9 Most Popular Types of Japanese Tea Today
With an ever growing list of Japanese tea brands, it’s easy to get confused with different types of tea blends and types. Here, we found out the most popular types of Japanese teas there are today.
How many types of Japanese tea are there?
There are more than twenty types of Japanese tea available in Japan with some of these now becoming widely available outside of Japan. The most popular teas in Japan include:
- Bancha
- Genmaicha (tea blend)
- Gyokuro (premium tea)
- Hōjicha (tea blend)
- Kabusecha
- Kukicha (tea blend)
- Matcha (premium tea)
- Sencha
- Shincha
Japanese tea is a variant of green tea with humble beginnings dating back to the 9th century when tea seeds were first brought to Japan from China. The tea seeds were planted in various locations in Japan, with Uji being the oldest tea producing region.
From here, plantations expanded over several Japanese regions and today the largest tea producing region in Japan is Shizuoka prefecture which accounts for forty percent of total Japanese sencha production. Kyushu island and the prefectures of Shiga, Gifu and Saitama in central Honshu have become a collection of major tea producing regions for Japanese tea today.
Today, most types of Japanese tea are based on blends of tea leaves grown in different Japanese regions. The distinct combination of a blend determines the Japanese tea type, unlike Chinese tea that tends to place more emphasis on growing conditions and environment that produces the teas’ unique characteristic taste.
Which tastes better, Japanese tea or Chinese tea?
It’s definitely personal preference. Whilst both Japanese tea and Chinese tea originate from the humble tea seed, the method of processing tea, ultimately differentiates the two. Japanese green teas are flat and thinly shaped and produce a rich, dark green colour. Most Japanese teas are produced using the steaming method rather than pan firing the tea leaves. This is what gives Japanese tea the dark characteristic colour and creates a sweeter, more grassy flavour with depth.
The most popular types of Japanese tea
Not all teas are created equal! There are limited quantities of tea that can be produced in Japan. As a result, the majority of tea grown is dedicated to the premium tea market. This means that bottled tea and green tea flavoured foods usually use lower grade Japanese-style tea that is sourced from China.
Here are 9 popular Japanese green teas that you may have already seen or heard of before:
1. Bancha
Bancha is grown and plucked from the same bushes used to produce sencha. It is considered a lower grade tea and plucked each season once sencha production has come to an end, during the second harvest starting in June.
Upper stems and larger leaves, left out of sencha production, are harvested. This produces a mild, delicate taste that is slightly less fragrant than sencha.
- Flavour: delicate sweet oolong paired with a Japanese vegetative green tea taste, fine, light, gentle, clean
- Season of crop: following sencha production
- Crop region: Tuzuki-gun, Ujitawara
- Tea blend: no
- Characteristic: refreshing, palate-cleansing. Drink after meals.
2. Genmaicha
Genmaicha is a well-known tea blend made from a combination of sencha tea leaves with roasted brown rice (premium variety) grains or toasted white rice (lower grade).
- Flavour: warm, sweet, rich, nutty
- Season of crop:
- Crop region:
- Tea blend: yes
- Characteristic: refreshing, slightly roasted rice. Low caffeine.
3. Gyokuro
Speaking of premium teas, gyokuro tea is the single most exclusive and one of the most famous varieties of tea in Japan. With an emerald green colour, the intense and bold flavours are deepened by shading the green tea leaves for up to three weeks.
This particular shading technique produces the signature luxurious taste with a sweeter flavour rich in colour due to the concentrated chlorophyll from the shaded leaf. Gyokuro tea comes from the Uji region – the first tea growing region in Japan.
- Flavour: sweet, smooth, vegetal, full-bodied rich, intense, buttered steamed greens
- Season of crop: tea leaves plucked after a minimum of 20 days shading time
- Crop region: Uji
- Tea blend: no
- Characteristic: deep emerald green, high concentration of nutrients (rich in theanine and chlorophyll). Premium selection tea.
4. Hōjicha
Hōjicha is a tea blend, made by roasting sencha or bancha tea leaves with kukicha twigs over charcoal at high temperatures. The high temperature gives the tea a distinct red-brown appearance and rich roasted flavour.
- Flavour: deep roast, sweet, dark, rich, herbaceous floral notes, slight caramel-like
- Season of crop:
- Crop region: Kyoto
- Tea blend: yes
- Characteristic: low caffeine. Drink after evening meals. Suitable for elderly and young children.
5. Kabusecha
Kabusecha also follows a shading technique similar to gyokuro. The tea leaves are shaded for one week prior to being plucked. This growing method creates the unique flavour of kabusecha, which captures the refreshing taste of sencha and the mild sweetness of gyokuro.
- Flavour: vegetal, sweet, smooth
- Season of crop:
- Crop region:
- Tea blend: no
- Characteristic: refreshing, light. Can be enjoyed, hot or iced.
6. Kukicha
Kukicha is a blend made from gyokuro tea leaves and stems, which would otherwise be discarded after tea production.
- Flavour: clean, light, fresh, delicate, mild, sweet
- Season of crop: following gyokuro production
- Crop region:
- Tea blend: yes
- Characteristic: unique, specialty Japanese tea.
7. Matcha
Another popular type of Japanese tea that you may recognise and also uses the tea leaf shading technique. The plucked and processed leaf is called tencha. Tencha is then ground into a fine powder that is matcha. Due to the short shelf life of matcha, it is sold in small quantities and is quite expensive.
Matcha is the type of tea used in a Japanese tea ceremony.
- Flavour: clean, smooth, vibrant
- Season of crop:
- Crop region: Ogura, Uji
- Tea blend: no
- Characteristic: used for tea ceremonies.
8. Sencha
This is amongst the most popular Japanese teas the is produced throughout the tea season. Today, It represents eighty percent of tea produced in Japan with ninety percent of sencha grown from the Yabukita cultivar.
It is characteristically known for its delicate sweetness and mild astringency. Sencha refers to the first harvest of the season, around February in milder climates. Different regions produce slightly various flavours of sencha in different grades ranging from luxury to premium teas.
- Flavour: delicately sweet, buttery, grassy, slightly vegetal, pine nut, smooth, light, aromatic, savoury, fresh, bright
- Season of crop: mid February
- Crop region: Kagoshima; Miyazaki
- Tea blend: no
- Characteristic: Japan’s most famous green tea.
9. Shincha
Shincha is a type of tea that is made from the first early harvest of tea and plucked before the main harvest. The flavour comes from newly grown leaves in the harvest and can include teas from other regions that are plucked early in the season, before the main harvest.
As there is also a limited supply produced, shincha is highly valued and expensive in nature.
- Flavour: refreshing aroma, sweet, grassy, vegetal
- Season of crop: first plucking before main harvest
- Crop region: Uji
- Tea blend: no
- Characteristic: valuable and high-quality Japanese tea.