There are many interesting Japanese teas at The Tea Crane.
Today I review one of them: a sencha grown high up in the mountains.
The tea plants used came from seeds of the Yamatomidori cultivar, which is rare.
Let the tea tasting begin
The leaves have a sweet aroma, although it doesn’t feel as “green” and fresh as other sencha.
But the sweetness is intense, it’s probably from the first harvest.
Let’s look at the tea leaves. Some of them could be rolled in a tighter manner, but the good thing is that most of them are small.
Their color is okay.
I’ll be preparing this tea as I do with each sencha in order to compare it. But note that the parameters given by the The Tea Crane are different.
The wet leaf aroma is surprising. Not very marine, maybe even herbal.
There is some sweetness, and perhaps notes of cucumber.
I obtained a beautiful yellow liquor.
While I was thinking that the umami taste would be very low, I didn’t find it to be weak.
It’s an overall mellow flavor, not bitter nor astringent. I liked it.
Then I made a second infusion with the same parameters: 1 minute of infusion time in hot (but not boiling) water.
This time the liquor had a slightly stronger color.
It was a similar taste. Maybe a little more astringent. But also a good tea.
I tried a third infusion and the color became lighter.
While it was similar in taste to the first infusion, it had less flavor.
However, I could still feel the mellow and refreshing flavor.
It’s a good sencha. At first I thought that it would have a weaker taste but it wasn’t the case.
Here’s the link to the product page.
