Meeka Sent me such a wonderful selection of pure unflavored tea samples in a mystery swap. Flavored teas and dessert teas are a lot of fun sometimes, but I began my tea journey with a love for the pure, rich flavors of unadulterated teas and I am so happy to find the rare swap partner who has such a variety of these to share.
I’ve never had or heard of Mecha before. It looks like coarsely ground sencha, but I don’t know how it is produced other than it comes from the youngest tea buds. I followed Den’s instructions and steeped for 45 seconds, but with slightly less than the recommended 180F water. It brews up a very heavy green color and there is much leaf debris at the bottom of my cup that fell through the infuser. It’s claimed to be bitter and astringent, but I find my cup to be much less so than Sencha, at least in bitterness. It is more astringent than bitter.
It’s a good tea and I will definitely be finishing off the rest of the generous-sized sample, but it’s not my favorite japanese green. It has a muddied over-cooked vegetable flavor rather than the bright and slightly bitter fresh vegetal flavor that I prefer.
