Momo Tea’s Budo Sencha | Tea Review

With spring in the air, this grape-flavoured sencha with its violet flowers seemed like a lovely treat!

Description: “This Grape Sencha is a special blend by Momo Tea. You will enjoy the natural sweetness from Sencha + Grape flavor + Blue Mallow Flower.”

Instructions: Pour boiled water into tea cups (Around 80ml per Japanese tea cup). | Put tea leaves into tea pot using 2 to 3g per person. (2g = 1/2 tbsp) | Once water in tea cups cool to ​90°C/194F pour into teapot. | Wait 1 min[.] Pour evenly bit by bit back and forth from cup to cup. Make sure to pour one last drop into the cup so that you able to enjoy the second cup as well.

Review: After trying the Momo Sencha last year, I have been craving flavoured senchas. While I enjoy the vegetal and marine taste of unflavored senchas, there is something fun about the flavoured ones. During the 2024 Toronto Tea Festival, I tried a few teas at Momo Tea’s booth and purchased a couple more flavoured ones!

This grape-flavoured green tea blend had a lovely grape smell. As someone who grew up eating Japanese candies, the smell of dry blend reminded me exactly of those sweet grape candies! The blend was made of pale and deep green needle-shaped tea leaves and a scattering of purple-blue mallow flowers.

Based on the recommendations, I brewed the blend using 2 to 3 grams. The liquor, much like the dry blend, developed a sweet grape candy and floral smell that filled the room. After a minute, the liquor brewed into a medium-yellow colour with a green undertone.

When using 2 grams of tea, the liquor had a mild vegetal taste which was quickly followed by grape and floral. Once cooled, the sweet grape and floral note was more noticeable at the beginning of the sip.

With 3 grams of tea, the grape taste was much more pronounced and tasted just like grape candy! The flavour more closely resembled the smell of the dry blend. The sip started with a grassy note and morphed into grape candy and a faint floral taste. The grape note lingered in the mouth. When cooled, the liquor was more vegetal and floral, with the grape taste at the end of the sip.

Another way to play with the flavours was to brew the blend with slightly cooler or hotter water. When brewing at a hotter temperature, the green tea vegetal taste was stronger with a hint of bitterness whereas, with a lower temperature, the vegetal taste was milder and the grape and floral were more front and center.

After brewing, the tea leaves were infused and had a candy grape smell and the dark purple peaked between the seaweed coloured leaves.

Since this is a flavoured tea, I found I preferred the stronger grape flavour. It may be because I am nostalgic for it as it tastes like the candies I used to (and still sometimes) eat! The grape smell was sweet, perfumed, and grape-ish. If you want a stronger grape flavour, I would suggest 3 grams of tea. This would be a nice blend for anyone who enjoys senchas but wants something extra or enjoys grape or floral blends (4/5 rating).

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