Day 85: Sencha 'Tanegashima'

Brand: Lupicia
Type: Green
Brew Time & Temperature: Gongfu brewing today
Leaf Appearance: Medium-dark green bladelike green tea leaves; larger than usual
Color: Bright yellow-green (mainly yellow); clear
Smell: Grassy, sweet (like the description says, it's a bit vanilla-like), vegetal
Recommended with/as: As is
Rating: 9/10

Tasting notes and thoughts:
This is one of the first unflavored green teas that I really enjoyed, and since it's super hard to find it made me start shopping at other tea shops (O-cha.com!). I think it also made me get into gongfu brewing, which was another plus (not for my wallet though). So, this tea has a bit of a special place in my heart. Anyway, since this is my second time with Lupicia's Sencha Tanegashima and that I've tried other brands, I think I can give this a pretty fair review.

On first taste, this is a very smooth tea, no matter how much I screw up while brewing. It starts out with very light umami notes, then into a grassy, slightly tangy taste, and finishes sweet. There is also a very subtle, berry-like taste that underlies the grassy notes, which I think gives it the sweet finish. There is little astringency and is actually pretty light, but leaves a little bit of a dry mouth feeling after drinking. I think I got up to 6 or 7 brews before it got too weak, but over each subsequent brew, it got sweeter and more green colored, but less strong. Overall, I like this tea a lot (no bias, obviously) since it is really easy to brew and tastes great- unlike most of Lupicia's other greens, this one is more light and sweet, rather than brothy or somewhat salty.

Other notes:
Well, tomorrow I have my Japantown trip, and I'm pretty hype about that (but not about all of the tests/other work I have to make up. I do get an extra day to study for an AP bio test, though). I did go to SF today and took the DUKW tours and hang out near the pier, which was actually really fun, but the weather turned from a nice chill to super windy and I can see my breath cold. Other than that, nothing today. I'm probably going to spend an hour or two after this review studying for AP bio and getting ready for tomorrow.

Next on the 100 Days of Tea: Nilgiri BOP