Konacha
Konacha (powder tea) is made from the fine particles, dust and small leaf bits sifted out while refining sencha and gyokuro. It is not matcha: matcha is stone-ground shade-grown leaf, whereas konacha is simply the small-particle fraction of ordinary leaf tea. The variable that matters most is which tea it was sifted from, since konacha from gyokuro processing is a different animal from the cheap stuff swept off a sencha line.
Konacha is, by definition, fine and broken: small leaf fragments, bud bits and powder, deep green and fresh-smelling when good. The cup it makes is strong, thick and fast-brewing, with a brisk, full green flavor. The key quality question is its source, because konacha sifted from gyokuro carries real sweetness and umami while basic sencha konacha is simply robust and cheap. Fresh, deep-green material that still tastes of its parent tea is the goal; dull color and a flat or stale taste mean old byproduct. A fine-mesh pot is essential, since a coarse strainer lets the powder straight through.
Konacha is a refining byproduct (demono) produced wherever Japanese sencha and gyokuro are finished, not a tea grown on its own. During finishing, the crude aracha is sorted by particle size, and the smallest fraction becomes konacha. Its character therefore inherits from the parent tea and region: gyokuro konacha from Uji or Yame can be genuinely good, while commodity sencha konacha is priced as the throwaway it largely is.
Western: 70-80°C, 3-4 g per 200 ml, but only 20-40 seconds because the fine particles release almost instantly, 2-3 quick infusions. Use a fine-mesh kyusu or the cup turns muddy. Gyokuro konacha rewards cooler water, around 70°C, to bring out its sweetness; basic sencha konacha is fine at 80°C.
€5-15 (about $5-16) per 100 g for ordinary konacha, with gyokuro-sourced konacha reaching €18-30 (about $19-32). It is one of the best value-to-flavor ratios in Japanese tea precisely because it is a byproduct.
Prices reviewed June 2026
Mecha
The bud-and-tip fraction sifted from the same refining, rolled into pellets rather than left as powder.
Matcha
The comparison to get right: stone-ground shade-grown tencha, whisked into suspension, not a sifted byproduct of leaf tea.
Sencha
The parent tea that konacha is a fine fraction of; konacha is what the sieve catches when sencha is finished.
Fukamushi Sencha (Deep-steamed)
Another route to a thick, cloudy green cup, but from deliberately deep-steamed whole leaf rather than sifted dust.
Konacha is the cheap, strong green tea served free in many sushi restaurants, where it is sometimes called agari; it brews fast and brisk enough to cut through oily fish, which is exactly why it ended up as the house cup.