Sencha

Starting my day with a cup of this. I’ve been desperately trying to sipdown Adagio’s Candy Apple black tea the past few days (the bottom of the tea tin is in sight) but I really need a break from it.

This Sencha tea came in a selection box, so I don’t have much of it to drink. It’s still as good as when I first reviewed it though.

It’s fresh and grassy in aroma, with a hint of astringency and sourness that you get from lemon juice.

Once brewed, hay-like notes emerge and the sweetness intensifies. Sugar snap peas and dew-damp morning grass.

As I pointed out in my review, this is not the only Sencha tea that T2 offer. This one is labelled “Sencha” while another is labelled “Japanese Sencha” which kinda suggests that this one isn’t actually from Japan. So, is it still Sencha? It’s something I ponder as I sip this cup.

Initial blog review for this tea was in early December: https://www.immortalwordsmith.co.uk/t2-sencha-tea-review/

As usual, I wasn’t all that excited to drink this. I steeped it 1 minute, 350 mL hot water. It was quite vegetal, but had a lightly toasted flavour with fruity notes typical of my favourite green tea Long Jing. It also was quite nutty, which I loved. Unlike Long Jing, it had no sweetness and had bitter tendencies. I really hate bitterness in tea. I resteeped it twice more in cold water and that was a bit less bitter, however I’m not going to drink this again. I don’t have the taste for sencha.

Got this muslin tea bag as part of a T2 sample box, and as I try to have at least one cup of green tea a day, this was a good choice for today. In the cup, this smells extremely vegetal, and weirdly enough, at times like… rotisserie chicken? (Weird, I know, but there were hints of it!) There’s a dirty earthiness to it, and while I’ve tasted a lot of weak senchas, this isn’t one of them.

The taste is very similar to the smell: vegetal, thick-feeling but not in a bad way. It reminds me a lot of parsley tea because of the strong grassiness. This is a sencha for real green tea lovers and not for the novice sipper. It’s good, but something I’ll definitely have to be in the mood for.

Green March! I received this as a free sampler at some point when I ordered from T2, and I’ve been feeling very under the weather, and for whatever reason I’ve been craving green teas. As I was digging through my samplers, I realized that just a nice, plain sencha sounded lovely; just a simple green tea that will be warm and easy on the stomach. And it certainly fit the bill.

I was actually a bit impressed that for T2 brand the leaves had a very nice, full expansion. I’ve always thought of them as being more known for their flavored blends so I honestly wasn’t expecting much from one of their simple pure teas, but this was very nice. It had a very crisp, clean, light body with refreshing grassy vegetal notes and a mildly sweet finish.

The sampler had about two servings of leaf in it, so my first cup used just a teaspoon and was absolutely lovely. Wanting to finish the sampler up (the almighty sipdown!), I just dumped the remainder of the leaf into my infuser this morning and that may have been just a smidgeon too much leaf than I prefer for this kind of tea; the little bit of extra leaf left a slight astringent finish that I don’t care for much, so be careful not to overleaf this one! One teaspoon (and I wouldn’t heap it!) should be plenty. That produced a far nicer flavor in my opinion (or maybe I just prefer my greens on the lighter side?) Next time I may just have to let that last little bit of leaf at the bottom of the sampler bag be forfeit!

This is the first loose leaf plain green tea I ever bought.
Before this all I bought was the cheap bagged green teas from the local grocery store.
The difference on first sip was remarkable for me, but maybe that’s also because it’s new to me.
But now that I’ve tasted such good quality green tea, I don’t think I could ever go back! Sometimes I wonder what I was even drinking before.
As you might assume, being a simple green tea, it’s nothing super fancy, but it’s got a full-bodied green tea matcha taste. It’s a nice staple to keep in your cup board for that everyday cup :)