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This sencha is one of the loose tea samples included in Den’s Tea’s Green Tea Novice sampler. The dry leaves are lovely to look at – shiny, dark green needles of tea that have a full, savory sort of smell with hints of nuttiness. When I took the leaves out after they’d steeped they looked almost like pieces of fresh leaves that had been picked today.

The colour of the tea is a vivid lemon-yellow hue despite having a fairly short steeping time. The tea itself hovers somewhere between the grassiness of matcha and the flavour of cooked vegetables. It has a distinct savory undertone to it – I think someone else called it umami and I agree with that. There’s also a bitter tang on the end of each sip that leaves a bit of a sour aftertaste in the mouth. Nothing too horrible though, and the other attributes of the tea more or less make up for it in my opinion.

I’ve not had much experience with authentic, good-quality Japanese teas, but within my limited experience I can say that I think this is an excellent sencha and something that I might consider buying a full bag of one day.

So this is the end of the sample that Angrboda gave me and I won’t have it perfuming the inside of my dish cupboard anymore, which I have to say is a bit of a relief.

I wouldn’t buy this tea again I don’t think – it’s too perfumy and has a bit too much going on and it never really engaged me like other teas (including other 52Teas) have. I’m still glad I got the chance to try this blend and I give a big thank you to the Angry Dane for taking the time to mail it to me.

The smell that came wafting out of the canister when I opened it up reminded me of nothing so much as fresh-cut, sweet hay on a warm, sunny day. It’s a smell I’m used to associating with summer because many of the ranchers around here grow and cut hay crops during that time to feed their livestock over the winter.

The flavour of the tea is also reminisent of sweet hay, but without tasting too grassy or bitter. It’s not too vegetal either – a problem which I noticed with some other silver needle teas that I’ve tried. It is slightly drying to the mouth, but only a bit – nothing too unpleasent. It makes for a light, fragrant, and flavourful drink, and perhaps it’s just the hay association, but it seems like a tea that’s very much suited for sipping in the summertime.

EDIT TO ADD:
The resteep is considerably paler in colour and lighter in flavour. It has an almost delicately flowery quality to it now. Still very drinkable and it could probably go for more steeps, but it’s late and I don’t want to be more caffeinated than I already am! ;)

The leaves are surprisingly small and crushed up – I’m glad I have a fine mesh strainer now, otherwise I’d have a ton of detritus in the bottom of my mug. It doesn’t seem to affect the taste negatively when it’s brewed properly, though it might be part of the reason it was so aweful when I oversteeped it. I’m not sure if the tea actually looks like this or if Lena was at the bottom of her tin/bag when she gave me some. :D

It resteeps well, although the second cup (@5:45) is distinctly more strawberry than shortcake.

Woah! I added a bit of honey to this tea and wow is it caramely. I guess that’s the secret to bringing out its flavour and sweetness. Yum.

Oh man, this is a good tea! The dry leaves smell fresh and and faintly melony and there are little bits of dried cucumber and melon mixed in with the (resonably whole) green tea leaves.

The tea itself is awesome; light and golden-coloured, the green tea base is very smooth and quite mild aswell. I can pick up both the freshness of the cucumber and the lightly-sweet flavour of the melon. The melon – honeydew melon I think – is very natural-tasting and it doesn’t have that artificially sweet quality some melon-flavoured teas have.

Also, I’m happy that this tea manages to taste like cucumber without smelling like a mix of cinnamon heart candies and dill pickles (yeah, I’m looking at you Adagio; seriously what did you put in that tea?!).

It resteeps well too, which I don’t find with 52Teas black blends, so it’s a nice surprise.

Adding milk really brings out the creaminess of this tea and adding some sweetener (honey) is enough to almost make it taste like coconut cream pie filling. The taste of the crust is missing though.

I experimenting with steeping this tea a little more than normal and the result is a strong, stiff cuppa. My brain keeps describing it as a ‘dense’ tea. There’s a cocoa-like bitterness, that’s just on the verge of being unpleasent, so steeping this tea any longer would probably have nasty consequences.

I’ve tried a few cherry-flavoured green teas, and to be blunt most of them have been pretty nasty. This one smelled promising – a mix of light florals and fruity cherries – but then all the other crappy teas also smelled great in their dry form.

The first thing I get when I take a sip is the green tea – and it’s a nice green tea, smooth and almost a little bit buttery. There’s a subtle cherry notes half-hidden somewhere in the middle of each sip. While I’d like a tea named CHERRY Blossom to maybe feature the cherry bit more prominently, I endlessly prefer this to getting an overdose of fake-cherry-cough-syrup flavour. At the end of each sip are some light floral notes that linger a bit on the tongue; nothing bold or perfumy, just enough to let you know that they’re there.

It’s perhaps not my ideal cherry-flavoured tea, but I found it enjoyable enough.

Like most people I picked up this tea when it was offered on the Steepster Select. Good advertising, BTW LeafSpa.

I wasn’t expecting the canister to be so full, so I almost spilled it when I pried opened the lid. The appearance of the leaves seems similar to most Yunan teas I’ve seen – although they’re smaller than some of the prodigious leaf curls I’ve seen. They’re mostly black in colour with little flecks of gold here and there. The smell of the brewing tea sort of make me think of a pu-ehr, only much lighter – it has that same sort of earthy scent with notes of tanins and maybe something a little spicy.

Taste-wise I’m not picking up the pepper people always talk about when it comes to Yunan teas – maybe there’s something wrong with my taste buds. To me it’s more or a slightly smokey, earthy/tanic flavour with some faintly (and not unpleasently) bitter notes.