Somewhere around 100,000 tons of green tea is consumed in Japan every year. Ever since tea spread among the Japanese in the 12th century, Japan cherished its wonderous green beverage.
Full of antioxidants, amino acids, and potassium, green tea is considered the healthiest drink in the world. Green tea is probably the best caffeinated drink to have as a daily driver. It doesn’t give you jitters like coffee and it doesn’t stain your teeth like black tea. Green tea might even be part of the fabled longevity of Japanese people!
But not all green teas are the same. There are more than a few types of green tea made in Japan. So, get your chawan out, because we’re about to take a dip in the refreshing sea of Japanese green teas.
Jump to:
- The Many Shades of Green Tea
- Sencha (煎茶) – The Green Tea of Japan
- Bancha (番茶) – Second and Third Flush
- Japanese Green Teas Grown in Part Shade
- Matcha (抹茶) – Powdered Green Tea
- Gyokuro (玉露) – Luxury in a Cup
- Kabusecha (かぶせ茶)
- Byproduct Japanese Green Teas
- Toasty Flavored Japanese Green Teas
- Always Green
- Learn more
The Many Shades of Green Tea
The tea plant, camellia sinensis, is a true gift of nature.
That single plant is the source of all types of true tea and all of their subtypes.
From the Indian and English blacks, over the flowery white tea, to all types of green tea: they’re all made from a single plant processed in vastly different ways.
Green teas are especially numerous.
From the big grayish chunks of Chinese Gunpowder tea to the deep, grass-green powder that is Matcha, green tea comes in many colors, shapes, and flavors.
The process that connects all green teas, and makes them different from other teas (like black or oolong), is called kill-green. Tea leaves are heated up to stop oxidation (browning and flavor changes), setting in the leaves’ green color.
While kill-green is achieved in a few different ways for different teas, it’s a crucial step that makes green tea what it is.
Japanese vs Chinese Green Teas
Japan is not among the top green tea producers, yet its teas are world-famous: green tea is one of Japan’s iconic products. Chinese green tea is, on the other hand, famous and easily accessible, since China is one of the largest green tea producers and exporters worldwide.
The products from these two countries can be very different despitesharing the name, thanks to tea leaf processing methods.
In particular, the largest difference between Japanese and Chinese green tea processing methods is in how they achieve kill-green.
Most Japanese teas are steamed at high temperatures. This makes the tea stop oxidizing, and after steaming, the leaves are still soft.
On the other hand, Chinese teas are most often pan-fried. That process uses somewhat lower temperatures, but it leaves the brittle tea with a strong, roasted flavor.
Japanese Green Teas Grown in Full Sun
Most Japanese green teas are grown in full sun. These teas tend to be a bit astringent because they’re full of catechins, but their flavor profiles can vary greatly. Teas grown in full sun have a bit less caffeine and a duller color compared to teas grown in part shade.
Sencha (煎茶) – The Green Tea of Japan
Sencha is the tea of Japan.
Though it isn’t the oldest (matcha is), sencha is the most popular type of Japanese green tea nowadays.
It offers a range of mild, refreshing flavors with tones like grass, seaweed, or herbs.
Sencha is made by steaming and rolling tea leaves of plants grown in the sun.
The steaming is there to stop oxidation and lock in the yellowy-green tea color and freshness, while the rolling locks in sencha’s rich flavors in the leaf. When brewed, the leaves unfurl, infusing water with flavor well-preserved inside the roll. Leaves need space to unroll - that’s why loose-leaf green tea in a teapot is the best.
The Processes that Make a Tea - Sencha
Not all sencha is made equal: both growing conditions and processing can change sencha quality. Here’s a rundown of types of sencha.
Steaming can range from very short in sencha asamushi to deeply steamed – fukamushi. Shorter steaming time results in whole leaves, and a fresh, grassy flavor. Deep-steamed sencha has a full-bodied flavor and a dark color, yet it has almost no bitterness.
Steaming is not all there is to it, either. Natural conditions of the leaves have a big effect too.
The younger the leaf, the higher caffeine content. Highest grade senchas use young leaves.
Tea leaves may be harvested for up to 4 times in a year, and each time the plant pushes out new leaves, its nutrient reserves get further depleted. Tea of the first harvest of the year (called the first flush) is considered highest quality sencha – it contains a lot of amino-acids which give it a nice, sweet taste.
Bancha (番茶) – Second and Third Flush
First flush sencha is known as new tea - shincha (新茶), or first tea – ichi-ban-cha (一番茶). The first flush is usually used for sencha, as it’s considered highest quality tea. Other flushes are broadly called – bancha.
Particularly, bancha tea is named after the flush it comes from:
- ichi-ban-cha (一番茶) for first flush,
- ni-ban-cha (二番茶) for second flush,
- san-ban-cha (三番茶) for third harvest of the year.
Later flushes generally have less caffeine and amino acids, but more catechins and minerals. So, bancha is considered lower-grade tea, and thanks to the catechins, it may be more astringent.
Bancha is often simply consumed as regular green tea, but later flushes also frequently used as tea for blending and further processing.
Japanese Green Teas Grown in Part Shade
Shade-grown tea is pretty much the same as regular farmed tea, except the plants get covered with cloth for a couple of weeks before harvest.
The plant covered with a cloth gets less light. The stressed leaves fight for sunlight, producing more chlorophyll and less catechins.
Shade-grown green teas are usually stronger, with more caffeine, but also have mellower flavors with little to no bitterness.
However, due to the complexity of the covering process and the subsequent lower yield, these teas often come at a higher price point too.
Matcha (抹茶) – Powdered Green Tea
Matcha is green tea powder whisked into a frothy goodness in a cup. It’s the original drink of Japanese tea ceremonies and Zen Buddhist rituals.
Before mass production of green tea in Japan, matcha was precious and hard to come by. It was revered by the elite – the monks meditating in “calm alertness”, the rich nobility, and even the samurai, who drank matcha for stamina and presence of mind.
Today, powdered matcha tea is widely available for everybody to enjoy, though a bit pricier than other green tea.
Because it’s grown in shade, matcha is less astringent and more umami. It’s famous for its thick yet delicate flavor.
It also contains a lot more caffeine than other forms of Japanese tea – partly because of the low-light growing conditions, and partly because you ingest the whole leaf by drinking the powder.
Beside the tea and water at 70°-80°C (158°-176°F), you’ll need a whisk and a proper technique to make a great cup of matcha.
If you like milk in your tea, matcha latte may be the perfect Japanese green tea style for you, and you may even combine it with coffee. All of my health nuts out there, you can boost your green smoothies with matcha too!
In addition to being an amazing beverage in so many forms, matcha is also great to cook with. You can add it to many kinds of sweets and snacks (just don’t fall for the “cooking” and “ceremonial” matcha labels).
Gyokuro (玉露) – Luxury in a Cup
Known as the drink of the emperor, gyokuro is a shade-grown loose-leaf tea.
This green tea looks like sencha, but has more caffeine, less bitterness, and a brilliant, jade-green color when brewed. Gyokuro provides a luxurious cup of tea, for a price – it’s about five times the cost of sencha!
Both the tea’s high quality and high price come from the fact it has to go through a strenuous covering process, spending about 3 weeks shielded from the sun.
Kabusecha (かぶせ茶)
Keeping the tea bushes shaded for a while makes the tea quality higher. When grown in shade, green tea has more caffeine and a lovely flavor that doesn’t feel bitter or astringent. However, the shaded conditions are difficult to maintain and lower the tea yield, bringing the price of tea up at the same time.
Gyokuro, a tea grown in shade for about 20 days, is super expensive. So, for those just exploring shaded teas, we have kabusecha. Shaded for about one week, kabusecha is right between sencha and gyokuro.
It’s affordable and tasty, yet has minimal bitterness and more caffeine. It’s a great option for people interested in shade-grown teas.
Byproduct Japanese Green Teas
Konacha (粉茶) – Powder Tea
Konacha is Japan’s powder tea – and no, it’s not the same as matcha.
Unlike matcha, konacha is made of unshaded sencha leaves. As a result, konacha may get a bit more astringent compared to matcha, but it still has a lovely flavor and very strong health benefits (as you consume the whole powdered leaf, rather than an infusion with leaves discarded, you consume more of tea’s nutrients).
This thick drink is also known as “agari”, and it’s often served in sushi restaurants.
Kukicha (茎茶) – Twig Tea
Kukicha has almost no tea leaves at all – it’s made exclusively of twigs. Because of that, it’s a low-caffeine tea you can drink at night.
In most cases, kukicha is a byproduct. Premium leaves are used for teas like matcha or gyokuro, and in the process of making those teas, the twigs are removed. They’re not thrown away – instead, we get a nice, affordable, mellow kind of Japanese green tea that can be drunk any time of day and doesn’t go astringent easily.
Toasty Flavored Japanese Green Teas
Hojicha (焙じ茶) – Roasted Tea
Hojicha is a unique type of Japanese green tea because it's roasted.
Usually made of second or third flush bancha, hojicha is green tea roasted over charcoal until it reaches a rich, brown color.
The flavor of hojicha is very toasty, and the infusion is a dark golden color. The mild and toasty aroma of this tea may be a bit reminiscent of coffee, but the clear drink goes well with food. In fact, hojicha is a typical restaurant tea in the Kansai region.
If you're new to teas, hojicha is a good type of Japanese green tea to have at home: it's the only kind you can make with boiling hot water without scorching the tea and making it bitter.
Genmaicha (玄米茶) – Rice in Tea
Do you like the toasty flavor of popped rice? What if I told you that smell has been captured in a cup of tea?
Genmaicha combines the refreshing flavor of tea with the toasty/nutty flavor of popped brown rice. Together, the combination creates a full-bodied flavor and, thanks to starch from rice, a very filling tea (genmaicha doesn’t go well with food, in fact, it’s a great tea to keep you feeling full while fasting).
You can get two types of genmaicha on the market:
- regular genmaicha, rice combined with sencha or bancha
- genmaicha enriched with matcha – called matcha-iri-genmaicha
Because much of the tea weight is not tea at all (typical genmaicha will have a 1:1 rice-to-tea ratio), you consume less caffeine per tea cup compared to sencha.
Always Green
Whether you’re just there to try something new or you already enjoy an extended collection of teas, there are always a few interesting types of Japanese green tea for you to try.
What is your favorite type of tea?
Want to enjoy green tea in even more shapes and forms? Check out these recipes:
Matcha Dessert Takoyaki (octopus treat, matcha style)
Green tea shot (non-alcoholic matcha drink)
Vegan green tea ice cream (made with matcha powder)
Learn more
Different Types of Japanese Tea Cups
Matcha or Sencha -- Tea bags vs Powder
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dunja Djuragic Dugandzic
Dunja believes simple, straightforward, a little cheeky, and very informative writing can change the world. From teenage years, her fascination with the Japanese way of life continues to grow - and so does her research. Since 2015, she writes content about Japan, travel, world cultures and heritage, crafts and art, printing technologies, and a variety of digital products.
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