Sencha, gyokuro, matcha, hojicha and more: Japan's steamed green teas, where they grow and how to brew them.
Introduction · start here
Japanese tea is almost entirely green and mostly steamed rather than pan-fired, which gives it a vivid colour and grassy, savoury flavours. The main types are sencha, shaded gyokuro and kabusecha, matcha, roasted hojicha and genmaicha.
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A kyusu (急須) is a Japanese teapot for green tea, most often with a side handle and a fine built-in filter. Yokode for sencha, houhin for gyokuro, ushirode and dobin for larger, roasted teas.
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Genmaicha is Japanese green tea mixed roughly half and half with roasted rice, some grains popped like popcorn: toasty, nutty and mild, with very little bitterness. Brew it at 80–95 °C for 30–60 seconds.
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Hojicha is Japanese green tea roasted until brown: toasty, nutty and caramel-sweet, with almost no bitterness and often less caffeine per cup than sencha or matcha. Brew it near boiling for 30–60 seconds.
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The Japanese tea ceremony, chanoyu or chadō, is the formal preparation and serving of matcha to guests. It grew from Chinese powdered tea, was shaped by wabi and took its classic form with Sen no Rikyū.
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Kabusecha is Japanese green tea from bushes shaded for about one to two weeks before harvest: sweeter and more savoury than sencha, fresher and more forgiving than gyokuro. Brew it at 60–70 °C for about a minute.
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Matcha is shaded Japanese green tea (tencha) stone-ground into a fine powder and whisked with water, so you drink the whole leaf. "Ceremonial" and "culinary" are marketing labels, not official grades: judge it by colour, smell and taste.
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Sencha is Japan's everyday green tea: grown in full sun, steamed, rolled into fine needles, grassy and savoury. Brew it at 70–80 °C for about a minute (20–30 seconds for deep-steamed fukamushi) and pour out every drop.
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Gyokuro is Japan's most prized leaf green tea: the bushes are shaded for about three weeks before harvest, so the tea is sweet, thick and deeply savoury. Brew lots of leaf in a little water at 50–70 °C for about two minutes.
