JAPANESE TEA

Green tea is ubiquitous in Japan and is commonly known simply as “tea” (お茶 ocha). Tea was first grown in China, and was brought to Japan by Myoan Eisai, a Japanese Buddhist priest who also introduced the Rinzai school of Zen Buddhism. Teas from Japan may be referred to as “Japanese tea” (日本茶 nihoncha). Japanese green tea is made from the Yabukita (薮北) cultivar of the camellia sinensis plant. Unlike Chinese green teas which are pan-fired, Japanese green teas are steamed giving them a more “vegetative” or “leafy” taste. The exception is hojicha, a Japanese roasted tea. Japanese green teas are categorized by the age of the leaves: young leaves are called Sencha and the more mature, larger leaves are called bancha. Types of tea are commonly graded depending on the quality and the parts of the plant used as well as how they are processed. There are large variations in both price and quality within these broad categories, and there are many green teas that fall outside this spectrum. The best Japanese green tea is said to be from the Yame (八女 yame) region of Fukuoka Prefecture and from the Uji region of Kyoto. Uji has been producing Ujicha (Uji tea) for four hundred years, pre-dating the prefecture system. It is now a combination of the border regions of Shiga, Nara, Kyoto, and Mie prefectures. Shizuoka produces 40 percent of raw tea leaf.