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Teas from non- shielded plantations Sencha Sencha tea is the most popular Japanese green tea; some sources claim it makes 80% of the total yearly tea production in this country. This ratio is possible also because Sencha tea does not have any defined low standard, so any green leaf tea from a non- shielded plantation can be sold as Sencha. Moreover, it is a well-known fact that Japan is the world biggest tea re-exporter, an owner of plantations in many countries of continental Asia or Oceania and the lower grades of Sencha tea are often mixed with mainly Chinese varieties of this tea. That is why it is better to buy only high (more expensive) grades of Sencha, because their leaf contains a high ratio of substances important for the taste of the infusion that can be really superior and delicate. However, if the presence of these substances is low or unbalanced, the infusion taste is also week and has only a little to be compared to good Sencha tea. Sencha is produced once, maximally twice a year from the best leaves that are harvested manually in the case of the highest grades. However, the standard and especially lower and low grades of Sencha may come from late and machine harvests that provide too big, harsh and chemically inappropriately composed leaf totally undesirable for production of high grades of Sencha tea. What makes Sencha tea the most popular Japanese tea is especially its amazing “drinkability”. It means mainly an extraordinary brisk, light and complex, decently sweet and pleasantly astringent taste, that can have even quite distinctive herbal (eventually grassy) or in the contrary smooth middle sweet tones, depending on the method of steaming and heating at the final phase of drying.
Kamairicha – Tamaryokucha Kamairicha – Tamaryokucha is known as Japanese green tea, produced by a Chinese method. There are the same leaves as the highest grades of Sencha production processed, but they are not steamed immediately after the harvest, they are warmed with dry heat as the Chinese tradition orders. After warming the leaves are kneaded and dried in the “Rolling Dryers”, but they are not shaped, just sorted, finally dried, blended and evaluated. Thus made tea has got round leaves of not really uniform appearance, providing an infusion of a very interesting taste character. Some sources state that the best grades of Kamairicha – Tamaryokucha are not rolled with the help of machines, but manually, which gives the leaf a medium-clenched, round or even globular shape. Tamaryokucha tea provides the infusion of a perfectly complex, slightly grassy-sweet, slightly astringent taste with a perceptible nutty aroma. The ocean aroma, typical for green teas processed by the Japanese method, is completely missing. The fragrance of leaf as well as the infusion should be perceptibly nutty, corresponding to the taste of tea. Tamaryokucha tea of this type, especially its high grades, is still a rarely seen scarcity at Western markets. Sencha – Tamaryokucha Sencha – Tamaryokucha is the second type of Japanese green tea named Tamaryokucha. In this case it is tea produced of the same leaves as high grades of Sencha, while the process of their treatment originates in the treatment of Sencha tea (so it is not tea produced with the Chinese method, but with the modified Japanese one). The basic difference is skipping the part of the final leaf shaping, so they keep their typical round appearance. Depending on the steaming method leaf is relatively neat, without a significant ratio of leaf fragments and with a low ratio of leaf-stalks (the Asamushi method) or in the contrary it is slightly uneven, with an adequate ratio of tea dust and leaf fragments (the Fukamushi method). The taste of the infusion is somewhere between Kamairicha and Sencha, that strongly depends on the given procedure of the leaf processing. This tea can be found at the Western markets more often than Kamairicha – Tamaryokucha and it can pleasantly diversify the choice of anybody who often drinks Sencha; or it can eventually become a convenient replacement for Sencha tea for those who do not find its taste appealing. Bancha Bancha is often represented as the lowest quality grade of Sencha tea, however, it can be quite misleading, regarding the information on the low quality standard of this tea. More properly said Bancha tea is produced from harsher and bigger leaves from the first and second harvest, inconvenient for producing Sencha tea and from leaves coming from later, less quality harvests, when the growth of leaves is so fast that the important chemical substances do not reach the needed level. The highest grades of Bancha tea provide dark green glossy leaves shaped into longer needles. However, these grades are quite rare in tea shops, more often are found lighter leaves rather loosely rolled into the shape of bigger flat needles. Bancha of the common quality typically contains some ratio of leaf-stalks and thicker twigs. The infusion offers very brisk and lively, not especially complicated tastes, it is simply tea for well common drinking, because Bancha has got low caffeine content. This property makes Bancha a very convenient drink for children and sick people who must watch their caffeine intake and they are not allowed to drink for example coffee. Bancha tea is also convenient for inexperienced tea drinkers who want to learn something about green Japanese teas. Hojicha Hojicha is Bancha tea that is roasted after final drying. This technology originated as one of the results of the effort to improve the taste of even the lowest grades of Bancha to a drinkable level. Leaf should be traditionally roasted to the measure represented as the hundred percent roasting, however, Hojicha leaves are often roasted just slightly. That is why today the colour of leaf fluctuates from very light brown with a greenish hint to dark brown. As it was said, there are usually lower grades of Bancha or Sencha roasted, that is why requirements for the leaf appearance should not be exaggerated. The colour of the infusion is very similar to the colour of the leaf if tea is prepared by the usual way, but longer steeping can make it similar to the colour of some black teas. Because Hojicha is made of Bancha, its infusion contains a very small amount of caffeine which makes it a convenient drink even for children. However, roasting damages the most of chemical substances “responsible” for health benefits of Japanese green tea. So if you look for tea primarily benefiting to your body health, Hojicha is not the right choice. On the other hand this tea is utterly undemanding as water is concerned and thus it is convenient for common preparation under any conditions. Hojicha is extremely popular in Japan and USA for preparation of ice tea in summer months. The taste of Hojicha infusion depends strongly at the extent of leaf roasting. In the last several decades roasted Kukicha tea has been also sold under the label Hojicha. It is an interesting diversification and more over there are often quite solid grades of this leaf-stalk tea used for roasting. Genmaicha Genmaicha is Bancha tea or some (usually lower) grade of Sencha, mixed most often half-and-half with roasted rice (genmai). Genmaicha also arouse as a result of efforts to improve tastes of bad quality grades of Bancha to acceptable level. Grains of rice gain beautiful honey-brown colour during roasting, but some of them pop with heat and gain the colour and shape of roasted corn; these grains are called hana (flower) and gave this tea an English tag “Popcorn Tea”. These grains also caused the wrong opinion that Genmaicha is blend of Bancha tea and roasted rice with roasted corn. The best grades of Genmaicha are blended from middle quality Sencha and thus provide an infusion of a very interesting taste, combining grassy and pleasant sweet tones of Sencha with a hint of a bread taste of roasted rice. However, common grades blended from average Bancha tea offer an infusion of just a slightly tea, mainly bread-like roasted and rice taste. This tea is really convenient for children and ill people, who have to watch their caffeine intake.
Teas from shielded plantations Shielding is a special floricultural technology used especially in selected high-mountain plantations. Ten to twenty one days before harvest tea bushes are covered with special sheets and during this time grow in ninety percent shade, which causes distinctive chemical changes in leaves. The ratio of catechins, caffeine, theatins, amino acids as well as leaf pigments increases, which makes them darker, thinner and bigger and the infusion taste is perceptibly changed too. This technology limits harvests to only one a year, because shielding weakens tea bushes insomuch that it cannot be repeated in the same year. Tencha ( => Maccha)  Leaves of Tencha tea are steamed immediately after harvest and just after it they are dried without any rolling or shaping. After sorting out stems, leaf fragments and tea dust these leaves are broken to smaller pieces and then ground to the fine powdery dust. Thus made tea powder is worldwide famous as Maccha tea which is served at Japanese tea ceremony called chado. During this ceremony two kinds of Maccha tea are actually offered, so called Maccha-usucha and Maccha-koicha, differing both by the way of preparation and the age of tea bushes, providing leaves for their production. Maccha-usucha (sometimes represented as “washy tea”) comes from younger tea bushes, each guest of the tea ceremony gets its own “portion” and a certain amount of tea, used for its preparation, enables to whip a drink with rich tea foam with the help of a bamboo tea whisk. All teas sold in tea shops and tea rooms and labelled as Maccha are made for preparation of Maccha-usucha tea. Maccha –koicha (known also as so called “full-bodied tea”) comes on the contrary to previous from older bushes. All guests share a single cup of this drink which has got dense or even pulpy (pasty) consistency because of the amount of tea powder used for its preparation. Maccha tea is always expected to provide a very body, deep and solid, but still balanced and delicious taste which is often specified as a bit astringent and sweetish all together. The infusion should always preserve the character of shielded teas, oily and grassy taste is very desirable as well as “tea sublimity” (some people who have never met the taste of Maccha tea would not identify the tastes of many grades of Maccha as a tea taste, which cannot be considered as a good feature). The colour of the tea powder as well as the infusion should be bright light green, the fragrance strongly grassy, distinctive and pleasant. This grade of Maccha is also appropriately expensive. In this connection there is a need to draw attention to cheaper grades of this tea, produced rather as a spice and a flavour, used abundantly especially in confectionery and bakery. This kind of Maccha tea does not provide more than an infusion with a substandard and not really good taste and it is absolutely unthinkable to serve this tea at a tea ceremony. Gyokuro Gyokuro, considered to be the best Japanese leaf tea, is produced of specially chosen bushes from high-mountain plantations. Harvests of this high grade tea should be manual. Gyokuro differs from Tencha mainly by more sophisticated process of harvested leaves treatment, which almost equates the treatment of slightly steamed Sencha teas, only the steaming temperature must be lower to preserve the taste character of shielded teas. This process of treatment of shielded tea was first used in the 19th century in a district close to Kyoto where the top grades of this tea have been still produced. Other regions producing the most quality and much-sought-for grades of Gyokuro are Yame in the Fukuoka Prefecture and Asahina in the Shizuoka Prefecture. Gyokuro definitely should not be just some “extra Sencha”. It is needed to claim from it a much more exclusive, complex, deeper and somehow denser taste, decently astringent and perceptibly sweet at the same time, which has got a typical oily and grassy tones as well as very strong aroma often described as sea scent with forest odour. Freshness, liveliness and relative simplicity of the taste of Sencha tea should be in Gyukuro replaced with a settled and fine, complex character. Leaves shaped as thin, evenly and tightly rolled needles should be dark-green and glossy, generally of a neat look, some ratio of leaf fragments made up while removing stems and harder ribbing of the leaf is typical. The infusion should be emerald-green and bright, it can get slightly hazy in the case of longer steaming and presence of tea dust and leaf fragments. The fragrance of leaf should be strongly grassy, aroma of the infusion should reflect its taste.
Teas blended from leaves from shielded as well as non-shielded plantations Kukicha Kukicha is produced from small thin leaf stems (kuki) that are harvested with leaves, but they are sorted out while sorting Tencha, Gyokuro, Sencha and Tamaryokucha. The infusion of the highest quality grades of Kukicha offers a light, delicate, brisk, floral sweet, grassy taste and aroma compared to the fragrance spread in a tea manufacture during harvest. The taste character of the first Kukicha grade is halfway between Sencha and Bancha, lower quality grades get closer to Bancha, however, it always stays finer and somehow more delicate. For better contour and emphasis of their taste the high grades of Kukicha are sometimes blended with Mecha tea. The average and lower grades could contain some ratio of bad rolled, unsorted leaves, which also emphasize the taste of a stem tea, but it definitely does not upgrade it to a higher level. This tea is for its low content of caffeine convenient for children and patients with a need of reduced intake of this substance. Mecha Mecha is not really well-known in Europe, it is green tea produced from very young and fragile leaves (tips) from the first harvest that are manually rolled after steaming into the shape of tightly rolled beads with the size of the pin-head, offering an infusion of a very strong, extremely refreshing, tippy taste. It is a usual practice to offer Mecha blended in a certain ratio of leaves from shielded and non-shielded plantations. Macha is also quite often blended with really high quality grades of Kukicha tea. Konacha Konacha is tea dust sorted out during the final phase of treatment of Tencha, Gyokuro, Sencha, Tamaryokucha and Bancha teas. This dust is gradually sorted up according to its quality and Konacha tea is then blended from the best quality grades whereas the average and bad grades are used for production of tea-bags. Konacha is usually served with sushi, because there are substances called catechins, percolated most easily from the tea dust. They can clear dangerous bacteria fast reproducing even in the most fresh fish meat. Infusion of this tea offers a strongly grassy, herbal taste with typical sea aroma. However, with prolonged steeping it has strong tendencies to get acrid. Kokeicha Kokeicha is made up of pressing tea dust to the equal dark-green needles with the help of pressure and heat and some ratio of bonding agent (according to the official Japanese sources it is natural starch). Thus proceeded tea dust is of course more easily manipulated and transported, however, the disadvantages are the lower ratio of the health-beneficial substances, lost during the pressing, and the presence of bonding agents in the infusion. |
