Sencha

Ahhh….civilization! After 24 hours of radio silence, the hospital where my mom’s having tests has wifi. Funny what small comforts we get dependent on.

This nice little pyramid-bagged sencha is one of those small comforts. It’s not one of those greens that has a temperature sweet spot of less than a quarter degree. Makes a nice, very lightly vegetal cup even with microwave water that isn’t from home.

This is a very good Sencha. No bitterness and a nice nutty flavor. It’s pleasantly rich and smooth. Not at all grassy.

This is not bad but it isn’t like sencha at all!!! It tastes neither grassy nor roasted… instead, it’s sweet like honey and I think it has a hint of coconut??? I believe the foreign flavour has something to do with Tea Forte’s tea packaging – it’s pretty, but it really makes the tea bags prone to contamination (especially in a sample box, where there are teas of various flavours)! :(

The first time I made this, I steeped for 3 minutes. Ugh. It came out astringent and thoroughly unpleasant. I didn’t even want to drink it again, but I needed the sipdown. So I brewed up some fresh leaf (which includes stems and fannings as well as leaf, not cool) at 180 F for about 1 minute. Big improvement! No astringency or bitterness. Light and vegetal. Two solid steeps. Rather mediocre though. A year ago, I thought Tea Forte was the best out there. Now that I’ve really gotten into tea, I find myself less impressed. Oh, well. Sipdown!

A mild Sencha – very springy – very pretty

Twigs and dust in the loose leaf version…. But nice nutty flavor.

Ashmanra’s sipdown challenge – July 2024 Tea #8 – Your oldest green

I’m sure this isn’t the OLDEST green I have, but it’s green!  And I’m finishing it!  It was from TreeGal quite a while ago — thanks very much!  It’s a pleasant green.  I definitely wouldn’t steep up the entire sample packet in one mug.  Splitting it in half for two steep sessions works.  It tastes like a neon matcha to me.  I would guess it might be matcha, if I didn’t know otherwise.  Also very sweet.  Not terrible!   However looking at these busted leaves after steeping, the flavor should probably be much worse.
2024 sipdowns: 53

Color: faint neon green
Initial aroma strength: delicate/underwhelming
Body: light but not too light. low bitterness, generally smooth finish.
Aroma: grassy (not necessarily fresh cut but fresher than hay; similar to the smell that you get when you cut your lawn in the morning and come back in the afternoon on a fairly dry day), a faint hint of pine needle and earth.
A lot of tiny sediments.
Overall well balanced.

This review is for the loose leaf version
2 tsp leaf, 500 mL cold water, 5 minutes

This is very green, but also enjoyable iced. It smells and tastes like freshly cut grass with an undertone of tropical fruit and nuts. I wouldn’t say there is seaweed there, but something vaguely marine. It is not astringent or bitter at all, and is quite flavourful despite steeping very pale yellow. I mean, it tastes like what you expect a good sencha to taste like. It tastes like how it looks – deep chlorophyll-rich green.

Standard green tea. Pretty good, but nothing exceptional.