Reference

Glossary

The vocabulary that turns up in any description of Japanese tea. Once these words make sense, writing about regions and cultivars becomes far easier to read.

Growing

Oishita saibai (shade growing): Covering the field for a set period before harvest to cut out sunlight. Gyokuro, tencha and kabusecha are all grown this way. In sunlight the leaf breaks theanine down while building catechins; keeping the plant dark preserves the theanine and slows catechin accumulation. How long and how dark decides the grade.
Kabusecha: Shade-grown, but only for about a week. Not as dense as gyokuro, more savory than sencha. Easiest understood as sitting between the two.
Yabukita: By far the most widely planted cultivar in Japan, at roughly 70% of the country's tea fields. It grows well and tastes balanced, but leaning this hard on one cultivar carries real risk from pests and climate, so plantings of others — Saemidori, Okumidori — have been rising.

Processing

Mushi (steaming): Steaming the picked leaf to kill the oxidizing enzymes. This is the decisive difference from Chinese green tea, which is pan-fired instead. 20–60 seconds is asamushi (light); 60–120 seconds is fukamushi (deep). The deeper the steam, the more the leaf breaks down: darker liquor, softer astringency.
Tencha: The raw material for matcha: shade-grown leaf that is steamed and then dried without rolling. Veins and stems are removed and the remaining leaf flesh is stone-milled into matcha. Tencha is occasionally brewed and drunk as it is.
Koicha and usucha: The two ways matcha is prepared. Usucha, thin tea, is about 2 g of matcha to 60–70 mL of water, whisked to a foam. Koicha, thick tea, uses the same 2 g to roughly 15 mL and is kneaded rather than whisked, with no foam. Everyday 'making matcha' means usucha.
Junen (rolling): Rolling the steamed leaf to even out its moisture and break the cells just enough that the tea gives up its flavor quickly in hot water. The needle shape of sencha comes from the final shaping stage that follows.
Hiire (final firing): The finishing dry-and-heat. It drives off the last moisture so the tea keeps, and it shapes the aroma. A heavy firing gives a toasty character, a light one keeps the fresh, green notes. Much of why the same leaf tastes different from shop to shop comes down to this step.

Grades and cuts

Aracha (crude tea): Tea as the farm finishes it — leaf, stem and dust still mixed together, and still fairly moist. Merchants then sort it and fire it to make the finished tea you buy. When Japanese statistics quote production figures, they mean tea at this stage.
Demono: The stems, dust and buds separated out during finishing: kukicha (stem tea, also called bocha or karigane), konacha (fine dust) and mecha (rolled buds). Cheaper than the main leaf, but not lesser — each has its own character. The tea served at a sushi counter is usually konacha.
Tamaryokucha: Green tea finished without the finaling shaping stage, so the leaf stays curled rather than needle-straight. Common in Kyushu, made either steamed or pan-fired. Rounder and milder than sencha.

Compounds

Theanine: The amino acid behind the savory sweetness. It is made in the roots and sent up to the leaves. It dissolves even in cool water, which is why brewing cool brings the savory side forward. Sunlight drives its breakdown while catechins build up, which is what shade growing exists to prevent.
Catechins: The polyphenols behind astringency. They dissolve far better in hot water, which is why a hot brew tastes brisk. The more sun the leaf gets, the more it accumulates. Roasting transforms some of them, which is why hojicha is so much softer.
Suishoku (liquor color): The color of the brewed tea. The same sencha runs from a clear yellow-green when lightly steamed to a deep, cloudy green when deep-steamed. Cloudiness is not a fault.
Ooika (covering scent): The particular aroma that shade-grown tea develops, usually described as seaweed-like. It is strongest in gyokuro and good matcha, and its presence is a reliable tell that the tea was shaded.

Season

Ichibancha (first flush): The first picking of the year, carrying everything the plant stored over winter, and the most savory. Each later flush is more astringent and cheaper. Bancha is mostly made from the third flush onward and from leaves that have hardened.
Shincha (new tea): First-flush tea shipped as soon as it is picked. The appeal is the fresh, green aroma, and it is usually given a lighter final firing to preserve it. Since that aroma settles with time, shincha is really a state of the tea rather than a separate type.
Hachijuhachiya: The 88th night counted from the first day of spring, falling on 1 or 2 May depending on the year, traditionally the marker for the first harvest. A well-known Japanese song opens with it, and folk belief holds that tea picked on this day brings long life.

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