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What-Cha's Australian Sencha and Shincha
What-Cha’s Australian Greens Sencha
and Shincha
I decided to group my thoughts on
What-Cha’s Australian teas together, mostly because I think that Alistair of
What-Cha should sell them in his “Discover X Region” sampler collection, at the
same time because they have the same faults. I was originally planning on
featuring all four in one post, but the post was just too long, so I decided to
break it up into two parts.
Origin: Two Rivers Green Tea, Acheron Valley, Victoria, Australia
Harvest: Second Flush December 2014
Cultivar: Sayamakaori, Yabukita and Okuhikaori
Elevation: 200m
So I recently got my What-Cha
package and decided to immediately try one of the new Australian teas. And if
you were like me you may have been confused with the description. How could a
tea that was harvested in December be considered second flush, until you
remember Australia is in the southern hemisphere and the seasons are inverted
(Summer is from December to February, Autumn is from March to May, Winter is
from June to August and Spring is September to November, roughly). It took me a
much longer time than I care to admit to realize this. Anyways What-Cha
describes this as:
Two Rivers Green Tea
started producing tea in 2001 with the aid and encouragement of Japanese tea
experts who were seeking to encourage Japanese style tea production for the
domestic Japanese market. The Two Rivers farm was selected as it has the same
latitude of southern Japanese tea farms, idea temperatures, rainfall and great
quality topsoil.
I wonder how old the tea plants are that this tea is made
from. Regardless it is interesting to note that 25% of the price goes back to
the farmer and this sencha is a blend of leaves from the Sayamakaori, Yabukita
and Okuhikaori cultivars. While I am not that knowledgeable on Japanese tea
cultivars I have never heard of Okuhikaori before, though judging by the first
syllable Oku I’m assuming it is a slow growing tea, perhaps a relatively new
cultivar. I’ve heard of Okuyutaka,
Okumidori and Okumusashi before, perhaps it derives from one of these. I do
know that the Yabukita and the Sayamamidori are more established cultivars.
Both cultivars are known to be cold resistant and produce very aromatic
leaves.
Dry Leaves: The leaves are a mix of long flattish pieces with smaller
twisted leaves. The majority of the leaves are light green with a little bit of
forest green and yellow, although there are a bit of blueish green small pieces
mixed in as well. I was a little surprised that there was not much of an aroma
to these leaves especially since two of the cultivars that make up this sencha
blend are known for having a distinct aroma.
Temperature: 165oF (+5
for every subsequent steeping)
Brewing Time: Thirty Seconds (+
Fifteen seconds for every subsequent steeping)
Aroma: Grassy
Flavor: Grassy, Sweet Corn and
Citrus
Tasting Notes: This is a rather
interesting tea; I cannot help, but compare it to What-Cha’s Nepal Second Flush
Sencha. Like the Nepal sencha it lacks the unami taste; while I did not feel
the Nepal Sencha was lacking because of the absence of unami (mostly because it
felt like the perfect hybrid of a Japanese and Chinese tea) this Australian
Sencha feels like it is missing something. I am not saying it is a bad tea, but
it feels very similar to eating your favorite dish only to discover the chef
forgot to add an important ingredient.
Regardless this is a very thin and
light tea, definitely an Asamushi (light steamed) Sencha rather than a Fukamushi
(deep steamed) Sencha. Despite its thinness this is a rather nice tea, or
perhaps because of it. There is some astringency to this tea, not a whole lot,
but still enough to be quite pleasant. I imagine if this was a stronger tea I’d
probably have missed the astringency entirely.
I was a little disappointed with this
tea, the aroma of the dry leaves and brewed tea was rather weak, but I can
overlook that since it was quite pleasant. At the time of writing this What-Cha
is selling this for $6.90 for 50g and 25% of the price goes back to the farmer.
This is definitely worth checking out, while I would hesitate to describe this
tea as being representative of Sencha (Japanese ones at least) it is still
rather nice. It is definitely better than most Chinese senchas I’ve had in the
past.
Origin: Two Rivers Green Tea,
Archeron Valley, Victoria, Australia
Harvest: First Flush, October 2014
Cultivar: Sayamakaori, Yabukita and Okuhikaori
Elevation: 200m
Onto the Shincha!
Dry Leaves: The leaves are
darker than the Sencha and the aroma is still rather weak. Although this time
there is a slightly stronger (than the Sencha) vegetal aroma.
Temperature: 165oF (+5
for every subsequent steeping)
Brewing Time: Thirty Seconds (+
Fifteen seconds for every subsequent steeping)
Aroma: Grassy
Flavor: Grassy and Nutty
Tasting Notes: This is quite a simple tea. It was a little
strange to taste nutty flavors in a Shincha, I am use to tasting them in Senchas and later teas, but not a tea that was harvested so early. Regardless
this is quite a thin tea, like the Sencha, but once again it is not unpleasant.
Unlike the Sencha there is almost no astringency in this.
At the time of writing this
What-Cha is selling this Shincha for $7.50 for 50g. As for whether or not I
think it is worth checking out that is a little more complicated. While it is
quite inexpensive, it is the weakest of What-Cha’s Australian teas. I think it
is worth checking out just to see what an Australian grown Japanese inspired
tea taste like, but this is not the kind of tea that you’d base an order
around. Everything wrong with this tea (thinness, lackluster aroma, lack of astringency,
etc) is present in the rest of What-Cha’s Australian teas, but the other three
teas have some redeeming characteristic. Nevertheless I do feel What-Cha needs
to have an Australian green tea sampler.
While I still have two more of
What-Cha’s Australian teas to write about I am a little curious about
Australian teas. I must preface this by saying I know very little of growing
tea and even less about commercial farming so all that is following is my pure
uneducated conjecture so take everything with a grain of salt.
I cannot help, but think the thinness of
the tea is a result of how it was harvested or even where it was grown. According
to Two River’s website (http://www.tworiversgreentea.com.au/harvesting-and-growing/) their Sencha
is picked forty-five days after their Shincha which as far as I am aware is
pretty standard in the Japanese tea industry. While the Sencha definitely had a
stronger taste then the Shincha I cannot help, but think they are harvesting
their Shincha just a tad early. Perhaps it is the blend of different cultivars
that leads to the thinness? Or even the age of the plants, Two Rivers was
established in 2001 so these plants are undoubtedly not that old perhaps the
plants are not old enough. I know that many see plants under a certain age as
not suitable for harvesting teas in part to promote growth as well as many see
the tea from immature plants as poor. Another possibility is how the tea is
processed; perhaps there is nothing wrong with the tea itself and the issue
lies in the fact these tea was processed to be an Asamushi Senchas.
Fascinating! I must try one of these Australian teas, the idea intrigues me immensely.Excellent write up!
ReplyDeleteThanks, they are are rather interesting even though they are a work in progress. I'd be interested in seeing how much Two River's teas will improve in a couple years.
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