Hey there, fellow tea drinkers! I hope you’re having a great weekend. Today’s post is another Taste of Tea entry in which I’ll relay the notes from my tea-tasting journal entry for the Find No. 61 Sencha loose leaf tea by HemisFares; HemisFares is a Kroger brand which focuses on importing specialty food items from around the world. I found this particular tea a few months back at my local Kroger on clearance; I think I only paid around 3-4 dollars for this bag. Although a couple of weeks ago I found a few bags of the other HemisFares teas (Hojicha and Genmai cha) in the clearance bin (only $1.99) at another Kroger in my area, I haven’t seen any newly stocked versions of these teas. The HemisFares sencha is labeled as Find No. 61 and came in a bag with 3.53 oz (100 g) of tea.
Type of Tea: Green Tea, loose leaf
Tasting Notes
Dry tea: Out of the package, the scent off of the dry tea was a light, dry hay, with a mild sweetness. The leaves were mostly dark greens and some were dark enough to have an almost shiny onyx quality. There were a few lighter colors as well, and some had just touch of a brown hue. Many of the leaves were smaller or broken, and the mix didn’t have many of the more needle-like leaves characteristic of a sencha.
I warmed the teapot and added the dry tea to help further activate its scent. The activated scent was much more sweet and grassy, rather than the mildly sweet dry hay from the package. It reminded me more of the kukicha that I’ve been drinking a lot lately.
Preparation: 1 heaped teaspoon in about 170 mL of roughly 80 C/176 F water for 1 minute.
Tea liquor: After infusing, the scent coming off of the liquor was light, but sweet and grassy with just a slight touch of pine. The color of the liquor was a bright yellow-green.
The taste of the tea liquor was grassy, mildly sweet, with a pretty strong umami character. There was maybe just a touch of bitterness on the back of my tongue. The tea was a little astringent when drinking. The finish was dry and with a sort of bitter-sweetness; the sweetness lingered for a bit. When I did a second infusion the taste was similar to the first, but it had even more umami flavor.
Quick Summary
- Tea: Sencha, loose, green tea
- Processing: steamed
- Origin: Japan, Chubu region of the Shizuoka Prefecture
- Brand: HemisFares (a Kroger brand)
- Flavor Notes: grassy, mildly sweet, umami
- Finish: dry and bitter-sweet with a lingering sweetness
Final Thoughts: With a delicate set of grassy, sweet, and umami flavors, this tea made for a nice drinking experience. To be honest, I was a little worried about the quality of this tea, but when I tried it I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this sencha. And for the low price I payed, it turned out to be a great find!
Thanks for reading! As always, these are my tasting notes, and since the perception of taste and aroma can be quite personal your experience will likely, and indeed probably should, differ from mine. But regardless, I hope this post inspires you to get out there and to keep trying new teas. And if you don’t already, I’d encourage you to try making your own tasting notes as you do!
What tea should I try next? Drop me a line down in the comments and share your suggestion.
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That’s it, tea drinkers. Until next time, keep enjoying the wondrous taste of tea! — Blake – the tea drinker behind Blake’s Tea Journal
Blake's Tea Journal 
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