Green tea お茶
Green tea is Japan's everyday drink, from loose-leaf sencha and powdered matcha to bottled tea from vending machines.
About Green tea
- Styles: Sencha is grown in the sun, steamed, rolled and dried. Gyokuro and matcha come from shaded leaves; matcha is ground to a powder. Hojicha is roasted green tea, and genmaicha is mixed with roasted rice.
- Where it grows: Shizuoka is the largest producer, with tea gardens said to date from the 13th century. Uji in southern Kyoto is famous for matcha and gyokuro. Kagoshima is the second-largest region and picks the year's first sencha earliest.
- Bottled tea: Plastic-bottled green tea was first sold in 1990. Today green tea, hojicha, genmaicha and barley tea are sold in vending machines throughout Japan and in every convenience store.
- Season: The first and finest leaves of the year are picked from late April to late May.
- How to drink it: For loose-leaf tea, pour hot water over the leaves in a teapot; the right water temperature depends on the type of tea.
SeasonAll year; new-season tea in late spring
Known for it
Checked against: Uji Tea | Traditional Foods in Japan | MAFF · 3 of The Most Important Green Tea-Growing Regions in Japan | Tokyo Weekender · Kombini Checkout: Japan's Favorite Bottled Tea | WAttention · For Visitors to Japan | ITO EN Global.
Green tea on Shibuya246
Photos and stories from the blog, as they were written at the time.
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