Uji Sencha & Premium Matcha (Hoshino Seicha-en) - Green Tea Reviews

Edited post on the 22nd of August 2014 for the new tea blog

Double review today!

Uji Sencha from yunomi.us and Premium Matcha from MATSU KAZE!

Let's go!

For this Uji Sencha, I presume it is from a 2013 harvest since I bought during Fall 2013 and yunomi.us keeps their tea up to date -- until a new harvest of that same tea comes to overthrow the old one! Long live the newer teas!

There is something unusual to this one. You cannot purchase it as a stand-alone product. Nope! I forgot because I mixed up my packages in the box (which I kept because I lack storage). Or rather, I didn't pay attention to the fact that his one is part of a set. A Studying set.
So basically, It's a random tea to help you develop your tea cupping capabilities!
It's from this study set here and can be found here: Yunomi Study Set 101

From the yunomi.us website (see link above!)

Now that you know and this is out of the way, here is the review on this green tea:

Uji Sencha

sold by yunomi.us

  

Dry leaf:

• Dark green with about 5% of light green leaves
• Flat needles, no powder but some particles
• Aroma of white creamy chocolate with milk chocolate (think Lindt chocolates)
• A bit of a green vegetative smell, but mostly, it smells like chocolate!

1st Steeping (一煎目):
~30 seconds -- 1 medium teacup of water (~125ml) -- 1 tablespoon -- 80C (I used 78C)
(Senchado technique)

Liquor:

• Creamy colour (not opaque but not clear either), some dust still visible at the bottom but it's blurry
• Colour is medium green-yellowish turning toward a peach colour slightly
• Buttery greens aroma with hints of rich white chocolate
• Almost soapy after-smell
• Light hay-like aroma

Taste:

• Smooth, sweet green attack that dissipates quickly and then replaced with a sweet buttery taste
• A little astringency
• Light buttery bitterness that's pleasant
• Tasting notes dissipate quickly, they're quite ephemeral
• Flowing, liquid, not much viscosity aside from the buttery feeling

2nd Steeping (二煎目):
~10 seconds -- 1 medium teacup of water (~125ml) -- the same 1 tablespoon -- 80C (Senchado technique)

Liquor:

• Almost opaque, much darker than the 1st steeping, some dust still visible at the bottom, but the whole liquor is quite blurry
• Darker (than 1st steeping) medium green-yellow colour, more green than yellow
• Shiny liquor
• A milder buttery green taste (compared to 1st steeping) with hints of white chocolate soapiness (it's not disagreeable, trust me)
• Hay-like in taste

Taste: (You'll be happy!)

• A milder buttery greens taste (compared to 1st steeping) but with hints of white chocolate!
• Almost watery, flowing, liquid
• Less smooth (than 1st steeping) with a little astringency
• Mild but pleasant bitterness
• Fuller in the mouth, but buttery as well! Yum!

3rd Steeping (三煎目):
~30 seconds -- 1 medium teacup of water (~125ml) -- the same 1 tablespoon -- 80C (Senchado technique)

Liquor:

• Dark-medium green-yellow colour
• Opaque but shiny
• Sweet, almost flowery, buttery greens and hay-ish aroma

Taste:

• Astringent! Astringency attack! Woah!
• Green bitterness that isn't so pleasant...

And so, the rating would have been 7/10, but because of the disappointing 3rd steeping, I give it a 6.7/10. I wouldn't call it an impressive tea, but because of the chocolate smell and taste, it makes it way awesomer! A definite "I wanna try!"

******      ******      ******      ******      ******       ******      ******       ******      ******

I had the pleasure to try this Premium Matcha from MATSU KAZE at a Japanese Green Tea Event with Michiko Ono in Calgary.
Here is the link to the Japanese Tea Tasting Events
Now, I paid $15 because I'm not a member of the center, but on her website, it says $35. I don't know if she raised her prices. I'm not aware that she did so maybe it's a typo. If you are in Calgary (or coming to Calgary), just send her an email and ask her (besides you need to contact her to reserve anyway). Even at $35, it's still completely worth it! And that local pastry chef... I have to know who that person is! Those pastries are DELICIOUS!

Anyway, this Matcha is pretty good but after trying it the original way, the way I used to make it kinda tastes like water! (laugh)

Well, let's see what's the review on it then...

Premium Matcha

From the region of Hoshino Seicha-en, Fukuoka Prefecture

Imported and sold by MATSU KAZE
--->Link to Premium Match at MATSU KAZE

Now I'm wondering, do you guys know that Matcha is de-veined and de-stemmed Gyokuro -- known as Tencha -- that is grounded into a fine powder? It is. It takes quite a long time to produce a lot of Matcha because you don't want to burn the tea, so you have to grind it slowly. One webpage I found says it takes 1 hour for 40 grams of Matcha to be produced.
Michiko Ono tells of her experience grinding it manually when she was in Japan last year. You can read it here (it has lots of pictures with captions, something I kind of lack on my own blog...):
Michiko Ono's Matcha grinding experience

And because I like to be thorough, here are the specs for this Matcha:
High grade, handpicked leaves are used. This is a specialty of the Yame region. It meets the high standards of Japanese tea ceremony masters. Sounds good to me!

Dry leaf:

• Nice rich medium bug-green colour
• Fine powder
• Chocolate and buttery greens aroma

Original preparation method (no steeping, only whisking) as instructed by MATSU KAZE:
2 grams of powder or 1 teaspoon -- 60-70 ml (1/4 cup) -- 80C
By the way, I used 1/4 cup to be more precise.

Premium Matcha from MATSUKAZEtea.com

Premium Matcha powder from MATSUKAZEtea.com

Liquor:

• Dark jade colour
• Very thick with pale jade green foam
• Smells buttery, sweet with a mild greenness to it, it kind of lost most of its chocolate aroma

Taste:

•  Very intense
•  Green attack that tapers off smoothly
• Green Gyokuro taste (obviously), it has an asparagus taste that lingers on and on
• Slight bitterness and astringency
• Somehow, it tastes powdery (probably due to the high amount of tea in the water)

At first, I thought there was too little water for the humongous amount of tea. I contacted Michiko who assured me that this is the way they do it during the tea ceremony in Japan. My version has more water and less tea and I used to like it that way, but after tasting this way, I cannot get over the fact that my version is too watery now! So I compared two different methods, one with a little more water and a bit less tea and my method which has way more water... I'll put my method up.

My technique (no steeping, only whisking):
2 big bamboo scoops (chashaku) of Matcha - 3/4 cup of water - 60C

Liquor:

• A nice thick pale jade foam covers the surface, below the liquid is dark jade green
• Creamy greens, buttery, asparagus, chlorophyll and snow peas aroma and maybe a hint of white chocolate
• It smells like those green tea chocolates from Melty Kiss
  

Flickr picture

 Taste:

• Smooth like drinking those thick hot chocolate drinks made from melted chocolate milk, just not as thick of course, don't get your expectations that high! ;)
• Green but mild in a comforting way
• Mellow and sweet, the creaminess lingers at the end of the mouth

• It feels so watery compared to the original way of preparing it! TT^TT

After comparing both, I have to admit the original way is better.... but I get more with less tea from mine so I can keep on drinking it for a little while longer before I run out...

Anecdote: After drinking the first bowl of Matcha (the one made the original way), I rinsed my mouth so I would taste more of my version, the second "steeping". I had to rinse my mouth 4 times until water I spit wasn't green anymore! It felt like rinsing rice... It totally coated my mouth.
It made me think that a few centuries away, nobles used to paint their teeth black. Maybe they actually didn't have to! Maybe they drank Matcha all the time until it coated their teeth a dark green hue! (laugh)

Probably not. But I like to imagine things like that. I like to think most people do, they just don't say it out loud. I hope or else I might just be crazy... :S

That's it!

For next time I was thinking of covering something different but still related to tea (and herbal teas this time!).
Brace yourself for it's going to be it's intriguing! Mostly for the non-tea related products that are made by this company, but since I cover the tea part, it's okay, right?

See you next time!

Volunteering at a Japanese Cultural event and meeting with Michiko Ono of MATSU KAZE

Edited post on the 22nd of August 2014 for the new tea blog

Then I volunteered for a Japanese event in Calgary last month and I learned how to mochi! They tasted so good! I tried to make some at home and they were better than I ever was able to make them. Thanks to their teaching me! (+1)

At the Japanese event I volunteered, I met with Michiko Ono again. She is the owner of Matsu Kaze, an online shop that specializes in Japanese tea. Last year, I enjoyed a Japanese tea tasting event with her. For some reason all the other guests didn't show up and it was just me and my husband. It was personal and we really enjoyed it! We brewed about 5 different green teas (plus delicious sweets) which got my husband really into tea now (yay! +1!). When we met this 2nd time, we talked about new arrivals on her website and I was pleased to learn most of the things I was eager to get will be there within a few months. I want a mini kyushu tea pot for making gyokuro tea (the smaller the teapot, the better!) and tea from a region in Japan where a volcano spreads its ashes on the leaves of the tea, giving it a peculiar taste. I'm thinking Nagoya, but I'm pretty sure I'm wrong. I'll write more on this once I get my hands on it. In the meantime, you can wait with me by looking at her shop from time to time. Here is the link: MATSU KAZE - Authentic Fine Japanese Green Tea
During the event, Michiko talked about the tea ceremony and it brought to mind the delicious Matcha tea I bought from her. Once her event was finished, I approached her and we talked about it. It's a Premium Matcha and has a very interesting taste. I thought that next time, I should do a review of this tea. If you are interested, it's the Premium Matcha on page 2 of her website, but there'll be time to check that in more details next time!

I wanted to review for you today Uji Sencha, but I just noticed, there is no info as to the year, region or farm it's from on the package. I fear it's not enough for me to write a good review for you guys if I don't even know where my tea comes from! Hopefully, I'll get the info soon.
Since this review is already written, I might do it before the Matcha one which has not been noted yet in my tea book. It's one thing to enjoy a tea, another to take the time to dutifully write notes about it. I'm much more of a slacker when it comes to just tasting the tea. I just enjoy sips and gulps. When I tea cup a tea, I slurp it from a spoon, then I try a sip from the cup as well as the impression is different with both techniques and I want to make sure I get the most information out of it. I also don't put so much attention into the aroma and colour when I just drink it normally. I could care less about the colour as long as it's not strange and for the smell, I just go "mmh~ Smells nice" which wouldn't be good in a review! Hehehe~

Sorry to disappoint you! I'll get to it once I get a reply from the website I bought it from!

See ya soon!