Shizuoka-grown Shincha

I’m probably going to regret this in an hour when it is time to go to sleep, but I couldn’t end on that sad sencha note. I had to bring something out that reminded me why sencha was yummy. Even though this is old, the leaves are still prettier. It’s at the very very bottom of my tin so there’s a lot of broken leaf. It’s actually pretty close to what I just had. But with this tea, the smell actually exists as does the taste. The juice is a little darker yellow with a little cloudiness. There’s a bit of a fuzzy taste to it. Not a very full-bodied tea, but thicker than water (or the previous sencha). Mild with spikes of sweet and buttery and fresh and a tiny hint of astringency that gets nowhere near bitter but instead coats my mouth with a thin layer of dryness that doesn’t build into saltiness or unpleasantness. Milder than it normally is, in fact, since I cut down on the leaf since I had just had some sencha and it’s pretty late. Using more leaf increases the potency of the flavors and the mouth-feel, which is quite nice.

Sadly, my cup is now empty. Time for a second one!