Naturalitea #19 Mountain-Grown Fukamushi Sencha

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this tea, but I really really enjoyed it. Definitely one I will be purchasing again in greater volume.

The dry leaf appeared in a variety of sizes. The color, however, was a uniform deep deep green as should be expected from a fukamushi. The aroma of the dry leaf is hard to describe. I want to call it deeply green, but that is more visual the related to smell. Nevertheless, that is what comes to mind. It was sweetly vegetal with hints of hay, but overall I would choose to describe it as deeply green.

The first steep of 5g in 1cup of water at 160 degrees for 30 seconds was not initially impressive. The wet leaf was average. The aroma of the leaf was slightly better. The aroma was strongly reminiscent of kale, spinach, and other bitter greens. The liquor, however, started to stand out. It has the appearance of a beautiful lime green color with lots of suspended leaf, even through my fairly fine strainer. The aroma was bitter, reminiscent of kale and bitter greens again.

The taste, however, was very much redeeming. It was simply very well balanced. It has a very light bitterness balanced with a sweetness and an astringent aftertaste. It is all things combined into one sip. Overall highly enjoyable.

Ratings (from 0-10)

6 – Dry Leaf Appearance
8 – Dry Leaf Smell
6 – Wet Leaf Appearance
7 – Wet Leaf Smell
8 – Liquor Appearance
7 – Aroma
8 – Taste
7 – Value (Is this taste, aroma, and overall experience worth the cost.)

= 73.5 = 74

Rating Multipliers

0.5 – Dry Leaf Appearance
0.5 – Dry Leaf Smell
0.5 – Wet Leaf Appearance
0.5 – Wet Leaf Smell
0.5 – Liquor Appearance
3.5 – Aroma
3.5 – Taste
0.5 – Value (Is this taste, aroma, and overall experience worth the cost.)

I’m glad I only had a sample size of this tea. It’s okay but not a favourite sencha. It’s a bit difficult to brew. First infusion was at 70C and it had a bit too much bitterness and astringency in it. It was very grassy but the slight bitterness and astringency took away from it. I was hoping for the 2nd infusion at 80C for 10 sec it would be sweeter and not bitter. It still had a slight bitterness & astrincency. Less grassy flavour and not very sweet.

Glad I only had a sample size of this tea. It’s gone now.

This one was pretty good, though it seemed a little finicky when it came to brewing. I got it pretty good the first time using the instructions on the bag, then changed them up a bit the second time and it wasn’t as good. I did steeps of 45s and 20s at 160F, followed by steeps of 30s and 1m at 175F. These are pretty low for what I normally do with sencha, but even with the 45s first steep, it was decently bitter.

The first steep was a pretty creamy grassy brew with, as I said, a healthy touch of astringency and a tad bit of fruitiness in the aftertaste, lasting about 15 seconds. The next steep had a crisp grassy taste with hints of the fruitiness mid-steep. After that, the last steeps were comparatively weaker, retaining a bit of a grassy taste, but without the good creamy texture I got earlier.

Starting with a longer first steep, even when I kept the temperature down at 160F for the duration of the session, led to an awkward dance with bitterness that kept creeping out of control.