Some local Stockholm info:
I have had some uji no tsuyu midori/gin before, and I think that both are good, but I didn't see a best before date on those packages, so I bought tea from another brand (to the right of uji no tsuyu on the tea shelf!) which had just been unpacked - I had the fukamushi sencha (60:-) which tasted very fresh!
The first Sencha I had was from a reputable tea source, but one that specialized in Chinese and Indian tea. It was lousy Sencha, and I didn't try again for a year or two. Japanese tea has to be stored rather particularly, so most shops that specialize in other types of tea simply do not do Sencha correctly.Beidao wrote:Thanx again! It wasn't a grocery store, it was a tea store, but a rather small one in a galleria. Not the best place to look for tea experts...
If you want to give it another shot, try O-Cha or Ito En.
Yes, even good sencha may be an acquired taste, though I'm not sure. I was hooked from my first bag of Ito En Megami.
Re: Sencha help
I think this is always what I suspected. The sencha that has a lot of small broken leaves is the prime reason. I think the small leave particulates are filtered through the mesh (if you have one in your tea pot) and they stay in your tea further contributing to the flavor.Beidao wrote:it seemed sweet and not bitter immediatly after brewing. But, when it had cooled enough to drink it was not sweet at all - and enough bitter not to be enjoyable.
I haven't got very much leaves left now. But damn it, I WILL get a decent cup of Sencha before I run out of it!!
Tonight I tried my old sencha again. I examined it and saw that it was mostly broken leaves and a many twigs. A lot of leaf parts made it's way through the mesh, as inspectoring expected.
Anyway, since I had so little water in boiler it soon became way too hot, and when I cooled it down it became 60 degrees Celcius instead of 70. I used this 60 degrees water and then I forgot about the time so when I took out the leaves I wasn't sure how long they had been in. I sipped a little, scared that it would be even more bitter than before - and immediatly thought "Oh, this is nice!"
So obviously this Sencha has Gyokuro complex or something. The second cup, also 60 degrees, became watery but the first I remember as sweet. It had *some* bitterness but in the way a black tea has - rough but not unpleasant.
The used leaves has a nice pale green colour and they look very beutiful. Now I'm even more eager to try some good stuff!
Anyway, since I had so little water in boiler it soon became way too hot, and when I cooled it down it became 60 degrees Celcius instead of 70. I used this 60 degrees water and then I forgot about the time so when I took out the leaves I wasn't sure how long they had been in. I sipped a little, scared that it would be even more bitter than before - and immediatly thought "Oh, this is nice!"
So obviously this Sencha has Gyokuro complex or something. The second cup, also 60 degrees, became watery but the first I remember as sweet. It had *some* bitterness but in the way a black tea has - rough but not unpleasant.
The used leaves has a nice pale green colour and they look very beutiful. Now I'm even more eager to try some good stuff!
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