12 Tasting Notes
What a sencha!! The freshness of this tea is worth the effort and extra expense — I was blown away by the full flavour profile, and the smooth, slightly buttery taste. The leaves themselves are beautifully long, and the aroma will blow you away. I’m thrilled that DAVIDsTEA is bringing this “Garden to Cup” series in; being able to try teas that have just been harvested like this is a true treat that I’ve only ever seen at the pricier, high-end tea shops before.
The name is curious…Yabu-kita…“ruined north”? Is it giving a nod to the 2011 disaster? I wish I knew!
If you’re a sencha-lover, do yourself a favour and go pick up a bag before this sells out!
Preparation
What an outstanding tea! I picked some of this up the day it arrived at DT, and as promised, it was wonderfully fresh, aromatic, and flavourful. The honey notes are surprisingly prominent, and there’s a really alluring smoky depth to the finish. This is easily my new favourite straight black tea in my collection.
Preparation
Have you happened to try this iced? Thinking of picking up some yummy teas perfect iced.
I’m afraid I haven’t! When it comes to iced teas, I don’t usually do black teas, especially straight black teas like these. Maybe it’s just a preference thing, but I think lighter teas like fruit teas, white teas, peppermint tea, etc. lend themselves much better to making a refreshing, icy drink! Good luck with your hunt, though!
Yabukita is actually the name of a cultivar of tea plant popular in Japan for making sencha. It’s about 70-80% of the plants grown there. Supposed to have a great flavor when handled well.
Have you tried their other sencha? I want to know how this compares.
Wow! Thanks for the info on the name; I’m really impressed that someone knew.
As for comparing it with other DAVIDsTEA senchas, I’m afraid I can’t be of much help. I’ve never bought sencha from DAVIDsTEA before, preferring to buy my straight teas from tea shops that had a better selection and actually specialized in selecting and selling straight teas (Camellia Sinensis in Quebec is my go-to).
However, I can compare this sencha with others that I’ve bought from places like Camellia Sinensis, or in person while traveling in Kyoto prefecture, and I can truly say that I enjoyed this one very much as a high-quality tea, and wasn’t disappointed in the least. I was impressed with the quality of the leaves, and over the course of four kyusu teapot infusions, appreciated the smooth mouthfeel and rounded taste profile. It’s not an astringent tea, but it’s by no means bland. I’m still not sure I’ll invest in other senchas from DAVIDsTEA (a sencha simply called “Japanese Sencha” is not particularly interesting to me), but this one is worth trying.
Good to hear! I haven’t tried anything from Camellia Sinensis yet since the prices on their website can be intimidating, but I’ve heard that their tea is high quality as a rule from this site. If this stands up to that metric, I might have to dig up $12.50 somewhere. They’ll probably run out before I get a chance, though, since I just bought some and am holding off at least until I finish some of my other stuff.