Drank a random Japanese green tea I got as part of a swap with a redditor from Germany – the baggies came unlabeled, so it’s an adventure! I was a little worried he might have just sent me random odds and ends from the back of his cupboard, but this tea at least seemed decently fresh.
The wet leaves had an unusually vegetal aroma (for a sencha in my experience anyways), but this aroma didn’t translate to the flavor. The taste was sweet, grassy, buttery and nutty. I also got an aftertaste of fruit, which I don’t often get in sencha but do appreciate when it’s present. Successive steeps at 160F made a nice but lighter brew. I did one steep at 180F afterwards, which was decently bitter, but did yield a nice grassy flavor sounding the death knell of this tea.
Some of the leaves seemed to be decently intact, or at least in larger fragments than I usually see with sencha. That and the fact I got pretty clear liquid leads me to believe this was pretty lightly steamed. I think. Don’t know much about it though! :)
Flavors: Butter, Fruity, Grass, Nutty
