Looking for the most vegetal "fishy" green possible

it's not too late to stop

Add nuoc mam to any pu erh.

--Blair

Although you asked for green tea, I got an oolong sample from Special Teas last year that was distinctly (and for me, unpleasantly) fishy. It was #611 Organic Fancy Formosa Oolong, if you're interested.

What causes the fishiness? Fertilizer? Was the tea dried around fish like Lapsang Souchong is smoky and wood-scented when dried over a wood fire? I know teas take on a fruit or flowery aroma and flavor if they're grown nearby or if the tea is dried with flower petals, but it never occurred to me that tea would be dried in close proximity to fish.

The "fishy" taste is actually a vegetal flavor but it can be very similar. It is actually hit or miss for me, I know that some sencha's will be very pronounced while others not so much, but there is no easy way to know before brewing... which is why I was hoping someone would have a go to green tea for their "fishy" fix. Some oolongs can have this taste too... and I will try out the one you mentioned just for the halibut. (ooh, bad pun, ready tomatoes.)

- Dominic

Thanks for the explanation. No tomatoes from me!

I personally like those "fishy" Senchas. My theory is that they are not "fishy" at all, but rather impart the smell of the sea and the seaweed in and among which fish swim. It's the fish association, not the fish per se. Well, I could be wrong and probably am. Michael

Nope, you are dead-on correct. It is just a mental association. It took me a long time to warm up to that taste and it happened once I finally realized that it was not so much a fishy taste as it was a fresh and clean taste. Green tea is pretty "pure" and unfooled around with as far as fermentation and such, so it only makes sense that the taste reflects that.

It is the green-ness and the actual tea flavor. I always compare it to how it would be totally different to drink coffee made from un-roasted beans when that is all you are used to. I just wish there was a way to know beforehand which teas are more pronounced in this taste. I've yet to discover a green tea that is always consistently strong flavored like this, I'm really hoping I find a few to rely on. The search continues.

- Dominic

Although our experiences are surely different, having grown up in Honolulu, I'm going to disagree at this point. The fishy oolong that I tried was distinctly, repulsively, fishy and didn't smell at all like the ocean or even like fresh or dried seaweed. Besides, fresh fish doesn't smell fishy. Dad taught me how to spearfish and Mom took me to the open air fish market in Chinatown and taught me how to buy fish. If it smelled fishy, it was old, not fresh.

"Fish and houseguests stink after three days."

That yours reminded you of the sea is something that I envy.

snipped-for-privacy@individual.net/24/06 10: snipped-for-privacy@is.invalid

I have never drunk a sencha of a fishy nature such as you describe. Your description is clear, although the brew you got undoubtedly wasn't. Michael

This doesn't directly address Dominic's request, as I wouldn't call this tea strongly vegetal, but Upton's TV01 Vietnam Green Sencha does have a unique character that relates to this thread. Reviewers have described it as "oceanic" and "like being by the seaside". I've tried it, and noted that character in the tea as well. I still prefer Japanese Sencha Yamato, but if you have salt water in your veins, you might wanna try a sample of TV01.

Randy

You're probably right. The dominant note in "fishy" smell is trimethylamine. I believe that fish and other marine organisms replace some of their sodium with ammonium ions to reduce density for buoyancy control. Seaweed, AFAIK, does not emit such amines. It's all association, as you say.

-DM

I will say that a long time ago I had some very fresh sencha prepared for me by a thai woman, and I was repulsed at the absolutely fishy tasting flavor of it. I actually referred to it as "The Fish Tea." It truly seemed like licking a 3-day old bass to me, but over time I actually have found that it is not actually a fish taste or flavor at all but a very unique taste unto itself that is just very similar at first.

I can't speak of your experience either, but I have had some very fishy tasting greens over the years that had no ties to actual fish/seaweed at all. I'm a fisherman as well, and I'm well aware of fresh/not fresh fish and the range of smells...but if you take the time and really search you can tell the difference. It took me over 3 years to finally enjoy and crave that taste. Most likely it has to do with some slight fermentation and the freshness of the leaf. I don't believe it is anything added or even processed with or nearby the tea. It has to be variable because I have had the same tea picked in the same place and the "fishyness" has varied over different years.

- Dominic

So, all other things being equal, it must have something to do with the weather or soil.

Fish fertilizer?

When I first started on the journey beyond tea bags, I came to love this savory, brothy, vegetal, fishy taste that I found in some of the green teas that I tried, especially Senchas. I had a Formosa Chin Cha (Pouchong) from Upton that reminded me of the savoriness of my mother's oyster stew (a milk, butter, oyster and salt concoction), but with a bit of flower mixed in. I loved it. At the time I had just started on a diet very limited in salt and the savory flavor of the teas really hit the spot.

As time has passed, I don't find that flavor in teas anymore. I really miss it. When I drink Pouchongs now, I just get the flower, with out the savoriness. I still really enjoy green tea, especially Senchas, but I miss that warm, brothy, ocean taste. I know some flavors change the more you have them. My first memories of the taste of beer are nothing like what I taste now. With beer, it's gotten better over time, but with greenish teas, I kind of long for that initial taste.

Blues