Japanese Sencha

John Harney Appreciation Tea #5

It’s been a while since I brewed up a filter bag of Japanese Sencha, but today I did after lunch, and it was like meeting up with an old friend. For years, Stash Premium Green was my go-to filter bag green tea, but now I find that this Harney & Sons bag is just as dependable and easy to prepare—and it tastes even better!

The contents of the filter bag expand something like four-fold, and the liquor is cloudy greenish-yellow, so it’s clear that H&S did some serious research in figuring out how to offer a high-quality sencha in the filter bag format. This stuff is super tasty and warrants the epithet on the envelope, “Nourishing Tea”, because drinking it feels like eating food!

A tea bag sample kindly sent in a Harney order. I was not crazy about the other sample but this one, which did not seem too promising ( I usually like Chinese tea better than Japanese) is delicious, maybe my favorite of the lot, even better than what I had aqctually ordered (apart maybe from Queen Catherine). A nice simple sencha in a convenient tea bag format. Very nice. Staple-ish tea potential and to buy if/when I order from them again (transatlantic shipping costs being responsible for there being an IF).

A small note – I brewed this with about twice as much water as recommended (hmm, about .7l, enough for two mugs worth) and it was perfectly to my taste just like that – I did use mineral water though! Brewed a second steep and it held up to that as well. If you are making this, or using the loose leaf, might be worth experimenting with being less generous with tea quantity than advised, might work for you as well.

I feel terrible for not being certain of who sent me this, but I’m pretty sure it’s ToiToi, so thank you ToiToi!

This is a nice bagged sencha. It was very drinkable. Nothing stood out as particularly bad or good, but all in all I enjoyed this very much.

One of my favorite coffee shops in the area keeps this tea on hand. It’s quite tasty for a bagged tea. I think Harney & Sons have some of the best bagged teas I have tasted. A light aroma, pale liquor, a nice light grassy flavor. For an inexpensive high quality bagged sencha I would say this is a good option.

I experienced this tea at a corperate function today, and I was definitely glad of it! They had a small selection of teas from H&S, but I thought this Sencha would be the most refreshing. It’s the first time I’ve sampled a Sencha, and I was looking forward to trying it.

The tea in the bag looked quite dull to start with, but it smelt good. It was quite grassy as someone else has mentioned. When brewing a hint of nut was also released in the background. The taste was similar, although the nuttiness at the back came out more to balance the grass. The wet leaves were a fantastic emerald green colour. I did feel the bag hindered the flavour a bit though, whether it was the general tea in a bag production or the steeping.

I was impressed with this first try of Sencha. I have some loose leaf to sample soon, and I expect a more natural flavour. I’m excited to try multiple uses to see how the flavour changes.

One other thing about my experience, there was lots of bits on the outside of the tea bag before I put it in the mug!

The dry aroma was better then expected. Grassy, sweet grass, and slightly nutty. Bagged green teas generally make me run for the hills but this is good. For a Bagged tea. The wet leaf is radiant in vegetal notes. Sweet corn, sweet grass, sweet peas, slight asparagus. As per usual. Do not over steep.

While I’m not new to “green tea” this really is somewhat new territory for me. Outside of matcha I’ve never had any awareness of what sort of tea was in whatever “green tea” I was drinking, so it may not have even been a quality tea to begin with in most cases. That could also be why I was never much of a fan of green tea (outside of matcha, I love that).

This is the first time I am aware to have had “sencha” so I spent a little time learning what I could about this particular tea, which I learned is from Shizuoka province, the largest tea producing Japanese province. In that regard I suppose this is a fair starter sencha.

The flavor is distinctly green, dark green in fact. At first I was thinking grassy, similar to a shot of wheatgrass, but further along it clearly became a bowl of sauteed spinach (sans garlic or other flavorings) that had transformed into pure liquid form in a cup. It’s substantial in both flavor and body.

I liked it.

This is a sample sachet that came with my last Harney & Sons order. They must have known how much I’ve been craving a good sencha lately. The smell of the sachet smells SO good but then again I Love straight green teas. I honestly don’t know why I don’t keep them on hand probably because I go through them so fast?

it’s creamy and buttery which is just what you want from a good sencha. The main flavors are grass and seaweed. I would definitely drink this again but I wouldn’t feel the need to purchase this one. Harney & Sons just wouldn’t be my go to company to buy a Sencha from. I would probably lean towards one that is more well known for their green teas.

A sample sachet of this came with my last order from H&S. I’ve never tried and kind of sencha before. I was taken aback by how vegetal this one smelled! It reminds me of creamed corn – a little scary to be honest. And, this green tea actually came out green rather than yellow.. I’m in uncharted territory! Reviewing this is tricky because i’m too busy being suprised at how different it is to really pay attention to how it tastes or how much I like it. It’s crazy bitter, though. Very sharp.

Update – nope, I hate it. Hahaha. I respect how different it is but I have to be honest with what my taste buds are actually telling me. After the Chinese flower, this one is killing me with the bitterness and strong sweet-vegetable smell. I love that it does have flavor, but I’ll pass on this one for now.

On my fourth sip, I swear, for the last fifth of the third second after I took the tea into my mouth, I thought I tasted spinach.

That, or I read in advance this tea was supposed to taste “vegetal.” Impossible to say!