Imperial Sencha

Thanks to Roswell Strange for this one! Received it back during our Secret Santea event and finally got through my open greens to be able to give this a try. This is my first time having something from DAVIDsTEA.

I love my Japanese greens, but I don’t usually drink plain sencha. I usually drink something from the shaded green family like kabusecha or gyokuro, or something at another point in the spectrum, like houjicha. So every sencha is an experience in trying to really pay attention to the often more unassuming flavor profile that comes with them.

I selected this sencha on the particular day I drank it (Saturday before last) because I wasn’t feeling well, so I wanted something to help give me a bit of an energy boost that I could then make ochazuke with afterward. The description of this being umami and oceanic sounded like it would be perfect for that.

Unfortunately, that’s not the flavor profile I got. Perhaps I would have to play around with steeping this one more to get it right, or perhaps my sense of taste was already starting to get weird because I was on the downhill slope of getting sick.

I mainly got grassy vegetal out of it, and the flavor wasn’t particularly robust. I did get the slightest bit of astringency and bitterness, as well. It had an almost fired taste to it, as well. Made for an odd-tasting ochazuke. I will give this another try, though. Can’t judge from one try!

I am having trouble describe this greee tea. It has a less sweet flavor than DavidsTeas Sencha Ashikubo but still has a vegtal grass flavor.That aftertaste is more pleasant than the initial taste. It holds up for several steepings. I would reccomend this tea if you like green tea but I think Sencha Ashikubo is better.

#ProjectTeaWall

Ugh; 1/3 three sencha teas down. Started with this one because it’s not part of the core collection so getting it out of the way seemed more pressing…

I mean, it’s basically just your typical sencha profile? Very strong seaweed notes, and strong umami flavour overall. I did find this one a little peachier than other sencha’s I’ve tried and that was a redeeming quality. I don’t really know what else to say about it. Fairly smooth, I guess? Not bitter for sure – a whisp of astringency?

I mean, I kind of just hate sencha in general though. Like, as a person who isn’t a fan of green tea in general I think sencha may actually be my least favourite generic kind of green tea overall. So, this was kind of a biased tasting from the start if we’re being totally honest. It’s gotta be done, though – and there’s still two more to go!

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Tried this twice now: first time I made it I used 175F water, 8oz and 2 min steeps x 3cups. I found it was a bit bitter (not too bad though- I had three cups) along with a nice grassy taste. Today I used 160F water and the same steeping parameters- no bitterness and a bit grassy.

Altogether pretty good, but a bit too finicky for me. I’ll have no prob using up the 25g I bought.

Lovely tea. Tastes like something in-between Sencha Ashikubo and japanese sencha. Not as rich and buttery as Sencha Ashikubo and not as grassy and vegetal as Japanese sencha. Overall a lovely tea and should you chose to purchase this tea then do so quickly since it is limited edition.