Tag: Tsujiri

Premium Sencha by Tsujiri
Green Tea / Straight
$10.25 for 30g

First Impressions

This is the last loose leaf tea that I picked up from my visit to Tsujiri. It comes in familiar packaging – the lovely linen-feel paper with a cardstock sleeve with some information. The tea itself comes in an unmarked silver pouch that is sealed but not resealable. For the other teas, I’ve popped the silver pouch into a zip top plastic bag to help keep the tea from going stale (my empty tea tins are still packed away at this time).

Premium Sencha is dark and bright green leaves, mostly short and flattened pieces, with quite a bit of tea dust in the package. The aroma is mostly grassy, with a hint of salty air to it. The tea itself consists only of Japanese green tea.

Preparation

Tsujiri recommends steeping Premium Sencha in 70-80°C (158-176°F) for 1 minute. I opted to do the initial steep with 79°C (175°F) water for a steep time of 1 minute.

First Taste

Premium Sencha steeps to a yellow colour. There’s some grassy aroma from the tea when I smell it, and there are visible tea leave bits that have sunk to the bottom of the cup. On first taste, I noticed that there are some umami notes, a hint of saltiness, some grassy flavours, and some vegetal notes that remind me of dark green leafy vegetables. It has an interesting flavour profile, but the salty flavour does overwhelm the grassy notes at the tail end of each sip and it’s the aftertaste that I’m left with when drinking this green tea.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Premium Sencha three times, adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. I found that the flavour got more grassy as I went, with less vegetal notes. The umami and salty flavours remained fairly consistent with each steep, the colour got a bit more golden in colour. More tea dust came out with each pour, I had used a stainless steel filter in my teapot.

My Overall Impression

I liked Tsujiri’s Premium Sencha. I found that the tea was enjoyable with an interesting flavour profile that was fairly well balanced – I would have rated it higher if I didn’t have that strong umami aftertaste with each sip. That said, I like green teas and this one has the flavours that I expect to find and drink. I do think that the price is on the higher side for the amount (only 30g!), as well as containing quite a bit of tea dust in the bag, which was unfortunate to see.

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

Kabusecha by Tsujiri
Green Tea / Straight
$11.25 for 30g

First Impressions

Another Tsujiri tea! Kabusecha came in a blue linen paper packaging, with a cardstock loop to hold it close. Inside was the same sealed but not resealable silver pouch, and the paper with the steeping instructions (photographed in my review of Tsujiri’s Premium Houjicha last week).

The aroma of Kabusecha is grassy, roasted notes. The leaves themselves are dark green, fairly short, flattened, with a considerable amount of tea fannings in it, that reminds me a lot of just dust. Lots of small particles that made me a bit disappointed, especially considering the cost of the tea itself. But onwards!

Preparation

Tsujiri recommends steeping Kabusecha in 60-70°C (140-158°F) water for 1 minute. I used the lowest temperature setting of my variable temperature kettle (175°F/79°C) and ignored it for a while after it beeped to allow the water to cool.

First Taste

After I poured the water through the stainless steel infuser, I felt some regret. I knew that there was a considerable amount of dust yet I didn’t use a filter bag for this tea. Kabusecha steeps to a yellow-green colour, and is a bit cloudy/murky with the tea dust suspended throughout. The aroma is salty and grassy. The flavour profile has a considerable amount of umami – some saltiness that reminds me of being near the ocean, grassy notes, with just a hint of bitterness at the tail end of each sip. It reminds me of a sencha, but less refined overall.

A Second Cup?

I resteeped Kabusecha twice, adding an additional 30 seconds for each subsequent steep. The flavour profile remained fairly similar, but the bitter finish with each sip remained present.

My Overall Impression

I didn’t like Tsujiri’s Kabusecha. While I was happy with the initial appearance of the packaging, the pouch that can’t be resealed is a let down. The amount of tea dust present was also a let down, as was the flavour as there’s a good amount of saltiness, but also the bitter finish at the end of each sip doesn’t really make it appeal to me. There’s a lot in this tea that reminds me of sencha, but I prefer my green teas with more intact leaves, and less bitterness.

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