Wondering about quality of my sencha

[iheartea]

I received an order of sencha by mail order. It's not fukamushi, but just regular Uji sencha. After steeping, I examined the leaves and they are all broken. It's not whole, not dust, the pieces are maybe about a fourth of a tea leaf. Should I be concerned about quality? It tastes good!

[Maitre_Tea]

That's how fukamushi is supposed to be like, because as a deep-steamed Sencha the leaf gets broken up and you have a lot of particles in your tea. I like it better than the other degrees of steamed, because it clogs up my strainer after every brewing!

[Chip]

I received an order of sencha by mail order. It's not fukamushi, but just regular Uji sencha. After steeping, I examined the leaves and they are all broken. It's not whole, not dust, the pieces are maybe about a fourth of a tea leaf. Should I be concerned about quality? It tastes good!

It tastes good!!! That should be your first concern I guess.

As Maitre_Tea Mentioned, small leaf particals are quite common, not only with fukamushi but all steamed teas in general. It is very rare to see steamed whole leaf.

[iheartea]

My sencha is not fukamushi. Generally speaking, are all green teas going to have broken leaves? Would that include shincha and gyokuro? If I'm not mistaken, my gyokuro had pretty nice looking leaves.

[xuancheng]

My sencha is not fukamushi. Generally speaking, are all green teas going to have broken leaves? Would that include shincha and gyokuro? If I'm not mistaken, my gyokuro had pretty nice looking leaves.

As Maitre_Tea Mentioned, small leaf particals are quite common, not only with fukamushi but all steamed teas in general. It is very rare to see steamed whole leaf.

emphasis mine

[Maitre_Tea]

My sencha is not fukamushi. So you're saying that all green teas are going to have broken leaves? Does that include gyokuro and shincha as well?

Sorry, when I came across the word "fukamushi" I somehow forgot the words next to it. I think all Japanese teas at least will have broken leaves, and I'm assuming that includes gyokuro and shincha as well. Because all Japanese teas (right?) go under the same steaming process, you're going to have broken pieces no matter what. Obviously if your sencha is really really broken up, then there might be a quality issue.

[Chip]

Most gyokuro will have larger "needles" or leaves rolled into needle like shapes. Asamushi will as well. But still very rarely whole unbroken leaves.

Shincha, or not, really doesn't affect the equation.

Many Chinese green teas will be whole leaves or "leaf sets" consisting of 1-3 leaves and a bud. But they are not steamed. Steaming seems to break the leaves more while also intensifying the flavor profile.

EDIT: Maitre_Tea posted as I was writing ...

[iheartea]

Thanks all for helping me understand this. I mistakenly thought that only fukamushi was broken, so I assumed that regular sencha particles should have been a little larger. But it wasn't. Your careful explanation made me feel better about this new batch of tea that just arrived.

[iheartea]

Most gyokuro will have larger "needles" or leaves rolled into needle like shapes. Asamushi will as well. But still very rarely whole unbroken leaves.

Shincha, or not, really doesn't affect the equation.

Many Chinese green teas will be whole leaves or "leaf sets" consisting of 1-3 leaves and a bud. But they are not steamed. Steaming seems to break the leaves more while also intensifying the flavor profile.

EDIT: Maitre_Tea posted as I was writing ...

Chip - What is asamushi?

[Maitre_Tea]

Most gyokuro will have larger "needles" or leaves rolled into needle like shapes. Asamushi will as well. But still very rarely whole unbroken leaves.

Shincha, or not, really doesn't affect the equation.

Many Chinese green teas will be whole leaves or "leaf sets" consisting of 1-3 leaves and a bud. But they are not steamed. Steaming seems to break the leaves more while also intensifying the flavor profile.

EDIT: Maitre_Tea posted as I was writing ...

Chip - What is asamushi?

Not Chip but I can answer!
It's lightly steamed Sencha
Chumushi (sp?) is mid-steamed, and fukamushi is deep-steamed

[Chip]

Asa means light, mushi means steamed, and cha is well ... tea. Asamushicha

...and then there can be levels of steaming in between, such as between chumushi and fukamushi, etc. A lot is in the interpretation of the maker.

[iheartea]

Asa means light, mushi means steamed, and cha is well ... tea. Asamushicha

...and then there can be levels of steaming in between, such as between chumushi and fukamushi, etc. A lot is in the interpretation of the maker.

If the website description just says sencha, is it understood to be asamushicha or chumushicha? Or, is it always better to ask the vendor?

Thanks!

[Maitre_Tea]

Asa means light, mushi means steamed, and cha is well ... tea. Asamushicha

...and then there can be levels of steaming in between, such as between chumushi and fukamushi, etc. A lot is in the interpretation of the maker.

If the website description just says sencha, is it understood to be asamushicha or chumushicha? Or, is it always better to ask the vendor?

Thanks!

If the information isn't listed, I think you should ask. Most sites I've been on have been good about specifically listing how steamed the tea is.

On another note though, I think I read somewhere though that Chumushi is the most popular/most-frequent level of steamed...but I could (and probably might be) completely wrong

[Chip]

If the information isn't listed, I think you should ask. Most sites I've been on have been good about specifically listing how steamed the tea is.

Absolutely ASK. Ask harvest info (1st flush? 2009 harvest?), ask steam level, ask origin, ask how it was packaged, ask ask ask!

Don't get stuck with crappy sencha, ever, well, at least do everything you can in advance to prevent this from happening. I have come through the tougher years for Japanese tea in the USA, I don't trust any vendor w/o ASKING! The times are so much better now, you can be an educated consumer and be choosey.

So, in a single word or many, ASK.

[Ed]

Unfortunately, even if you ask questions you may not get honest or accurate answers. I agree it can't hurt to ask, but anyone who is online to sell goods is trying to make a sale and that is their main objective. It's wise to shop around and sample as much as you can so you know when you're getting a good value and when you're not.