Tarui Tea Farm: Organic Sencha Shurei, Elegant Beauty

Sipdown 164-2021
Another really nice green tea from Yunomi. I don’t crave straight green teas often, but every once in a while, I’ll decide to order a few. Really glad I got to try this one- it’s floral and sweet, with a fresh grassy green note.

365 Days of Tea Challenge – Day 37

It’s been a while since I’ve had a Japanese green tea, even though they happen to be some of my favorites. I’m not sure why that is, really… But today, we rectify!

I have a 20g packet of this from my Yunomi subscription. Full disclosure – it’s a few months past the “best by” date… But it was completely sealed, so I’m giving it a go anyway. I followed the steeping parameters on the packet for the first 3 steeps, and then went with a further 4th steep because it still had such good flavor.

My leaf was a bit broken, so I was worried about this being bitter. But it definitely was not!

This is a very tasty, well-balanced sencha. It has a nice combination of both sweet and savory vegetal notes, along with a refreshing light citrus note. The most amazing thing about this one, though, is the tasty sakura note. It actually tastes like a very lightly sakura-scented sencha, even though there is no scenting here. I love sakura sencha, so I found this quite delightful!

The vegetal notes were a nice combination of sweet and creamy pea and edamame, along with more savory spinach and a touch of umami seaweed. The savory side was a bit stronger in the second infusion, and there was also a hint of very pleasant bitterness. The fourth (extra) steep was light and sweet, a lovely way to finish the session.

Yummy in my tummy… I’ll have to steep my favorite sakura sencha this way one of these days.

5g – 200ml – 175°F – 60/10/30/60s

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtjgZ0BlmLZ/

When I first tried this tea, I thought I had mistakenly brewed one of my cherry blossom scented teas. This is a straight tea with an astonishing cherry blossom like taste and aroma. It brews up light green, buttery smooth and clean without any bitterness. Grassiness is more subdued than other Japanese greens and there are dominant notes of sakura and umeboshi pickled plums. There’s a sweet and salty flavor to it that reminds me of biting into a sakura mochi.

This is a good tea with a rather atypical profile for a Japanese green. While I enjoyed it, it tastes too similar to the 3 sakura senchas I already own for me to consider getting more. Recommended if you’re looking for a Japanese green that’s a little different from the usual.