Sencha Henta Asanoka

Nio Advent 2023
A mix of long and short glossy green leaves. A pleasant and clean aroma. One minute seems about right though I always get a bit nervous going for too long with Japanese greens. Vegetal notes of fresh asparagus, cooked spinach, radish? It’s a decent tea. Something to drink while you are eating something but on its own it is a bit lackluster.
Unrelated kind of… When your kids get sick you don’t really sleep. I don’t really sleep because I have an overactive imagination. I’m tired. And the kids …are being kids. Siblings are interesting. I get to do a sit-down talk with my sister tomorrow. Let you know how that goes ^^;

I wrote this note during one of the recent Steepster freezes, and forgot to record which tea it was for. I think this is the one!

I’m happy to see another single-cultivar sencha in this bag of samples! I steeped 5 g of leaf in 150 ml of 140F water for 1 minute, followed by several 20 second steeps.

The dry aroma is of apple, grain, sweetgrass, gentle umami, and veggies. The first steep has a nice, thick body and notes of sweetgrass, spinach, asparagus, apple, and grain. It’s surprisingly easy going for a sencha. The next few steeps give me more apple, grain, asparagus, grass, herbs, and spinach. The fruit fades near the end of the session, but the tea never gets too bitter or harsh.

Unlike many of the Japanese greens I’ve been drinking, this tea has dimensions other than veggies. It’s a nice change of pace, and I wish I’d been able to pay more attention to it during what was apparently a hectic workday.

Good (tea) soup.

Nio Teas Advent Calendar 2022 – Day 14

Well that’s fun, just lost that note somehow…

This is a lovely tea, the sip starts out vegetal and rich and reminds me of cooked zucchini. There’s a nice grainy note to it as well, and a light creaminess. It has a silky texture but doesn’t taste too heavy. Toward the end of the sip it lightens, swapping out the vegetal and umami notes for more refreshing ones like grass, crisp apples, and a hint of sakura. There’s a light astringency as well that gives it an even cleaner finish.

Second steep is more like the end of the first, fresh and more grassy in flavor, with sun-dried hay and a light fruitiness that reminds me of green grapes, alongside the apple.

A lovely tea, probably my favorite from Nio so far! :)