Sencha Ariake

Standard green sencha with a mild grassy/vegetal note in a fancy muslin tea bag. It’s an absolutely a bog-standard sencha for which PdT have chanced their arm by charging around $1 per bag. Almost any Japanese mass-market sencha would stack up admirably to this at a less than a quarter of the price.

It’s clear PdT and I are not meant for each other, though their single origins are passable compared to their terribly weak blends. If folks are happy to pay such a price for a very middling tea, more power to them, I suppose? I just feel the pricing is out of hand for such dull products. Even the packaging is quite bland, in my opinion. I have some more of the 2023 Advent to work through and then I shall be delighted to return to tastier tea pursuits.

I recently tried Sencha Ariake, a green tea from Palais des Thés. Here’s my detailed review of the experience:

Preparation:

- Temperature: 160°F / 71°C
- Time: 2 min, 0 sec
- Tea Amount: 5 g
- Water Volume: 3 oz / 100 ml

I had some pretty negative apprehensions when I was about to try this tea. Like many others, I find most Japanese teas to be too herbal, even vegetably, with that typical astringency found especially in cheaper ones. For Matchas and Senchas, it’s not uncommon to find herbal notes mixed with a strong and direct bitterness that overshadows other subtleties. But this wasn’t one of those cases. In fact, it is one of the only senchas I was able to drink gong fu style — albeit with some consequences.

There are many reasons why Sencha isn’t really compatible with gong fu style. Its finely cut needle-like leaves are hard to block, and Sencha is usually infused for long periods of time. A kyusu thus being the more logical vessel to be used, and more generally, the tea itself doesn’t benefit much from a tea “cleaning” per se since the leaves are already broken. So I’m going to drink that 1st steep anyways.

With all that in mind, I tried a different method. First, I would infuse for 2 minutes at 71°C, then I would make two more 20s steeps, any more would be too bitter. Here’s how it went:

The herbal notes were prominent in the first steep, with minimal bitterness. However, allowing the tea to cool slightly increased its bitterness.

The bitterness overwhelmed the second steep, rendering it almost undrinkable. The vegetable-like taste remained present but overshadowed.

By the third steep, the herbal notes had disappeared entirely, leaving behind a strong bitterness akin to drinking ear wax.

Alright, although it may seem as if I hated this tea, this is truly one of the most surprising ones I’ve tried so far. The first thing that came to my mind when I drank that first steep was “fresh.” It was just fresh and very vegetably, like cucumber water. Just for that first steep, and the shock that it caused, this tea deserves more recognition.

Flavors: Cucumber, Fresh, Herbal, Vegetables

- Flavor Complexity: 18/30 – Good initial complexity, but quickly fades.
- Brewing Forgiveness: 12/20 – Sensitive to steeping times and temperature, can become overly bitter.
- Consistency Across Infusions: 10/20 – Noticeable decline in flavor quality after the first steep.
- Overall Enjoyment: 15/30 – The initial surprise and freshness make it enjoyable, despite the later bitterness.

- yaro

Oh, dear. My husband bought this as part of a set for me back in… 2021. I think. I’ve decided I can’t buy anything else till I really go through things. When I first had this I thought it was meh. Still think it is meh. The marine attributes have tapered off quite a bit. The grassiness is a bit more buttery and creamy. It’s not a bad sencha. Just nothing worth a second buy in my opinion. Would be good for a genmaicha blend. Ooo… I’m going to try to make my own hojicha!

One of my Christmas treats from my son was a beautifully boxed tasting set from Palais des Thes—all single-origin teas in little metal tubes that scratch the itch to fidget and play with toys. All of these are ones I want to pay attention to, so I took a little attention break after a morning of post-holiday pitching and organizing.

The dry leaves were a delicious, deep pine green and the fresh scent reminded me of the big bowls of peas and green beans Mom would bring in for us to snap and shell. (Shelling peas is the most satisfying sensory experience—you really need to try it once.) Tasted almost exactly the same as its scent, with the addition of a little sweet, woody aftertaste on the tip of the tongue.

I keep forgetting that un-tampered, fresh, unflavored green teas can be really fine. I think I’ll hang on to the rest for a gloomy, freezing winter day when I need a reminder that spring is out there somewhere.

As part of my Hannukah gift, my sister got me a box of single origin teas from Palais Des Thes. Thankfully the box is mostly black teas, which are really the ones I tend to drink straight. However, a couple plain greens are in there, including this one. With that in mind, I am working on filling a TTB and am trying to include both straight teas and flavored. I am also trying to have a variety of tea types and so I figured that I would give this a try and toss the rest into the TTB, since the likelihood I would drink it over other options, even if I like it, is low.

As someone who doesn’t drink greens, I think this is decent quality. Mild flavor. Not overly grassy. No bitterness. It has notes of sweet spinach. Sort of creamy. Honestly, as far as greens go, its nice but it is still a plain green tea that I don’t care to drink again.

Palais Des Thes Advent Calendar Day 8:
The steeping parameters on the sachet and the website do differ a little bit so keep that in mind.
I was happy to see that today’s tea is a Sencha. Sencha is one of my favorite teas and I especially love plain green teas. I feel like I need to point out that it’s been quite awhile since I’ve had a plain Sencha and have been wanting to get some for my cupboard for quite awhile now.
This is a really nice Sencha no bitterness and has a lovely delicate flavor. This one doesn’t have as many of the strong vegetal or seaweed notes that a lot of people don’t care for in green tea. I would definitely consider purchasing this but I wouldn’t go out of my way to get this one specifically. The Resteep was nice as well!

Muslin sachet, 75 degrees, 90+ seconds.

I unpacked it from foil wrapping expexting at most pyramid sachet. But It was muslin one. At least I think it is a muslin one. That was nice surprise. I boiled the water and let it cool down on its own. No fridge, no ice – just slowly cooling down. Then it hit 75 °C mark and I put the bag in.

After recommended (half between Cameron B’s and half what is written) I took from yellowish-green liquor sachet out. It is clear, nice colour.

In taste it is nice grassy tea with notes of spinach I think. Quite unexpected – sweet.

Pretty easydrinking sencha – with not so complex flavours. But I understand it is nice for morning – they even suggest it. Let’s see how it will wake me up :)

Palais des Thés Advent Calendar – Day 8 (from November backlog)

Hmm, a plain sencha. Don’t get me wrong, I love sencha, but I certainly wouldn’t order it from Palais des Thés…

That being said, this is a very pleasant sencha with a simple flavor of vegetal spinach and grass. There’s a nice sweetness and a creamy body, and a little hint of umami as well, in the form of roasted seaweed.

Is it complex? No. But it is very enjoyable to casually sip on the couch.

This is ok. It’s a little weaker than I typically like for this time of year especially. This might be a nice summer tea.

It’s… fine? It tastes fine, it’s not bad or anything. It’s just not noteworthy. It tastes like a basic Japanese sencha. Lightly grassy. I feel like this can become bitter more easily than average, but once you figure out what works for you it’s fine.