I am back with another look into another green tea! My posts on the 2025 senchas are going to be rather short, so if you’re looking for a more detailed explanation of the hokumei cultivar, I recommend the intro post I did for it a couple of years back.

The dry leaves had a nice umami smell and somehow, the tea reminded me of roasted seaweed! But that did not translate to the tea (if you were worried about it) – I found the tea here to be sweet and grassy in general. I didn’t get the umami not that I had in previous years, but I’m now also wondering if it’s because I moved house and am using a new kettle, and something has changed with the water that has resulted in this cup.

This was, overall, a very gentle cup of tea. There is some bitterness in the latter cups (especially if you, like me, gradually increase the temperature of the water as you re-steep the tea) but I found that the tea went really well with air fryer chocolate chip cookies (I must put in the words “air fryer” because I’m currently obsessed with mine). I think in general, I’m not averse to a bit of bitterness in sencha because it can add a bit of depth to the tea – if this was only sweet and grassy, it would have been very forgettable. Of course, the key is to make sure it doesn’t become too bitter and undrinkable, which I suppose is why making tea has become an increasingly personalised experience for me; I make tea the way I like to drink it, which may not always be the most useful format for reviews!

I’m always a fan of sencha and I’m liking these small little formats because it means I get to try another tea very soon. With any luck, my next sencha post will be next week!