Green Tea Forum

Seedillume · Posted: Apr 10, 2008 3:31 pm Post subject: Sencha Adventure

I just recently started drinking tea. In fact, it's been 6 months...maybe less.

I started drinking tea because I wanted something hot, good tasting, and healthy. The only hot drink I have ever liked was hot chocolate/cocoa. Well, after YEARS of drinking that, I got tired of the massive amounts of sugar I was consuming. The only way I can stand to drink coffee is to add mounds of sugar...so it kind of defeats the purpose. Also, I don't even drink soda.

A friend of mine asked me how I felt about green tea. I have always heard of it, but only tried it once. It was at a Benihana restaurant. It tasted like someone cut their lawn then soaked in in water. I am serious, it tasted just like grass clippings. I told her that I wasn't thrilled about. She convinced me to try it again. I bought a Full Circle brand of organic green tea. It was NOTHING like what I had at the restaurant. My friend encouraged me to try other brands...so I did. I was VERY amazed at the wide range flavor, smell, and bitterness. I really didn't care for the bitterness. I tried several tea bag styles of green tea...all had varying levels of bitterness, smells, and flavors. It was then when I told her that I wanted to try some high-end green tea. She didn't think tha tI needed to go to that extreme, but I didn't think it was an extreme. I just wanted some sort of control to measure these other teas against. So I set out on the internet to educate myself about green tea.

Since I thought, "How many ways can you make, grow, and serve green tea?", I really thought it would be a quick study. Boy, was I wrong. O-cha.com was one of the first sites I came across. even though I thought the site was poorly organized, I was fascinated with those Discovery videos. In the end, I really felt that this sight really does care about tea and the quality. Since I was new to tea and this was to be a control test, I ordered the Daily Sencha, Kabusecha, and Handy Tea pot (since it looked so easy). I also bought the UtiliTEA teapot and a thermometer.

I was BLOWN AWAY! This tea WAS NOTHING LIKE ANY OF THE TEA BAG TEAS I GET IN THE U.S. In fact, I told my friend, "This is so different that if someone told me they didn't like green tea, I would know that they never tried sencha." It was so different that I wouldn't even classify those other teas as green tea. True, most if not all of those tea bags I was trying were chinese...but still. The smell of the kabusecha was kind of unpleasant when I opened the package. In fact, I likened it to wet hay on a farm mixed with something else smelly. However, I noticed that the smell was also sweet. My Chinese friend who started all of this (and whose been drinking tea for YEARS) just said it smelled like grass and nothing more. After a month of drinking it, it smelled fine...and still does.

Now, this is my only hot drink. I am still not used to having all of that caffeine, but it's a lot less than coffee and seems to have more health benefits according to research.

When I ordered more and it didn't come, I was sluggish and started to theorize as to why it was taking so long. Apparantly, it got lost in the mail. So while I was waiting for my replacement order, I decided to drive into Los Angeles, U.S.A to see what Little Tokyo had to offer.

I came across a mall that boasted, "We are the largest indoor Japanese shopping mall located in Little Tokyo near downtown L.A." They said that they had the, "Largest Japanese supermarket store in the United States." While this may be true, it is about the same size as any other grocery store in the U.S.

Unfortunately, I only speak English and everything was in Japanese...except for the signs about the aisles. I quickly found the tea and was hoping for some English packaging. I didn't see much English so I stood there for an hour looking at the various brands...scanning to see any words I might have recognized from this and other sites. Gratefully, I did understand some of the words. However, I was introduced to a lot of new words I didn't understand. I tried to use my very limited knowledge of sencha to make a wise purchasing decision. I looked at packages asking myself, "Is it full of air? Does it have something to absorb moisture in the package? Can I see the product, thus exposing it to light?...etc" I noticed one brand, Yamamotoyama had some sencha that was packaged almost just like O-cha's. They said things like 'Breakfast Sencha' or 'Gyokuro and Sencha' so I was scared off. Also, all of their other stuff seemed really cheap in price...so maybe it wasn't good quality. I did notice that a lot of people were getting the 'Fukamushi Cha" for $4.99/100gm. That was one of my finalist becasue I recognized 'Fukamushi' and it had something in the bag to absorb oxygen. But I was scared off by the price. In the end, I settled for Okuraen's Sencha for $10.99/100gm. It was in a ziplock bag protected from light, didn't seem to be full of air, had a special display with a stock photo of tea fields, and I recognized 'Ichiban-cha Sen'. I took some photos with my cell phone, so if anybody wants to comment or translate, please feel free.

Upon opening my new purchase, I was amazed that it looked just like O-cha's daily sencha, but smelled sweeter. Kind of like a cross between kabusecha and daily sencha. Brewing it smelled the same. However, the taste was very faint. In fact, it almost just tasted like water. I don't know if that is the norm with Ichiban of just this brand. One things for sure, it has caffeine...lol. I don't think the brewing instructions are on the package (I didn't see any numbers) so I brewed it @ 170F for 2min. All in all, it seemed like a good temporary replacement.

So there you have it, my little Sencha Adventure in a nutshell...Probably more than anybody wanted to know!

greenisgood · Black Belt Joined: 20 Jan 2008 Posts: 104

That is quite the adventure; I'm glad you found the joys of Japanese green tea. I had the same problem when I was in Japan trying to buy tea, I had to resort to pointing and making a questioning hand gesture, but everything I've tried so far has been good.