Green Forest Fruits from Dragonwater

Scent in package: sweet and fruity, with a hint of sencha.
Brewed in: Tokoname style pot w/mesh infuser, unbleached filter bag
Steeped: 3 min. @ “steaming” x2
Cup: Porcelain teacup, café mug

So this weekend was basically a complete gluttony of sugary, carbonated soda with the occasional glass of iced water thrown in for good measure. We were landscaping, and needed the calories and salt, and honestly, soda just tastes good when you’re working hard and sweating all day (carbonation rules!). So no tea until late last night, when my bloated self decided it was time to start “detox-ing” my body from the sins of the weekend with a new green tea that had arrived on Saturday. I ordered it because it sounded interesting: a blend of Japanese sencha with strawberry, raspberry and rhubarb. I like fruit, I like sencha, I figured it would be a nice cup to relax and unwind with.
And it was…except the fruit seemed to overpower the sencha in a major way. It was very good, very light and refreshing even warm, just not really “tea” flavored, if you know what I mean. I figured perhaps it was the fact that I used tap water to brew it with, so I brought it to work with me today, and made a cup using the filtered bottled water we drink here. Which actually made it worse (so to speak), unfortunately. Rather than a mellow tea with too strong of fruit flavor, at work it turned into a tea with virtually no real “flavor”, just tart water (tart from the rhubarb, I assume). At least the minerals in my tap water brought out some of the fruity flavors…

I left my cup cool on my desk while I was at lunch, and I’m finishing it off cold (well, room-temp). It’s even good that way, seriously, but it still has no real flavor, and I certainly can’t taste the actual tea.

I wonder if perhaps sencha is just too light as it is to draw out the lovely green flavor through any other flavorings (fruit bits, in this case). I can’t say I’m disappointed in the brew itself, as what flavor there is is quite pleasant, but I am disappointed that I can’t taste the sencha. Perhaps I’ll try mixing the rest of it with more plain sencha, and see where that gets me. I'll definately try a longer steeping time next go-round as well.

In any case, good as a fruit tasting drink, not so good as a “tea”, in my opinion. Actually, this would be great carbonated, now that I think about it…