Japanese Green Tea

Japan makes almost entirely green tea, and it fixes the leaf by steaming. Most Chinese greens are pan-fired instead [1]. Japanese greens are also brewed cooler than Chinese teas, and shaded teas such as gyokuro cooler still.

This guide covers how Japanese tea is made, the main types, why shading changes the taste, and how to brew each one. Bracketed numbers point to the References at the end.

Steaming and the Japanese Style

Steamed tea tends to taste grassier and more marine, with a vivid green liquor and needle-shaped leaves. Pan-fired tea is nuttier, with a yellower cup and curled leaves [1][2].

Steaming time shapes the cup. Light steaming (asamushi, about 20 to 30 seconds) gives a clear liquor and intact leaves. Deep steaming (fukamushi) breaks the leaf further and gives a cloudy, deep green, full-bodied, and less astringent cup [3]. Sources put fukamushi at anything from over 40 seconds to 1 to 3 minutes [1][3][4]. It emerged in Shizuoka around the 1960s [4].

After steaming, the leaf is rolled in several stages and dried to about 5% moisture, producing aracha (crude tea). Aracha is then sorted, sifted, and given a final firing [5].

The Main Types

Type	How it is made	Character
Sencha	Grown in sun, steamed, rolled into needles	About 80% of Japanese production; fresh and grassy [2]
Kabusecha	Shaded about 7 days before harvest	Between sencha and gyokuro [6]
Gyokuro	Shaded about 20 days or more	Sweet, rich umami [7]
Tencha and matcha	Shaded like gyokuro, steamed and dried flat without rolling, de-veined; matcha is tencha ground to powder	Whisked, not steeped [8]
Hojicha	Usually bancha roasted at about 150 °C	Toasty, low in bitterness and caffeine [9]
Genmaicha	Sencha or bancha mixed about 1:1 with toasted rice	Mild and nutty [10]
Bancha	Later-season, larger leaves	Everyday tea [10]
Kukicha	Stems; called karigane when from gyokuro or fine sencha	Light and sweet [10]

Shading, Umami, and L-Theanine

Shading is what makes gyokuro and matcha taste sweet and savory. Covering bushes for the weeks before harvest raises L-theanine and caffeine and lowers catechins such as EGCG [7][11]. In a 2022 matcha study, 95% shade raised theanine the most [11]. Theanine's savory taste is detected by the same umami receptor that responds to glutamate [7].

Traditional covering used reed and straw. Shade usually starts by blocking about 55 to 60% of light and rises to 95 to 98% before harvest [6]. Yame in Fukuoka is famous for traditional gyokuro, shaded with straw to about 99% in the final days and mostly picked by hand [12]. Yame grows over 40% of Japan's gyokuro [7].

Brewing Japanese Tea

Starting points from the Kyoto tea house Ippodo:

Tea	Leaf	Water	Temperature	Time
Sencha	10 g	210 mL	80 °C	60 s [13]
Gyokuro	10 g	80 mL	60 °C	90 s [14]
Usucha (thin matcha)	2 g	60 mL	80 °C	Whisk briskly about 15 s [15]
Koicha (thick matcha)	4 g	30 mL	80 °C	Knead slowly about 15 s [15]

To cool water, pour it between vessels. Each transfer drops it about 10 °C [16]. Pour out every last drop of each infusion so the leaves do not keep steeping [13]. Gyokuro rewards several short re-infusions of 30 seconds to 1 minute after the first [16].

The side-handled kyūsu is the standard pot for sencha. The handleless hōhin suits gyokuro at about 60 to 65 °C, and the shallow, filterless shiboridashi gives small, concentrated servings [17].

"Ceremonial grade" matcha is a marketing term with no regulated standard. Better markers are a first-flush harvest, long shading, removal of stems and veins, and slow stone milling [18].

Regions and Cultivars

Japan produced about 75,100 tonnes of aracha in 2025 (preliminary), down from 80,200 tonnes in 2016 [19]. Kagoshima is now the largest producer, with about 44% of output in the main prefectures, ahead of Shizuoka at 35% [19].

One cultivar dominates. Yabukita, registered in 1953, covers about 62% of Japan's tea area [20].

Brewing Japanese Tea With Tea Timer

Tea Timer's Japanese mode sets the temperature and steep time for sencha, gyokuro, genmaicha, hojicha, and matcha, including the shorter re-infusions that follow the first cup. One-tap ratings adjust the timing of later sessions to taste.

Brew a cup of sencha