Sencha Tea: Okame Hyotto and Sencha with Cherry Blossoms

My experience with Sencha Tea is quite limited but I was lucky to have a friend in my class who had recently bought some Sencha Teas (I believe from Sanko on Queen W.) and shared some with me (thanks SC!). Sencha Tea is a popular type of Japanese green tea, it is known to have grassy and seaweed aromas and flavours. Japanese tea is mainly picked and processed by machine, very little tea is hand plucked and hand-rolled. From my readings (The Story of Tea by Heiss and Heiss), they note that it takes six hours to properly hand-roll a batch of sencha tea, a task that tea-processing equipment can accomplish in 50 mins! So this extra effort is reserved only for special teas like first-flush gyokuro or tea from special gardens. I would love to develop my tasting skills to be able to identify a hand-rolled tea vs machine processed! (One can dream, can't they?!)

On to the tasting, I tasted the following 2 teas together so I could do a comparison:

1. Okame Hyotto Cha Gold (award winning sencha)
2. Sencha with Cherry Blossoms

Here are my tasting notes:

Okame Hyotto (L)
Dry leaves: dark green, flat and narrow, needle-like, has a shine to it.
I used 1 tsp (or about 3 grams) for each tea.

and the Sencha with Cherry Blossoms (R)
Dry leaves: dark green leaves but not as vibrant a the Okame, flat and narrow, needle-like, some light pink cherry blossoms mixed in making it look pretty!

Steep time was just over 1 min using water that was not boiling. I don't have a thermometer or those high-tech water kettles but I let the water sit for 5-6mins after the boil before infusing the leaves.

Infused leaves:

Okame Hyotto (L)
The infused leaves were slightly more bright green then the Sencha with cherry blossoms on the right. They also look like wet grass clippings but not as fine. The aroma of the Okame Hyotto leaves was very strong, grassy and ++ of a seaweed/ocean, maybe even sweet crab aroma.

Sencha with Cherry Blossoms (R)
Leaves were similar to the Okame but slightly more darker green with a bit of brown. The aroma was also similar but not as pungent.

Infused liquid:

Okame Hyotto (on the right this time), the Sencha with Cherry Blossoms on the left.

As you can see, the Okame has a brighter colour to it, it was more yellow-green, the Sencha with Cherry Blossoms had a slightly more greenish tinge to it. Both were cloudy and at the bottom of the cup there was tea dust.

Taste: Both were grassy with a seaweed taste, but the Okame was definitely stronger! They were both smooth however, the Okame tasted "fresher" and had a slightly cleaner taste. Initially, I didn't find them as sweet as I expected but when the tea cooled slightly, the sweetness came out more and it felt more like a medium bodied tea. Overall I did find both teas to be good, but if you are a fan of sencha tea, I think you would enjoy the Okame Hyotto more.

I'm not sure if the cherry blossoms are supposed to be impart some taste or are added for appearance and aroma. For me, I didn't notice anything different and the fragrance did not come out. It may be possible that the flowers were a bit old or there requires a larger percentage of blossoms.

I steeped the leaves a 2nd time and it was still a good cup of tea, steep time was a little longer though.

Blended tea: "Heavenly Blend Green White Tea"

I received a tea blend from a friend in class a couple of weeks ago (thanks HH!). It smelled wonderful and looked really pretty! This tea is called "Heavenly Blend Green/White Tea" from Distinctly Tea.

I don't usually drink tea blends but they can be very intriguing and I think are good everyday teas. It contains a blend of green and white tea, fruit pieces, cornflowers, safflowers, calendula, and natural apricot flavour. What are cornflowers?! What is calendula?!

I'm not very familiar with many of herbal flowers so, I go searching...according to Wikipedia, cornflowers are vibrant blue flowers that in the past, were considered weeds in crop fields, hence the name. They are used in herbal remedies often for "tired eyes". I was hoping to find some info on the aroma or taste but didn't find too much info.

The calendula flower are the yellow petals, also known as marigold and are believed to help in wound healing and skin problems. It is also stated (on MedlinePlus) to possibly prevent muscle spasms, start menstrual periods, and reduce fevers. Although evidence is inconclusive, this was interesting as pregnant women should avoid consuming calendula flowers as a precautionary measure. This tea had very few calendula petals per teaspoon so I don't think anyone needs to worry much...but definitely good to know especially if you are pregnant!

So, on to the tasting...
Dry leaves: white fuzzy buds mixed into dark/almost black lengthwise rolled tea leaves and yellow, blue, red flower petals. Fragrant: fruity and floral.

The instructions say to steep 1 heaping tsp in 8oz of water for 1-2mins. I found that at 1 min, this was too light in flavour so closer to 2 mins is better.

Infused leaves: cut green leaves, a few plump buds. Aroma is floral, possibly having a cinnamon? scent.

Infused liquid: amber colour, like light caramel, cloudy. Aroma was sweet, floral and fruity, vanilla seems to come through.

Taste: mild, smooth, slightly sweet, and a ?vanilla flavour. No aftertaste and no bitterness. It was nice for an everyday tea.

Possible to get a 2nd steeping but you'll need to steep for 3 mins and the flavour will not be as strong.

Long Jing Dragonwell Tea

Long Jing Dragonwell Tea 龍井茶 is a very famous Chinese green tea from Zhejiang Province. In the spring, Long Jing is harvested and usually the first harvests prior to the Chinese holiday "qing ming" are the most expensive and prized. This tea is also pan-fried and most often by hand which requires a high level of skill and experience to "feel" when the tea is ready. This "handmade" aspect is definitely something I am beginning to admire more and more.

A few years ago, a friend of mine visited Hangzhou in Zhejiang and brought me back some long jing tea. I didn't finish the container as I'm more of a fan of oolong tea and I didn't realize at the time that these teas need to be drunk within the year. But since it was still in my cupboard, I decided to bring it out to taste. Now I know that the quality of green tea degrades very quickly, freshness only lasts about 9 months so the taste of this tea should be quite poor. It really is too bad that I didn't consume it all earlier.

To compare, I also brewed some Long Jing that we had sampled in class and I was lucky to bring some back home (purchased from Tao Tea Leaf teashop).

Above: Dry leaves of the old Long Jing tea, some leaves are brownish and the leaves are quite lackluster which is probably a result of aging. The container it came it may not have been airtight either.

Above: Dry leaves of the new Long Jing, not sure when it was plucked though.

Comparing the infused leaf, (L) new: light greenish/yellow and plumper looking, (R) old: darker green and brownish tinge.

Infused liquid: (L) new, (R) old. The aroma of the liquid was more pronounced in the new leaves: vegetal, hint of roasting, and a slight floral accent to it.

Tasting notes:
The new Long Jing tea was more fragrant, had more flavour (vegetal), and had more body (light - medium). It was not bitter and only upon cooling was there a hint of bitterness but this was not unpleasant. I was hoping that there would be more of a sweet after taste but that didn't happen.

The old Long Jing tea was overall bland. It was a bit bitter and as you can see above, the leaves have some browning and the liquor is darker yellow. Unfortunately, it will need to be discarded.

Good rule of thumb - purchase green tea in small quantities and drink within the year otherwise, it will be wasted.

Osmanthus Tea

Many people are familiar with Jasmine Tea but most do not know what Osmanthus Tea is or have ever tasted it. In class, we talked about osmanthus blended with oolong tea and I myself don't recollect drinking this type of tea. But, I have tried some food infused with osmanthus tea at Ten Ren's in Richmond Hill (Canada) (which actually was not strong in aroma) and any tea flavour didn't really stand out unfortunately although the food tasted good.

Osmanthus Tea is popular in Asia, it is similar to Jasmine tea in that the Osmanthus fragrans flower is used to add aroma and flavour to the tea. The flowers are small white (or yellow) clusters that bloom in late summer/autumn according to Wikipedia but can also still be in bloom throughout the winter. The fragrance of the flower is supposed to resemble peaches or apricots. Recently, (and another reason I'm blogging on this) a post from one of my favourite blogs from Taiwan highlighting the town of Nanzhuang also made reference to the osmanthus flower or as it is called in Mandarin "gui hua" or "gwai fa" (Cantonese). Here is where I learned it is also referred to as the "sweet tea olive" plant, I really like this name. The fruit produced by this plant is olive shaped but is dark purple/black in colour and is produced in the spring.

So, after doing a bit of reading, I set out to find some dried osmanthus to blend my own tea or if I can find it, the dried fruit maybe to pair with tea.

I purchased some dried osmanthus flowers from a Chinese dried seafood and herb store as I have read that it is used in Chinese medicine and some believe osmanthus tea is good for the skin. For about $2, I got 35 grams but realized when I got home that it did not have a floral or fruity aroma, but one that smelled like Chinese medicine and herbs. Darn.

Despite the smell, I decided to brew a cup and used 1 tsp in about 5oz of water. It wasn't very nice. Were these flowers past their prime and this is what happens? I tried other stores and found the flowers had the same smell, so I think right now Chinese dried seafood and herb stores are probably not the way to go. From the supermarket, I purchased some osmanthus green tea just to taste a general blend.

Dry osmanthus green tea (above). Small rolled lengthwise leaves, not all uniform, dark green/grayish in colour. Some sprinkles of yellow osmanthus flowers.

Dried Osmanthus flowers. Yellow tiny flowers with some darker yellow/orange flowers within the mix.

I brewed 1 tsp of each. The osmanthus green tea on the left have an amber colour and was not as clear. The aroma was slightly floral. The taste, basic green tea but didn't have much character or sweetness, only mildly bitter. No aftertaste. It was light to medium bodied.

The osmanthus flower tea, on the right, had a greenish-yellow colour to it. Aroma was not floral but had a Chinese medicinal aroma. Taste, slightly bitter and got a little more bitter has it cooled.

The wet leaves of the osmanthus green tea, as you can see, not full leaves but they are green even though the dry leaves indicated they might not be.

The wet osmanthus flowers.

So overall, my experiment didn't go too well. The osmanthus green tea I bought from the supermarket is ok as an everyday tea, something to drink while busy I think. But, the osmanthus flowers I bought will have to mixed in with something else or not used again.

Next on my list, to purchase some osmanthus tea from an actual tea shop, I presume the quality will be much better.