I drink tea for pleasure only, as opposed to health.
But my exception is green tea from the Benifuuki cultivar, which is good for allergies.
Unfortunately, it isn’t the best tasting cultivar as a green tea.
It is good as a black tea, but then it will lose its precious methylated catechins, which is what I’m after.
Let’s see if this sencha from Kagoshima Tea can meet my expectations.
I’m ready to prepare this sencha
The leaf aroma is vegetal, but very faint.
I think that the leaves are from the second harvest, because they aren’t as tightly rolled.
They don’t have a dark green color either.
For the infusion, I used 1 tsp of tea, 60 ml (2 oz) of water at 80ºC (176ºF) and brewed for 1 minute.
In other words, I prepared it just like a normal sencha.
The wet leaves have a light aroma with notes of boiled greens.
After serving it, I notice that the liquor has a nice yellow-green color.
I’ll give it a sip.
It isn’t bitter, but it is a little astringent.
I don’t notice any umami taste, nor much sweetness.
There’s also a dry aftertaste.
It has sort of a flat taste in general.
For the second infusion, I lowered the time to 40 seconds.
It’s very similar to the first infusion.
Now there’s a slight bitterness, but it is okay.
I made a third infusion for just 20 seconds.
Lighter flavor, but still drinkable.
I liked the fact that this tea isn’t too strong, because that is usually the case with the Benifuuki cultivar.
I’ll be drinking it everyday with the hope of avoiding my allergy symptoms.
It can also work well as an iced tea.
Here’s the product page of this sencha.
