Mystery sencha

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Sep 20th, '10, 21:58
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Mystery sencha

by Mr. Usaji » Sep 20th, '10, 21:58

I got some good sencha at a local Japanese store, but I have no idea what it's called or where it came from. I can't take a picture, but I found someone's photo on Steepster, which identifies the company as "Yoshikawa." (Googling led me to yoshikawaen.co.jp, which is a tea company, but none of their products looks like this one.)

It's a green 100g packet; on the front there's a flower/grass pattern and a gold sticker with 3 characters: 上煎茶, which you can see in the picture. I'm not sure about the second character (I don't know any Japanese), but I know the last one is "cha", so I assume it's "sencha". Google says 上 is "ue", meaning something like above/top/superior, so they just want to say that it's really great sencha -- not very informative.

The import sticker on the back says "Sencha Jyo Green", distributed by Daiei Trading Co. Inc. in College Point, NY (Queens).

That's all I've got. Has anyone seen this before, or is anyone familiar with Yoshikawa or "sencha jyo"?

Sep 22nd, '10, 21:27
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Re: Mystery sencha

by bryan_drinks_tea » Sep 22nd, '10, 21:27

I know of that brand, It's sold at a local Japanese grocer in Charlotte, NC as well. The gold bagged is labelled as Tokujyo gold sencha. I've seen the green bagged variety before, but I didn't try it, and I also don't know the full name. I can make some calls up there and see what it's called if you want.
To me the Tokujyo gold sencha is a good tea, sweet and thick and calming. last years was better than this years IMHO, but it's all up to you. I've found that low temps work well with that brand, something like 140 or 150.

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Sep 22nd, '10, 21:41
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Re: Mystery sencha

by Chip » Sep 22nd, '10, 21:41

The name of the tea is reminiscent of a Maeda-en offering. I think spot on actually. They wholesale to a lot of Japanese food stores and the like.

Just saying ...

Sep 23rd, '10, 19:13
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Re: Mystery sencha

by Mr. Usaji » Sep 23rd, '10, 19:13

Hey, I LIKE Maeda-en, especially their genmaicha (better than Den's, actually). But I know what their packaging looks like, and this wasn't it. It's weird that there was hardly any labeling even in Japanese.

I think I saw a similar-looking purple bag, but I don't remember a gold one. All I know about the tea is it seemed to be fukamushi.

Can you clarify the actual name and maker of this tea? Googling gives me the impression that Tokujyo (or Tokujo?) is not a brand name or a specific tea but something else, I don't know what. I also don't know what "Jyo" means.

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Sep 24th, '10, 15:15
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Re: Mystery sencha

by OchameTaiken » Sep 24th, '10, 15:15

Tokujou simply means "premium," so you can find any number of companies with their own offering of tokujou sencha.

As for the picture you found, that is just a perfectly generic, unbranded bag. Those stickers which say sencha, gyokuro, or in your case jou-sencha are used among all companies, and yours appears to be stuck on a generic washi paper bag. So I wouldn't assume that yours came from the same Yoshikawa, or even that the Steepster user used a photo of the exact tea they were referring to.

Maybe it is, though. The best you can do is go back and try asking at the store.

May 26th, '17, 20:21
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Re: Mystery sencha

by Youssef » May 26th, '17, 20:21

I just bought a pack today. I was at my local japanese grocery store and when I saw the bag I had to give it a try, I have never had sencha before, I have only drank puerh!

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