Gyokuro

Japanese Tea

Japanese teas are renowned worldwide for their deliciousness and health benefits. The country's history with tea dates back to the 12th century, when tea drinking was introduced to Japan by Buddhist monks from China. Praised for its excellent flavor and its benefits to health and well-being, tea soon became popular with court nobility and the samurai class. Soon enough, people formed the tradition of the tea ceremony. Eventually, tea became widely available to the masses, and farmers developed new types of tea with different preparation techniques. Today, Japan is the country that produces the world-renowned matcha, delicious sencha, exquisite gyokuro, roasted-nutty genmaicha, and many other kinds of green tea that make the Japanese tea world unique.

The Different Types Of Japanese Loose Leaf Tea

Ryokucha — is the word we use to describe all Japanese green tea. Most teas from Japan are a variety of ryokucha. Other Japanese words to describe tea are ocha (tea) and Nihoncha (Japanese tea).

Matcha — is a traditional Japanese green tea powder. Farmers produce this tea using a stone mill to grind the shade-grown green tea leaves into a fine tea powder. Matcha is the quintessential part of the Zen-inspired, highly artistic Japanese tea ceremony, the cornerstone of the Japanese tea culture.

Sencha — is the most prevalent variety of Japanese green tea. Sencha is a lightly steamed green tea with a fresh and pleasantly grassy taste. Furthermore, people worldwide enjoy drinking sencha for its delicate sweetness and mild astringency, as well as its flowery-green aroma. 

Sencha is the most widely consumed tea in Japan, accounting for 80% of all tea production. Today, we can find Sencha in nearly every home in Japan, every office, restaurant, and vending machine! However, it wasn't always this way. For centuries, Japanese people would drink matcha almost exclusively. However, it was largely an elite drink, especially associated with court aristocrats, samurai, and temple circles, and only later became accessible to broader segments of society. Loose-leaf sencha style arrived from Ming-dynasty China in the 17th century, and in the 18th century, the monk Baisao helped popularize sencha in Kyoto, making it a beloved everyday tea for townspeople.

Genmaicha — this soothing tea is a blend of sencha with toasted brown rice. Thanks to the rice, the tea has a comforting nutty taste. In Japan, genmaicha is an ideal after-dinner tea, thanks to its light flavor and low caffeine content. Many years ago, people considered genmaicha a "poor man's tea" because people would add roasted rice to stretch the once-scarce tea leaves.

Gyokuro — is the top tea when it comes to green teas from Japan. Farmers make it exclusively from first-flush leaves. Furthermore, its particular processing results in a tea with a mild, sweet flavor, a distinctly fresh, flowery-green aroma, and a burst of umami. Tea farmers shade gyokuro green tea bushes from direct sunlight for 20 days before harvest. As a result, the tea bushes accumulate theanine, which gives gyokuro green tea its delightful sweetness. 

Shincha — is the year's first green tea harvest. Tea enthusiasts praise this tea for its fresh and lively flavor, naturally sweet finish, and smooth umami character. The season's most refined flavors are reflected in the much-anticipated first harvest. Shincha is available for only a short time each year. Fans of Japanese teas make sure to pre-order this tea before each year's harvest. 

Shincha commands higher prices due to its limited availability as the season’s first, freshest harvest, highly prized for its vibrant flavor and smooth umami.

Hojicha — is a green tea that farmers produce by roasting tea (usually kukicha or bancha). The result is a comforting, mellow tea with no bitterness and a woody char taste. Hojicha is unique in its distinct reddish-brown color when brewed. Thanks to its low caffeine content, Hojicha makes a great after-dinner tea and is often given to small children. Enjoy drinking tea before bed? Hojicha is an excellent option for you!

Wakoucha — wakoucha is Japanese black tea. In Japan, people call western black tea koucha, while black tea grown and produced specifically in Japan is wakoucha. Indeed, it differs strikingly from Western-style black tea. Wakoucha is more similar to Chinese black tea (hongcha). Wakoucha is light, smooth, sweet, slightly sour, and lacking any bitterness. It often has a pleasant lingering floral taste with notes of warm spices. No more milk tea! We encourage you to drink Japanese black tea straight, without milk or sugar. Its naturally sweet taste will enthrall you!

Japanese Tea Brewing Methods

Hot tea — is the most common way of brewing Japanese teas. To brew the tea hot, we usually use a traditional Japanese tea kettle like a kyusu. A kyusu is a clay teapot with a side handle. The Japanese teacups are also different from those used in Gong Fu tea ceremonies. Japanese tea cups are larger and bulkier, with a Wabi-Sabi feel. Popular cups for Japanese teas are yunomi teacups. 

We brew most Japanese green tea at a low temperature of 165℉ / 75℃. 

Iced — to make iced Japanese green tea, we brew the tea using hot water, then cool it with a lot of ice. This is a great way to make many Japanese tea drinks, such as iced matcha, iced matcha latte, and matcha lemonade. Iced Japanese green tea is very popular in Japan and is sold in every vending machine and convenience store as a refreshing beverage. 

Mizudashi — mizudashi is the Japanese word for cold brew. It is not only used for cold brew tea but also for coffee. When making mizudashi tea, we steep a high proportion of tea leaves in chilled water. 

Mizudashi brings out a sweeter, more delicate flavor by reducing bitterness, offering a refreshing and mellow experience. When you brew tea with cold water, you get a mellow, sweet taste with plenty of umami. On the other hand, heat helps tea leaves release tannins, catechins, and caffeine, all of which contribute to the tea's bitterness.

Koridashi — koridashi is tea brewed with ice. To make koridashi green tea, we place tea leaves directly over ice and then wait for the ice to melt completely. While this process takes longer than Mizudashi, the ice is even better at extracting all those sweet tea notes. We particularly like to reserve the ice brewing method for the Japanese green tea king, gyokuro. 

Japanese green teas are ideal for making cold brews. Since the leaves are much smaller than full-leaf Chinese teas, you can have a refreshing cold brew tea in less than an hour.

Does Tea Go Bad? 

All teas eventually go stale. The thing is, Japanese green teas go stale the fastest of them all. Most tea enthusiasts will tell you to drink your Japanese green tea within a year without sacrificing taste or aroma. After that, the tea won't go bad. However, it will significantly lose its fresh taste and the tea health benefits. 

People love Japanese green tea for its freshness. Especially the first harvest of the year, shincha, is often sold out before it even reaches the market.

While we can buy certain tea varieties, like pu-erh, in bulk and store them for long periods, we encourage doing the complete opposite with Japanese green teas (and all green teas in general).

We recommend storing Japanese green tea in a vessel that is:

• airtight
• odor-free
• not clear or made out of glass
• perfect for the amount of tea (to avoid any extra space and air) 
• clean

Once they come into contact with variables such as temperature, oxygen, humidity, and light, the tea leaves quickly lose their freshness.

We suggest keeping your unopened Japanese teas in the fridge. However, after opening, keep them in a cool, dark place outside of the refrigerator.

When taking a new tea package out of the fridge, it is best to let it come to room temperature before opening to avoid condensation. Unopened Japanese green tea kept in the refrigerator will stay fresh for about one year since the packaging date.

The top three rules for keeping your Japanese tea fresh, vibrant, and full of umami are:

1. Refrigerate unopened Japanese green teas until ready to consume (up to 1 year)
2. Keep them away from light, heat, odors, and moisture; in an airtight container
3. Enjoy within three months

The Best Energizing Tea — Japanese Green Tea!

Many ask about the caffeine content of Japanese green tea. Some Japanese teas, especially shaded varieties like gyokuro and matcha, are relatively high in caffeine, partly because of shading and fertilization. Others, such as bancha, genmaicha, or hojicha, are much lower.

Out of all Japanese teas, matcha has the highest caffeine content, primarily because matcha tea is a powder, so we consume the entire tea leaf when we drink it. The caffeine content of matcha is close to half of a cup of coffee. However, thanks to the L-theanine in tea, the effects of Japanese teas are much smoother than those of coffee. We become focused, creative, and well-energized without getting caffeine crashes or jitters. Indeed, Japanese green tea is an excellent energizing tea!