Japanese Loose Green Tea, Sencha, & Matcha

Japanese loose leaf green tea is set apart from other green teas in many ways. In contrast to green teas from other regions, Japanese green tea is crafted through unique cultivation techniques, such as shade-growing the tea plants. A special steaming process is also unique to Japanese green teas, compared to green teas from China, which gives them a bright green colour while enhancing the umami and verdant flavours inherent in the infusion. Japan's unique terroirs also distinguish the tea based on origin, precision of craft, and profound knowledge of the tea farmers that we champion.

The resulting flavours offer delicate, complex, and robust notes that are some of the most impossibly delicious teas in the world.

At Rare Tea, we offer many popular types of Japanese tea. Each cup is a journey into Japan's incredible tea gardens, selecting only the most delicious and full-bodied teas for your teapot. With so many varieties, we have a choice of green tea for any palate, mood, or pairing.

Matcha
At Rare Tea, we offer three types of Matcha green tea: Genmatcha, Japanese toasted matcha, and a specially blended Japanese Latte Matcha made specifically for use in lattes.

Our GenMatcha is made from a blend of sencha green tea and toasted Japanese brown rice, which are ground into a fine powder. The flavour profile includes sweetness and umami, plus highlights of popcorn and milky cereal.

Rare Tea's Japanese Toasted Matcha is crafted from ground green tea, like standard matcha, but is then transformed through toasting the leaf and stem first, making it into a hojicha. Our toasted matcha is also a ground hojicha or hojicha powder, giving it a nutty brown colour, which reduces the tea's caffeine content. The Japanese Toasted Matcha is a creamy, toasty and nutty tea, with chocolate brownie notes, which is especially delicious with the addition of either hot or cold milk.

Our Japanese Latte Matcha green tea is organic and crafted to be blended with milk. The flavour profile is grassy, sweet and umami, while the subtle bitter hints are perfectly balanced with milk.

Each of our matcha green teas are from the Wahoken tea garden in the Kagoshima Prefecture, at the southernmost point of Japan, on the Kyushu island. The garden is a small farm of about 100 hectares (or one square kilometer), run by Mr. Horiguchi and his family, who are dedicated to sustainable and organic cultivation principles, put into vital practice.

Sencha
Rare Tea Company's Sencha tea comes from the Moriuchi tea farm in the Shizuoka Prefecture, on the Pacific Ocean coast of Japan. Exquisitely crafted by Morichui-san, his wife and daughter, this tea expresses the unique terroir of his 200-year-old tea garden. Its rich flavour includes a savoury, bright and buttery note of asparagus.

Japanese Genmaicha and Yuzu Genmaicha
Rare Tea Company offers the popular Genmaicha tea in two different blends. First, our Japanese Genmaicha is a top grade Japanese loose leaf green tea with toasted brown rice. We use a superior Sencha tea, combined with organic toasted brown rice, which is unlike any other brand - many of them use a lower grade Sencha, whilst the toasted rice was a way to disguise the lesser quality of the tea. We don't do that. Instead, the rice perfectly compliments our Sencha, creating deep verdant notes with a pleasant and surprising pop of popcorn aroma.

Rare Tea Company's Yuzu Genmaicha is a traditional green tea with a lemon twist. Our genmaicha is blended with yuzu (an Asian citrus fruit) from Kagoshima, and toasted brown rice. The flavour is an earthy, savoury, and smooth green tea - almost like a Japanese take on an Earl Grey, but with a bright lift of citrus from the yuzu.

Japanese Hojicha
Rare Tea's Hojicha (also known as Houjicha) is a dark and roasted tea that is incredibly special. By roasting the leaf, some caffeine is removed, while the flavour becomes smooth and mellow as the roasting reduces astringency found in other green teas. Our Hojicha has less caffeine than other comparable green teas, with soft and even woody flavours perfect for after a savoury meal. The tea has a toasted caramel and nutty umami flavour.

Japanese Sofu Sencha
From the Moriuchi tea farm in Shuizuoka, Japan, our Sofu (also named the Blue Wind) Sencha is cultivated from a decade-old plant as it reaches perfection in maturity. The tea transports us with its flavour through a wonderful silky and grass flavour into enticing citrus flavours of grapefruit and lemon. Vegetal and smooth buttery flavours, grapes, lychee, and floral sensations of honeysuckle flood the palate with pleasure.

Japanese Fukamushi Shincha
Rare Tea Company's Fukamushi Shincha is a rare Japanese loose leaf green tea that comes from the bright first flush of the season. The green tea is steamed longer than the average Shincha, which gives it a more smooth, refreshing flavour profile. The sweetness is boosted while the astringency is reduced, creating a buttery infusion.

Japanese Gyokuro
Our Japanese Gyokuro is an astounding green tea. As the highest grade of Japanese green tea, made from shade-grown sencha, it is a whole leaf green tea that is shaded for weeks before its harvest. Through this slow shading process, the amino acid L-theanine is released, while the chlorophyll flavour and potential health benefits are also boosted. Additionally, this increases the smooth and sweet flavours in this green tea. With complex combinations of sweet and umami notes, this tea also contains a vegetal depth.

Karigane
Rare Tea Company also has a beautiful Karigane loose leaf green tea, crafted from the leaves and stem of the highest grade of gyokuro. The word 'Karigane' translates to 'Wild Goose', referring to the pale green leaves that contrast with stems, giving an illusion of wild geese sitting on tree branches. From the legendary Sakamoto tea garden in Japan, Rare Tea's Karigane has a balanced flavour profile: sweet garden peas move into rich umami, with a smooth butter mouthfeel, withouy any bitter or astringent undertones.

The water source used in steeping Japanese loose leaf green tea affects the final taste of your tea.

Mineral content plays a major role, with Japanese green tea traditionally using soft water that has a lower threshold of minerals. With fewer minerals, the water does not mask the delicate flavours and aromas of the tea. Hard water that has a higher mineral content, smothering the subtle nuances of Japanese green teas, which would unfortunately make the tea taste flat or become overly astringent. The pH level of water for infusing Japanese green tea should be 6-7, which is neutral or mildly acidic. With this pH level, the right balance of flavour is extracted from the tea in each cup. Alkaline water, with a pH above 7, will change the flavour of Japanese green teas into a more soapy or metallic palate.

Chlorine and other impurities will also negatively influence the taste of the green tea. Spring water is a good choice, as it is naturally balanced in minerals, while filtered water will also remove these impurities.

Temperature of the water is one of the most important factors in the water source used in steeping green teas for the perfect flavour. Lower temperatures of 70°C (158°F) or even as low as 60°C (140°F) can be ideal for most of our Japanese green teas. However, our Hojicha, is best when infused at 90°C (194°F). On our site, we have recommended infusion guides for all our teas, which can help you to steep our Japanese green teas perfectly. Lower temperature infusions are ideal for green teas, because they preserve the delicate and sweet notes in the lovely leaves.

Our perfectly crafted Japanese loose leaf green teas are only available based on delicate seasonal conditions. For example, our Shincha is typically picked towards the end of April and into early May, making its availability highly limited, especially from the exquisitely rare tea gardens that we work with in Japan.

Rare Tea's Gyokuro is another specific type of Japanese loose leaf green tea that is limited in availability. As an especially premium Japanese loose leaf green tea that is shade-grown for weeks before harvest, it has a complex and labour-intensive crafting method, making it incredibly rare and indelibly delicious.

Karigane, made from stems and twigs from the Gyokuro tea plants is another seasonal and rare tea that we offer. Since it requires Gyokuro as its base, it is also rare and available in highly limited quantities, with a sweet and delicate flavour profile.

Japanese tea masters have a special way of determining the optimal picking time for loose leaf green tea, based on three important factors. First, the leaf development is crucial, as tea leaves are usually picked when they have three to five sprouts each. Picking them too early or late will negatively impact the tea quality, meaning that the ideal cultivation time is when the leaf is open 50 to 70%. Weather conditions are a second special way to determine optimal picking tea, with tea masters monitoring weather patterns such as rainfall, temperature, and humidity. These conditions affect the quality of the tea and their overall quality, with an aim to only pick leaves during the ideal seasonal patterns for cultivation of individual Japanese green teas.

The seasonal timing of harvest is also important, and often revolves around the spring, from April through May, with the most prized leaves emerging in this period. Subsequent harvests occur later, with different flavours surfacing from each harvest. Shade-growing is another kind of special process that is time and condition-specific for the tea that Rare Tea is proud to offer, especially our Gyokuro and Matcha, giving them unbelievably rich, complex, and deep flavours.

At Rare Tea, we champion tea workers - the masters of Japanese green tea are exceptional in their hand-picking of the best leaves of tea from their gardens. Meticulous choice of leaves means that only the finest, rarest tea comes from their gardens, into our tins, and are infused in your cup or teapot.