April 18/25 2021 harvest
With only a few servings left of the 50g bag, it’s time to attempt some kind of description of this sencha. My multiple notes literally got scattered all over the place and I can only find this one now.
Dry leaf has a lush, deep green aroma. Very fruity, strawberry-pineapple-sakura-pine, sometimes mandarin orange-Asian pear attached to that hyphenation.
Wet leaf smells very meaty, can’t get the idea of Vienna sausages out of my head. I guess that’s the umami revealing itself, much moreso in the wet leaf than in the taste. Dark green wet grass, subdued flowers.
The tea is such a moving mix of flavors and sensations. I find it difficult to sit with the tea but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy drinking it. Active tea means activity. Rich, persimmonsweet flavor. Rather smooth, fruity with a bitter-bright vegetal taste, piney backdrop. Fairly light rounded umami that is not a distinct note or aftertaste. Floral-fruity-bitter-brightgrassy finish. Fruity aftertaste later turns piney-fruity.
There is some bitterness-astringency in the throat that quickly brings about returning sweetness. Cool inhalations, a light chill lines the inner perimeter of my lips. Feels like my body is breathing. Bottom of the cup smells like sakura. Only in later steeps do I notice the cinnamon and vanilla described by Thés du Japon, mostly in the aroma.
I also really like this western brewed. Probably around 1g:100mL, 2-3 min?, 2-3 steeps. It’s so refreshing. Good astringency mixed with gentle cooked white bean and seaweed overtone, butter. Not fruity as prepared in my small clay teapot but I feel like I get hints of it all here and there. Returning sweetness.
Flavors: Astringent, Beans, Bittersweet, Butter, Cinnamon, Drying, Floral, Fruity, Grassy, Green, Mandarin, Meat, Pear, Persimmon, Pine, Pineapple, Round, Sakura, Seaweed, Strawberry, Sweet, Umami, Vanilla, Vegetal, Wheatgrass
