Japanese tea glossary

GLOSSARY

Tea types

Sencha（煎茶）

Japan's everyday steamed green tea, grown in open sun. Brighter and brisker than shaded teas; the baseline most other Japanese greens are understood against.

Matcha（抹茶）

Shade-grown tea leaves (tencha) stone-milled into a fine powder and whisked into water — you drink the leaf itself rather than an infusion.

Gyokuro（玉露）

A shaded leaf tea: covered for weeks before harvest, then brewed cool and slow. Known for deep sweetness and umami rather than briskness.

Hojicha（ほうじ茶・houjicha）

Green tea roasted until toasty and brown. Roasting trades grassy notes for warmth and aroma; brewed hot and briefly.

Genmaicha（玄米茶）

Green tea blended with roasted rice. The rice adds a nutty, popcorn-like aroma; like hojicha, it likes hot water and a short steep.

Kamairicha（釜炒り茶）

A pan-fired (rather than steamed) Japanese green tea, historically from Kyushu — a rounder, less grassy profile than steamed styles.

Wakoucha（和紅茶）

Japanese-grown black tea. A small but growing category, often from the same cultivars and farms as green tea.

Tencha（碾茶）

The shaded, flattened leaf that matcha is milled from. Rarely drunk as-is; its quality decides the matcha's.

Growing & harvest

First flush（shincha・新茶・ichibancha）

The first harvest of the year, moving across Japan through spring. Prized for fresh aroma; 'shincha' is this new tea sold soon after picking.

Cultivar（品種）

A named, propagated tea-plant variety — Yabukita, Okumidori, Samidori, Gokou and many more. Cultivar shapes flavour the way a grape variety shapes wine.

Yabukita（やぶきた）

Japan's most widely planted tea cultivar, the reference point for sencha character; most single-cultivar teas define themselves against it.

Shading（覆い下・covered culture）

Covering tea plants before harvest to soften bitterness and deepen umami and colour. Gyokuro, tencha/matcha and kabusecha are all shaded styles.

Kabusecha（かぶせ茶）

A lightly/briefly shaded leaf tea — between sencha and gyokuro in character and price.

Uji（宇治）

A historic tea region around Kyoto, closely tied to matcha and gyokuro tradition. On a label, a region name is a verifiable fact — unlike a grade word.

Yame（八女）

A tea region in Fukuoka, Kyushu, with a strong reputation for gyokuro. One of the region names worth learning to read on a label.

Processing & grading

Ceremonial grade

A marketing term with no public, industry-wide definition — each vendor applies it on its own. Verifiable signals instead: region, cultivar, harvest, milling and price per gram.

Culinary grade

A vendor term for matcha aimed at cooking and lattes rather than drinking straight. Like 'ceremonial', it has no public standard — read the verifiable specs.

Stone-milled（石臼挽き）

Matcha ground slowly between granite mills, the traditional method associated with a fine particle and low-heat grinding. Makers usually state it when true.

Deep-steamed（fukamushi・深蒸し）

Sencha steamed longer at processing, giving a cloudier, richer cup and finer leaf particles. A style, not a quality grade.

Umami（旨味）

The savoury, brothy taste dimension central to shaded Japanese teas — what gyokuro and good matcha are prized for.

Price per gram

The honest way to compare teas across tin and bag sizes: the price of one gram. CHANOMA prints it beside the price where the vendor publishes one — we don't divide it out ourselves, because pack sizes are often approximate.

Teaware & brewing

Kyusu（急須）

The Japanese side-handled teapot, usually with a built-in strainer — the standard tool for leaf teas like sencha and gyokuro.

Chasen（茶筅）

The bamboo whisk used to suspend matcha in water and raise its foam. Carved from a single piece of bamboo; rinse and air-dry to keep the tines.

Chawan（茶碗）

The tea bowl matcha is whisked and drunk from — wide enough for the whisk to work.

Chashaku（茶杓）

The slender bamboo scoop used to measure matcha powder.

Yuzamashi（湯冷まし）

A small vessel for cooling boiled water before brewing — handy for teas like gyokuro that prefer cooler water.

Cold brew（mizudashi・水出し）

Steeping tea leaves in cold water over hours instead of minutes — the summer style that trades briskness for sweetness (DESIGN's 水出しの夏).

Chabashira（茶柱）

A tea stalk floating upright in the cup — a traditional sign of good luck. The /brew timer tips its hat to it, rarely.