Need sencha edumacation

My experiences parallel yours from what I find on the shelf. I keep a lookout for those rare export 100g tins by a Japanese company in the now $10-$20 range. I have one ten year old tin that cost $7. In the past I've described the spent leaf as fluorescence almost glow in the dark color. Sencha is the only tea I've seen where you get more quality if you pay more. I dont see powder in my few higher priced examples in the sense you noticed it stuck to the dry leaf. However on the second infusion you will notice an explosive bright green cloud before the particulate settles. I think a good sencha should match a good matcha in color when dry. Commercially I think we still are getting the leftovers. My local tea shoppe carries an Emperor Gyokuro sencha 2oz/$10 which is pretty much what I find in the expensive tins. I will say one thing about sencha based on my limited experience. You've had one good sencha you've had them all based on the singularity of taste.

Jim

Mel> Hi all,

Hi--

SpaceCowboy is right that we get the lower-quality teas in the Asian food stores in the US.

I ordered "shincha" from several dealers in Japan recently, and I have to say that o-cha.com is the one that impressed me with their high- quality offerings for quite reasonable prices. I also order from Itoen, but it's always matcha I get from them, and I order from them 'cuz I can get it fast (from New York City), and they have a grade that I like (koi-cha-yoo; for "thick tea"). Hibiki-an.com was another place I ordered shincha from... I ordered their top of the line shincha from the Uji district. The leaves were beautiful, shiny, dark dark green needles with no powder, no dust-- but flavorwise, it was probably no better than stuff $10 cheaper.

Derek mentioned "sencha," then followed that with "shincha," then compared them with first-flust teas? Shincha is a subcategory of sencha, and *is* first-flush. Some districts call this "hachiju-hachi- ya," meaning "88 nights" (meaning it was picked 89 days after some particular season-marking day. Shincha has a distinctive flavor. It becomes available in May, and many places sell out of it rather quickly. It blends well-- I mix it with other sencha, but the distinctive shincha taste is still obvious.

There are high-grade Japanese teas made with a special process and called "Fuka-mushi-cha" (deep steamed tea). Shizuoka is the district that developed this process, but a lot of other districts use it now as well. It produces a leaf that is broken and powdery. The leaves infuse very quickly, and produce a cup that is approaching opaque... the drink's texture is distinct. I drink this a lot, though I highten the amazing opaque color by adding a scoop of matcha to the leaf (a trick often used when serving cheaper tea, but does nice things to rather good tea as well ;) )

The web-site Melinda gave us lists lots of teas, and the *name* of the particular grade of tea she got was probably written only in Japanese on the package-- I wonder if what she has described might have been Fuka-mushi-cha.

james-henry holland hobart and william smith colleges geneva, new york

"Dominic" not Derek. Yes, I simplified it and was just trying to offer some jumping-off points for more investigation for Melinda. It's hard to learn when you don't know what you don't know, that's why I threw out the names Gyokuro, Shincha, and Kukicha, but it is hard to write much more than I did for just one post/reply to really dig into all the specifics. And yes, Hibiki-an is a good source too and one I forgot to mention. I tend to go more for o-cha out of habit but Hibiki is just as good in my book and in some cases better.

- Dominic (not Derek :)

Dominic: Sorry for that weirdness. I had just written a letter to a friend named Derek, and obviously hadn't completely shifted gears.

Backing out of the room with bows and smiles,

james-henry

hehe, no worries. :)