Organic Sencha

Tea: 100% Organic Sencha
Vendor: Tao of Tea
Price: $2.25 / oz.
Vendor Description: A Japanese-style Sencha grown organically in China.

About this tea: It seemed unusual that a vendor would openly admit that a sencha they offered was not from Japan, but a Chinese imitation. Curiosity (and price) got the best of me and I tried out this tea.

Leaf: The leaf for this tea has a very light green color and the appearance reminded me a lot of bancha with it's flat leaves and noticeable veins and leaf size. Even based on just looking at this tea it didn't really appear to be a normal sencha.

1st Infusion: This tea had a very bancha like aroma to it. The flavor had a medium sense of bitterness and a very flat taste to it. The infusion was yellow in color and had no sense of astringency to it.

2nd Infusion: This tea had a very yellow color this time and a very coarse flavor to it.

Rating: 1/10

Conclusion: This tea wasn't very enjoyable. I had a strong feeling that this would be somewhat bad, so I wasn't shocked by this. This tea reminded me a lot of the Miyakawa Hatsuzumi Shincha that I had a while ago. Both were rather disappointing teas and not worth trying. If you're thinking of trying a sencha from Tao of Tea, get at least the shinrikyu.