Sencha of the Wind

Another fantastic Sencha from Obubu. So smooth, sweet and with a lovely fruit note that hits the palate toward the end of the sip. Beautiful.

The friendly people at Obubu Tea sent me this free of charge! Included was a discount code and a lovely hand-written note; I was touched and impressed. My throat has been very sore as of late, so I used boiling hot water on this one. I enjoy very strong flavors in my teas, which is why I believe I prefer blacks, so I would probably be seen as mistreating most greens that come my way. I am a supertaster, however, and fully appreciate subtle flavors, so I don’t think greens are lost on me. My heart would still very much like to procure a gaiwan and treat these delicate Japanese and Chinese greens with a more traditional preparation.

The leaves are beautifully fragrant. I sniffed the bag more times than I care to admit! The water was boiling, so I didn’t steep this too long (unusual for me). The mesh sleeve for my cast iron teapot had gone on the fritz, so I had to use one of my cups. The perforations in the cup let through some of the smaller bits of leaves, but that doesn’t deter me in the least; I find it rather endearing.

THIS is what I picture when I think of green tea. It was perfect. It was all there, the grassy flavor, the faint fruit aroma, tinge of bitterness, followed by a hint of sweetness. There was slight astringency, which I so enjoy and feel creates a perfect foil with the sweet aftertaste. Sencha of the Wind was unlike a lot of green teas that I have had, with full body but still clean and refreshing. My aching throat was grateful, and after the first sip I greedily devoured the rest of the cup. And since it was only a cup, I still have some left. I can’t wait for my next!

Thank you, Obubu Tea, for this quality tea experience! I cannot wait to try more of your varieties.

A nice mix of slightly sweet and umami, with just a (nice) hint of bitter (it was present, but I barely noticed it). It was one of those cups of tea that I enjoyed as it was drunk, but it didn’t pop out at me. The wet leaf smelled very sweet and delicious in the kyusu. And yes, the leaves are HUGE! If that is because it is aracha, I like that.

In case you haven’t noticed, I received a sampler of Obubu’s teas for Christmas. $15 for 15 teas (5g each) and free shipping! (I think it was a Holiday special or something). Normally, the price is $25 (I think that still includes shipping) and I wouldn’t say it’s worth it, since it’s not quite enough tea to make more than one pot for each type. But at $15, it was a great deal!

Very light tea. Rebrews 3 times. It has a nice sweetness. Not as complex as I usually like, just straightforward tasting. I used up my whole sample, I might have liked the boiling brewing, since I think the warm water method didn’t make it strong enough for my tastebuds. It has a white tea lightness.

This is my first tea from Obubu, and it is quite delicious.

The leaves are large! I’m used to rather broken leaves with Japanese tea, but these are mostly whole. Being aracha, there are stems in it, but I love the flavor of the stems, so I like it even more.

The smell of the leaves, both before and after brewing, is AMAZING. I can see why it is called “Sencha of the Wind”. It smells like a sweet spring breeze. The color of the tea is a nice yellow-green, and the taste is nice and sweet, with a slight fruity flavor.

I don’t follow their “sencha expresso” brewing instructions, instead using my own. 2-3g of tea to 3-4oz water for 1.5 minutes. 30 seconds for the 2nd and 3rd infusions. Unlike some teas, the flavor really lasts on the 3rd and even 4th infusions.

I hope to try more teas from Obubu. They have a nice lineup, and are very “open” about their work on the site, and have good communication on Facebook/Twitter.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, Obubu recommends you eat the leaves after steeping. I tried it, and they tasted surprisingly good. I splashed a little soy sauce and rice vinegar on the leaves, and they tasted quite a bit like spinach. I think I felt the caffeine more, though.

EDIT 2: The more I brew it the more I like it! This tea is really growing on me. Easy to brew, always a consistent flavor, it’s great!

Tasted as part of one of the Gloral Japanese Tea Association courses. Zairai is an interesting cultivar. When we did a side-by-side comparison you can definitely see the differences and this is true too for the taste. The dry leaf is mostly flat, like a dragonwell but there is a mix of big and smaller leaf. Not quite the uniformity that you see with dragonwell. It is long with dark green and some light green. The aroma is woody and natural. The wet aroma turns to grassy, vegetal, and fresh notes. The mouthfeel is soft. The flavor has a bit of umami, grassiness, and hay.

Smelling both the dry and wet leaves really made me want to sneeze, so I didn’t inhale too much.

The first steeping immediately coats the tongue. It’s thick and sour. Kind of a toasty aftertaste. which is weird. Maybe I should have washed my pot more thoroughly after drinking all those roasted teas. Interestingly it’s very mild overall, except when you’re hit with that… sour-astrigency? Maybe lot more sour than astringent, but it hits the back and sides of the tongue in such a thick and juicy way.

It’s…. extremely intense, though, I think a bit too much for me. Drinking it also gives me a weird…. headache/sinusy feeling, and a tickle in my nose, like I am going to sneeze. Is it possible to have respiratory allergies to tea? Did a bunch of pollen end up in this somehow?

I gave my housemate some of it and they also got the nose-tickly feeling from it, so at least it’s not just me.

I think this is the first tea in the sampler I just can’t drink past the first steeping. The flavor is complex and interesting, and I’d really like to explore it more, but it’s probably not a good idea to keep drinking a tea that is giving me such weirdly strong allergy symptoms. I don’t see any of the other notes mentioning this though, so maybe it really is just us for some reason. How odd.

Another unique Japanese green from Cameron’s stash.

Brewed this one at work today. I’m pretty sure this is a kabusecha, which is a partially shade grown tea that has a flavor profile halfway between gyokuro and sencha. It’s not my favorite kind of Japanese green but this one had a complex and evolving flavor that made for an interesting session.

The flavor of this tea is savory and saline, like ocean air. Beautiful long strands that turn bright green when infused. I ended up steeping the entire 5g packet, which is double my normal leaf quantity and yet it had no trace of bitterness. The first steep was brothy and kelp like with a pronounced saltiness. Reminds me of a sea breeze or pickled umeboshi. The saltiness fades a little in the second cup which has savory notes of wakame seaweed, radicchio, and an echo of umami in the aftertaste. Third infusion shifted to a vegetal taste of cruciferous vegetables and earthy notes of grass.

I spent the morning updating my cupboard. I haven’t really been drinking much tea since I was last here, but I did sign up for the Obubu tea club before visiting their farm in Wazuka, Japan last fall. My husband and I got married last October and took a trip to Japan for 18 days for our honeymoon. Of course, I had to visit a tea plantation while I was there! It was a great experience, the staff were all wonderful and the setting gorgeous. Plus we got to sample several teas! Would definitely recommend the tour if you are ever in the area.

So anyway, I now have a ridiculous stash of Obubu teas, mostly from the subscription box which is a generous amount of tea. Please feel free to send me a message if you’d like to try a sampling of their teas!

Had a lazy session with this tea on the couch (or tried to, as the pugs tried their best to sit in my lap…). I used a ~200ml kyusu that I also picked up in Japan and did three steeps of 60s, 10s, and 30s.

This is a shaded tea, so it has a somewhat intense and umami vegetal flavor. The first steep especially had a nice intensity, and strong spinach and cooked green bean notes. It felt very thick and silky on the tongue, with a nice creamy quality. There was a touch of pleasant bitterness and light astringency at the tail end of the sip, and a lingering umami aftertaste on my tongue. As it cooled, I picked up more seaweed notes and perhaps a hint of apricot.

The second steep was lighter and sweeter, still with the same vegetal notes but with less intensity. The third steep was a bit too light, I should have steeped it longer than I did. The vegetal notes gave way to a grassier flavor, and it was the sweetest of the three steeps.

Definitely a very satisfying tea, with a nice savory vegetal flavor up front giving way to more sweetness in later steeps. It reminded me how much I love Japanese teas! I’m not going to rate it for now, as I’ve been out of practice so I don’t have a good point of reference.

(here’s a couple of Instagram posts from our Obubu trip):
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4gUNC-gTBt/
https://www.instagram.com/p/B4gVwpEAUyS/

I got this as a free sample from Yunomi. Very excited to try it… After sitting through it this morning, however, I’ve decided it’s not my cup of tea. I think that it is very good tea, but personally just not my favorite flavor profile.

I started this session with 5g of tea steeped at 140 degrees. The initial cup was sweet and grassy. There was an ever so slight hint of astringency and umami, but both were quite balanced. The overall flavor was of green beans.

The second steep was done at 175 degrees and was surprisingly similar to the first steep. It was overall still sweet, yet still had a strong “tea” flavor without the astringent bite. I realize that is not very descriptive, but it is very hard to describe. Almost the flavor of an astringent tea without the bite of astringency. Perhaps I simply mean a very vegetal tea. Not sure… :)

Finally, the last steep was conducted at 190 degrees. Finally, the tea was a bit more astringent. At the same time, however, it starts to lose its fullness and flavor. It was simply like a cheap astringent green tea. The wonderful flavor profile dissipated quite fast.

Overall, the quality of this tea was quite good and I did enjoy it. I just prefer less sweetness and more bold flavors in my Japanese green teas, or at least I did today.