Sencha Karigane

Adventaggedon Day Twenty One – 2/6

This was the laziest gongfu session ever, and short too. In part because I was so busy working from home to devote attention to the tea and in part because I simply didn’t want to. I hate Sencha.

Honestly, not my cuppa – but could have been so, so much worse too. Very umami and oceanic in a way that gives me seafood kind of vibes in a not cool way, but also lighter than expected overall too. Maybe a touch buttery and a tough like the more white and pithy part of a melon rind – but not quite bitter.

Someday I’ll drink this again with more mindfulness, but today was not that day.

Today’s Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CmciwMSufdM/

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fdB2q3izFW0

The Tea Practitioner Advent Calendar 2022 – Day 21

It’s always funny when I get a Japanese green tea in one of my other advents, in addition to always having one from the Nio Teas calendar.

This is a lovely karigane. It tastes like a lighter and sweeter version of a kabusecha or gyokuro, with the same silky and rich vegetal notes and layered umami. But then the texture is thinner and it has a clear, mineral sweetness to it, along with some gentle nutty notes. Subsequent steeps lose a bit of that shaded intensity and have more of a grassy presence instead. There’s a bit of a melon-y fruitiness to it as well, that becomes a bit easier to identity in the second and third steep. In the first steep it’s more musky, like a cantaloupe, and then it becomes more clear and sweet, like a honeydew.

Tasty!