This may be the best bancha I've ever tried. It's better than a number of lower-end sencha's I've bought in the U.S.

The dry leaf is green for bancha and has the most delightful aroma, the best yet of any bancha I've tried. It smells a lot like coffee cake, a sort of sweet, baked good smell with hints of cinnamon, and there are a few vegetal or grassy notes.

Flavor is sweet and slightly savory (umami) with a hint of tanginess and only a very slight bitterness. Overall the flavor is balanced and complex. The aroma is strongly of corn, reminiscent almost of bourbon, with light straw notes. Light astringency, just enough to impart body.

Eminently pleasing. Not that caffeinated, I enjoyed drinking this in the late afternoon and was happily able to drink two cups of it without it it keeping me up later.

I found this tasted best with a brief (1.5 min.) first steep. This minimizes the astringency but still yields a pleasantly flavorful and aromatic cup. I was then able to resteep it just five with a 5 minute or longer second steep. Unfortunately, this tea only seemed to resteep twice, there wasn't much flavor left in the leaves after that. I was careful with the water temperature; I'm not sure how this would fare with hotter water but I used water about 170-180F and it was good.

Good price, especially given that it resteeps.

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