Trader Joe's Organic Sencha Tea

It's a lowkey bucket list goal of mine to visit as many Trader Joe's stores as possible in as many states as possible. Why? Just because. Travel gives perspective on a lot of things. Like the fact that kale in Dallas is $0.80 cheaper than it is in New Jersey. And that limited access increases a product's value. And that this girl will take green tea over sweet tea any day. I can't do it! 

This here's a new green tea (that has probably replaced the Jasmine green tea of old. Sad...that was a good tea).

I do like the gentle earthiness of a sencha tea. It's energizing yet comforting at the same time. Really, I should be drawn toward the loose-leaf stuff, but in today's day and age you have to be like old-school ("this is how our ancestors have had the tea for thousands of years!") or hipsters (adopting what immigrant parents have been doing long before it was "cool") to do that. :P

Can we assume that this product is from Japan? I hope so.  

At first, I kinda flinched at the idea of putting lemon in this sencha tea. And then I remember that every bubble tea shop I love offers a huge selection of citrus + green tea flavors, so what's the big deal. Well....in my mind, there are teas that you can dress up and modify, and then there are classic teas you have to keep the same for the sake of retaining its identity. If you cover up the delicate taste of the sencha with lemon, what is the point of having sencha in the first place? But whatever, you do you y'all.

For testing purposes, I brewed it the first time according to google instructions on how one other preferred tea leaves that you might choose over a bagged one from TJ's. If you're really going for a true sencha taste, you can't use piping hot water and you also can't oversteep the tea. Because then it's going to taste like the Ito-en for Kirkland green tea from Costco, which is perfectly tasty but not sencha. And even though I tried to use the "right" water temperature and steeped the tea for no more than 1.5 minutes, the gentle delicate earthiness is sort of overshadowed by the fact that it does indeed taste a lot like the Costco green tea. I think the sencha green tea that came in the limited edition sencha selection box from a few years ago tasted closer to the real deal, but this is still tasty and soothing and warming and perfect for sipping while you watch that Tidying with Marie Kondo show.

$2.99 for organic sencha is still a pretty good price. I'm not against repurchasing, but I can't deny that I *could* just fork over the $8 or $9 for a box of 100 from Costco...? More is more? Less is more? Choice is yours y'all.

TL;DR: Trader Joe's Organic Sencha Tea. A gentler green tea if brewed "right." Whatever that means. 8 out of 10. Mantou Joe repurchase? An ambivalent undecided. Pretty good but not essential.