Japanese Tea

Japanese tea is renowned for its wide variety of styles, each with its unique flavor profile, cultivation techniques, and preparation methods. Among the most famous types of Japanese tea is green tea, which includes sencha, matcha, gyokuro, and bancha.

**Sencha**, the most popular, presents a balance between sweetness and astringency, often with grassy notes and a bright, vegetal aroma. **Matcha**, a powdered green tea used in traditional Japanese tea ceremonies, offers a distinctive, rich umami flavor with a slight sweetness and a velvety texture when whisked. Its scent is fresh and intensely grassy.

**Gyokuro**, shaded for several weeks before harvest, develops a sweet and mellow flavor with less astringency than sencha. It has a rich, full-bodied taste with a silky texture, and its scent is deep, with marine notes reminiscent of seaweed, rounding out with a sweet finish.

**Bancha**, considered a more everyday tea, is made from the later flushes of leaves. It has a more robust, earthy flavor compared to the subtle and delicate aromas of other Japanese green teas. Its scent is milder and less intense but carries a hearty, comforting grassiness.

Japanese tea generally embraces notes ranging from delicate vegetal and oceanic to robust and earthy tones. The aroma is typically fresh, clean, grassy, and sometimes subtly sweet or floral, reflecting the natural purity of the environments in which it’s cultivated. These teas not only offer a unique olfactory experience but are also deeply embedded in Japanese culture, representing a heritage of careful cultivation and ritualized preparation.