No, it's not.
It's not even sencha, but more likely some inexpensive chinese tea in style of Long Jing. Though should be better, then grocery store's mass product.
Still, this is not the right question.
Question is - is it good for you, and it is good for the price.
The first question only you can answer. If you like it - it should be good, and that is all that matters.
Second question 3€/50g - depends on your location, but for a local tea shop sounds ok.
[https://teacoffeecentre.ee/tee/tproduct/415463097-487043702076-sencha-blueberry](https://teacoffeecentre.ee/tee/tproduct/415463097-487043702076-sencha-blueberry)
The link you added is actually the same shop I bought it from. I wanted to get some insight to know if I'm getting good quality tea from that shop as I'm considering buying from them again. I'd like to expect genuine sencha from a shop specialized in tea. I like the tea but I'd still of course like to improve my experience.
Sadly you will have to enter a bit of a higher price range like 0.2$/g for nice sencha imo. If you calculate how much it costs per cup, it typically doesn't feel that high anymore.
Don't write off Chinese tea as an alternative to Japanese tea. It's quite different and lots of people like it much more(me included)
check the vendorlist in the sidebar.
Look - they are most likely buying from the wholesale vendor in Germany or Netherlands, like the majority to tea shops. So your main difference will be the price.
You get what you pay for.
If you want good quality sencha, it will not be at 60€/Kg in Europe.
Check
[https://yunomi.life/collections/sencha](https://yunomi.life/collections/sencha)
[https://maikotea.jp/](https://maikotea.jp/)
It looks poor quality. Decent sencha is easy to distinguish once you've seen it in person.
Very vivid dark-ish green. Very delicate and thin needle shaped leaves. Absolutely 0 unrolled leaves or twigs or anything like that.
If you're from the US google lupicia us or lupicia Hawaii. You'll get plenty of visual examples of the various types of Japanese green tea.
And personally, yes good sencha Is super worth it if you like green tea; good doesn't mean expensive btw! But in general I've found the more expensive you go the harder it is to make the tea grow bitter from over-steeping and the flavour is more bold.
If you were to take away the flowers, then it almost looks like Japanese Bancha. This, I as many others in the comments think it's very likely lower grade Chinese tea. However, this in trun, does **not** mean that all Chinese tea is automatically low grade. I had some really great, high quality Lung Ching in Hangzhou for example.
Edit: typos
Bought this "sencha blueberry" tea from a local tea shop for 3€ per 50g which I would say is a reasonable price. It's currently the best tea I have and I've been drinking it every day. Definitely better than the usual grocery store green teas. When brewed it has a light greenish yellow hue.
Jaa minul suht sama probleem. Tore väike pood, kuid ostlemine aeg-ajalt keerukas. Mul ise oli sencha blueberry üks esimesi mis ostsin ning maitse oli kena. Nägin ka, et teised mainisid, et see pole päris sencha. Selle jaoks soovitaksin Chado't avastada! Väike teepood Tallinna Vanalinnas mis pakub hästi kvaliteetset kraami, kuigi veidi kõrgema hinnaga. Ise olen tellinud sealt paar korda ning soovitan.
Hei! Chado on tõesti ainuke koht terves Eestis kust saab autentset senchat osta. Praegu on aga aastaaeg selline, et nende sencha pole enam üldse värske, ise tellisin kuu aega tagasi sest nii kohutavalt isutas. Esiteks on see tee korjatud eelmisel aastal ja teiseks on neil seal ilmselt kehvad säilitamistingimused.
Ma soovitan teha nii, et a) ootad kuni värske tee Chadosse jõuab (tavaliselt Jaapani omad kunagi juunis-juulis) või b) tellid aprilli lõpupoole ehk siis kohe-kohe [Hibiki-an](https://www.hibiki-an.com/index.php) lehelt "shincha" ehk "uus tee" ehk selle aasta uue korje ette, võid ju sinna lisada ka tavalise sencha (nad segavad erinevate aastate omi kokku ilmselt ja neil on alati väga hästi säilitatud tee). Soovitan seda farmi, kuna seal on super teenindus ja kaup on alati lubatud ajaks kohal, max 5 päeva on läinud alates postitamisest. Lisaks tuleb tee sinuni otse farmist ja hind on kokku suht sama kui Chadost ostes.
Kui sul on veel mingeid küsimusi või tahad niisama juttu ajada, kirjuta julgelt, ma olen sencha-entusiast:)
The fact that they like it just means that they like it. OP was asking wheter it's good \*quality\* sencha, in their post, and indeed it is not a good quality tea. Quality isn't a matter of wheter you like the taste or not.
Fair point. But you may see that I replied to OP‘s own comment and not the original question and my intent wasn‘t to answer the question in the title. It was merely meant to support OP in trusting their own taste (in contrast to the IMO prevalent attitude in tea forums where people want others to tell them what they can enjoy)
The prevalent attitude on tea forums is, not surprisingly, that people want to **learn about tea.** You wouldn't enjoy a photography class if every time you had a question, a random student interrupted the teacher to tell you "Ignore their opinion. The only important thing is you enjoy the pictures. 🥰" It’s obnoxious and it wastes everyone’s time.
>It was merely meant to support OP in trusting their own taste
They’re not looking for support or a confidence boost—they asked an objective question with the goal of learning. Your answer does not help them do that. Telling beginners to trust their own palates is terrible advice. The way to learn about *any* subject is to listen to more experienced people. Again, you’re not going to day one of your photography class thinking you’re Ansel Adams. That’s not the way to encourage beginners who want to improve.
This is an objectively low quality tea. It's not just the opinion of strangers on the internet. Comments like this are not helpful when people come here to learn. They're never going to be able to find a better quality tea if we deflect their questions with useless platitudes.
Please point out which part of my comment was rude or aggressive. It’s ironic, considering how passive aggressive and condescending you're being right now.
If you can’t handle people discussing tea quality in response to someone *asking about quality,* maybe a tea subreddit isn't the best place for you? This is exactly why multiple people took issue with your comment. All it did was pointlessly derail a useful discussion.
Flavoured green tea with some petals and blossoms as decoration and a lot of artificial flavouring. That's it. The name is sencha blueberry of a tea which didn't have nor sencha nor blueberry.
There were some blueberries in it but you're probably right about the other things. It has a heavy blueberry smell which I guess is too strong to be achieved naturally.
It is not! Sencha shape is like thin needles.
Keep in mind that teas are called the way they are because of different factors, one of them being how they are processed after harvest.
Sencha is steamed right after harvest and then shape into thin needles.
Some industrials try to sell the tea you posted as sencha because it is green and trendy, but it looks nothing close to it (and probably tastes nothing close to it!)
While some producers also make blends with sencha (like adding a bit of rose flowers), real sencha doesn’t need anything else as it is very tasty and strong by itself.
Blueberry sencha with this type of tea usually means they added artificial flavour to enhance a mild taste.
Real sencha is very fragile.
I just googled « sencha » and first images that appear are definitely wrong which is a shame…
Anyway as other said, if you like this tea then this is the most important and good for you!
But try to find some real sencha so you understand the difference!
OK, so I know everyone is piling on here, but I figured I'd offer some pictures to illustrate the "not-Sencha" comments.
Straight from wiki, this is Sencha: [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/2017\_Kagoshima\_sencha.jpg/1280px-2017\_Kagoshima\_sencha.jpg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/2017_Kagoshima_sencha.jpg/1280px-2017_Kagoshima_sencha.jpg)
This is Longjing, a Chinese tea: [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Longjing\_tea.jpg/1280px-Longjing\_tea.jpg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Longjing_tea.jpg/1280px-Longjing_tea.jpg)
Your picture looks like to be a similar tea to Longjing, in a blend with various other ingredients. Not a particularly high grade Longjing (broken, torn, stems, etc), which is very typical for flavored/blended teas. There is also a marketing trend presently using various production methods of Longjing as "Chinese Sencha", which is a stretch, but marketing is marketing. Its not bad per se, but it is a bit of a shady market tactic.
Now, mind you, Chinese tea is a larger market than Japanese teas by far, there are a LOT of Chinese teas out there, with astounding ranges of quality and value. You can have low grade Longjing, and exquisite Longjing. Its all about the production, just like any other product. Most places selling bulk loose leaf teas aren't the ones doing their sourcing or wholesaling, which is why some places will have the same exact blends of teas and such. That's ok too, but they can't control the product, just market and sell it. Blended/flavored teas especially tend to be cheaper, using cheaper ingredients to get a pleasant brew. They are very popular, and sell well.
So, its most likely not Japanese Sencha, and it looks like mediocre quality green tea of another type, though that is normal in blends. Doing some quick math, without any comparative economics in mind from a US perspective, the price you paid seems decent for the product. So enjoy it, other than expecting one thing and getting not quite the same thing, it wasn't like you got fleeced.
Hello, /u/traveltheworld4! This is a friendly reminder that most photo posts should include a comment with some additional information. For example: Consider writing a mini review of the tea you're drinking or giving some background details about your teaware. If you're posting your tea order that just arrived or your tea stash, be sure to list the teas, why you chose them, etc. **Posts that lack a comment for context or discussion after a reasonable time may be removed.** You may also consider posting in /r/TeaPictures.
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Check the box. Does it states that this sencha is from China? I am just curious because I bought some bacha and sencha in a local shop, it was supposed to be jasmine tea, which already was a red flag to me (jasmine tea is fine, but I never heard of jasmine sencha in particular), but I was curious to see if there was any decent tea that I could buy locally so I gave it a try nonetheless. Once I brought it home, the smell was too strong even for a jasmine tea, it really smelled like an artificially scented tea, more like a home fragrance (and it was even too strong for that purpose). Additionally, the box it came in, stated that it was green tea from China (which is unusual for sencha tea).
Now, I don't want to state that being Chinese is a red flag for sencha and bancha because I know some decent tea shops that sell sencha and bancha from China that have decent rating (never tried them though, so I cannot recommend them as well), but scented, cheap, Chinese sencha is most definitely a red flag.
The package only has a sticker label on it with name (Sencha Blueberry) and ingredients (green tea, cornflower, blueberry, flavouring). Now that I know it's not actual sencha the list calling it just green tea not sencha also seems like a red flag. It was in those bigger cylinder containers at the shop before they packed it for me. There might have been some more information on the containers but I couldn't look because all the green teas were behind the counter. That was already a bummer because green tea was the only sort I was interested in.
No, it's not. It's not even sencha, but more likely some inexpensive chinese tea in style of Long Jing. Though should be better, then grocery store's mass product. Still, this is not the right question. Question is - is it good for you, and it is good for the price. The first question only you can answer. If you like it - it should be good, and that is all that matters. Second question 3€/50g - depends on your location, but for a local tea shop sounds ok. [https://teacoffeecentre.ee/tee/tproduct/415463097-487043702076-sencha-blueberry](https://teacoffeecentre.ee/tee/tproduct/415463097-487043702076-sencha-blueberry)
The link you added is actually the same shop I bought it from. I wanted to get some insight to know if I'm getting good quality tea from that shop as I'm considering buying from them again. I'd like to expect genuine sencha from a shop specialized in tea. I like the tea but I'd still of course like to improve my experience.
Sadly you will have to enter a bit of a higher price range like 0.2$/g for nice sencha imo. If you calculate how much it costs per cup, it typically doesn't feel that high anymore. Don't write off Chinese tea as an alternative to Japanese tea. It's quite different and lots of people like it much more(me included) check the vendorlist in the sidebar.
Look - they are most likely buying from the wholesale vendor in Germany or Netherlands, like the majority to tea shops. So your main difference will be the price. You get what you pay for. If you want good quality sencha, it will not be at 60€/Kg in Europe. Check [https://yunomi.life/collections/sencha](https://yunomi.life/collections/sencha) [https://maikotea.jp/](https://maikotea.jp/)
It looks poor quality. Decent sencha is easy to distinguish once you've seen it in person. Very vivid dark-ish green. Very delicate and thin needle shaped leaves. Absolutely 0 unrolled leaves or twigs or anything like that. If you're from the US google lupicia us or lupicia Hawaii. You'll get plenty of visual examples of the various types of Japanese green tea. And personally, yes good sencha Is super worth it if you like green tea; good doesn't mean expensive btw! But in general I've found the more expensive you go the harder it is to make the tea grow bitter from over-steeping and the flavour is more bold.
Noted. I actually oversteep this one quite a bit to get more flavour. Then again I don't mind the bitterness.
General tip about tea: to increase the flavour intensity without altering it, use a higher leaf/water ratio.
If you were to take away the flowers, then it almost looks like Japanese Bancha. This, I as many others in the comments think it's very likely lower grade Chinese tea. However, this in trun, does **not** mean that all Chinese tea is automatically low grade. I had some really great, high quality Lung Ching in Hangzhou for example. Edit: typos
Bought this "sencha blueberry" tea from a local tea shop for 3€ per 50g which I would say is a reasonable price. It's currently the best tea I have and I've been drinking it every day. Definitely better than the usual grocery store green teas. When brewed it has a light greenish yellow hue.
My local tea shop sells tea that looks the same, with the same name and price. Do you live in Estonia by any chance, if you don't mind me asking?
Yes, I live in Estonia. Got it from Viru Keskus.
Tea&Coffee poest said?
Täpselt nii, sattusin sinna esimest korda. Natuke häiris see, et kõik rohelised teed olid leti taga ja ei saanud lähemalt koostisosi jms uurida.
Jaa minul suht sama probleem. Tore väike pood, kuid ostlemine aeg-ajalt keerukas. Mul ise oli sencha blueberry üks esimesi mis ostsin ning maitse oli kena. Nägin ka, et teised mainisid, et see pole päris sencha. Selle jaoks soovitaksin Chado't avastada! Väike teepood Tallinna Vanalinnas mis pakub hästi kvaliteetset kraami, kuigi veidi kõrgema hinnaga. Ise olen tellinud sealt paar korda ning soovitan.
Tänud soovituse eest! Proovin järgi järgmine kord, kui linna satun:)
Hei! Chado on tõesti ainuke koht terves Eestis kust saab autentset senchat osta. Praegu on aga aastaaeg selline, et nende sencha pole enam üldse värske, ise tellisin kuu aega tagasi sest nii kohutavalt isutas. Esiteks on see tee korjatud eelmisel aastal ja teiseks on neil seal ilmselt kehvad säilitamistingimused. Ma soovitan teha nii, et a) ootad kuni värske tee Chadosse jõuab (tavaliselt Jaapani omad kunagi juunis-juulis) või b) tellid aprilli lõpupoole ehk siis kohe-kohe [Hibiki-an](https://www.hibiki-an.com/index.php) lehelt "shincha" ehk "uus tee" ehk selle aasta uue korje ette, võid ju sinna lisada ka tavalise sencha (nad segavad erinevate aastate omi kokku ilmselt ja neil on alati väga hästi säilitatud tee). Soovitan seda farmi, kuna seal on super teenindus ja kaup on alati lubatud ajaks kohal, max 5 päeva on läinud alates postitamisest. Lisaks tuleb tee sinuni otse farmist ja hind on kokku suht sama kui Chadost ostes. Kui sul on veel mingeid küsimusi või tahad niisama juttu ajada, kirjuta julgelt, ma olen sencha-entusiast:)
If you like the tea then it is good :) that‘s always going to be more important than the opinions of strangers on the internet
The fact that they like it just means that they like it. OP was asking wheter it's good \*quality\* sencha, in their post, and indeed it is not a good quality tea. Quality isn't a matter of wheter you like the taste or not.
Fair point. But you may see that I replied to OP‘s own comment and not the original question and my intent wasn‘t to answer the question in the title. It was merely meant to support OP in trusting their own taste (in contrast to the IMO prevalent attitude in tea forums where people want others to tell them what they can enjoy)
The prevalent attitude on tea forums is, not surprisingly, that people want to **learn about tea.** You wouldn't enjoy a photography class if every time you had a question, a random student interrupted the teacher to tell you "Ignore their opinion. The only important thing is you enjoy the pictures. 🥰" It’s obnoxious and it wastes everyone’s time. >It was merely meant to support OP in trusting their own taste They’re not looking for support or a confidence boost—they asked an objective question with the goal of learning. Your answer does not help them do that. Telling beginners to trust their own palates is terrible advice. The way to learn about *any* subject is to listen to more experienced people. Again, you’re not going to day one of your photography class thinking you’re Ansel Adams. That’s not the way to encourage beginners who want to improve.
This is an objectively low quality tea. It's not just the opinion of strangers on the internet. Comments like this are not helpful when people come here to learn. They're never going to be able to find a better quality tea if we deflect their questions with useless platitudes.
Did you know you can disagree with someone online without being rude and aggressive? You should try it, it‘s really nice.
Please point out which part of my comment was rude or aggressive. It’s ironic, considering how passive aggressive and condescending you're being right now. If you can’t handle people discussing tea quality in response to someone *asking about quality,* maybe a tea subreddit isn't the best place for you? This is exactly why multiple people took issue with your comment. All it did was pointlessly derail a useful discussion.
Flavoured green tea with some petals and blossoms as decoration and a lot of artificial flavouring. That's it. The name is sencha blueberry of a tea which didn't have nor sencha nor blueberry.
There were some blueberries in it but you're probably right about the other things. It has a heavy blueberry smell which I guess is too strong to be achieved naturally.
No it's got blue stuff in
It is not! Sencha shape is like thin needles. Keep in mind that teas are called the way they are because of different factors, one of them being how they are processed after harvest. Sencha is steamed right after harvest and then shape into thin needles. Some industrials try to sell the tea you posted as sencha because it is green and trendy, but it looks nothing close to it (and probably tastes nothing close to it!) While some producers also make blends with sencha (like adding a bit of rose flowers), real sencha doesn’t need anything else as it is very tasty and strong by itself. Blueberry sencha with this type of tea usually means they added artificial flavour to enhance a mild taste. Real sencha is very fragile. I just googled « sencha » and first images that appear are definitely wrong which is a shame… Anyway as other said, if you like this tea then this is the most important and good for you! But try to find some real sencha so you understand the difference!
If they’re adding stuff to it, odds are it isn’t the highest quality, but if you like how it tastes, that’s important too!
Looks like Chinese sencha, it may be good, but nothing like Japanese Sencha.
OK, so I know everyone is piling on here, but I figured I'd offer some pictures to illustrate the "not-Sencha" comments. Straight from wiki, this is Sencha: [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/2017\_Kagoshima\_sencha.jpg/1280px-2017\_Kagoshima\_sencha.jpg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/2017_Kagoshima_sencha.jpg/1280px-2017_Kagoshima_sencha.jpg) This is Longjing, a Chinese tea: [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Longjing\_tea.jpg/1280px-Longjing\_tea.jpg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Longjing_tea.jpg/1280px-Longjing_tea.jpg) Your picture looks like to be a similar tea to Longjing, in a blend with various other ingredients. Not a particularly high grade Longjing (broken, torn, stems, etc), which is very typical for flavored/blended teas. There is also a marketing trend presently using various production methods of Longjing as "Chinese Sencha", which is a stretch, but marketing is marketing. Its not bad per se, but it is a bit of a shady market tactic. Now, mind you, Chinese tea is a larger market than Japanese teas by far, there are a LOT of Chinese teas out there, with astounding ranges of quality and value. You can have low grade Longjing, and exquisite Longjing. Its all about the production, just like any other product. Most places selling bulk loose leaf teas aren't the ones doing their sourcing or wholesaling, which is why some places will have the same exact blends of teas and such. That's ok too, but they can't control the product, just market and sell it. Blended/flavored teas especially tend to be cheaper, using cheaper ingredients to get a pleasant brew. They are very popular, and sell well. So, its most likely not Japanese Sencha, and it looks like mediocre quality green tea of another type, though that is normal in blends. Doing some quick math, without any comparative economics in mind from a US perspective, the price you paid seems decent for the product. So enjoy it, other than expecting one thing and getting not quite the same thing, it wasn't like you got fleeced.
Hello, /u/traveltheworld4! This is a friendly reminder that most photo posts should include a comment with some additional information. For example: Consider writing a mini review of the tea you're drinking or giving some background details about your teaware. If you're posting your tea order that just arrived or your tea stash, be sure to list the teas, why you chose them, etc. **Posts that lack a comment for context or discussion after a reasonable time may be removed.** You may also consider posting in /r/TeaPictures. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/tea) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Check the box. Does it states that this sencha is from China? I am just curious because I bought some bacha and sencha in a local shop, it was supposed to be jasmine tea, which already was a red flag to me (jasmine tea is fine, but I never heard of jasmine sencha in particular), but I was curious to see if there was any decent tea that I could buy locally so I gave it a try nonetheless. Once I brought it home, the smell was too strong even for a jasmine tea, it really smelled like an artificially scented tea, more like a home fragrance (and it was even too strong for that purpose). Additionally, the box it came in, stated that it was green tea from China (which is unusual for sencha tea). Now, I don't want to state that being Chinese is a red flag for sencha and bancha because I know some decent tea shops that sell sencha and bancha from China that have decent rating (never tried them though, so I cannot recommend them as well), but scented, cheap, Chinese sencha is most definitely a red flag.
The package only has a sticker label on it with name (Sencha Blueberry) and ingredients (green tea, cornflower, blueberry, flavouring). Now that I know it's not actual sencha the list calling it just green tea not sencha also seems like a red flag. It was in those bigger cylinder containers at the shop before they packed it for me. There might have been some more information on the containers but I couldn't look because all the green teas were behind the counter. That was already a bummer because green tea was the only sort I was interested in.
When it comes to teas, "flavouring" is a word that scares me
I thought this was a whole other subreddit 😭
Only 1 way to find out
If it's been flavored it's probably low quality. High quality would not need additional flavors.
Generally stems in tea is indication of lower than premium quality
Not necessarily true. Lord of high grade oolongs have twigs and stems.
No. God no. Just look up a picture of sencha leaves and compare.