Sencha of the Wind

Tea type
Green Tea
Ingredients
Green Tea
Flavors
Broccoli, Broth, Lettuce, Marine, Ocean Air, Salty, Seaweed, Umami, Vegetal, Apricot, Astringent, Bitter, Creamy, Grass, Green Beans, Spinach, Sweet, Thick, Freshly Cut Grass, Peas, Smooth, Bok Choy, Cashew, Nuts, Soybean, Kabocha, Round, Savory, Squash, Vegetable Broth, Viscous, Mineral, Nutty, Rich, Zucchini, Fruity, Kale, Passion Fruit, Plum, Silky, Spring Water, Tea, Bitter Melon, Cream, Dandelion, Lemon, Floral, Green, Petrichor, Sweet, Warm Grass
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Medium
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Cameron B.
Average preparation
165 °F / 73 °C 1 min, 30 sec 6 g 10 oz / 288 ml

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25 Tasting Notes View all

  • “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.” Read full tasting note
    88
  • “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...” Read full tasting note
    94
  • “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...” Read full tasting note
    82
  • “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...” Read full tasting note
    74

From Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms

Wind brings a moss-like green into the cup, offering a notable aroma of willow bark and wet stone. With a beautifully cloudy liquor, it has a vegetal and gentle umami taste. The mouthfeel is thick and smooth. This tea is shaded from the sun for two weeks before harvest and is made from a traditional Zairai cultivar. A wonderful and mellow tea.

Taste: Umami
Body: Rich
Texture: Rounded
Length: Long
Harvest: May
Tea Cultivar: Zairai
Origin: Wazuka
Cultivation: Shaded
Processing: Lightly Steamed, Rolled, Dried

About Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms View company

It started with a single cup of tea. As the legend goes, our president Akihiro Kita, or Akky-san, visited Wazuka, Kyoto one fateful day. At the time, Akky-san was still a college student in search for life's calling. After trying the region's famous Ujicha (literally meaning tea from the Uji district), he immediately fell in love and his passion for green tea was born. He had finally found what he was looking for in that one simple cup of tea. After fifteen years of learning to master the art of growing tea from tea farmers in Wazuka, Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms was born and as they say, the rest is history. So what's an Obubu? Obubu is the Kyoto slang for tea. Here in the international department we call ourselves Obubu Tea. That's "Tea Tea" for the bilinguals. We love tea so much, we just had to have it twice in our name. Now Obubu means more than just tea to us. It means, family, friends, passion and the place we call home. More than just tea. Though the roots of Obubu stem from tea, it has become more than that over the years. Obubu is an agricultural social venture, operating with three (1) bring quality Japanese tea to the world (2) contribute to the local and global community through tea (3) revitalize interest in tea and agriculture through education.

25 Tasting Notes

88
4843 tasting notes

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.

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94
35 tasting notes

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.

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec

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82
280 tasting notes

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!

Preparation
160 °F / 71 °C 1 min, 30 sec

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74
335 tasting notes

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.

Preparation
160 °F / 71 °C 2 min, 0 sec

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100
27 tasting notes

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!

Preparation
160 °F / 71 °C 1 min, 30 sec

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76
1233 tasting notes

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.

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76 tasting notes

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.

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90
676 tasting notes

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.

Flavors: Broccoli, Broth, Lettuce, Marine, Ocean Air, Salty, Seaweed, Umami

Preparation
160 °F / 71 °C 1 min, 0 sec 5 g 6 OZ / 165 ML
Cameron B.

You’re correct, this is a kabuse sencha. And I love umeboshi! :P

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90
3986 tasting notes

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/

Flavors: Apricot, Astringent, Bitter, Creamy, Grass, Green Beans, Seaweed, Spinach, Sweet, Thick, Umami

Preparation
160 °F / 71 °C 5 g 7 OZ / 200 ML
Leafhopper

Congratulations on your wedding, if I haven’t said that before. :) That sounds like an amazing trip!

Cameron B.

Thank you, we had a great time! Japan has always been on my list. :)

Martin Bednář

What a wonderful place to spend honeymoon! Happy times!

Mastress Alita

Japan has always been on my list, too! (My BFF has been several times, but has he ever taken me?! It’s probably the one thorn of contention between us, heh). I have a few Obubu teas via Yunomi (I think right now my houjicha and genmaicha stash are both from them). I know I’ve also sampled a houjicha before that was made from this sencha, and I was surprised I got that slight “seaweedy” taste coming through the roast, which I’d never had in a houjicha before.

Cameron B.

@Martin – It was lovely! We’re definitely planning to go back.

@Mastress AlitaBFF no more! ;) I’m not surprised about the seaweed taste, as this is a fairly umami-packed tea! I’ll definitely be breaking out the houjicha soon with the weather getting cooler.

Todd

@Mastress Alita We can certainly remedy that situation some time after all this COVID stuff. <3

ashmanra

Congratulations! That is awesome!

tea-sipper

Happy anniversary whenever that may fall this month. :D

Cameron B.

@ashmanra – Thank you! :D

@teasipper – Thank you, it was yesterday in fact! We’re not celebratory people so we didn’t do anything. :P

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77
53 tasting notes

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.

Flavors: Green Beans, Sweet, Tea

Preparation
140 °F / 60 °C 0 min, 15 sec 5 g 9 OZ / 260 ML

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