Sencha of the Wind

2016 Harvest

I Haven’t done a non-puerh review in awhile.
I had last year’s harvest, and I think I liked that one more.
The leaf are long thin delicate emerald shards. They carry a sweet and inviting scent of warm grass, seaweed, and a creamy undertone, I dusted off my kyusu and prepared for brewing. I made mine thick, so I can pull more sweetness out. The brew was slightly clouded, but I bright pale jade. The taste is sweet with a lemon finish. The aftertaste presents thick umami which wipes away the citrus tone. I can catch some bitterness and harsh veggies within the body. The final finish is with raw kale; a very strong vegetal tone that strikes with bitterness. I brewed another pot (different leaves) to see if I can spot any other tones, and the brew was mostly consistent with what was previously stated; however, a slight dandelion floral tone was spotted mid sip. I liked this tea, but I do remember 2015 being sweeter, thicker, and less bitter green tones.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BMhJ7tqgpBm/?taken-by=haveteawilltravel

This may be my favorite sencha I’ve tasted so far. Interestingly, the leaves looked quite similar to the aracha I drank earlier today, rather than the more fragmentary look of most of the other sencha I’ve had. I again tried two different steeping methods – one with a longer first steep and then very quick steeps with hotter temperatures immediately, and then one with a shorter first steep and keeping temps down a bit. On this one, I preferred the shorter first steep method.

I don’t know if this is just an association in my brain between the name of this tea and the taste, or if whoever named it just did a good job, but I think a good descriptor for this tea’s flavor is “breezy.” Reading others’ reviews, I had to look up the word “petrichor,” but I think it descries the aroma of the warmed leaves very well. The flavor of this tea was very sweet and grassy. The tea had a thickness to it, but it didn’t feel heavy if that makes any sense. The leaves also just kept on giving. I got five steeps and feel like I could’ve gotten at least one more decent one if I wanted to. At the third steep, the grassiness died off a bit, replaced by a sweet green floral flavor. This is what kept it going for me, that flavor was awesome and didn’t feel like it was about to give out at any point. Good stuff, this.

a bit too dusty/bitter tasting for me, but it smells wonderful — flowery, sweet, and after three steepings i ate the leaves with salmon furikake (wish i had rice as well) and that was wonderful. it’s a bit too light with the 160F temperature so i went up closer to 180 for shorter steepings, which is when i got a stronger astringency and vegetal taste.

My best friend picked this out of the 4 samples I got from YUNOMI for sencha… unfortunately this one tasted a bit funky. I know I brewed it correctly, and twice at that, however something was off with this tea and I am unable to place it because I describe it as a sour fruit which shouldn’t find its way in a sencha. I believe this is just not as vegetable as I was hoping for a sencha nor was it as light as I like mine.
Generally I like my sencha to be like fresh dew off of a tea plant… which is what gyokuro reminds me of :)

The dry leaf is long, deep green and needle like. It has a delicate smell that is a hint petrichor, and cool, wet vegetation. Much less grassy and umami than is common in a sencha.

Steeped in 60C water, the liquor is a very pale, yellow green. At one minute there was a hint of sweetness and grass, but still that hot water taste. I steeped for an additional 30 seconds and then 30 seconds again, for two minutes total. At two minutes there’s a bit of a grassier and umami note that develops, but this is still very delicate and mild, with a smooth, creamy mouth feel.

I’m not sure if I underleafed this. Yunomi’s directions say 1tsp/5g per cup, but those are not equivalent measurements. I was planning on using 1tsp, but because of the length of the leaves, I was having a hard time scooping some out of the bag. So I pulled out my scale and shook some out. 2.5g was nearly 2tsp, which is what I ended up using.

I still have a fair bit of my sample left, so maybe next cup I’ll use more leaf or try brewing at a higher temp.

I couldn’t tell you what went wrong the first time I brewed this. I am brewing it just the same way but with more leaf to water ratio than the last time. Last time I tasted some relatively strong bitterness in the finish but that is not evident at all this time, so I’m leaving a new review with a higher rating.

With the dry leaves in the warm kyusu, after a minute I uncovered them to smell them. They have a really sweet fragrance that is green and light, similar to Obubu’s “Sencha of Brightness”.

The wet leaves have an almost floral aroma, reminding me a bit of a Taiwanese high mountain oolong. The flavor is light with a good deal of sweetness and a slightly astringent finish. Strangely, the sweetness is so abundant up front that it’s difficult for me to describe the flavors, so I’ll say it’s kind of a sweet grass taste. There’s a definite umami richness with a vegetal taste and there’s a subtle honey-like smell in the cup after emptying it. There is no bitterness in the sip, but just a bit of a lasting bitterness after you swallow the tea.

Like some other sencha I’ve tried from Obubu, the second infusion has a bit of a minty hint in the finish. The tiny bitter hints are still there, so is the strong sweetness up front.

If you like a sencha that starts really sweet and finishes with a bit of bitterness, this is the one to go to. It’s the only one in the Obubu sampler that seems to have that kind of quality. It’s dynamic within the sip rather than dynamic from one infusion to the next.

Good (late) morning Steepster!

Ugh, I am tired today, didn’t sleep too well last night and then got up at 5 am with my Sweetie who had to catch a flight. I did manage to nap for a few hours when I got home but don’t feel so energetic yet.

This is one of the samples I got from Obubu tea. So far, this may be one of my favorites. The tea liquor is light and definitely on the sweeter side, with notes of spinach and peas. There is only a very slight palate cleansing finish in the astringency. There’s something about the flavor in this that’s really nice and delicate, but not too light on impact. Recommended :)

Now off I go to apply for some more jobs… zzzz… boring!

Note: I mistakenly applied this tasting note to a different tea. It’s now in it’s right place.

It’s quite windy out, so this tea seemed like the perfect thing to try once I got home.

This is also the first Yunomi.us tea I’ve tried brewing western style (1 tsp, 8 oz, 82C, 3 mins), and I have to say that while it’s weaker in taste, I much prefer it this way – no blast of umami astringency to contend with.

It’s still a bit sharper and “greener” in taste than a Chinese green, but I think I’m going to stick with brewing my other senchas, gyokuros, and houjichas using this method.