Sencha

What is Japanese Sencha tea?

Japanese sencha tea is the most popular Japanese tea. Unlike other countries, Japan produces mostly green tea, with sencha being the top tea. Almost 60% of all tea produced in Japan is sencha and most of it never leaves the country. Sencha is made from cultivated tea bushes of Camellia sinensis var Sinensis.

The upper leaves and buds are harvested for making sencha, and the lower more mature are usually used for bancha.

Despite being the most consumed tea in Japan today, sencha was only created in 1738.

The word ‘sencha’ itself means ‘simmered tea’. Actually, in the old days ‘sencha’ used to refer to tea in general, because of the way tea was brewed at the time – by boiling it in a kettle. So you may find the word ‘sencha’ in texts even before 1738.

The process of sencha has two peculiarities:

1. The oxidation of the freshly picked tea leaves is stopped by steaming them instead of pan-frying as common for green teas in other countries. This method is used for most Japanese green teas today.

2. After steaming and cooling, leaves go through different steps of rolling. While leaves are gradually losing their moisture, they are also taking the characteristic needle shape Sencha is known for.

If sencha is made from leaves that have been shaded before harvest, it is often called kabuse sencha or kabuseicha.