Kimberley's Kyusu

Hey there Teacups! I’m back today with another Let’s Talk Tea post this time around I’m going to be reviewing Tea Repertoire’s Sejack Tendresse (Green Tea). After reviewing the first set of teas they sent me to try and loving them all to no end I couldn’t have been happier when they asked me if I wanted to collaborate with them again and review a whole new set of teas. The hardest part was choosing which of the new teas I wanted to try & review first so as I’ve been doing a lot recently I closed my eyes and blindly picked one from the box and their Sejak Tendresse (Green Tea) was the first one I picked up.Sejak Tendresse is a gentle spring green tea from South Korea, made from wild bush tea leaves naturally grown on the slopes of Jiri Mountain, Hadong. In south Korea there are three main tea producing tea regions – Boseong, Hadong, and Jeju Island. Wild bush Sejak green tea from Hadong is not easily available in the markets outside South Korea due to limited production and Tea Repertoires Sejak Tendresse offers a rare opportunity for green to lovers and connoisseurs to try real, authentic, entirely hand-made Sejak green tea from South Korea. Korean tea is graded accordingly to the date of harvest and the maturity of the buds and leaves: Woojeon/Ujeon (First Pluck), Sejak (Second Pluck), Joongjak/Jungjak (Third Pluck) and Daejak (Fourth Pluck). Although Sejak green tea is the next best grade of Korean green tea many connoisseurs in South Korea prefer Sejak to Woojeon as the flavour of Woojeon is highly delicate and the aftertaste is often short on the palate. Sejak is also a rich source of vitamin C, Catechin and Amino Acid.

Dry Leaves

Gentle – Toasty – Nutty – Floral – Seaweed – DelicateThis tea has a gentle and light aroma, but it has a lot of different notes to it and as it acclimatised it only seemed to get stronger. I’ve only ever had a few teas do that, so it did take me by surprise a little bit as still never really expect it to happen. The aroma of this tea is predominantly toasty, nutty, floral and vegetal but the vegetal notes are different from the vegetal notes that I’m used to they are reminiscent of seaweed and cooked garden peas but they are light and not hard hitting on the nose. This teas aroma is perplexing to say the least right up until I took my first sip I was in a state of constant intrigue and wonder thinking about how all the notes from it’s aroma would translate into it’s taste.

Tea Tasting Notes

Before trying this tea, I had never had a South Korean tea before, so I was excited to see what it had to offer taste wise. It just so happened that as I was doing this tasting session I was listening to a tea podcast (Talking Tea) that was interviewing a company who sell Korean teas Czech Republic so in the space of around 40 minutes I was able to try my very first Korean tea and learn some more about them as well. Although it was completely accidental that the two things coincided with each other it made for one of the best tea tasting sessions I’ve done, and it will be something I am going to aim to do with more sessions in the future. (So, if you have any tea podcast recommendation I would love to hear them)

Anyway back to the tea, when it comes to green tea I tend to drink a bit of it but mostly in the form of green tea based blends and it’s not often that I get the chance to try pure/un-blended green teas so when I saw that Tea Repertoire had included this in the most recently set of teas they sent me to try I couldn’t wait to try it and see if it would in a way reignite my love of pure/un-blended green teas. It’s safe to say that this tea managed to do all that and more it’s taste seems to almost perfectly mirror its aroma and it’s naturally sweet and its top notes are toasty and nutty (chestnut) and towards the back of the mouth it has an ever so slight baked bread feel to it. The floral and vegetal notes from the aroma are still present but they are in every sense bottom notes and are much softer and delicate than they were in the aroma. After I took my first sip I wasn’t 100% sure what to think because this tea is so different in flavour than a lot of the green teas I’ve tried in the past and I had to take a few sips before I decided if I loved it or not.It’s translucent and pale gold in colour and when the light hits it just right it almost looks like liquid sunshine. Mouthfeel wise its gentle, smooth, velvety and overall very refreshing which I was expecting at all from it’s aroma I was expecting it to be slightly drying but I clearly couldn’t have been more wrong. You could drink this all year round just like any tea, but I would say that it’s the perfect tea for spring & summer and I’ll be making the most of what I have left over the next few weeks before autumn gets here. It’s nice to find a special and unique tea that is so unique and flavourful.

I’ll be doing the best I can over the next few months/ throughout next year to try more Korean teas if this one is anything to go by I’m really looking forward to seeing what else I can find. I’m completely new to Korean teas so if any of you have any recommendations send them my way I want to hear them all! It’s naturally sweet and doesn’t need any honey at all I find that is the way with a lot of pure/unblended teas I wouldn’t add any honey to any of the pure/unblended teas I have if they aren’t naturally sweet then I don’t try and make them sweet and I just enjoy them for what they are. If this tea is still available on the Tea Repertoire website by the time next spring/summer rolls around, I’ll be buying so much of this to enjoy throughout those hot months. If you’re like me and you’re completely new to South Korean/ Korean teas I would say that this tea is the perfect place to start but I will warn you that once you try it you will be somewhat hooked on South Korean green teas and you will want to try as many of them as you possibly can.

Overall Teacup Rating: 5/5

If you want to find out more about Tea Repertoire and purchase this amazing Green Tea for yourself you can do both here. As always if you have any questions at all either stick them in the comments or send them to me on Twitter/Instagram @teaisawishblog and I’ll answer them all as soon as I can.

Speak to you all again soon. Happy Steeping – K