I hope you guys like sencha because my tea posts for the next two months are going to be all about sencha (and one about matcha)! My teas from Sayama have arrived and I realised that I ordered…. nine different types of sencha! All are from different cultivars and I think only two are from the same farm.
It was really hard to decide which tea to start with, so I just picked one. Unlike my usual tea posts, I’ll save the tea description for last because I tried this blind (without reading the description) and didn’t want the tea description to influence my tasting.
First Impressions
The dry leaves are a beautiful dark green colour and they smell so fresh! Almost as though they just came from the farm (okay, they did come direct from the farm). I also got a citrus note, which is interesting.
Tasting Notes
First steep: The tea liquor is a yellow-green, as expected of a sencha, and it smells amazing! I’m actually surprised that it’s not sweet and the umami notes aren’t that strong either. Instead, I’m getting a pretty strong grassy note, a distinct citrus note, and a hint of bitterness that’s refreshing.
Second steep: The tea liquor here is a bit darker and cloudier compared to the first, but the taste is largely the same. I’m really reminded of spring when I drink this tea and although I’ve got a huge bias towards senchas with strong sweet and umami notes, I’m absolutely loving this and drinking it with a smile on my face.
Third steep onwards: The more I drink it, the more I’m wondering if this impression of spring is from the citrus or something that feels floral. I’m reminded of a high-mountain oolong, although in terms of taste, the teas aren’t that similar. It’s pretty interesting how one tea can invoke impressions of another. It’s in the third steep that I’m starting to discern a sweetness in a tea – not sure if it was hiding in the first two steeps or if my tongue has managed to go beyond the dominant notes and found the subtle flavours in the tea.
I managed to brew this for about six rounds, with the steeping time for each round being slightly longer than the last. The water to leaf ratio was pretty high, but I think the quality of the leaves is also a reason why it could stand up to so many rounds.
The spent leaves are soft. The leaves here are pretty small so I would advise against using a filter with large holes.
Tea Description
Given that each tea is made from a single cultivar, the description of the tea is also a description of a cultivar! From the tea cards I was sent:
“‘Fuku-midori’ also represents Sayama tea. It was raised by the Saitama Tea Research Institute and registered in 2003. At Ohnishi-en, by withering the tea leaves for a short while, they bring out citrus aroma just like grapefruit from the leaves and produce tea with plenty of fresh taste.
“It is a good idea to drink this tea when you are taking a rest. If you drink it after your meal, you will have more satisfaction with the meal”
No wonder I had citrus notes! I completely agree with the pairing recommendations, by the way. I had this tea with some really rich, fudgy chocolate cake and they complemented each other beautifully!
About Ohnishi-en (大西園)
From the tea cards:
“Ohnishi-en has a tea garden of around 3.0 hectares on Kanekodai-plateau in Iruma City, Saitama. The plateau is an ideal place for tea cultivation because of its abundant sunlight and well-drained soil. On the other hand, there is nothing on the plateau to prevent strong wind from blowing through, so it is not rare that the tea trees are damaged by cold weather in early spring. In order to avoid such damages, there are a lot of fans installed to prevent frost. You won’t be able to find such a sight anywhere else but in Sayama tea plantation area.”
The fans they refer to are called 防霜ファン in Japanese. I always thought of fans as cooling, so it’s interesting to hear that they can be frost preventing as well!