Japan 'Sun Rouge' Purple Sencha Green Tea

Tea type
Green Tea
Ingredients
Green Tea Leaves
Flavors
Apricot, Asparagus, Astringent, Butter, Cherry, Chestnut, Citrus, Cream, Grapefruit, Grass, Hay, Kale, Lemon, Menthol, Parsley, Pear, Plum, Salt, Seaweed, Spinach, Toasted Rice, Vegetal
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by eastkyteaguy
Average preparation
170 °F / 76 °C 1 min, 0 sec 3 g 8 oz / 243 ml

Currently unavailable

We don't know when or if this item will be available.

From Our Community

1 Image

1 Want it Want it

0 Own it Own it

3 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Though it is a little after 1:00 am here, I’m still up (side note: food poisoning sucks), so I figured I would go through my backlog and select at least one long overdue review to post. This one...” Read full tasting note
    39
  • “A few months ago, Cameron B mentioned loving some freeze dried miso soup so I ordered it for Youngest for Christmas. She loved it so much that I ordered some for myself! I had never had miso soup....” Read full tasting note

From What-Cha

A completely unique sencha with a fruity taste which accompanies the usual grassy notes associated with sencha.

This sencha is produced from the cultivar ‘Sun Rouge’ released in 2009 after 9 years of research. The cultivar was produced by crossing v. sinensis with taliensis to produce a cultivar which grows purple tea leaves.

The tea is noted for turning bright pink when a drop of lemon is added to the brewed tea.

Tasting Notes:
- Fruity taste
- Some grassy notes

Harvest: Spring 2019

Organic: Non-certified organic farming

Origin: Shizuoka, Japan
Sourced: Direct from the farmer

Steamed: Light (Asamushi)
Cultivar: Sun Rouge

Brewing Advice:
- Heat water to roughly 70°C/158°F
- Use 1-2 teaspoons per cup/small teapot
- Brew for 45-60 seconds

Packaging: Resealable ziplock bag

About What-Cha View company

Company description not available.

3 Tasting Notes

39
1048 tasting notes

Though it is a little after 1:00 am here, I’m still up (side note: food poisoning sucks), so I figured I would go through my backlog and select at least one long overdue review to post. This one comes to you all from either late summer or early fall of 2020. I had been looking forward to trying this tea for ages by the time I actually took the opportunity to try it, but it ended up disappointing me.

I prepared this tea the way I prepare most sencha. I started off by measuring out 3 grams of loose tea leaves and then steeping them in approximately 8 fluid ounces of 158 F water for 1 minute. This initial steep was followed by four others. The second steep was conducted with 163 F water and lasted 30 seconds. The third steep lasted 45 seconds and was conducted with 168 F water. The fourth steep lasted 1 minute 30 seconds and made use of 173 F water. The fifth and final steep lasted 3 minutes and was conducted with 178 F water.

Prior to the first steep, I sniffed the dry tea leaves and found aromas of grass, hay, asparagus, chestnut, and toasted rice. After the first steep, I found new aromas of lemon rind, grapefruit pith, kale, spinach, and seaweed. The tea liquor offered mild notes of grass, hay, lemon rind, kale, grapefruit pith, and spinach that were balanced by hints of collard greens, butter, cream, seaweed, sweet corn, sour plum, and sour apricot. The second steep introduced aromas of collard greens, turnip greens, and parsley. Stronger and more immediate collard green, butter, and cream notes appeared in the mouth alongside impressions of parsley and turnip greens. I also detected hints of toasted rice, kumquat, chestnut, and orange zest. The third steep brought forth aromas of lemon zest and kumquat as well as a suddenly amplified grapefruit pith scent. The tea liquor began to turn more strongly vegetal in the mouth. Asparagus notes finally made themselves known, and more of a seaweed presence started to emerge. Very strong notes of collard greens, parsley, grass, kale, and turnip greens were present in addition to interesting hints of sour cherry and pear that were most noticeable after each swallow. The fourth go-round with this tea yielded grassier, more vegetal scents on the nose. The tea liquor offered pronounced sea salt and mineral notes backed by grassy, vegetal hints and some lingering citrus and sour fruit presences. Bizarrely, I just barely picked up on a surprise menthol presence that disappeared as quickly as I found it. The final steep didn’t offer much of anything on the nose. In the mouth, the liquor remained very salty and generally mineral-heavy, but with an increased butteriness. The sour fruit notes were suddenly amplified, but tended to fade fast after they made themselves known. Very slight grassy, vegetal hints remained. By this point, the tea liquor was becoming increasingly astringent, so I cut things off at this point.

First things first, I loved the gorgeous purple tea liquor this tea produced. I promised myself that I wouldn’t be suckered in by this tea’s gimmick, but I was. I was so excited to see a cup full of purple liquid that I took multiple pictures of it with my phone’s camera and sent them all to my best friend. In the middle of the night. On a weekday. Why? Because I’m a chump. That’s why. And I live a very boring, lonely, unfulfilling, unhealthy life. That was true last year when I was drinking this tea, and sadly, it’s still kind of true now. Anyway, getting back on track here, the actual drinking experience offered by this tea was kind of a rollercoaster. It was just up and down. While this tea was unique and did have a lot to offer, it didn’t consistently put it all together in a way that satisfied me. Though I am giving this tea a low score and generally would not recommend it over more traditional styles of sencha, I still don’t think it should be wholly avoided. If anything, it’s definitely worth a try just for the novelty factor it offers.

Flavors: Apricot, Asparagus, Astringent, Butter, Cherry, Chestnut, Citrus, Cream, Grapefruit, Grass, Hay, Kale, Lemon, Menthol, Parsley, Pear, Plum, Salt, Seaweed, Spinach, Toasted Rice, Vegetal

Preparation
1 min, 0 sec 3 g 8 OZ / 236 ML
mrmopar

You were up late. Hope you get feeling better. We will be in Boone or the general area next Friday. Going to see if I could wave at ya.

eastkyteaguy

Sadly, I’m stuck way out in the middle of nowhere (very literally) in Eastern Ky. You’d have to drive around 4 hours out of your way, and I’m basically in no shape to leave the house, so it really wouldn’t be safe or worth it. I also have no idea what exactly is wrong with me, but my whole family is sick right now. It’s like the same bug has been circulating through all of us for a couple weeks. First I was sick. Then it was my dad. Then my mom got sick. Then I got sick again. And I’ve been having health issues for the last year anyway. I’ve been working on diet and exercise at home, so I’m starting to slowly get back in shape, but my energy levels are still very low and inconsistent overall. I experience crashes out of nowhere and will be very tired and weak for a day or two afterwards. I’m supposed to go in for a couple of appointments in the next month to get a better idea of what’s going on. So far, I’ve been able to a avoid surgery, but it’s still probably on the horizon at some point in the not too distant future.

Kawaii433

Ugh sorry to hear you had food poisoning!.I had a small bout of it last week. I ate a salad from the grocery store and kaboom. Ugh. Excellent review as always eastkyteaguy!

ashmanra

Hope you are all feeling better!

mrmopar

Understood and prayers you get better soon. One day we shall have a cup of tea together.

eastkyteaguy

Don’t worry. We will. Hopefully sooner rather than later. What really happened here is that I fell into some bad habits and just let myself go for several years, so some chronic health issues that I previously had in check just ran wild, and then a few newer ones weren’t dealt with at all, so now I have to get everything under control again. I’m taking steps to do that, but it’s just more difficult than it was when I was younger.

Prior to leaving my old community health job, I had a bit of a cancer scare. After I found out I was in the clear and I didn’t have to depend on that job anymore, I quit. I didn’t have a real plan for what came next though, so I ended up just going nuts. By 2019, I was in a bad way financially and had started to fall behind on routine medical work. I started to get myself together again in early 2020, but then the pandemic hit, and everything got put on hold for a year and a half now.

mrmopar

Yeah you havebeen through the wringer for sure. Better times are ahead, just keep that perseverance going.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

3226 tasting notes

A few months ago, Cameron B mentioned loving some freeze dried miso soup so I ordered it for Youngest for Christmas. She loved it so much that I ordered some for myself! I had never had miso soup. I tried it and it was really good. My husband liked it, too, so I decided to try to make some homemade miso soup.

I made miso soup with zucchini, fresh chives from the garden, and wakame. I also made potstickers and a homemade yumyum sauce. Naturally I wanted a Japanese tea to complete the meal and this is probably the only one I have other than matcha.

The first time I made it we had it more or less gong fu style, resteeping and pouring into tiny cups. It looked almost gray/pink with purple at the edge of the cup until we added lemon juice which turned it really pink, but I preferred it plain.

This time I made it western style and poured two steeps together into a large tetsubin for serving. I think it had more purple/pink color this way, but probably just because we used larger Japanese cups that Superanna gave me. (The tea was also from her.) It was probably the depth of the tea that made it appear to have deeper color.

We both enjoyed it, and it was really great with the food. It is a rather mild Sencha so it can tend to disappear if sipped right after a strongly flavored bite. We made a third steep to drink after the meal and I think it looked even pinker. It was easy to drink and had very little drying effect, nicely hydrating.

Cameron B.

Yum! Zucchini in miso soup sounds delicious. What type of miso was it? :O

ashmanra

MUSO Dark Aged Miso, full-bodied, naturally crafted with soy and rice. And the back says Maruya Hatcho Miso and says it is aged in wooden barrels. But I know little about miso so I am just typing what is on the package.

When I had breast cancer, I was told to avoid soy products as much as possible since it is in EVERYTHING now, including gelato, but miso and real aged soy sauce were fine.

White Antlers

ashmanra I’m allergic to soy so I can’t eat any of it in anything, but my understanding is that non-GMO soy is okay. The trick is finding it!
My late wife had celiac. When she was in Italy, she threw caution to the winds and ate pasta and bread in moderation with no ill effects. Her PCP told her that she might have fared well because (once again) she ate non-GMO wheat flour products. Of course, when she returned to the states and thought she was ‘cured, of celiac’ she quickly and painfully discovered that she wasn’t.

Sil

mmmm good miso soup is hard to find

Lexie Aleah

I’ve definitely bought some not so good miso soup mixes from the store before. I still need to get some of the one’s Cameron Recommended to try.

Cameron B.

Ooh Hatcho miso is very dark and smoky!

ashmanra

White Antlers: How I wish we had better choices with our foods! The milk in Ireland was heavenly, and every place that had cows’ milk had goat milk, too. You can’t find it where I live except for really expensive condensed type.

Lexie: you may already know, but the one Cameron recommended was Amano Foods variety pack. The eggplant one is superb.

Cameron B.

I agree, the eggplant one!!! (drools)

Mastress Alita

Miso is the one migraine trigger of mine (it’s the fermentation of the soy in things like miso/soy sauce) that I will cheat on. I just can’t give it up!

ashmanra

Mastress Alita: I bought another miso paste first and can’t use it because it has MSG. Naturally occurring MSG doesn’t get us, but added MSG makes me drunk and triggered a migraine for my husband. We had been to a local Asian buffet restaurant many times with no ill effects, but one day we went for lunch and I stumbled in the house, giggled for a minute, and then told the kids mom was gonna take a nap and crashed on the sofa. By that night, Ashman had a migraine, I can only guess they had started using MSG.

Since I was a teen and had my first Chinese food, MSG makes me giggle and then crash. I didn’t know why it happened until I told the owner of the restaurant and he said it was the MSG and told the staff not to add it to my food anymore. It never happened there again.

Mastress Alita

MSG is one of my migraine triggers, and ya, I usually don’t have issues with naturally-occuring glutamates. But soy that has gone through fermentation (like it has in miso and soy sauce products) can also get to me. It’s some chemical (which I forget the name of now) that is released during the fermentation process. I try to limit my miso soup intake at restaurants to a very small cup.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.