I haven’t tried a tencha in a long time.
It’s an uncommon tea, because most of the tencha is ground to obtain matcha.
This one is organic, and sold by Kagoshima Tea.
Did you know that tea professionals in Japan always taste tencha instead of matcha because it’s sold that way to wholesalers?
Tencha is kept in a refrigerated room. Matcha is made only at the end, in order to preserve its freshness.
Unfortunately, I have very little experience tasting this tea.
But here it goes.
Tencha tasting
Tencha is a shaded tea, just like gyokuro.
But it’s a different process.
For example, tencha isn’t rolled.
This tea has a sweet aroma.
Maybe a lightly roasted smell as well?
As you can see, it consists of flakes instead of rolled tea leaves.
I’d say that these are fairly green, the quality must be good.
I’ll prepare it just like a gyokuro.
Just 20 ml (2/3 oz) of lukewarm water (60°C, 140°F) for 2 minutes.
It’s not so easy to infuse tencha, because the flakes tend to float.
Maybe that’s another reason why it’s not usually sold directly to consumers.
The wet tea has a sweet and vegetal aroma.
I’m also finding more roasted notes.
This aroma is quite different from that of gyokuro.
Let’s take a look at the liquor.
A green-yellow color with sediment.
It has a high umami taste, and isn’t bitter nor astringent.
However, the taste is rather mild.
Again, not like a gyokuro at all.
It does have a long aftertaste.
An enjoyable tea.
Let’s make another infusion.
I used 70°C (158°F) and an infusion time of a minute and a half.
Now it tastes like a good quality sencha.
It still has umami taste.
Another good drink.
I’ll go ahead and make a third infusion.
80°C (176ºF) for one minute.
Not much umami taste anymore, and it’s a little astringent.
It’s time to finish this tea.
For the final infusion, I just used boiling water for 10 seconds.
There wasn’t much flavor left.
It’s very light this time, but at least there’s no bitterness.
Here’s the link to this tea’s product page.
