Sencha Asagiri by Marukyu Koyamaen

Once again, I purchased two teas by Marukyu Koyamaen. This time, they aren’t that ordinary – both of them are Matcha blended, which means that small amount of Matcha has been sprinkled over the leaves to create a completely different character of tea.

Marukyu Koyamaen offers three kinds of Matcha-blended teas – as I am not a big fan of Genmaicha, I bought only two of them, Sencha and Karigane. These yet aren’t 2010 teas, but 2009 Aracha processed in first spring days of 2010, before the actual harvest in Uji.

This post is going to pertain to the first one.

Sencha Asagiri comes in simple, yet aesthetic can, so typical for most Koyamaen teas.

After opening the can and the inserted bag, strong, sweet and very Matcha-like smell comes out, markedly reminding me of powdered tea’s presence. It has both fresh, light notes of Sencha and sweet, deep and nutty aroma of good Matcha.

This Sencha has quite nice needle-like leaves, though these are, as a result of additional powdered tea, naturally lighter and less shiny in color than most Japanese green teas.

First infusion is beautifully dark green in color and opaque, once again clearly affected by Matcha. Its taste is strong and thick, with no unpleasant bitterness, being enriched by powdered tea’s natural sweetness.

Second infusion is expectably even more vivid in taste, though a bit lighter in color, as most of Matcha has already been rinsed into the first infusion. It’s very replete with grassy, literally “green” tones.

Next infusion is weaker in taste and overall character, being dominated by grassy tones and much less sweetness than previous two. This tea is taken into one more infusion, though it already gave out most of what it had.

An interesting, inexpensive tea very suitable for daily drinking. As both Sencha and Matcha are quite high in theine, it’s obvious that this can also be a good pick-up drink.

Expect post on Matcha blended Karigane Usugasumi possibly in few days time.