Producer: Lupicia
Origin: Yakushima, Japan
Brewing Parameters: 3-4 g; 75-80°C; 45s - 1 min.
Appearance: Medium to large emerald green leaves, the shape of blades of grass
Rating: B | 86/100
# of Brews: 3
Tasting Notes and Thoughts
As I was preparing to drink this tea, I came to think about a few things. First off, I don't actually know that much about the differences between regions for Japanese tea; I know I've tried a bit from a variety of areas, but I haven't paid that much attention to how it affects the tea. Second, I don't think I know that much about Japanese teas in general– it just feels like I've drank a lot more oolongs or Chinese teas than Japanese greens. Why this is, I don't know for sure. It might be because I feel that Japanese greens (especially senchas) all taste the same, which gets a bit boring, but then again that might fall back to my inexperience with them.
Anyway, onto the actual review. This is an interesting shincha (I'm guessing Spring 2016), grown in Yakushima, a World Heritage site. I think it's more of a fun fact than something that has an effect on the flavor of the tea, but who knows. The leaves are a decent size– somewhat broken up, but there are leaves about an inch in length– and a dark, emerald green color. I'll be brewing with four grams, but like most other reviews, an unknown temperature (just under 90°C for sure).
The first brew was one minute long, and seemed to brew a bit weak. The color was a weak highlighter yellow, with a smell of grass, broth, and vegetables (maybe basil?). As for the taste, I thought it was pretty good– not as sweet as, say, the Tanegashima sencha, but it still had a bit of natural sweetness. The main flavor was grassy, minty, slightly sour, and just a tiny bit fishy. It's surprisingly smooth, leaving somewhat of a thick, fruity flavor in my mouth (with no dryness).
As for the later brews, the color got darker and green, with the flavor becoming stronger. However, it was also became a bit bitter (but not as bitter as some other teas; it's not bad at all). All in all, I think this was one of the more enjoyable senchas I've had recently.
Other Notes
Now that the second week of school is winding to an end, let's talk about how its been. Overall, I think it has been alright; I started TAing for my Stats teacher, and for some reason I don't have that much homework (which is a blessing and a curse at the same time).
African American Lit is interesting, but it's the class that a bunch of slackers are taking (probably because they didn't want to take the default English class/knew that they would all be together, since there's 1 period) which makes discussion a pain. World Lit is super fun; we're watching Rashomon, and the teacher is a great guy. A lot of the writing is more personal/non-academic stuff, like narratives and reflective essays, which is a nice change of pace from the writing of AP classes. Ceramics, I look forward to since the teacher is always interesting and throwing on the wheel is fun to experiment with. AP Chem is still a bit of a challenge since I'm a bit behind on conceptual stuff, but then again, a bunch of the sophomores/juniors that are in the class don't study nearly as much, so I'm sort of near the same level. AP Gov is great; I'm doing pretty well in it, and the teacher is really good at lecturing. Comp Civics has just been listening to speeches, which is a bit boring, and a lot of it is self-study, but the class is small enough that it's a chill atmosphere. I think next week it'll start picking up and I'll have something to do.
I think I have my final list of colleges I'm applying to, too:
I'll be applying to the UCs– namely Berkeley, LA, Davis Santa Barbara, and San Diego– and a few private schools, like UPenn, Columbia, and Cornell. Unless I get significant financial aid (which is pretty unlikely, because the household income is actually a bit high; it's just that, being Filipino, the money doesn't stay in the family– it's usually spent on family out of country), it looks like I'll be going to a UC. To be honest, I've been having like brief periods of anxiety whenever admissions comes up because the thing is this year, my courseload feels nowhere near as heavy as last year. I just want to take classes I'm personally interested in, but these classes don't look good on a college app (according to people at my school); for example, to be similarly competitive, I'd need to drop African American Lit for AP Calc, and World Lit for AP English Lit.
However, the thing is, I don't want to take calc because I feel like it'd be too much work for me to handle (especially with competition civics), and there are so many people in AP Lit that people don't have desks. It's even worse since I'm planning to take a science/math major in college. I don't know, maybe I can push the fact that I'm taking 2 English classes as 1. that I'm interested in history/language arts (one of my potential majors), 2. me acknowledging the fact that while math skills are great, being able to communicate is better, and 3. me doing something that anyone could do, but no one does.
African American Lit is interesting, but it's the class that a bunch of slackers are taking (probably because they didn't want to take the default English class/knew that they would all be together, since there's 1 period) which makes discussion a pain. World Lit is super fun; we're watching Rashomon, and the teacher is a great guy. A lot of the writing is more personal/non-academic stuff, like narratives and reflective essays, which is a nice change of pace from the writing of AP classes. Ceramics, I look forward to since the teacher is always interesting and throwing on the wheel is fun to experiment with. AP Chem is still a bit of a challenge since I'm a bit behind on conceptual stuff, but then again, a bunch of the sophomores/juniors that are in the class don't study nearly as much, so I'm sort of near the same level. AP Gov is great; I'm doing pretty well in it, and the teacher is really good at lecturing. Comp Civics has just been listening to speeches, which is a bit boring, and a lot of it is self-study, but the class is small enough that it's a chill atmosphere. I think next week it'll start picking up and I'll have something to do.
I think I have my final list of colleges I'm applying to, too:
I'll be applying to the UCs– namely Berkeley, LA, Davis Santa Barbara, and San Diego– and a few private schools, like UPenn, Columbia, and Cornell. Unless I get significant financial aid (which is pretty unlikely, because the household income is actually a bit high; it's just that, being Filipino, the money doesn't stay in the family– it's usually spent on family out of country), it looks like I'll be going to a UC. To be honest, I've been having like brief periods of anxiety whenever admissions comes up because the thing is this year, my courseload feels nowhere near as heavy as last year. I just want to take classes I'm personally interested in, but these classes don't look good on a college app (according to people at my school); for example, to be similarly competitive, I'd need to drop African American Lit for AP Calc, and World Lit for AP English Lit.
However, the thing is, I don't want to take calc because I feel like it'd be too much work for me to handle (especially with competition civics), and there are so many people in AP Lit that people don't have desks. It's even worse since I'm planning to take a science/math major in college. I don't know, maybe I can push the fact that I'm taking 2 English classes as 1. that I'm interested in history/language arts (one of my potential majors), 2. me acknowledging the fact that while math skills are great, being able to communicate is better, and 3. me doing something that anyone could do, but no one does.
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