2012 Sencha Kouchi

Another Sencha from Teamountain's offering – this time, a humbler, inexpensive one. Purchased from Slovak shop Nomad, this Yabukita-breed tea comes from a less-known area of Kōchi prefecture, located on Shikoku island – which made me even more curious about it.

  

Packed in a typically beautiful golden-yellow bag, its leaves come in a form of surprisingly good-looking, long Asamushi needles. They emit quite a simple, fruity smell with notable freshness.

With such humble tea, humble, simple character is what I expect and desire. This tea fulfills the expectations for a good everyday Sencha – it remains steadily enjoyable during all infusions, having a mostly sweet, well-balanced taste with notes of green grapes, nuts and milk. No traces of bitterness – or anything unpleasant, actually. It leaves an equally simple, sweet aftertaste, which doesn't last too long, but feels pleasant and refreshing nevertheless. One thing worth noting is that its character really seems different – it didn't remind me of teas from Shizuoka, Uji or Kyushu, instead being quite original on its own. It might be interesting to look deeper into tea production of Kōchi, for me a completely unexplored area before this tea (at least as far as I can remember, for my memory isn't always that reliable).

For me, this tea was a nice surprise among this year's offering of inexpensive Japanese teas. This post isn't going to contain any more words, just one sentence to sum it up: it's simple, it's good.