Lazy Meadow – One More Steep

Vanilla Sencha by Lazy Meadow
Green Tea / Flavoured
$7.00 for 100g

First Impressions

A second tea that I purchase last summer at the PNE from Lazy Meadow (the first being Japanese Treasure, which I reviewed earlier this month). Vanilla Sencha came in similar packaging – simple folded top-bag with a label on the front with some information about the tea.

This tea smells richly of vanilla bean, which I love. Vanilla always makes me think of baked goods (especially cake!), so I was quite drawn to this tea when I first smelled it last summer, and I’m still quite drawn to it now. The green tea base is overwhelmed by the vanilla.

There is no ingredients list on the label, unfortunately, but based on my best guess I would say that Vanilla Sencha consists of sencha green tea and vanilla flavouring. My nose isn’t that adept to determine if it’s artificial or natural flavouring, unfortunately.

Preparation

I steeped Vanilla Sencha using the green tea setting on my Breville IQ Kettle – 175°F (79°C) for an initial steep of 2 minutes.

First Taste

Vanilla Sencha steeps to a beautiful light orange, the aroma from the tea is mostly that of vanilla. It reminds me of baking in the winter (mostly because that’s when I do most of my baking…). The tea itself has a sweetness to it, which I’m attributing to the vanilla, with a very light grassy flavour to it. There’s a touch of umami to it, just a bit of a saltiness that reminds me of seaweed snacks. Overall though, the flavour lends itself to be on the sweet side, due to the flavour of the vanilla.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Vanilla Sencha once, and found the flavour to be primarily that of the sencha green tea base itself. Unfortunately, the vanilla flavouring and sweetness was lacking in the second steep. I would say that Vanilla Sencha is good for just one steep.

My Overall Impression

I thought that Lazy Meadow’s Vanilla Sencha was just okay. While the aroma of the dry leaf was very inviting, I did enjoy the first steep because of the vanilla notes. Once the vanilla flavouring was all gone, I found the sencha base to be lacking in flavour in comparison to the first steep – especially considering how much I enjoyed the vanilla smell and taste in this green tea blend. I think it’d be a good afternoon tea candidate, since the vanilla notes would play off of the smell of vanilla in the cupcakes and cookies.

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Japanese Treasure by Lazy Meadow
Green Tea / Flavoured
$7.00 for 100g

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First Impressions

I picked up this bag of tea by Lazy Meadow at the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) in the summer of 2017. Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to find a website for this tea blender, so I will be doing what I can with the information that I have. The label states that Japanese Treasure is “a green Darjeeling blended with marigold blossom, lemon grass, papaya, and ginger”.

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While it does appear to be a green tea, I see jasmine blossoms, rose petals, and some kind of red berry. No lemon grass, papaya, ginger or marigold to be seen. It’s a bit concerning (perhaps a packaging mishap?), but it does smell good nonetheless so I’ll continue with the review. I’m unable to go back and exchange it, since the PNE only occurs in the last two weeks before school begins. It does smell really good – very floral, sweet, and fruity.

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Preparation

I did my initial steep of Japanese Treasure at 79°C (175°F) for 2 minutes.

First Taste

Japanese Treasure steeps to a pale golden yellow. The aroma that wafts up from this tea is primarily that of floral sweetness, with some berry fruit fragrances lingering in the background. When I first sipped this tea, I found that there was a floral sweetness, although the fruity aromas don’t come through very well. The tea base itself has a bit of a salty vegetal taste to it, which isn’t overwhelming compared to the sweetness from the other ingredients.

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A Second Cup?

I tried resteeping Japanese Treasure again, but found that the second steep of the same leaves were mostly that of the tea base – salty, vegetal. The sweet floral flavours were mostly gone or overwhelmed by the umami flavour of the green tea base.

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My Overall Impression

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I didn’t like Lazy Meadow’s Japanese Treasure. Aside from the fact that this is probably the wrong tea blend in the packaging (based on the description of the ingredients), this tea had a nice sweetness to it, but I found the saltiness/umami flavours of the green tea base to be a bit distracting from the floral and fruity notes that this tea did have. I did cool this one down to have iced, and found it was marginally improved (it may do better sweetened and iced).

Curious about the cup rating system? Click here to learn more.