I started talking about Japanese green tea in my previous article. Here I continue.

If you ask me what is the difference between Chinese and Japanese green tea, I can tell you this: first of all, it’s the appereance – the colour of the leaves. The Japanese ones look much greener (dark green, to be precise), also the infusion is very green (Chinese one is more yellow) and more bitter than Chinese green tea, and the scent reminds me of grass. Namely, Japanese green tea leaves are mostly steamed (but not all of them) and Chinese ones are pan-fried. After steaming, which makes the leaves immune to oxidation, leaves are dried and rolled into shape.

As previously mentioned, the difference between kinds of Japanese green tea is merely the grade of leaf used to create the tea.

What we call Japanese green tea includes:
SENCHA – it’s crafted from smaller leaves which are picked in early spring.
BANCHA – it’s harvested from the 2nd flush of sencha (the leaves are picked from summer to autumn), uses larger leaves and actually means “common tea”.
GYOKURO or “jewel dew” is sencha, grown in shade (which provides a finer flavour) and therefore can be pricy (the more expensive, the better).
MATCHA – “ground tea”, is powdered gyokuro, used in the Japanese tea ceremony.

Furthermore, there are some specialties:
GENMAICHA – green tea with popped and roasted brown rice.

KUKICHA or twig tea, made -as the name suggests- not of leaves but of stems and stalks.
HOJICHA – which is not steamed but pan-fried green tea and roasted over charcoal.

Of course, this list is not complete as I am not familiar with other varieties (yet) – but I’m working on it

So far I’ve tried bancha, sencha (plus aromatized ones – cherry and vanilla), genmaicha, tamaryokucha and gyokuro. Kukicha is on my list-to-buy next time, and about matcha I can only dream for now, as I haven’t found it in Slovenia yet.
The least I liked of the above was genmaicha. The taste didn’t persuade me much. I like rice very much but…t his wasn’t my thing. (unfortunately I didn’t take any photo neither of genmaicha nor of bancha).

However, today I’d like to introduce you to TAMARYOKUCHA.
Its name means curly (shaped) green tea and is made mainly on Kyushu island. It is considered to be among the highest quality Japanese tea and its aroma ressembles gyokuro.
As for the most of Japanese green teas, it is recommended to use lower temperature of water for tamaryokucha to develop its beautiful aroma. That would mean temperatures around 70 degrees Celsius. Of couse, as an experiment, you can try adding boiling water and you will realize the tea tastes pretty bitter and unpleasant.