Different types of Japanese Green Tea

I'm no expert - others here probably know more - but I'll tell you what I know.

Kona-cha is powdered green tea; it can be made from stems and leaves or a higher grade of green leaves only; a particular type of kona-cha is used in the Japanese tea ceremony. My Japanese friends tell me that the brand that you mention is a supermarket tea in Japan; nothing "wrong" with it, but there are better ones.

The others that you mention are higher quality green teas, the names are the "grades". What is served in sushi bars varies greatly. I live in the NYC area (high native Japanese population) and sushi bars tend to serve sencha, but others serve kona-cha. One Japanese friend tells me that kona-cha's "nutty" flavor goes best with sushi; the other tells me sencha does. I like them both.

Thanks - that's certainly more than I knew before.

-S-

HTH

The Kona-cha's that I've had are broken into really fine pieces, but not powdered like Macha. It's more like what you would find in a tea bag, very fine, but you wouldn't want to whip it into water and drink it.

Blues