Freshly brewed Ichiban Sencha green tea in a white cup above loose tea leaves, showcasing vibrant green hues.
Black packaging of Harney & Sons Ichiban Sencha green tea, featuring gold accents and a tear-off top.
Harney & Sons Ichiban Sencha tea tin, black and gold design, 3 oz, handpacked in Millerton, NY.
Group of four men posing in front of a wooden sign for Ichiban Sencha tea factory, surrounded by greenery.
41710 Green Tea Subscribe & Savor

Ichiban Sencha

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$ 127.00
Packaging Type:Loose
Unit:1 lb. Bag
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Description

Emeric visited the Otsuka family in the spring of 2023. The Otsuka family has been making tea in the coastal region of Kakegawa for almost 150 years. This Ichiban is their pride, made from the tea fields that surround their factory. The area is so dominated by tea that one hill has a tea bush topiary trimmed to the shape of the Japanese character for "tea." Ichiban is harvested on the first days of production in late April. It is made at an old, traditional factory and then finished at their plant. Compared to the polished and almost pastoral quality of Matsuda's Sencha, this Ichiban has the punch and intensity of Tokyo's rush hour.

Ingredients
Green tea.

Mike's Rating
2 Briskness
3 Body
2 Aroma
 Details: Ichiban Sencha, a deep-steamed Sencha, is the first production from the all-important Kakegawa area within Shizuoka, Japan's most important tea-growing prefecture.
 Dry Leaves: A fine mix of leaf filaments that are light green and powdery. This is due to the deep-steam (Fukumushi) method of fixing the tea green. The leaves are subjected to an extra thirty seconds of high-pressure steam that totally breaks up the tea leaf.
 Liquor: This tea is a light green, and it is a little clouded from the fine leaf particles that are dissolved in the liquor.
 Aroma: Ichiban has citrus top notes of lemon juice that are balanced by dark vegetal aromas of spinach and nori seaweed.
 Flavors: The style of this sencha is bracing and lemony at the start, with the mellowness of cooked spinach at the finish. It is among the most assertive of the senchas that we offer. The guttiness and astringency come from the deep-steamed production method.
 Caffeine Level: Caffeinated
 Body: Heavy-bodied. As a very early-season tea, it is loaded with amino acids. So this tea has more body than most green teas.
 Brewing Time: 1 to 2 minutes
 Brewing Temp: 160º