Steamed Japanese green tea, the daily standard. Shizuoka and Uji are the top regions; brewed 70-80°C for one minute.
Steaming-method sencha was invented in 1738 by Nagatani Soen in Ujitawara, Kyoto — he steamed and rolled tea instead of pan-firing it Chinese-style, producing the bright green needle leaf that defined Japanese tea for the next 300 years.
Shizuoka grows about 40% of Japan's tea, but Uji's Yabukita cultivar — bred 1908 by Hikosaburo Sugiyama — accounts for over 70% of all Japanese tea acreage today, an extraordinary monoculture.
Bright jade-green liquor when fresh, vegetal and marine — cut grass, nori, sweet edamame on a good cup. Astringency builds with hotter water; shibumi tannin grip on the back of the tongue is the marker of properly brewed sencha.
Steaming for 30-90 seconds within hours of plucking deactivates oxidation enzymes and locks in chlorophyll. Asamushi (light steam) keeps leaf intact and aromatic; fukamushi (deep steam, 90s+) breaks the leaf into a cloudier, sweeter, less astringent cup.
Variations
Shizuoka asamushi is light, leafy, classical. Kagoshima fukamushi is the deep-steamed, cloudier modern style. Uji's Asahi cultivar from the Horii family is the small-batch top sencha, often shaded a few days like an entry-level gyokuro.
On the Palate
Where Sencha sits in the Japanese flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 1How it's made
4 steps · 1 min active + 4 min waiting
- 11 min
Pre-warm a Japanese teapot (kyusu).
- 22 min
Cool boiled water to 70–80 °C in a yuzamashi pitcher.
Watch outLet the boiled water drop to about 70–80° before it touches the leaf — pour it near boiling and sencha turns bitter and grassy instead of sweet.
- 31 min
Add 5 g sencha per 200 ml; pour water; steep 1 min.
Watch outSteep just about a minute — sencha releases its sweetness quickly, and a long soak pulls out the astringency.
- 41 min
Pour out to last drop; can re-steep 2–3 times at slightly higher temp.
Watch outPour it out to the very last drop — leftover water sitting on the leaves stews the next infusion bitter.
