By Porter Lang
Most of Japan’s tea is steamed, not pan-fired. Start there.
Wikipedia’s article on Japanese tea says sencha is now the most popular form of tea in Japan, representing 80 percent of all tea produced each year. It says the standard sencha process was developed in 1737 by Nagatani Sōen: the leaves are steamed, rolled into narrow needles and dried in an oven. Wikipedia’s separate sencha article says the steaming step lasts 15 to 20 seconds, and that this stops oxidation. We have not found a second source for the timing.
How long is the steam?
The sencha article lists three styles. Asamushi is lightly steamed. Chumushi, it says, is steamed for 30 to 90 seconds. Fukamushi, it says, is steamed for one to two minutes. The first figure, 15 to 20 seconds, does not fit with the second, so the two figures may be describing different things. We are not going to resolve it. The practical point is that the word on a package may refer to how long the leaf was steamed, and that is worth asking about.
Seasons
The sencha article says shincha, new tea, is the first flush, harvested from early April to late May, and that ichibancha is the first picking of the year. It lists nibancha and sanbancha as later pickings. A buyer can use those words, but the names tell you the order of picking, not the quality.
Shade changes the leaf
Wikipedia’s article on matcha says leaves for matcha must be shaded for two to three weeks before harvest, using materials such as yoshizu, komo or cheesecloth. It says shade growing gives matcha its bright green colour and strong umami. The Japanese tea article says the technique emerged in the sixteenth century among Uji tea growers.
For gyokuro, Wikipedia quotes the Japan Tea Central Association’s definition: tea made in the same way as sencha from leaves picked from covered gardens that are almost completely shaded for about 20 days. It says gyokuro uses cultivars including Asahi, Okumidori, Yamakai and Saemidori, and that Fukuoka, Kyoto and Mie are the main producing prefectures, with Yame in Fukuoka accounting for over 40 percent. It says shading raises L-theanine and caffeine and lowers catechins and tannins, producing more umami and less bitterness. It gives the discovery of the style to Yamamoto Kahei in 1835, when he saw farmers covering plants with netting for frost protection.
Matcha is a different object
Matcha is not just ground sencha. Wikipedia describes four steps: shade cultivation, steaming and drying without rolling, stone grinding and ageing for several months in cool, dry conditions. It says that in the past the leaves were ground by hand in a single-purpose stone mill, and that today producers use mechanically turned stone mills. It describes two ceremonial styles. Koicha, thick tea, uses 4 grams of powder with 30 millilitres of water at 80 degrees Celsius and is not foamed. Usucha, thin tea, uses half the powder in twice the water at 90 degrees and is foamed. These preparation ratios come from an encyclopedia entry, and tea schools may differ.
Uji, and a date that moves
Wikipedia’s article on Uji tea says tea seeds reached Japan around 1191 through the Zen priest Eisai, and that he shared seeds with his friend Myōe Shōnin, who began tea cultivation in Uji, with first plantings at Toganoo. It says Uji tea was ranked second best in 1383, and that by the end of the fifteenth century it had replaced Toganoo as the source of honcha, the real tea. It also says the ōishita saibai method, a roof of grass, straw or reeds built over tea plants, emerged in Uji in the fifteenth or sixteenth century and produced sweeter tea while protecting plants from insects and harsh weather. The same article gives the invention of sencha as 1738 by Sōen Nagatani. The Japanese tea article says 1737. We are reporting both.
The city
Wikipedia says Uji lies on the southern outskirts of Kyoto, between Nara and Kyoto, with 179,630 people on 1 October 2020. It says the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu encouraged tea cultivation there, and that Uji has since been an important production and distribution centre for superior green tea. The Japanese tea article adds that by the fifteenth century Uji tea had surpassed another prestigious tea, Toganoo. We are not naming any tea shop, even though Wikipedia names one as perhaps the oldest in the world.
The ceremony
The Japanese tea article credits Sen no Rikyū with establishing the aesthetic and protocols still used in tea ceremony, developing the wabi style and designing the nijiriguchi, the small crawl-through entrance to the tea room. That is a different subject from how to buy tea. It is useful as a reminder that the drink has a long cultural frame, not just a leaf.
What a package should tell you
We have not profiled any producer and will not name one we cannot source. We would look for the type: sencha, gyokuro, matcha. We would look for the picking, such as shincha or ichibancha, and for the region. We would look for whether the leaf was shaded, and for how long. A gyokuro that does not say it was shaded is a question to ask. So is a matcha that does not mention stone grinding.
Brewing is a separate matter, and sources differ. Wikipedia gives gyokuro an infusion at 40 to 70 degrees Celsius, about 5 grams of leaf for 150 millilitres of water, and two minutes, and gives sencha 80 degrees for one minute. Those are one encyclopedia’s figures, and a producer’s own instructions should come first.
Roam first. Shop later.
Japanese tea growers and makers can find out what’s involved at /sell-with-sephari/