Sencha tastes a little fishy

[Chip]

Current personal fave 5 ... or so of good Japanese tea.

O-Cha
Zencha
Maiko
Den's
Ippodo
Rishi (when they are stocked up)

[shinobicha]

Thanks for the tips, but nope - no good.

Shorter steep time results in slightly bitter, faintly vegetal water. There's not much there.

A bit longer results in some fishiness making friends with water that is a little more bitter. So, fishy + vegetal now, with slight bitterness.

Even longer results in more bitterness, which takes some of the edge off the fishiness and brings out more of the vegetal qualities. But it's bitter now.

Finally, even longer results in a sharp edge, with the bitterness mingling strongly with the vegetal qualities.

In any case, it just doesn't taste right. Sometimes you can sense something is wrong without quite putting your finger on it. This feeling is magnified by the cost of this tea as well as the (apparently) outlandish claim on the bag that this is first-flush Sencha. I could have bought the regular $6 non-organic kind and at least saved myself a pretty penny. I'm not happy.

Weird thing is, I've been drinking Teaopia's Dragonwell for a month now, doing all sorts of things to it. It's pretty good. It might be that even poor-to-average Dragonwell will be drinkable, even enjoyable. I can only imagine what the good stuff will be like! Then again, it's a Chinese green. A different beast altogether.

First of all - have you told Teopia of your problem?
Fishy sounds wrong - I don't think ANY kind of tea made with real tea leaves should taste fishy, unless it has gone bad....

Second, all of the brewing suggestions are good, but it is doubtful that they would change the flavor so drastically as to take it from being a bad tea to a good one. A high quality Japanese green tea brews well at all kinds of steeping parameters. That being said, of course there is a "sweet spot" and there are some ways to brew that you have to avoid (ie, boiling water for a couple minutes, etc.). But I mean, the general suggestion to try water anywhere between 140 - 190 for 20 seconds - 3 minutes are close enough in similarity that it probably won't save a bad tea.

However, I will add one more suggestion. This is because I've used this method on almost ANY kind of Japanese green tea, and it is always delicious (to me). And, it is VERY different than changing the temperature by 20 degrees.

1 rounded tsp tea, 2 oz water.
Cool the water in the freezer for 20-25 minutes, until it reaches around 40F or so. Pour the water over the tea and steep for 10-15 minutes.
Sip it and see - is the fishy flavor still there? If so, throw the tea out!
If not, perhaps you will find new flavors present.

This method has brought out flavors similar to gyokuro from mecha! Of course, cold-brewed mecha isn't nearly as flavorful as cold-brewed gyokuro, but it still has impressive results!

[fire_snake]

Time for an update.

So there I was two days ago. One and a half bags of fishy-cha and nothing to show for it. I was determined to keep experimenting. I didn't care. I spent all this money on the stuff, I was damn well going to drink it - fishwater or not.

Another try. This time I brought the water to well below boiling - just until little little bubbles began to rise to the top of the water. A finger test revealed uncomfortably hot water, but nowhere near boiling. I decanted it into a ceramic bowl. Then decanted it into another. It was cooler. Decant into teapot.

The whole temperature game felt different this time. I was more sure about the temps, intent on treating the leaves gently. It felt deliberate and purposeful. I let it brew for about 1.5 min. Then decant into my cup. And . . . grassy sweetness. The fishiness more or less gone, replaced by a grassy, spinachy flavour laced with a particular sweetness that wasn't there before. It was as if I was experiencing a different tea. Granted, the flavour was a bit weak for my liking, but the sweetness was very pleasant, and the somewhat lighter grassiness seemed to make friends with it easily.

A second infusion - longer steeping this time around - revealed a little more robust flavour, but not quite there. The sweetness remained and there was a little more astringency. But it was very drinkable. I doubt it could stand a third infusion, though.

I made the tea work, more or less. I'm still not blown away by Sencha - or whatever strain of green tea this brew was characteristic of, but this time around it was a much better experience - even pleasant to the point that I'm looking forward to seeing if I can do it again, or perhaps pull other surprises from these leaves.

I'm looking forward to the real deal now. Good Sencha that is exemplary of the species.

Thanks for the advice and encouragement.

[solitude]

When I smelled first time the YM supreme from the preheated houhin, the first think I noticed was a weird smell reminding kitchen - fishy odor, but the fragrance and the taste of liquor is delicious.
Probably this is an off topic but I wanted to share