Japanese green
Japanese greens are defined by steam-fixing rather than pan-firing, which produces the deep vegetal, marine, and savory-umami character that makes them immediately distinct from Chinese styles in the same category. Shading before harvest increases amino acids and reduces catechins, splitting the family toward the umami-rich shaded styles (Gyokuro, Matcha, Kabusecha) versus the everyday sun-grown styles (Sencha, Bancha, Hojicha). Steaming duration further divides Sencha into light-steam (asamushi) and deep-steam (fukamushi) variants with noticeably different texture and intensity.
Styles in this family
Sencha
Sencha is Japan's workhorse and its reference point: roughly 70% of all Japanese tea is sencha, yet the gap between a careless supermarket bag and a careful…
Fukamushi Sencha (Deep-steamed)
Deep-steamed sencha with broken leaf particles producing a dark, thick liquor with intense umami and minimal astringency.
Shincha
The very first tea of the year, harvested before Sencha season, with an unmatched freshness and elevated amino acid content.
Bancha
Everyday Japanese green tea of later harvest leaves, with a lighter, mild flavor and very accessible character for daily drinking.
Kabusecha
Shade-grown for about one week, bridging sencha and gyokuro in flavor with moderate umami and a sweet, clean finish.
Gyokuro
Gyokuro is the style that shows what deliberately stressing a tea plant by covering it against sunlight for three weeks or more can produce: something that…
Tencha (Matcha Base)
The shade-grown leaf used to produce matcha, before stone-grinding, brewed as whole leaf it delivers extraordinary sweetness and umami.
Matcha
Matcha is the only major tea where the milling step is as important as the cultivar and the shade. What you grind, how you grind it, and how long ago it was…
Hojicha
Hojicha is what happens when secondary material, stems and lower-grade leaves, gets roasted until the chlorophyll is gone and the Maillard reaction takes over.…
Genmaicha
Japanese green tea blended with roasted brown rice, producing a warm, toasty aroma and a comforting, nutty sweetness.
Kukicha
Composed of stems and twigs from the tea plant, producing a mellow, slightly nutty brew with very low caffeine.
Konacha
Tiny leaf particles and buds sifted from sencha and gyokuro processing, producing a thick, dark, full-flavored cup at very low cost.
Mecha
Mecha is a Japanese green Green tea.
Aracha (Unrefined)
Unrefined crude tea before sorting and finishing, offering an authentic farm-direct character with pronounced grassy freshness.
Tamaryokucha
Curly-leaf Japanese green tea with a rich, mellow sweetness and a distinctive berry-like note, also called guricha.
Kamairicha (Pan-fired, Japan)
Rare pan-fired Japanese green tea using a Chinese-style technique, resulting in a rounder, toasty character very different from steamed sencha.