I must be in some kind of productive phase because I’m here with my second review from the Rare Tea Subscription that I’m sharing with a friend. My expectations are all over the place for this limited edition sencha – they are pretty high because the white tea from the first month was delicious, but on the other hand, I’m trying not to expect too much because I’m very picky when it comes to sencha.

First Impressions

The dry leaves were dark green and very thin, very much like how good sencha is supposed to look. I also saw lots of small pieces and I wondered if that was due to handling on my end (because I had to divide the tea in two) or if it’s because the sencha is the 深蒸し (deep steamed) type, which naturally has more of these small pieces.

Tasting notes

The first cup was light green and clear with very little scent. It tasted very “clean” and sweet with grassy notes. “Clean” was the only word that came to mind, by the way. I can’t quite describe it but it’s basically what a sencha would be without any other notes/surprises (e.g. sakura note, citrus notes, etc). For the most part, what you taste at the first sip is what you get – I did wonder if my steeping time was not long enough because I felt that the tea was a bit “flat”, for lack of a better word.

I steeped the second cup for one minute, resulting in a yellow-green tea liquor. The tea was still sweet and the grassy notes were stronger. I also got some bitter notes, which made the tea taste deeper and I thought this tea lingered pleasantly in the mouth.

By the third steep, which was about one and a half minutes long, the tea had reached its end. It tasted much lighter than the previous cup, which was a bit of a surprise.

The spent leaves were very green and not too mushy – you could probably eat these with ponzu if you wanted.

Concluding Thoughts

This was a good cup of sencha tea, exactly what you would expect, but I can’t help finding it pricey. I think by now, I’m looking for the unusual in my sencha and that is what I’m willing to pay more for. This cup feels like it could come from any good quality tea shop in Japan, which doesn’t really justify me paying UK prices for it. I still adore Rare Tea company and what they do, though, so I look forward to the next tea from them!