Yokota #08: Sayamacha Green Roast Sencha

Another wonderful Yunomi club sample. I missed work today as I slept in by mistake, luckily my boss (also my mother) was fine with it. My husband snores so loud at night time that it keeps me awake, I’ve always been a light sleeper and I need complete silence to actually fall asleep. He sounds like a jumbo jet scaring an elephant! I know it’s not his fault but in the last few months I’ve had very little sleep at all. I’m thinking he should have a sleep apnoea test.

I tear open the packet and take a sniff inside, it’s very sweet and floral, like sweet grass, honey dew with a dry perfume in the background. Very nice overall scent wise. Pouring a pinch or so of the leaves into my hand for inspection I can see small shards of dark to medium green leaves that are thin and very shiny.

My instructions recommend to steep 5g of leaves in 80ml of water at roughly 60C for 2 minutes. I’ve decided to double the leaves and water so it should still be at the recommended level.

Steeped this tea is golden yellow with a grass and seaweed scent, less sweet than it’s raw form. Flavour wise sip …..woah….. UMAMI! Savoury yet sweet and broth like, sweet and floral with creaminess and a hint of astringency. Very …well…strange tasting, but this is at a pleasant level. A nice sample to try and get me used to umami.

I think my cat Ivory may be Japanese, he loves the smell of Japanese teas and when I get a parcel from Japan he is first to come and smell it’s contents. :)

It says to steep the next pot for only 30 seconds. So a quick steep later: a much milder tasting tea which is more green in appearance. Hints of grass and flowers are still present but are very mild compared to it’s first steep. Leaves some dryness in the mouth during after taste.

A nice tea overall and I’m happy I got to try more umami, but this is still not the right tea for me. I would recommend it for others that wish to sample umami tea, this is rather mild umami and would be great to start with.