AmazonV – I now have to try and remember the names – my memory being what it is (somewhat non-existent at times!). LOL : )

Ricky

Oh yeah Tencha! I forgot about this. Mine comes in tomorrow =]]

I ♥ NewYorkCiTEA

Congrats! What else was in your order? That tea mug is just darling with the little round feet.

Cofftea

Chrine, I didn’t get a mug I got the yixing and the calendar.

Cofftea

For anyone interested, I talked to someone (via email) from Den’s Tea and while they do not sell it and he was not completely sure, he did also suggest steeping it similar to a Gyokuro so you could either steep it as a regular grade Gyokuro or a Premium Grade Gyokuro, as I did here. For info on where to start steeping Gyokuro, here’s Den’s suggestion: http://www.denstea.com/index.php?main_page=perfect_brewing. And then there’s also the room temp method…

~lauren.

All this advice would be so useful if my Samovar order including this Tencha would get here, pronto! Still waiting for my order, though, UGH!

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88
911 tasting notes

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?

Preparation
140 °F / 60 °C 1 min, 45 sec
Atacdad

hey, how do we flag posts for bad language…;-) just like the Phuket Wonder at my local Tai shop.

Auggy

Ha! I think Phuket Wonder is much worse (though also more hilarious – oddly enough, I picture a chicken on the label… is there a chicken on the label?)

__Morgana__

ROF,L - chicken - hahahahaha

Atacdad

its actually a dish composed of sauted green beans. Its pronounced foo-ket…and no, not with a cockney accent lolz

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97
154 tasting notes

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.
:)

Preparation
140 °F / 60 °C 1 min, 0 sec

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94
20 tasting notes

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.

Preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 2 min, 15 sec

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