Sencha (Pyramid Tea Bag)

I don’t have too much to write about teas today, since I am not at home and the only two teas I have are this and the golden monkey from Aroma Tea Shop. I am actually fairly happy with these two, which makes me wonder why I have so much tea in the first place? Perhaps I should work on paring down my collection to an essential few… (probably won’t happen)

Enjoying my last sample of this tea. Been feeling as though I am coming down with something again so fighting it off with some good green!
Had to set aside my Jin Jun Mei after steep 3 and have this instead. Will get back to my Jin Jun Mei later as it is still steeping strong.
I love this Sencha. I mean its bagged yes but delicious. Nutty, vegetal, buttery, yum. I am sure it will help fight off this little bug pestering me!

I’m trying to like green teas. In fact there is one I like from another company but you’ve seen those posts… So thanks to AmyOh for letting me know about the Den’s tea sampler only available to new customers. It came with five green teas and a booklet on green teas. PLUS I also got a little sample of the tea of the month!

We went out to dinner tonight (thankfully as I did not want to cook) with some of my husbands frat brothers. They’d heard about a local place that served up exotic burgers along with those made from beef. His friend were bent on getting a Lion burger!! Which they did and I tried, it was good. I opted for a lobster burger (YUM!) which came with some fries with crazy hot spices on them. We also got a banana date dessert on the house because well we were awesome.

Right…the tea. Well, I was very full after such a great meal and wanted something on the lighter side when I got home. So I figured I’d give this one a go. I have to say I like it. Mostly because it doesn’t taste like grass like most sencha I’ve had does. In fact it is very light and crisp. The liquid in the cup is very green, but very good. I think this one might be a keeper. Of course I’d also like to try their loose leaf version too. Very refreshing after a long day at work and an interesting dinner out.

I’ve never had a straight sencha outside of the few times I’ve gotten tea in a Japanese restaurant. So I thought Den’s Tea’s intro sampler to Japanese greens would be perfect. I decided to start with this teabag.

It really does look like there’s matcha in here but I wonder if it’s just powdered sencha instead? Because it really doesn’t have the taste or color to me of matcha.

It’s sweet and smooth, but it’s not much of anything special beyond that. Still, pretty good for a teabag, but I’ll move on now to the loose senchas that were included.

I think that this was the Sencha teabag that came in my Den’s Sampler for Novices. This was extremely powdery; I had forgotten what teabags were like because I’ve been spoiling myself with loose leaf! When I poured the water over the bag, it kind of foamed. Although I have no experience with Matcha except for the Matcha that Den’s added in their Genmaicha Extra Green, I’d have to say that I agree with everyone here who thinks that there is some Matcha in this bag. The tea was just simply too frothy to be regular Sencha.

Anyway, for the taste. The first thing that hit me was the mouth feel – it’s way creamier than I would have expected. It’s almost buttery. Perhaps that’s the Matcha that may or may not be in this. In spite of the really thick mouth feel, this tea manages to be very light. It has little to no after taste. I definitely think I’d purchase this again. Every tea that I try from the Den’s Sampler gets better and better. Actually, I think I like the bagged version of this better than the loose leaf! How strange…

I was in a mad rush this morning so I chose a teabag from my Den’s sampler (ok full disclosure: I actually drank a Tazo one first but that left me feeling unfulfilled so I had to drink something else immediately after to get my fix). I should have read the reviews about the powder, cause when I opened the pouch it exploded with dust all over my desk. Sigh. It’s one of those days.

All debacles aside, I enjoyed this. I did have to steep for a long time to get the full flavor I was looking for. But it was there; vegetal and slightly buttery with a hint of chestnut. I kinda had to dig for it though; it wasn’t as present as it would be in loose leaf form, but that’s expected. Overall this is a pretty decent bagged tea that I would stash in my purse for “tea emergencies” (yeah, I know you know what I mean!)

Sipdown no. 65 of the year 2014. A teabag from the work stash. This is only technically a sipdown because of form factor. I have more Den’s sencha, maybe even more samples—just not more in teabag form.

I love the way dry sencha smells. It reminds me of cut grass, only more food-like. This steeped to a light chartreuse color and the aroma is of warm cut grass with something reminiscent of melted, salted butter around the edges.

The flavor is light, mild and somewhat sweet, not at all bitter. And I wonder whether it’s the same tea in the organic sencha sample I tried a while back. In any case, in looking what I wrote about the organic sencha, I’m having the same thoughts about this. It’s very pleasant if what you want is a light straight green tea.

I wonder if it has suffered some because of its age, though it was in a sealed plastic packet because the taste isn’t quite as robust as I recall the organic sencha being. I’m rating it the same as I rated that, taking age into account.

Discovered my Novice sample kit I received last year, and this was still tucked in there. Sometimes Senchas can be a little too grassy for me, so at first, I was slightly hesitant.

There is some powder falling out of the bag, like a courser matcha. The aroma of the liquor is quite grassy, and conjures up images of grass clippings, but luckily, the flavour is a little sweeter. The grassiness comes out more as this starts to cool though.

It’s a good tea but I personally wouldn’t buy it.

I received this tea bag as part of the novice sampler. And… after reading a few notes about this tea, I also agree with the majority and there does seem to be some Matcha in this tea. I can taste it.

Very nice vegetal flavor to this tea, and it is REALLY good, especially for being a tea bag (pyramid)… It is one of the better sencha teas that I’ve encountered and this probably has a lot to do with the matcha. Sweet, smooth and delicious… and perfect pairing with my egg rolls that I’m eating for dinner! Yum yum yum.

If you haven’t yet tried Den’s novice sampler package, I encourage you to do so. I have enjoyed each and every tea that I’ve had from the package thus far – it really is an excellent offer!

Today I went to the farmers market. I tried so much fruit. When I got home, I just wanted some straight tea. This one smells really nice. Tastes refreshingly green too. (Just what I wanted at the moment.)