We don't know when or if this item will be available.
“This organic green tea from Thé Santé is a bit disappointing, relative to some of their other superlative sencha offerings. I noticed right off that there were quite a few twigs mixed in with the...” Read full tasting note
Country of Origin: China
Region: Jiangxi Province
Grade: Sencha Fuji – Japan style
Attitude: Up to 2500 feet above sea level
Manufacture Type: Steamed and pan-fired
Cup Characteristics: Delicious green character with depth, body and some pungency. Cup tends bright forest green
Infusion: Tending bright forest green
Organic tea is produced without the input of chemical fertilizers or pesticides and herbicides. Unfortunately the yield per acre is lower and quite often quality can suffer compared to when fertilizers and others inputs are utilized. Nevertheless with good manufacturing techniques the cup characteristics can be maintained at a very high level – such is the case with this tea.
This tea is a top quality Green Tea with good ‘green tea’ taste properties – slightly vegetative and fruity, but refreshing and clean; typical of Japanese manufacturing techniques.
Tea was introduced to Japan from China in the 7th and 8th century. Records indicate that Japan’s Emperor Kammu gave visiting monks an imperial gift of powdered green tea. Emperor Kammu created a government post called ‘Supervisor of Tea and Tea Gardens’ as Japan had begun to cultivate it’s own tea. That this post was in the medical bureau of the government indicates that even then, there was tremendous respect for the health aspects of tea.
From 800 to the 1200AD Japan relied heavily on China for it’s tea supply. Because tea arrived in limited quantities from China tea became a luxury used for medicinal and spiritual purposes. A Zen Buddhist, Eisai Myoan returned from China (from what is now known as Jiangxi) with tea seeds and planted them at his temple. He soon realized that the quality was superior to any tea currently grown in Japan.
These seeds formed the basis of Japan’s tea industry in the centuries to come. Further evidence of the known correlation between health and tea was found in a small book that Eisai wrote, entitled (translated), Tea Drinking is Good for Health. In this book he wrote that tea drinking confers many benefits including curing lack of appetite, diseases caused by poor quality drinking water, and beriberi (a vitamin B deficiency).
Company description not available.
This organic green tea from Thé Santé is a bit disappointing, relative to some of their other superlative sencha offerings.
I noticed right off that there were quite a few twigs mixed in with the dried leaves. Then when I infused the tea, I found that the liquor was more golden than green. The taste is not strictly “sencha”-like. To me, it seems more like a generic green, more baked than steamed. It could even be Chun Mee!
Interestingly enough, I was musing to myself while imbibing the first infusion of this pot that the brew seemed more like a medium-grade China green (possibly a blend of some sort), than a high-grade Japanese sencha. It simply lacked that je ne sais quoi of the senchas dear to me.
All of this I observed before reading at the website that, in fact, in contrast to the labeling on my packet, which states quite boldly that “Japan” is the country of origin, this is a China-sourced tea prepared à la Fuji Sencha from Japan! I cannot say that it is false advertising, because my purchase was based on the information at the website (I ordered quite a few packets simultaneously to meet the free shipping threshold), but I was looking forward to a pot of sencha this afternoon, and this packet does say that it is from Japan.
Disappointing, but I am at least vindicated in all of my observations. I did not first discover that this was a China-sourced tea and then interpret the brew negatively, laboring under the fairly pervasive anti-China prejudices which can be seen and read all around. No, I found myself surprised that a tea from Japan could seem so much like an average China green, and then learned a bit later that it was!
