According to their website, Kusmi Strawbery Green Tea is a strawberry-flavored sencha. To me, this seems like bancha. I’ve had some difficulty extracting answers about the identity of the China green teas used in the Kusmi blends, so I’m starting to wonder whether they might vary from batch to batch. Here’s what a customer service representative wrote to me this morning, along with my reply:
On Mon, Mar 31, 2014 at 10:04 AM, [a Kusmi sales associate]> wrote:
Hi
Hope this helps!
Algothé Standard Chinese green
Almond Green Standard Chinese green
Ginger Lemon Green Standard Chinese green
Green Bouquet Standard Chinese green
Imperial Label Sencha green tea (made in the Japanese style, but produced in China)
Best
[a Kusmi sales associate]
…
Dear Jeremy,
China makes a wide range of green teas, so your answers do not really narrow down the possibilities.
Thanks for your effort all the same.
Sincerely,
[sherapop]
Anyway, the strawberry scent is very powerful in the dried leaves, and a bit less so in the taste of the liquor. The scent of the surface of the tea, however, does still smell very much like strawberry. I was happy to read that the flavoring here is natural. Let’s hope that it’s true!
I’m not sure yet whether I like this combination. I love strawberry, and I love green tea (both sencha and bancha!), but do I like them together? Well, I have the rest of my 1 ounce sample tin of the loose blend to help me to determine the answer to the question!
Flavors: Berries