Sencha Fuka-midori

I love this tea-just had another cup, it is refreshing and you makes you feel like you have just had a cup of health! It especially tastes great in my new tea cup with strainer and lid! The leaves are a deep green and this is of course a first flush, which I could tell as I sipped away…

YAY! My Den’s sampler came yesterday! Unfortunately, the first tea I tried (this one) was expressly the type of green tea I DON’T like. :( It just tastes too vegetal for me, with some bitterness I’m not a fan of. I can tell, though, that this is high quality stuff. It’s just not the type I like.

Oh well. On to the next cup!

Beautiful in all respects. & I love the peaceful look of good green tea in a nice cup.

Brewed like Den’s website suggests: 1 tsp/3 oz water. First infusion at 180 degrees for a minute was great, but the second, done at boiling for just 15 seconds, was just awesome.

The mental well-being this tea produces is amazing, too. Made me smile without even realizing it :-)

This was my first real sencha, so I can’t compare it to others but I can say it was quite good. I got four good infusions out of it (60s, 20s, 30s, 60s). All were pretty consistent, although 2 and 3 had a stronger flavor than 1 and 4. This was also my first order with Den’s, and they sent me all kinds of tea catalogs and brochures and information. Very nice.

As i was brewing this tea I did a double take…the bouquet cut through the noise of the morning. Earthy. Alive. The taste reflected the aroma. A very nice surprise!! Not overpowering, nor terribly subtle. A very balanced and drinkable tea.

I recently had an exceptionally terrible genmaicha at a Japanese restaurant. Usually the Japanese places around here have pretty decent genmaicha, but this one was somehow greasy and bitter, yuck. Which brings me around to this delicious sencha. I needed a solid Japanese green to lift my spirits after that experience, and this tea definitely helped me do that. It had that nice thickness with the vegetal and umami flavors. I also got a nice resteep out of the leaves. Though, the second steep was a bit metallic to me, but that may be because of the infuser? Anyway, a solid tea and one I will definitely consider repurchasing in the future when I run out.

I kept getting an intensely medicinal taste with this one, I’m assuming I did something wrong, but I can’t figure out what..

I brewed this tea following Den’s tea instructions (2 grams of tea in 3 oz water for 1 min) and it was just perfect. It’s a really sweet green tea with no bitterness at all. It was very flavourful and I enjoyed it a lot.

I also tried brewing it using 2 grams of tea in 6 oz water and it was still sweet and delicious but not as flavourful.

From the UnflavoredTTB.

Brewed with a red clay kyusu. First infusion: 175°, 60 seconds. Second: 195°, 30 seconds. Third: 205°, 15 seconds. Forth: 205°, 15 seconds.

I reviewed this tea before, when I ordered the sampler. Thought I’d give it another go since I haven’t had it for more than year. I couldn’t smell the dry leaf very well – might have been due to the ziplock baggie – but the wet leaf aroma has strong buttery, squash, and spinach notes. The leaves are dark green and short, many broken up (not due to traveling, as I remember from the sampler packet). They produce neon green liquor which contains leaf particles, has a thick texture, and is full-bodied, flavorful, and wonderfully bitter and vegetal. If you’re interested in trying Japanese greens or want to get a general idea of how sencha tastes, I point to this tea.

My first Den’s Tea and my first Sencha. The dry leaves are small and thin and smell like dried grass clipping to me. I brewed about 2 Tsp in 6 oz of water for one minute. The leaves expanded quickly and have a sweet vegetal smell. The liquor was a slightly murky bright green. Looked radioactive.

The taste of this is amazing. I’m just getting into loose leaf greens so this is much better than anything I’ve had… (Not Verdant’s Laoshan Green, but that completely different) It has a slightly dry mouth feel but its balanced by how sweet and fresh it tastes. Reminds me of spinach.

Second steep I did for 15 seconds with boiling water per Den’s brewing instructions. Tastes a lot like the first cup. Still very good and grassy tasting.