Reddit mentions of SA Japanese Green Tea Sen Cha, Loose Leaf, 3.5 oz Package

I wouldn't recommend this one. I have it and the main problem with it is that it's extremely weak and barely has flavor. The only way for it to have flavor is if it's steeped for a long time, but the only flavor that you will get is just bitterness with absolutely nothing else. The water will be an attractive clear light green, but that's it. Essentially you will get warm water that smells somewhat like sencha and is slightly thicker than water but really has no flavor. Overall that seems to be a huge problem with teabag sencha. So far, I've tried Den's sencha teabag, Sugimoto America's teabag sencha, and this Kirkland (actually Ito-en) teabag. The Kirkland/Ito-en teabag is also kinda messy since the matcha can get all over the place when you open the packet.

First thing: I suggest getting this $3 sampler. It comes with 4 loose leaf samples (hojicha, genmaicha with matcha dusting, one of their sencha, and random sample), 1 teabag sencha, 1 genmaicha with matcha teabag, a $3 coupon, and one of their flavored green teabags (mango sencha). This is a good look into several types of green tea. Personally, I wouldn't say these samples were the best samples out there, but they were decent. My favorite of them was the gyokuro kukicha that came as apparently one of my samples. According to their website, your sample will probably be their organic sencha if you order this month. In case your interested, I can post my impressions of their tea (across the board 7.5/10 to 8.5/10, but I rate harshly).

If you're interested in making any sort of green tea, I suggest a Japanese teapot of some sort and a variable temperature kettle. There are several types of Japanese teapots, but I suggest trying a kyusu or hohin. A kyusu usually has an in-built strainer/infuser at the spout itself which leaves room for the tea leaves to expand. This can be a ceramic mesh (varying levels of fine filtration) and a stainless steel mesh strainer. A kyusu has a handle and is often medium in size and often holds at least 6 ounces, but overall it seems that kyusu can hold 8 ounces of water. Hohins have no handles are usually smaller and can safely infuse 120 mL - 150 mL, and it seems that 150 mL is the most common number. Some others go at about 200 mL, but it's about 10% of hohins.

Additionally, kyusu and hohins are fairly versatile since you don't need to completely fill them in order to infuse the leaves. In most teapots with a basket strainer/infuser, the very bottom of the strainer usually sits at 8 oz which means you will need to fill the pot with 8 or more ounces of water to brew tea.

There are other similar devices that can accomplish the same thing as a kyusu or hohins, but I don't know what they're called. Basically any teapot or similar device that has small holes built into the teapot for filtration. They can be in the form of a 120 mL teapot with small ceramic holes or some other device. Personally I use a "spouted gaiwan" of some sort to function as a faux hohin and there are several that can be found on google that function just like mine.

Anyway, the way to use these devices is to put the leaves into the device, pour water into the device at an appropriate temperature for a desired amount of time, and pour all of the water out of the device into a cup or multiple cups. By doing this, the leaves won't oversteep and you get a nice cup of tea. To get more tea, simply pour more tea into the teapot.

If you're planning on getting a one-does-it-all device that can function perfectly work with non-Japanese green teas as well for loose leaf and bagged tea, look for a kyusu or hohin. Kyusu, hohins, spouted gaiwans, and all similar devices are all extremely versatile teapots since filtration all happens at the spout. I have no real personal experience with a kyusu, but overall a hohin, normal gaiwan, and spouted gaiwan (that uses a ceramic filter) are much easier to clean than a Western teapot, a tea ball, and teapots with a sit-in strainer/infuser basket since you don't have to deal with tea leaves getting stuck in the mesh. I don't know how it works for mesh strainers at the spout though, but from experience cleaning your teaware will be one of the unexpected chores you'll have to do when you brew tea.

For actual tea leaves, one of the ones I was extremely interested was this. I own this, but I bought it with several of their other teas on a huge sale so I decided to buy this with my shipment as well. Unfortunately, I can't comment on this tea anytime soon since I'm saving it for later on since I have other teas on the way I'm more interested in trying, but all I can say is that I heard plenty of great things about this tea. Regardless, this specific product appears to be the cheapest and highest quality one I can find that's at that price range on Amazon that qualifies for free shipping. There's also this which allegedly sometimes gets sold in Asian grocery stores, but I personally don't know how commonly sold it is and how it tastes. All I can say is that I've seen many of this brand's products lining the walls in Asian grocery stores, but I don't recall if this one was among them. Zencha does "free shipping" (price is included in the product price) and while I've heard a lot of nice things about them, I haven't had any of their tea.

I have this tea coming in tomorrow according to the estimated time of delivery and my calculations and since I will definitely try it tomorrow, I can tell you how it tastes if you're interested in this one. This company sells on another website, but I bought this for sale and since it shipped from Japan, if it really comes tomorrow it will be a 16 day total shipping time.

If you live in California or Hawaii, Lupicia has retail stores located in these locations. I don't know where else somewhat well-known tea companies sell without a shipping fee, but Lupicia for now is the only one I'm aware of.

Pretty much my main recommendation is avoid the Kirkland/Ito-en teabag and try some other green tea. There are options, but that's part of the tea journey I suppose. Please avoid the Kirkland/Ito-en teabag though even if its price-per-weight ratio is pretty high. I really don't think it's worth it because it hardly has flavor at all despite what the reviewers say. Japanese teapots and similar devices are nice, but look at your options. I can tell you a lot about cost efficient teapots and nice looking ceramic filtered non-kyusu (120 - 150 mL) teapots if you want to know more. Overall, the 120 - 150 mL class teapots/similar devices were about $12-$17, and I randomly encountered one in a Korean supermarket for $15. I didn't buy it, but it was amazing for $15 purely by aesthetics, the material, the fine filter, and the cups and bowl it came with.

If you like Japanese Green Tea is a good, inexpensive everyday tea. The taste is vegetal and sweet.