japanese tea

You can try a genmaicha (green tea + pop-corns of rice + sometimes powdered tea). Then it's not really tea, but there is mugicha (roasted barley infusion, mostly served cold). Both are easy to find in Japanese grocery stores and should be quite cheap.

Macha (high grade powdered tea) is for tea ceremony, it's more expensive, not so easily available. You have to whisk it with water in a bowl. It's better to see it done first. If that still exists, go to try it at Toraya's tearoom, that was rue Ste Anne. A few years ago, that was the only place in France to really serve Japanese tea. You can find cheaper powdered green tea in grocery stores (instant macha, etc), that's well to flavor ice-cream, cakes or milk-shakes.

They are all green tea (not fermented).

Sencha (green tea) is the more common. It is much better fresh. So drink it quickly or freeze it. Well, you probably already know that. The standard way to serve it is to put

2 or 3 small spoons of leaves in a small pot (env. 300 ml), add water around 70 deg. (cooler for higher quality, hotter for lower or if specially indicated on the package). Pour after 1 minute. Propose a little sweet with it (most Japanese sweets taste a bit like marrons glaces), but no milk or sugar. Then, you can do a second infusion, most people add a spoon of tea leaves.

Don't think there is only one sort of green tea. They can be very different. Higher grade is called Gyokuro (certain Senchas can be better than certain Gyokuros, due to freshness and origine...and well people's tastes vary.). There are many sorts, depending on the way to process it, period of recolt, the parts of the plant and the area they come from. Now it is the season to drink the first leaves picked this year.

Kuri

hi Kuri,

I am more and more interested in Japanese tea (and culture), would you recommend any sources of information? Aligatou...

DLG

Vincent:

Their are more varities of Japnese green tea for you to try. Majority Japanese varities teas are Sencha varities. I am writing a list for you, the most famous Japanese green teas:-

Kuri already talked about Genmaicha with rosted rice and pop corn.

-Gyokuro: Is the most refined Sencha. Before plucking this tea, Japanese tea producers shaded this tea leaves with mats three weeks advance before plucking for higehr chlorophyll contant and lower tanin. Gyokuro leaves are easy to recognise-flat,very green tea leaves, sort of pine needles. The most famous Sencha.

-Matcha Uji: This tea green powder is made from Gyokuro leaves. It has strong aroma. Japanese use this tea for tea ceremony. Matcha Uji is good for iced tea also. This tea also used for food coloring in Japan. They also make jade green color sauces from this tea.

-Sincha Honyama: It is another very famous green tea of Sencha teas. It has pale green liquor, fresh, flowery taste and aroma. While I was a exchange student in Japan-my host family told me- Sincha Honyama is one of the most pretigious tea in Japan.

Also Hojicha is another famous japanese tea, you have already tried. Hope this helps. If you have more question, please feel free to ask. Thanks.

Ripon Vienna,VA

P.S. Kuri-san:- Anatawa Nihonjin Desu ka?

Vincent:

Their are more varities of Japnese green tea for you to try. Majority Japanese varities teas are Sencha varities. I am writing a list for you, the most famous Japanese green teas:-

Kuri already talked about Genmaicha with rosted rice and pop corn.

-Gyokuro: Is the most refined Sencha. Before plucking this tea, Japanese tea producers shaded this tea leaves with mats three weeks advance before plucking for higehr chlorophyll contant and lower tanin. Gyokuro leaves are easy to recognise-flat,very green tea leaves, sort of pine needles. The most famous Sencha.

-Matcha Uji: This tea green powder is made from Gyokuro leaves. It has strong aroma. Japanese use this tea for tea ceremony. Matcha Uji is good for iced tea also. This tea also used for food coloring in Japan. They also make jade green color sauces from this tea.

-Sincha Honyama: It is another very famous green tea of Sencha teas. It has pale green liquor, fresh, flowery taste and aroma. While I was a exchange student in Japan-my host family told me- Sincha Honyama is one of the most pretigious tea in Japan.

Also Hojicha is another famous japanese tea, you have already tried. Hope this helps. If you have more question, please feel free to ask. Thanks.

Ripon Vienna,VA

P.S. Kuri-san:- Anatawa Nihonjin Desu ka?

Similar points among Japanese teas are that they are all green teas, and that most are steamed instead of pan-fired to stop the oxidation like the Chinese green. Also the rolling process is different than most other teas, as leaves are rolled in a back-forth way producing needle-like tea instead of circular or twisting like most other types. And of course they are all made from Japanese variants of Camellia sinensis.

"Rip Thank you for the nice list, Ripon. I have added some comments below:

I like this very much, especially the types mixed with matcha!

Gyokuro is usually prepared with a lot of tea with a small quantity of water at low temperature 50-60 Centigrades. It's taste it truly unique, thick, mellow with almost no astringency, almost like a vegetable broth. It is served in very small cups, but it is very 'filling'. The taste is often described as 'sweet' which I believe is a translation of a Japanese word really only applicable to a special tea-taste. There is also a type of tea called Kabuse-cha which is shaded, but not totally covered as Gyokuro.

The technical term for the leaves macha is made from is tencha, but it is made exactly like gyokuro.

I would like to mention a few other types of Japanese teas: Fukamushi-cha, a sencha typed which is more heavily steamed, usually has a deeper and sweeter taste. Tamaryoku-cha, sencha formed as small balls. Bancha, made from coarser leaves, more grassy, astringent taste Kukicha, tea made from the stalks Konacha, made from dust byproducts of other teas - very green colour of liquor, strong taste, often used in sushi restaurants Tamaryoku-cha, Uresino-cha, Aoyanagi-cha : made with pan-firing technique like Chinese teas - I have never tried these!

Lars

Ahh -- Matcha-iri Genmai-cha. The one instance I find Genmai-cha enjoyable. Very nice in the winter. The stuff we drank was laughably inexpensive, about 200 yen for a 100g bag. Probably Chinese...

But don't feel pressured to drink Gyokuro in this high-concentration, quasi-Gong-fu style. I typically make prepare it with much more water, as if it were common Sencha.

Not quite. Tencha isn't a type of tea or tea leaf. It means, "the preparation of matcha". So, while you can buy a "tencha set" which contains the accouterments for making matcha, you cannot buy "tencha".

--crymad

That's right.

Well, there is the Chinese herb tea called tencha :

Be careful Ripon, if you get tencha leaves while you expected macha, you'll be very disappointed. The stuff tastes like sweet liquorice.

Kuri

Well no. I had the same impression as in everyday conversation "tencha" is the ceremony of preparing the powder. But, I have checked. And "tencha" can also be used for the leaves, well that seems rare and only in specialised litterature, "macha" is more common.

Kuri

This week I went to the post-office and they had a new poster explaining the application of the new rule was postponed till august (end of ). So now they allow parcels of food without pre- authorisation*, except they cannot guarantee it will arrive in the usual delay. Your relatives have no more excuse...

*Later it seem you'll have to ask a special service of FDA if it is OK to send the parcel, and then mail it. What a fuss !

Kuri

My impression has been that 'tencha' is used for the whole leaves as picked from the bushes, which then is grinded into the finished product. The powdery result of the process is then called 'macha'.

Maybe this term is used to differentiate between the bushes producing gyokuro and bushes which will end up as macha.

Lars

My wife enlightened my about this as well. The kanji for the two terms are different, however. Very confusing.

--crymad

Except, of course, "mendoukusai".

Yes. I believe home-made food products are exempt from the bioterrorist regulations. So, a little lying could prove helpful in future shipments.

-crymad

Tencha is also supposedly good for 'kafunshou' or hayfever and is drunk as a remedy during the hayfever season.

Andy