Japanese Green Tea at Uwajimaya?

[hopeofdawn]

So while I've had opportunity to experiment (and love) a great deal of Chinese tea, and even a few Taiwanese oolongs, I've yet to try any Japanese greens other than some kukicha. (which was okay, but didn't really rock my world.) Obviously this is something I'd like to change!

Now I know there are a lot of good tea vendors listed on the forum, but I'm an instant gratification kind of girl. Plus I don't want to buy a super-expensive imported sencha or gyokuro right off the bat while I'm just starting to experiment. So I was wondering--we have several locations for Uwajimaya in the Seattle area (a Japanese grocery store chain, for those not familiar with it), and was wondering if anyone was familiar with their tea offerings. Does anyone know whether their sencha/gyokuro selections are any good? Or should I just assume that their teas will probably be on the mediocre/low end of Japanese greens, and go with an online vendor instead?

[puerhking]

I don't live in Seattle but in KC we have a large asian supermarket. It supplies many of the restaurants in the area. They have a relatively large tea selection including Sencha and even some Matcha but mostly Chinese teas. The problem you will likely encounter is the freshness of the tea and the conditions it has been kept in. Sencha is pretty fragile.

Most quality online vendors have at least a couple of pretty inexpensive choices. They go out of their way to preserve freshness. I would start there.

[entropyembrace]

I agree with puerh king...you can easily end disappointed shopping for sencha locally and it would be better to buy online from a Japanese vendor that really takes care to preserve freshness.

btw...Zencha and Umami-Chaya both offer free worldwide shipping on all tea orders...either one might be a good place to start.

[Chip]

Also, often Asian and even Japanese grocery store fare may include such origins for sencha as China and Brazil. This may or may not be listed on the label.

And even if it is only Japanese, it would likely not be first flush.

I had to go the route of trying bad sencha after bad sencha after bad sencha because tea direct from Japan was not available at the time.

And even online vendors at the time sold crap ... this is changing slowly.

Figure a price point you are willing to pay for your first sencha for 100 grams. This will give you around 20-25 sessions, each session will give you multiple steeps. A $25 sencha is actually a very good value when you think of it this way. And will give you a better shot of finding a tea that you actually like.

My current Fave 5 online vendors for Japanese tea:
O-Cha
Zencha
Maiko
Ippodo
Toss up, Domestic USA vendor slot. Den's or maybe Rishi online, though Rishi's stock is low currently, they still have some good selections and are in the USA.

Umaya-Chaya is in my top 10, though just trying them now.

[Nathaniel87]

Ah, Uwajimaya. A few Springs ago I got my first Sencha there as well right before I placed an order from O-Cha. The tea was something like "My Green Tea" or something like that and it was first flush and actually nitrogen flushed but still several steps down in quality from a similarly priced o-cha offering.

Before I left Seattle for New Zealand I do recall Uwajimaya selling a couple offerings from Den's Tea and at least 6 or so tins from Rishi. During that time they even stocked some Shincha from Maeda en and one other brand that is escaping memory.

I would say that Uwajimaya has a much better tea offering than your standard Japanese/Asian mart for sure, but the problem is the prices for their top offerings will be similar to what you can get online and still a bit over priced for what you get.

In my recommendation I would go to o-cha and get a 100 gram pack of something like Chiran sencha and 1 or 2 40 gram packs of the new light steamed sencha that they are offering which is really spectacular in my opinion.

Good luck! Anyway, all this talk of Uwajimaya has me missing walking through there after school!

[Nathaniel87]

Also, if you are in Seattle and you haven't gone already, please head over to Floating Leaves Tea shop in Ballard. My biggest regret is that I didn't go there sooner when I first got interested in tea.

[hopeofdawn]

Also, if you are in Seattle and you haven't gone already, please head over to Floating Leaves Tea shop in Ballard. My biggest regret is that I didn't go there sooner when I first got interested in tea.

Floating Leaves is actually up next on my 'must go' list! I was actually planning on trying to get there sometime this week, but the weather has made traffic even more of a mess than usual. I really really want to sample more Taiwanese oolongs, though!

And thanks for tips on the free shipping, guys--that certainly takes a little of the pain of ordering online away. Even if I would still have to be patient and wait for the post office to deliver my tea ....

[teashionista]

I actually shop Uwajimaya on a regular basis, and would recommend it for instant gratification. My local store (in Blvue) stocks Den's sencha, in both bags and loose leaf. The store also has premium (at least judging by the price) senchas from Japan. The Seattle store has a much better selection of teas, so if you're closer to that store, that's where I would go.
And I second Floating Leaves for Taiwanese oolongs!