Product Name: Imari Green Tea Sachi No Mai
Product Category: Tamaryokucha Green Tea
Manufacturer: Chakouan Yamaguchi Seichaen (Saga, Japan)
★★★★☆ - Definitely consider buying again
Date tried: Oct 15, 2020
Place purchased; Meidi-ya Singapore
Price: 26 SGD-ish? (sorry I lost the receipt)
Quick summary: Fantastic "Tamaryokucha" when prepared right. Truly enjoyed.
Package
I bought this at Meidi-ya a few months back actually. They were having campaigns outside the store to promote this product. As I am obsessed with Japanese tea, It naturally caught my interest. I decided to give it a try.
Although I bought it a while back, it had to sit and wait for me to actually drink it. I can only have so many teas open at the same time... I think I had like 8 bags open at that time! So this Imari-cha had to wait it's turn until I finish a few of these already opened teas.
After a few months, the time has come and I finally opened this tea.

The product name is "Sachi no Mai". It means something like "happiness dancing" - but with a more authentic feel. Sorry my translation skills are not enough to convey that! In large fonts it says "Imari-cha".
Imari is a name of a city in the Saga Prefecture of Japan. The area is perhaps the most famous for "Imari-ware" which is a type of Japanese porcelain.
I do like the package of this tea. I the package design resembles the "Imari-ware". I think it's nice and unique as compared to other tea packaging.
The tea is stored in a quality bag that'll definitely keep the humidity, sunlight, and other smell outside of the tea. That's important too. Additionally, the package can be sealed again after opening. Very convenient.
Lots of information on the back-side as well. I think it's nice that they translate the instructions to English. Not many Japanese products have that.

Two things to note here.
1. In the product information it says it's a "Tamaryokucha".
2. In the ingredients it says it's green tea from Saga prefecture. This means they would be categorized as an "Ureshino-cha" although they don't mention it.
What's significant about this?
Tamaryokucha is a unique kind of Japanese green tea mainly produced in the Kyushu area of Japan. You wouldn't find this type of tea when you're looking for Uji tea or Shizuoka tea.
It's manufactured in a similar way to the normal Sencha, but after the steaming is applied (to stop the oxidization of the leaves), it will not go through the usual rolling process to organize the leaves. It would be dried inside a rotating drum, curling up the leaves in the process.
I'll show you a picture to highlight the differences later.
It's rare to find this tea outside of Japan. For me it's already enough to get me excited.
The second point - is that it would be categorized as an "Ureshino-cha". If the tea leaves are from Saga prefecture, and it is also manufactured by a company in Saga (which they are), then they are eligible for the Ureshino Area brand.
It's a very famous area brand, as the tea from Ureshino has repeatedly won the National Tea Competition of Japan in the "Tamaryokucha" category several times.
It's arguably the best origin of leaves to look for quality Tamaryokucha tea. It's also a reason to be excited.
Product Visual

This is how the leaves look.
If you compare with the normal Sencha, you can see that the leaves are a little more curly and curvy. Honestly - I feel that orthodox Tamaryokucha tea leaves will show a little more curviness.
Anyways, let my do a side-by-side comparison to see if you can tell the difference with a Sencha.

Don't look into the color difference too much - I think that's more of a camera issue.
The leaves for this Tamaryokucha do look a little bit crumbly. But is has a really nice smell.
The Taste
I'll admit- the first attempt I didn't like too much. It had a pretty hay-ish taste that I personally don't like as much in a Sencha. I think I used too much tea leaves to create many servings at once at that time. I try not to evaluate any of the products just after one try. So I tried experimenting.
The second attempt I only made 1 serving. It went really well.
It had contained the great Umami, the mildness, the richness. Bitterness and astringency were very low. The grassy taste had subsided and actually morphed into a very pleasant after-taste. It's a tea taste I really really like.
I do guess that the steaming of the leaves are a little on the high side. I think it definitely has the hint of the hay-ish taste. Nonetheless, I liked this product very much. I ended up finishing the whole pack of tea after a month or so. It's a tea I can consider buying in the future again for myself. May be a nice gift as well.
Summary
In summary, I rate this tea a "4 star - ★★★★☆ - Definitely consider buying again". I wouldn't say it would be my go-to product with the little hay-ish flavour. However, I can see myself looking for this tea especially as it is rather difficult to find quality Japanese tea in Singapore.
תגובות