Tea: Morita Sayama Sencha
Website Vendor: Yunomi.us
This was part of my last order with Yunomi.us. I had been wanting to try to get into Japanese style teas, but didn’t know were to start. Then I found out about Yunomi.us on Steepster and decided to give them a try. I have only had Sencha in flavored tea a few times before, but I found it to be overly grassy with not much flavor. And when I say grassy I mean ripped grass from the ground and eaten grassy. MEH! This tea, however, has brought a pleasant new meaning to the flavor profile “Grassy”. Grassy in this case means sweet, fresh, and light green taste; it is different then say a more heavy vegetable flavor.
I fallowed the steeping instructions for the most part from the site. My first steep was brewed at 160F, while all the others were brewed at 185F. All steeps were steeped for 45sec.
Steep 1: Very savory; strong unami flavor. Slight pleasant grassy flavor and buttery. Light sweet matcha after taste. Very mild astringency
Steep 2: Grass is more present. Not really any unami any more. Never mind it taste it now. Still slight match sweetness. Astringency is stronger, but not bad. Has a strong tea flavor.
Steep 3: More astringency now; but still pleasant. Strong green tea flavor (DUH) some unami now. In the beginning there was a stronger matcha flavor. This tea seems to change profile as it cools. Interesting. This is a very savory steep. Not as grassy as before. Mild astringency now. Cooler: more matcha flavor and a smidgen more astringency.
Steep 4: The prevailing flavor is match. Very sweet with just a touch of savory to ground it. YUM!
Overall this was a very interesting and pleasant tea. I had a rich and dynamic flavor. I love how depending how you steep it greatly changes it’s flavor profile.It seems to change flavors as it cools as well; making each sip different. I am sad to see my sample gone I would have loved to have some more of this on another day. It is sold in 100 gram (3.52 oz) bag for $16; that makes it about $4.50 an ounce! This would make for a nice daily cup of green.
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Specifics:
Pot: Porcelain (no top)
Water: 8oz
Leaf: 5 grams
Temp: 1st steep 160F; 2nd-4th steep 185F.
Tunes 'N' Tea 