Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference – Sencha Rose Green Tea
Sainsbury’s Sencha Rose Green Tea is surprisingly nice. I say ‘surprisingly’ because I was so unimpressed with their oolong tea in the same range that this particular tea has been languishing in my tea stash for quite some time.
In fact, I have a confession to make. It’s been squirrelled away for so long that it’s actually seven months past its Best Before date. Oh well. It was fully sealed and stored in a cool, dark place, so I’m sure it’ll be OK. It still smells pretty perky. One might even go so far as to call the aroma ‘exuberant’.
I probably wouldn’t have confessed at all, but Sainsbury’s have redesigned Sench Rose Green Tea‘s packaging since I purchased it, and I thought I might get caught out.
This tea contains green sencha, flavourings, rose petals, rosehips, apple and blue cornflower petals. The rose flavour is very much front and centre, which is absolutely how I like it.
This tea also tastes very strongly of lychee despite there being no lychees in the ingredients list. This could be the flavourings, but I’ve noticed this sort of thing before. This isn’t the first time a non-lychee thing has tasted of lychee.
And now I’ve discovered why this.
According to the very knowledgeable My Food Job Rocks website, roses contain the chemical compound rose oxide (2-(2-methylprop-1-enyl)-4-methyltetrahydropyran – for all you chemistry enthusiasts out there.) Rose oxide is also present in elderberries and lychees. This clears up the mystery of why I got wafts of lychee when drinking T2’s Black Rose tea and Bloom’s elderflower-and-rose-containing Shanghai Cherry Fall.
And this here Sencha Rose, obviously. Whatever is going on with its chemical compounds, it’s fair to say that this is a very nice tea indeed. It’s fresh and flowery, and the sprightly green camelia sinensis is doing a sterling job. I’m sorry I doubted you, Sainsbury’s.
I’m not a tea snob. (That’s a lie. I’ve referred to myself as a tea snob on numerous occasions.) But I do, as a rule, expect less from Supermarket blends than I do from specialist orthodox teamongers. (To be fair, I’m often right in that assumption.)
But Sainsbury’s Sencha Rose Green Tea is, I reckon, definitely worth checking out. Assuming that Sainsbury’s haven’t changed the recipe in the year and a half since I purchased it, of course.
Today’s book pairing is The Convenient Marriage by Georgette Heyer because, I’ve decided, that if a tea has rose in it then it’s fair game to pair it with a romance novel.
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