Japanese tea is delicious and great for your health no matter how you take it – but what exactly is the difference between matcha and sencha? Let’s dive into the beautiful, tasty world of green tea!
Matcha vs Sencha: Differences in a Nutshell
Both sencha and matcha are types of Japanese green tea from the leaf of the camellia sinensis plant, but they are so very different that you may not realize it. From the field to your tea cup, the plant goes through distinct growing and processing methods to become either matcha or sencha.
Camellia Sinensis: While not as spectacularly beautiful as other camellia flowers, this plant brings a spectacular array of teas: from oolong tea to matcha, the same plant is processed differently for a unique type of the world’s favorite drink.
- Sencha is usually a loose-leaf tea that sometimes comes in tea bags. Matcha comes in a fine powder form, and is mixed with the hot water directly.
- Steeped sencha is a semi-transparent greenish-yellow color. When mixed with water, matcha powder gives an opaque, vibrant grass-green-colored tea.
- When prepared correctly, sencha has a light flavor and you can drink a lot of it, but it’s easy to mess up and make your tea astringent. Matcha is very concentrated and has a strong but smooth umami flavor.
- Matcha is more nutritious, because you consume the entire leaf. With sencha, you steep and discard the leaves.
Now that you understand the most important differences, let’s take a deep dive into what each type of tea is, how it’s made, how it’s brewed, and what benefits it brings to your body.
What is Matcha?
The bright-green, powdered drink is revered for its health benefits and it’s the centerpiece of the Japanese tea ceremony.
The Long and Rich History of Matcha
Stone-milled powdered tea was the original tea of Asia, first brought from China to Japan by Buddhist monks in the 12th century.
As tea seeds spread from Kyoto throughout the country, growing and processing technologies were further perfected and adapted to Japan’s climate. And that was the birth of today’s matcha – one of the healthiest drinks in the world.
Originally used in religious ceremonies, matcha tea soon became a ceremonial drink. To this day, quality matcha is drunk in tea ceremonies and formal occasions, while lower-quality matcha is used as a popular flavor for desserts and snacks.
From the Shade to Chawan: How Matcha is Made
Matcha is made of specially-grown tea leaves. Before grinding into powder, that kind of tea is called tencha.
To get good quality tencha, farmers must limit its exposure to the sun, taking good care of net-shaded plants for about one month. With less sunlight than usual, the plant has a stress response and as a result, it creates more chlorophyll and less catechins than normal. The lower amount of catechins makes the tencha less bitter, and the higher chlorophyll content gives it its gorgeous bright green color.
On top of that, matcha is very rich in caffeine and L-theanine, but instead of jitters, it gives you a sort of calm alertness – a property that Buddhist monks use in meditation.
Only young leaves are used for tencha. Once tencha tea leaves are ripe for processing, they need to be ground to powder to get matcha. This can be done in a slow but gentle way, or in a fast but more aggressive way. Just like making juice with a slow juicer retains more nutrients than making it with a centrifugal juicer (because of friction and heat), the slower process is more painstaking, but creates higher-quality tea.
Finally, you don’t need a teapot to make matcha – you only need a chawan (a broad Japanese tea cup) and a bamboo whisk. The result is a thick, frothy drink that feels like a hug in your mouth.
What is Sencha?
Sencha is a loose-leaf tea loved across Japan. The clear yellow-y drink is refreshing and watery. It’s affordable, tasty, healthy, and easy to make – a combo that makes it the most widely drunk type of tea in the country. You only need a tea pot and a tea cup to enjoy the soft caffeine-buzz of sencha.
Too lazy to make tea? There’s an even easier way to drink sencha – get a bottle of chilled sencha tea (sweetened or not) from any vending machine in Japan.
The Short but Sweet History of Sencha
The ceremonial way of preparing matcha is simply not practical for everyone, and the tea leaves available at the time had a bad taste, so a farmer called Nagatani Soen perfected the method of growing and processing sencha tea in the 1700s.
Even today, his birthplace, the Uji region near Kyoto, is known for its high-quality tea production.
From the Field to Teapot: How is Sencha Made?
Unlike shade-grown matcha, sencha is grown in full sun. Sun exposure results in more catechins (especially EGCG) and less caffeine compared to matcha.
Nagatani was the first to steam and roll sencha leaves. Steaming is a gentle way of processing, making sencha’s flavor more mellow compared to, for example, fried Chinese green tea.
Rolling the leaves locks in their flavor. When placed in warm water, sencha leaves slowly unfold, releasing the flavor. That’s why sencha rarely (though sometimes) comes in tea bags – it needs more space than other types of tea.
Occasionally, sencha also comes in powder form (called funmatsucha) – but this EGCG-rich drink is more bitter than matcha, so it’s not as popular. However, it is frequently used to substitute matcha as a cooking ingredient.
The green tea powder you'll typically find at sushi restaurants in Japan is konacha. Konacha isn't finely powdered green tea like matcha. You'll find some small bits and pieces. It's cheaper and served for free.
Why is Matcha More Expensive than Sencha?
Now that you know how both matcha and sencha are grown and processed, it may be obvious that growing quality matcha takes much more work for a much lower yield.
Shading the plants takes time and effort. A shaded plant also doesn’t grow as lush, so the total yield is lower, compared to other tea farming techniques. AND the leaves for matcha must be young, so naturally they’re also smaller.
So, in all parts of the process, it takes a lot more to create a gram of matcha compared to a gram of sencha, making matcha more expensive. It’s as simple as that!
Health Benefits: Green Tea Bags vs Powder Tea
Finally, the most asked question in the matcha vs sencha comparison: what’s the best way to consume green tea if you’re after the health benefits?
The short answer is – matcha.
The reason matcha is so good for your health is that you consume the whole tea leaf, in powder form. With sencha, you brew the tea to drink plant essence, and throw the leaves out, missing out on many of its nutrients. So, in a gram-to-gram comparison, you’ll ingest more of everything with matcha.
But, it’s not so straightforward. Sencha has benefits you shouldn’t miss out on either!
However, sencha is very rich in antioxidants too (especially Epigallocatechin gallate, better known as EGCG). You simply ingest less of the tea leaves, so ultimately you get fewer nutrients. If you like having several cups of tea per day, sencha should be your tea of choice – and you’ll get plenty of good health benefits that way too!
The best choice is organic matcha, that is if you can find it at an affordable price. When you drink matcha, remember, you are consuming the whole tea leaves, including any pesticide residues.
Green Tea Bag Products Made with Added Matcha
On store shelves in and outside of Japan, you'll find some tea bags that contain Japanese matcha powder. Some products online are even marketed as "matcha tea bags", which really doesn't make much sense. Taking a closer look, you'll see that most of these tea bags are filled with sencha tea leaves and just a bit of real matcha powder. They may contain as little as 2% genuine matcha powder.
Are matcha tea bags as good as actual matcha powder? In general, I would say no.
I'd steer you towards either loose leaf tea or powder for the best quality cup of tea. I know, tea bags are fast, convenient, and make for easy clean-up.
For me, making a cup of green tea is a chance to slow down.
Zen in a Cup – Powdery or Leafy!
In conclusion, there’s no right or wrong way to drink green tea – especially if you replace some of your coffee or soda intake with refreshing sencha or delicious matcha!
Do you like matcha or sencha more? What type of Japanese tea do you want to try next?
To learn more, read these other Japanese tea-related posts:
How to whisk matcha (preparation methods)
Ceremonial grade matcha vs. culinary grade (coming soon)
Benefits of green tea- why is matcha so healthy? (besides nutritional benefits)
Traditional matcha cups and regular green tea cups
High quality Japanese tea sets
Matcha green tea recipes for your taste buds:
Matcha smoothies (made with "brain food")
Matcha latte with coconut milk
Green tea shot (non-alcoholic matcha drink)
Vegan green tea ice cream (made with matcha tea 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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