Tsuru No Maru Japan

Short backstory to this tea:

Steepster members Todd and Mastress Alita met with me at the San Francisco Tea Festival last year (last year!). We took home samples of this sencha. When I decided to brew it at home, an explosion of rotten canned cat food occurred, ruining the sachet that was sitting on the counter and creating quite the foul atmosphere.

Nearly one year later (one year later!), Mastress Alita, recalling the mishap, sent me a new sample that she acquired at the Portland Tea Fest. Thank you! <3

Brewed according to the directions: Let 3oz of boiling water cool for 3min, steep for 60s.
Smooth and thick with sweet vegetal asparagus and secondary notes of bitter almond, sugar cookie, anise and earth.

I don’t have much experience with sencha but I really enjoyed this tea. It’s not grassy like other sencha I’ve had and has a much more substantial body that gets thicker in subsequent, hotter infusions. No astringency. Nice, light lingering bitterness and a returning sweetness deep in the throat. Six 3oz infusions from one sachet.

I got a sample of this at the SF Tea Festival. They don’t sell it or even mention it on their website.

It’s very light and smooth, not bitter at all that I can tell. It’s earthy and vegetal, and I can taste a bit of asparagus. It’s pretty much the perfect sencha. I would like more of this!

If you’re listening, Tsuru no Maru: Make more please. もっとください！

I got this sample from a vend at the PDX Tea Fest this year. I prepared this following the instructions. I boiled three ounces of water and let it sit for about 3 minutes before steeping the tea for a little longer than 30 seconds. Even though my sample was very small I found this to be a very good Sencha.