A very bold sencha that has a full body and pleasant aroma, but is easy to oversteep, and I find is a bit harsh no matter how I prepare it.

Dry leaf is very dark and smells strongly fruity, and has little of the vegetal or seaweedy tones I usually expect from sencha.

Brews a surprisingly bitter cup, but rather clear and with little astringency. Not terribly complex or aromatic. Often this is a sign that the water temperature is too high--but I was very careful to use lower temperature water and it still came out this way.

This tea was able to brew up a second cup which tasted almost exactly like the first, but had greater astringency (I steeped it longer, about 5 minutes).

I liked E. Alex's recommendations to use short steeps, starting with 1 mintue or less. This produced much better results and I was able to get 3 cups from it. Thank you to E. Alex for the sample too!

Regardless of how I prepared it though, I wasn't crazy about how I felt after drinking it. I felt that this tea was harsh on my stomach, a bit like coffee is.

This isn't the worst tasting sencha, but I think I would avoid it. I think I'd prefer blander or worse-tasting tea that was gentler on my stomach and made me feel better after drinking it. I've had much better experiences with a number of other teas from Adagio, including their Kukicha and Sencha, which I have yet to post reviews of but am planning to do soon.

Last note, I thought this tea was very expensive for its quality. 4 ounces for $16...I can get some pretty high end teas for that price. I think this is overpriced.

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