3 Tasting Notes
This sencha sakura smells disgustingly sweet—not only is it flavored/scented by cherry blossoms, but the recipe uses quite a bit of cherry oil as well. It smells almost like Dimetapp, a children’s cold syrup. And it tastes like it, too. There is no subtlety to the flavor. The smell overpowers and delivers the same medicinal taste. I can hardly taste the Sencha, because the cherry overpowers so much.
I must admit, I do not usually like fruity/scented teas (other than jasmines), so if you do like strong scents/fruity flavors, this tea may be for you. However, I have had sencha sakuras that are scented/flavored with cherry blossoms alone, and they were much more tasty and subtle in flavor. The cherry just enhanced the sencha—rather than taking over the entire experience as it does in this tea.
Preparation
This was the first Darjeeling I ever had from Mariage Frères, and I still buy it regularly. It is quite tasty and a great deal for its price. Definitely not the most delicate Darjeeling Mariage offers, Darjeeling Princeton is a great everyday tea that’s quite soothing.
I’ve found that steeping to 5 minutes, as the site suggests, makes the tea a bit bitter for me—I prefer a steeping time of slightly over 3 minutes. The tea steeps to a golden brown color. The taste is lightly woodsy but rich. I like to drink it in the morning.
