Official what GREEN are you currently drinking?

[mbishop]

Obubu's Sencha of the Spring Sun. Also my new teapot

[JeiKun4114]

Obubu's Sencha of the Spring Sun. Also my new teapot

Whats your input on Obubu's Sencha I've been eying there Kabuse Sencha for a while now. Nice Pics

[Chip]

Whats your input on Obubu's Sencha I've been eying there Kabuse Sencha for a while now. Nice Pics

Funny, I was just checking out their site ... again. They have so much going on there, I get a bit overwhelmed and never ordered.

[JeiKun4114]

Whats your input on Obubu's Sencha I've been eying there Kabuse Sencha for a while now. Nice Pics

Funny, I was just checking out their site ... again. They have so much going on there, I get a bit overwhelmed and never ordered.

I frequently go back to there web page to I very fond of Sencha that comes out of Kyoto, so im sure it wont be a disappointment.

[mbishop]

Whats your input on Obubu's Sencha I've been eying there Kabuse Sencha for a while now. Nice Pics

I like their teas quite a bit. I had the Sencha of the Wind, which is sort of like a mix between a regular sencha, and a kabuse sencha, because it is covered but not as long as kabuse, I don't believe.

Sencha of the spring sun is very good, one of the better senchas I've had in a while. Great balance in sweetness and bitterness. Their teas are relatively cheap too, considering the shipping is included in the price, and they have lots of sales (through their mailing list/facebook page)

[JeiKun4114]

Whats your input on Obubu's Sencha I've been eying there Kabuse Sencha for a while now. Nice Pics

I like their teas quite a bit. I had the Sencha of the Wind, which is sort of like a mix between a regular sencha, and a kabuse sencha, because it is covered but not as long as kabuse, I don't believe.

Sencha of the spring sun is very good, one of the better senchas I've had in a while. Great balance in sweetness and bitterness. Their teas are relatively cheap too, considering the shipping is included in the price, and they have lots of sales (through their mailing list/facebook page)

Thank you for your input mbishop I think im gonna end up going with there Sampler pack, to give them all a try I cant seem to make up my mind

[Chip]

So, all Orubu's sencha is aracha, and they sell a lot of later harvests, and the 15 samples are all in clear plastic bags?

It took around 5 or more trips to the site for me to figure this out.

[JeiKun4114]

So, all Orubu's sencha is aracha, and they sell a lot of later harvests, and the 15 samples are all in clear plastic bags?

It took around 5 or more trips to the site for me to figure this out.

Thats is all correct It took me a few trips as well I actually found out through there face book

[mbishop]

So, all Orubu's sencha is aracha, and they sell a lot of later harvests, and the 15 samples are all in clear plastic bags?

It took around 5 or more trips to the site for me to figure this out.

There tea is aracha, yes. What do you mean by they sell a lot of late harvest? They have 4 "top" teas, and then 3 "summer and fall" harvests, then bancha, hojicha, and genmaicha. Plus some others (matcha, etc)

Also, you always write "Orubu" but it's Obubu. "bubu" is slang for tea in Kyoto, apparently, and the O is just like in O-Cha.

PS. Not sure what is up with the samples being in clear plastic, but their normal tea is in the usual sealed bags like O-Cha uses.

[Chip]

Oops, Obubu, must have Aruba on my mind with this early cold snap!

I will give them kudos for posting the detailed listing for each tea in an easy to read chart.

Anyone who knows me long enough will also know I do not prejudge. However there are a few facts of note (which I touched on above). These things are of interest to most sencha drinkers, I think.

Aracha is OK, as long as buyers know the difference between fully processed sencha and aracha (the link for the aracha description was not working when I tried it today). Aracha is unsorted (the small photo does not illustrate this), thus will have veins and stems in it as well as leaf pieces of every size imaginable.

Aracha has also NOT received the final quick roast as a fully processed sencha will. So, it is really quite different from regular sencha. I think they could do a better job of alerting potential buyers.

Most vendors specializing in Japanese teas won't even bother 3rd and 4th harvests, yet this seller romanticizes these teas with names like Summer Sun and Autumn Moon. Again, I am not going to prejudge, just bears watching.

Yes, I am surprised they place the samples into clear plastic pouches ...

These are just some things that we should be aware of when contemplating trying a vendor's teas.

[mbishop]

Aracha is OK, as long as buyers know the difference between fully processed sencha and aracha (the link for the aracha description was not working when I tried it today). Aracha is unsorted (the small photo does not illustrate this), thus will have veins and stems in it as well as leaf pieces of every size imaginable.

Aracha has also NOT received the final quick roast as a fully processed sencha will. So, it is really quite different from regular sencha. I think they could do a better job of alerting potential buyers.

Most vendors specializing in Japanese teas won't even bother 3rd and 4th harvests, yet this seller romanticizes these teas with names like Summer Sun and Autumn Moon. Again, I am not going to prejudge, just bears watching.

Indeed, their website (the English one) is somewhat hit and miss when it comes to working links.

They do (or did?) mention that their teas were aracha. In fact, the history page says Akki (the owner) started the company after first tasting aracha.

As for the final roasting, I had heard about it from some other retailers before, but the taste isn't THAT different, at least to me. I agree that it should probably be stated somewhere. Although many people may not know that most tea DOES undergo a final roasting, so *shrug*

As for the later harvest stuff, they at least separate the teas into "Shincha" (which they use to mean spring tea, apparently) from the rest of the teas, and the price does reflect the quality. That said, yes the last two of their late harvest "sencha" would actually be bancha.

[Chip]

Thanks mbishop for taking my post in the manner it was intended.

I guess having been here on TC for going on 5 years now, I have seen a lot of members fed a lot of misinformation, a lot of improper use of terms, etc. directly from vendors.

It is kind of funny, when I joined TC, sencha was almost a bad word. Funny but true though. But back then, most members had only been exposed to the vile sencha that was being dispersed by domestic USA vendors ... a lot has changed since then.

If some vendors specializing in Japanese tea do not want to learn the lingo and serve up the proper vocab for their customers, that is on them. But here on TC ... we want to supply the right information as often as we can.

Having said all that, I certainly want to try some of this vendor's ichibancha (first flush tea) and hope they are not really selling shincha at this time, but are selling ichibancha.

[Chip]

yup sir on the way now

COOL! I look forward to trying the Hojo leaf.

[Uji]

Delicious Ippodo Organic 10. You have to be very careful when you make organic tea I think so I make more tea leaf and less hot water so maybe 65-70C. I make it sit 1 minute no long times or it is not good and I have 3 infusions but I use less hot water than requested and use 70C for 1 1/2 minutes. Best drinking organic tea is the Ippodo but it is expensive for 60 grams and don't believe the package for 80C not correct for me anyway and the quality of the water is also important for organic tea if the water is hard the taste is bitter

[bryan293]

I Had some of obubu's ujihikari matcha just this morning. I must say for a koicha it was quite reasonable, and surprisingly good.