Japan is not simply the country that turns green tea into matcha. Its tea landscape runs from highly mechanised fields in southern Kyushu to steep mountain gardens in Shizuoka and Kyoto, from open-grown sencha to intensely shaded tencha and gyokuro, and from steamed leaf to the pan-fired teas of western Japan. Roasting, blending and milling add further layers after the leaf has already left the farm.

A Japanese tea name may therefore describe a place, cultivar, harvest, field treatment, steaming depth, leaf shape or finishing method. Kagoshima, Yabukita, ichibancha, kabusecha, fukamushi and hiire can all appear on one packet without being synonyms. Reading those layers separately is the key to understanding both the industry and the cup.

For the wider context, use our guides to tea-producing countries, tea-growing regions, the six processing families and green tea. The China, South Korea and Taiwan country guides clarify the East Asian connections without treating their tea traditions as interchangeable.

Japan in the world tea landscape

Japan is a medium-sized producer by world volume and an unusually high-value exporter. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) reports 33,400 hectares under tea and 75,100 tonnes of aracha, or crude tea, in 2025. This is finished dry tea after the first factory process, not fresh leaf. It is also not yet necessarily the sorted, blended and final-fired product sold to a drinker.

The national ranking has recently changed. Kagoshima produced more aracha than Shizuoka in both 2024 and 2025—the first time it held first place in the statistical series—although Shizuoka still had the larger cultivated area. The contrast reflects two different agricultural maps: Shizuoka contains extensive mountain production as well as large plateaus, while much of Kagoshima is suited to large, level, highly mechanised farms and a long sequence of cultivars and harvests.

Japan’s principal tea prefectures in 2025
Prefecture Cultivated area Aracha production Important production identities
Kagoshima 8,040 ha 30,000 t Sencha, fukamushi, tencha, early harvests, broad cultivar range and organic production
Shizuoka 11,600 ha 24,100 t Sencha, fukamushi, mountain teas, shaded teas and a strong refining and trading sector
Mie 2,580 ha 4,860 t Ise tea, kabusecha, gyokuro, sencha, fukamushi and expanding tencha
Miyazaki 1,110 ha 2,880 t Sencha, steamed tamaryokucha, Japan’s largest kamairicha sector and diverse cultivars
Kyoto 1,510 ha 2,280 t Tencha, matcha, gyokuro, sencha and the production and finishing culture of Uji tea
Fukuoka 1,450 ha 1,850 t Yame sencha, gyokuro and traditional shelf-shaded, hand-picked gyokuro
Kumamoto 908 ha 1,140 t Sencha, steamed tamaryokucha, kamairicha and organic production
Saitama 690 ha 921 t Sayama sencha and a characteristically assertive finishing fire
Other prefectures 5,512 ha 7,069 t Aichi, Nara, Saga, Nagasaki, Shiga, Gifu, Oita and many smaller local systems
Japan 33,400 ha 75,100 t National total; figures may not sum perfectly in other presentations because of rounding

Sencha remained the largest named manufacturing category in 2025, accounting for about 48% of aracha in the industry breakdown. Tencha reached 6,278 tonnes—around three times its 2014 level—as producers responded to powdered-tea demand. Later harvests also feed the enormous ready-to-drink market. Loose-leaf household consumption has been declining, while bottled green tea has become a normal part of everyday Japanese life.

Exports tell a different story again. Japan exported 12,612 tonnes of green tea worth approximately ¥72.1 billion in 2025, both record figures. Customs classified 8,718 tonnes as powdered green tea, representing 69% of volume and 84% of value. That category includes true matcha and other powdered tea, so it must not be relabelled as “8,718 tonnes of matcha.” Our separate guide follows the matcha boom, shortages and production response in detail.

From fresh leaf to aracha and finished tea

Freshly harvested tea leaf changes rapidly. For most Japanese green tea, the first decisive factory step is steam: heat deactivates the leaf’s oxidative enzymes before extensive oxidation can occur. A sencha line then rough-rolls and dries the leaf, kneads it without heat to redistribute moisture, continues rolling and drying, and finally forms it into its familiar thin shape. The result is aracha, still containing stems, fine particles and pieces of different sizes.

A tea merchant or finishing factory turns aracha into shiagecha. The work may include sifting, cutting, separating stems and powder, blending lots and applying a final drying or firing known as hiire. A skilled blend is not automatically a cheap disguise: it can combine leaf sizes, cultivars, fields or harvests to create a stable house profile. Conversely, a single-garden, single-cultivar tea preserves variation that a blender would normally smooth out.

Steaming is dominant, but it is not universal. In parts of Kyushu and neighbouring mountain regions, kamairicha is heated in a hot pan instead. Nor is every steamed tea needle-shaped: steamed tamaryokucha omits the final needle-forming stage and retains a curled form. These are Japanese green teas in their own right, not incomplete sencha.

Shade, steaming and firing describe different decisions

  • Shading changes the living leaf before harvest. Duration, light reduction, direct covering and shelf covering all matter; “shaded” is not a single flavour setting.
  • Steaming depth changes the heat treatment after harvest. Longer steaming breaks the leaf down more, often producing smaller particles and a denser, cloudier infusion.
  • Rolling develops shape, disrupts leaf cells and controls drying. Tencha is deliberately dried without the rolling sequence used for sencha.
  • Hiire is a later finishing fire. Its intensity can move a tea from fresh and green towards sweeter, warmer or toastier aromas without turning it into hojicha.
  • Roasting creates a further tea style such as hojicha, usually from an already manufactured green tea or one of its sorted components.

The main styles of Japanese tea

Japanese tea categories do more useful work when they are defined by manufacture rather than by a fixed flavour promise. Cultivar, harvest, shade, steaming, storage and brewing can make two teas within one category taste very different.

Important Japanese tea names and what they actually identify
Name What defines it What the name does not guarantee
Sencha Leaf that is steamed, rolled and dried; commonly open-grown, although some sencha receives pre-harvest shade A particular prefecture, cultivar, harvest or steaming time
Fukamushi sencha Sencha steamed for at least about twice the ordinary duration under the Japanese industry definition A higher grade; the smaller leaf and cloudy cup result from process, not damage
Gyokuro Young spring leaf from gardens shaded very heavily for about 20 days, then manufactured like sencha That every example is hand-picked, shelf-shaded or made in Uji or Yame
Kabusecha Leaf covered for roughly seven days before harvest and then processed like sencha Simply “halfway to gyokuro”; shade intensity and field method still vary
Tencha and matcha Tencha is shaded leaf that is steamed and dried without rolling; matcha is tencha milled to a fine powder That any powdered green tea is matcha or that “ceremonial grade” is an official Japanese grade
Steamed tamaryokucha Steamed and rolled green tea made without sencha’s final needle-forming stage, leaving curved leaf That it was pan-fired; steamed and pan-fired versions are distinct
Kamairicha Green tea fixed by pan heating rather than steaming, usually with a curled or comma-like shape A roast like hojicha; pan fixation happens at the start of manufacture
Bancha Mature leaf, older leaf, stems or material gathered between the principal seasonal harvests One national recipe; regional banchas may be steamed, roasted or fermented very differently
Hojicha Sencha, bancha or another green-tea material roasted at high heat That roasting alone makes it caffeine-free; leaf maturity and stem content also matter
Genmaicha Green tea blended with roasted rice A particular base grade; it may use bancha, sencha or another green tea
Kukicha and karigane Stems and leaf stalks separated during refining; karigane commonly indicates stem tea from shaded material A universally low caffeine level or one fixed sensory profile
Konacha and powdered tea Konacha is fine material sifted during finishing; powdered tea is manufactured tea ground in a mill Matcha: both are different from milled tencha

Our complete matcha guide follows cultivation, tencha manufacture, milling and storage, while the guide to matcha grades explains why modern commercial grade words should be treated as seller descriptions rather than a Japanese legal ladder. For stem tea, continue with the dedicated kukicha guide.

A regional map of Japanese tea

Major Japanese tea landscapes and names worth recognising
Landscape Places and regional names Particular strengths
Southern Kyushu Kagoshima: Chiran, Kirishima, Shibushi, Makurazaki and island origins Scale, mechanisation, early-to-late cultivars, sencha, fukamushi, tencha and organic tea
Central Shizuoka Makinohara, Kikugawa, Kakegawa and neighbouring plateau districts Large-volume sencha and fukamushi production, beverage leaf and efficient machine harvest
Mountain Shizuoka Honyama, Kawane, Tenryu, Ashikubo and Asahina Mountain sencha, hand-finished lots and, around Asahina, traditional gyokuro
Kyoto and Yamashiro Uji, Wazuka, Ujitawara, Minamiyamashiro, Kizugawa and surrounding districts Tencha, matcha, gyokuro, sencha, Uji cultivars, finishing and blending knowledge
Tokai and Kinki neighbours Mie/Ise, Aichi/Nishio, Nara/Yamato, Shiga/Ohmi, Gifu/Mino Kabusecha, gyokuro, tencha, matcha, sencha, fukamushi and smaller mountain traditions
Northern Kyushu Yame and Hoshino in Fukuoka; Ureshino in Saga; Higashisonogi in Nagasaki Gyokuro, sencha, steamed tamaryokucha, kamairicha and tightly defined regional brands
Central Kyushu uplands Miyazaki’s Gokase and Takachiho; Kumamoto’s Kuma, Kikuchi, Ashikita and Kamimashiki Kamairicha, steamed tamaryokucha, sencha, cultivar diversity and organic production
Cooler northern edge Sayama in Saitama; Sashima in Ibaraki; Murakami in Niigata Cold-adapted regional production, sencha and distinctive finishing traditions
Small local systems Tokushima, Kochi, Ehime, Toyama and scattered mountain communities Regional bancha, post-fermented tea, local seed-grown plants, black tea and experimental styles

Kagoshima: scale built on cultivar and harvest diversity

Kagoshima’s 30,000 tonnes in 2025 made it Japan’s largest aracha producer. Broad level fields, ride-on machinery and large farms support volume, while the warm southern position allows the season to begin early. Yet “Kagoshima tea” is not one flat lowland product. Chiran in Minamikyushu, the Kirishima uplands, Shibushi and Ariake in the east, Makurazaki and smaller island origins differ in altitude, farm structure and intended market.

The prefecture’s strongest technical advantage is a diversified cultivar calendar. MAFF’s 2025 survey placed Yabukita at only 28% of Kagoshima’s plantings, compared with 86% in Shizuoka. Yutakamidori, Saemidori, Okumidori and many other cultivars distribute work across early, middle and late harvests and give blenders different colour, aroma and taste material. Kagoshima also led Japan in tencha production and accounted for the largest share of Organic JAS tea-field area.

Shizuoka: one prefecture, several production worlds

Shizuoka remains Japan’s largest tea prefecture by planted area. The Makinohara plateau and districts such as Kikugawa and Kakegawa support machine-harvested sencha and fukamushi at substantial scale. Deep steaming became especially useful for leaf that otherwise produced a firm, assertive infusion; today Fukamushi Kikugawa Tea has its own national geographical indication.

The prefecture’s mountain map is different. Honyama lies along the Abe and Warashina river systems; Kawane follows the upper Ōi; Tenryu and other valleys contain small sloping gardens where machinery, sunlight and harvest timing differ from the plateaus. Asahina is known for gyokuro. Shizuoka is also a major centre of tea trading, sensory evaluation, finishing and blending, so a Shizuoka company’s address is not by itself proof that every leaf in a packet grew there.

Kyoto, Uji and the wider Yamashiro tea system

Southern Kyoto shaped several of Japan’s most influential techniques: covered cultivation for tencha, the Uji steaming-and-hand-rolling method associated with modern sencha, and the later development of gyokuro. Modern production is concentrated not only in Uji city but across Wazuka, Ujitawara, Minamiyamashiro, Kizugawa and neighbouring Yamashiro districts. Kyoto’s small volume therefore carries exceptional historical and technical weight.

“Uji tea” requires careful reading. The recognised regional-brand definition permits green tea made from leaf grown in Kyoto, Nara, Shiga or Mie, provided a Kyoto business finishes it in Kyoto using methods derived from the Uji region. That reflects a historical production and trading system; it does not mean the leaf necessarily grew inside Uji city. A packet described as Kyoto-grown, Wazuka-grown or from a named garden makes a narrower origin claim.

Kyoto also preserves a distinctive cultivar world. Asahi, Samidori and Uji Hikari are strongly associated with high-quality tencha; Gokou and Komakage are important to shaded tea; Okumidori and Yabukita also play substantial roles. Cultivar, hand or machine harvest, direct or shelf shade, and the intended use of the matcha reveal more than the word “Uji” alone.

Mie and Aichi: shaded tea beyond Kyoto

Mie was Japan’s third-largest producer in 2025. Northern Mie and the foothills around Yokkaichi and Suzuka are particularly associated with kabusecha, while southern districts make sencha and fukamushi. Current national figures place Mie first by production quantity for both kabusecha and gyokuro. Famous competition and heritage origins elsewhere do not necessarily lead the volume table.

Aichi is smaller overall but unusually specialised in tencha. Nishio and neighbouring Anjo form the best-known matcha district; the collective-trademark definition of Nishio Matcha is much narrower than a generic “made in Aichi” claim and ties leaf production, tencha refining and milling to the named area. Toyota and other Aichi districts add further tencha and leaf tea.

Yame, Ureshino, Sonogi, Kumamoto and Miyazaki

Fukuoka’s Yame district makes sencha and shaded tea, with Hoshino and neighbouring uplands especially prominent in gyokuro. Traditional Authentic Yame Gyokuro is a protected GI with far more specific rules than ordinary gyokuro: qualifying tea uses natural materials in shelf shading, natural bush formation and hand plucking. A tea can be genuine Yame gyokuro without belonging to this narrower GI, so the complete name matters.

Farther west, Ureshino tea connects Saga and Nagasaki. Its shared brand can use tea produced in either prefecture and is particularly associated with curved steamed tamaryokucha, alongside a smaller pan-fired tradition. Higashisonogi in Nagasaki has become especially visible for steamed tamaryokucha. The curled leaf should not be read as proof of pan firing; the package must distinguish mushisei from kamairisei manufacture.

Kumamoto produces sencha, steamed tamaryokucha and kamairicha across several systems, from larger farms in Kuma to highland and organic projects elsewhere. Miyazaki combines coastal and inland sencha with a broad cultivar programme, but its most distinctive national role lies in the northwest: Takachiho and Gokase form Japan’s largest remaining kamairicha landscape.

Sayama and the smaller northern and mountain origins

Saitama’s Sayama region sits near the cool edge of Japan’s major commercial tea belt. Its identity rests on sencha and a comparatively assertive finishing fire called Sayama hiire, not on one universal “thick leaf” flavour. Smaller northern traditions survive around Sashima in Ibaraki and Murakami in Niigata. Gifu’s Mino teas, Shiga’s Asamiya and Tsuchiyama, Nara’s Yamato tea and many village-scale gardens add further alternatives to the dominant Shizuoka–Kagoshima map.

Cultivars are a second map of Japan

A cultivar is a selected plant population propagated to preserve useful characteristics. It is not a tea type: the same cultivar may become sencha, kabusecha, tencha or another style. Planting early, middle and late cultivars spreads frost risk and prevents every field from reaching its ideal harvest on the same day.

Japanese tea cultivars and cultivar groups commonly seen on labels
Cultivar or group Harvest position and use Where the name is especially useful
Yabukita Mid-season, broadly adaptable and used for many green-tea styles; 64% of national plantings in 2025 Still dominant in Shizuoka and important nationwide, but a cultivar name alone is not a grade
Yutakamidori Early cultivar important to southern sencha production Especially significant in Kagoshima, where it represented 26% of surveyed area
Saemidori Early cultivar valued for bright colour and a soft, umami-forward profile under suitable cultivation Kagoshima and other parts of Kyushu; also used for premium sencha and shaded tea elsewhere
Okumidori Late cultivar used for sencha, kabusecha and tencha Extends the factory season and appears across Kagoshima, Kyoto and other producing regions
Asahi, Samidori and Uji Hikari Kyoto selections strongly associated with high-quality covered cultivation and tencha Useful on provenance-rich matcha labels, especially when harvest and producer are also stated
Gokou and Komakage Kyoto cultivars important to gyokuro and other shaded teas Can explain a distinctive shaded-tea lot more precisely than “Uji-style” language
Sayamakaori Slightly early cultivar with useful cold tolerance, made principally as green tea Seen in Saitama, Shizuoka and other regions rather than restricted to Sayama
Benifuki and other black-tea cultivars Material bred with black-tea manufacture in mind, although Benifuki is also processed as green tea Helpful when exploring Japan’s small but growing wakoucha sector
Newer cultivars such as Seimei Bred for yield, quality, disease response or suitability for shade and mechanised production Evidence that Japanese tea agriculture continues to change rather than preserving one frozen model

Shincha, ichibancha and later harvests

Ichibancha is the first principal harvest of the growing year. Nibancha and later terms identify subsequent local production periods; their exact dates shift with latitude, weather, cultivar and regional practice. The industry standard defines shincha as tea first produced in the spring of the current year. It is therefore a freshness and season word, not a separate processing family or an automatic premium grade.

Japan’s “eighty-eighth night” after the traditional start of spring falls around the beginning of May and remains a potent cultural marker for new tea. It cannot serve as one national harvest deadline: southern Kagoshima may already be well into production, while cool mountain gardens are still developing. A transparent label gives the year, harvest and origin rather than relying on seasonal poetry alone.

A concise history of tea in Japan

Tea reached Japan through more than one exchange with the Asian mainland. Written records place tea at the early ninth-century court, where monks and envoys returning from Tang China were important intermediaries. This elite practice did not yet constitute the continuous national industry seen today. From the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, Eisai’s writings and plant material, Myōe’s temple gardens and the growth of Zen institutions helped establish renewed cultivation and powdered-tea practice.

Uji emerged as a celebrated origin during the medieval period. Tea competitions, warrior patronage and the work of producers and tea practitioners developed into the diverse culture later associated with chanoyu. Covered cultivation in the Uji region helped create leaf suited to vividly coloured, umami-rich powdered tea. Sen no Rikyū was central to one influential sixteenth-century synthesis, but Japanese tea culture has never been one school or one unchanging ceremony.

Leaf tea took a different route. In the eighteenth century, Nagatani Sōen’s Uji method combined steaming with careful hand rolling to produce a green, fine-shaped infused tea. The technique spread through Japan and became foundational to sencha manufacture. Covered cultivation and this rolling logic later met in gyokuro, developed in the Uji area during the first half of the nineteenth century.

After the ports opened in the 1850s, green tea became one of Japan’s major exports. Meiji-era machinery gradually translated hand skills into factory sequences, while finishing, blending and firing businesses grew around the crop. The twentieth century added clonal cultivars, co-operative factories, ride-on harvesters, tea bags, canned and bottled tea, and a large domestic beverage industry. The present matcha boom is the newest transformation in that long pattern of technical adaptation.

Tea culture is larger than chanoyu

Chanoyu, sadō or chadō centres on preparing and sharing matcha within formalised traditions of objects, space, movement and hospitality. It profoundly shaped ceramics, architecture, gardens, food and aesthetics. It should not be used as a generic name for every Japanese encounter with tea.

Senchadō developed around infused leaf tea and literati culture, with its own utensils, lineages and social imagination. Everyday tea follows further paths: sencha or bancha from a kyūsu, hojicha with food, complimentary tea in restaurants, cold-brewed leaf, convenience-store bottles, vending machines, tea-flavoured sweets and modern matcha drinks. The quiet household pot and the bottled drink are as real a part of contemporary tea culture as the formal tea room.

Regional teas also resist a green-tea-only stereotype. Kyoto’s large-leaf smoky kyōbancha is roasted rather than manufactured like ordinary sencha. Tokushima’s Awa bancha and Kochi’s Goishicha are microbially post-fermented, with Goishicha undergoing two fermentation stages before being cut and dried. Producers across Japan now make wakoucha black tea, small amounts of oolong and experimental white or fermented styles. These remain tiny beside green tea but are part of Japan’s living production landscape.

People, machinery and a fast-changing market

A romantic photograph of hand plucking captures only a narrow section of Japanese tea. Nationally, ride-on harvesters covered about 79% of tea area in the ministry’s 2025 survey. The rate was about 99% in Kagoshima and 97% in Shizuoka, but only 23% in Kyoto, where steep land and labour-intensive premium shaded tea remain important. Hand plucking survives where its quality and cultural value can pay for the labour; machine harvesting is the normal foundation of much excellent everyday tea.

The production base is under pressure. Cultivated area fell from roughly 48,000 hectares in 2008 to 33,400 in 2025. In 2020, 62% of the principal agricultural workforce in tea was already 65 or older. About 40% of tea gardens were more than 30 years old in the 2025 survey, and roughly 45% of tea area lay in hilly or mountainous districts where mechanisation can be difficult.

At the same time, factories and fields are being reorganised for new demand. Tencha commands much higher aracha prices than ordinary sencha, encouraging conversion and new processing lines. Export-oriented farms are expanding Organic JAS production and adapting pest-management systems to foreign residue limits. Cultivar diversity, robotic field equipment and larger operating units can ease labour bottlenecks, but rapid conversion also risks treating every shaded field as interchangeable powder supply. Japan’s future depends on retaining skilled leaf-tea and regional production while responding to the very real matcha market.

How to read a Japanese tea label

  • Start with raw-leaf origin. A Japanese processor’s address states where finishing or packing occurred, not necessarily where the tea grew. Japanese packages must state the origin of the principal raw material.
  • Separate regional brand from narrow provenance. Uji tea may use qualifying leaf from four prefectures; Ureshino tea may connect Saga and Nagasaki. A named farm, municipality or “100% Kyoto-grown” claim is narrower.
  • Read blend wording. The Japanese Tea Central Association’s current standard allows an origin brand when at least 50% of the aracha comes from that origin; between 50% and 100%, the presentation must identify it as a blend. A cultivar blend should likewise state the highlighted cultivar’s proportion.
  • Distinguish cultivar from type. Yabukita is a plant; sencha is a manufacturing family. Neither tells you the other.
  • Look for harvest information. “First harvest,” “ichibancha,” “shincha,” harvest year and picking date answer different questions. Shincha means current-year spring tea, not a permanent quality rank.
  • For matcha, demand tencha provenance. Matcha is finely milled tencha. Ground sencha is powdered green tea, and konacha is sifted fine leaf. “Ceremonial grade” has no official Japanese grading definition.
  • Treat shade words precisely. Gyokuro, kabusecha and tencha have different production definitions. A vague “shade-grown” statement does not tell you duration, shade level or covering method.
  • Understand the new national GI. “Japanese Tea” was registered as a national GI on 10 July 2026. Tea carrying the scheme’s GI identification must be unfermented tea made exclusively from Japanese-grown leaf and processed and packed in Japan. Japanese black tea is genuine Japanese tea in ordinary language but falls outside this green-tea GI specification.
  • Recognise narrower GIs. Traditional Authentic Yame Gyokuro and Fukamushi Kikugawa Tea have their own regional production rules. Their full protected names mean more than the words “gyokuro” or “deep-steamed.”
  • Organic needs certification. On Japanese products, the Organic JAS mark supports an organic claim; poetic words such as natural, clean or mountain-grown do not replace certification.

How to brew Japanese tea

Japanese tea is often blamed for bitterness when the real problem is too much leaf, overly hot water or a long first infusion. The table offers practical starting points rather than compulsory ceremony. Soft water usually makes adjustment easier. Pour each infusion out completely, then shorten later steeps because the leaf is already wet.

Starting points for brewing Japanese tea
Tea Leaf and water Water temperature First infusion
Sencha 4–5 g per 150 ml 70–80°C 60–90 seconds
Fukamushi sencha 4–5 g per 150 ml 70–80°C 30–45 seconds; use a fine filter and avoid vigorous pouring
Kabusecha 5 g per 120–150 ml 60–70°C 60–90 seconds
Gyokuro 5–8 g per 50–70 ml 45–60°C 90–150 seconds for a concentrated first cup
Steamed tamaryokucha 4–5 g per 150 ml 75–85°C About 60 seconds
Kamairicha 4–5 g per 150 ml 80–90°C About 60 seconds
Bancha, genmaicha or hojicha 5 g per 250 ml 90–100°C 30–60 seconds
Usucha matcha About 2 g per 60–70 ml 70–80°C Sift, add water and whisk; do not steep or strain
Wakoucha 3 g per 200 ml 90–95°C 2–3 minutes, adjusted to leaf size

Increase temperature when you want more briskness and aroma; lower it when you want to emphasise sweetness and umami. Gyokuro can also be brewed more generously like sencha, while excellent sencha can be explored in a tiny, concentrated infusion. The producer’s recommendation takes priority when it identifies a specific tea rather than a national category.

Store finished leaf airtight, cool, dark and away from odours. Once a refrigerated sealed packet is removed, let it reach room temperature before opening so condensation does not wet the leaf. After opening, a smaller everyday container prevents the main stock from repeatedly meeting warm, humid air. Matcha needs especially strict protection from oxygen, heat, light and moisture; see the matcha storage guide.

Tasting Japan as a set of relationships

A useful Japanese tea flight does not need five prestige teas. Compare an ordinary steamed sencha, a fukamushi from a clearly stated origin, one shaded leaf tea, a Kyushu kamairicha and a roasted tea. If matcha is included, place the powder beside a leaf sample of tencha where possible. Record origin, cultivar, harvest, shade, steaming, finishing fire, leaf shape, liquor clarity, texture, bitterness, sweetness, umami and aroma.

The result makes Japan coherent without making it uniform. Kagoshima’s productive plains, Shizuoka’s plateaus and valleys, Kyoto’s covered-tea craft, Mie’s kabusecha, Yame’s gyokuro, Kyushu’s curved teas and Sayama’s finishing fire all belong to one national industry. They remain understandable because each solves a different agricultural, technical or cultural problem. Continue through the RealiTea Tea Hub, or use our beginner’s guide to loose-leaf tea for a simpler route into brewing.

Sources and further reading