Category: General Info

Kintsuba (きんつば) is a traditional Japanese sweet (wagashi) that is fairly common, although not as popular as others. In essence, it’s a yōkan with an outer crust. Nowadays, most...

Kirari 31 (きらり３１) is a cultivar that not only makes a high quality sencha, but also kabusecha and gyokuro. Kirari means “momentary flash of light”. The number 31 is...

Kabusecha means “shaded tea”. This shading process is also employed for teas like gyokuro and matcha. Traditionally, sencha isn’t shaded. Note that after harvesting, sencha, kabusecha and gyokuro are...

Ichoucha (萎凋茶) is a Japanese tea that has been withered. Withering is called ichou in Japanese. Another word also used for withering tea is bihakkou (微発酵). For example, ichou...

This is a tea documentary in English from NHK World, made in 2022. Its about 30 minutes long. Besides the basic information about Japanesetea, it has some interesting content....

The Shizukaori (しずかおり) cultivar is named after Shizuoka prefecture, and also because of its superior aroma (kaori in Japanese). This cultivar is meant for sencha production. History of Shizukaori...

Many tea ceremony schools in Japan were closed during the pandemic. This led Okochi Sachi from the Senshin-an tea ceremony school to make a small tea room (chashitsu) that...

Yamanoibuki (山の息吹) means “mountain breath”. It’s an early budding cultivar meant for sencha production. History of Yamanoibuki In 1975 at present day Kawanehon town in Shizuoka prefecture, specimens were...

I have two tea plants in the same pot. They seem to be from the Assamica variety, but the specific cultivar is unknown. After taking care of them for...

While these two types of Japanese green tea have a different appearance, their other attributes are somewhat similar. Green tea production inevitably results in a considerable amount of excess...

Yamakai (やまかい、山峡) means “ravine”. The name of this cultivar comes from the fact that it has a color similar to mountain tea. It’s suitable for sencha, kabusecha and gyokuro....

While I’m not a practitioner of the Japanese tea ceremony, I’ve always found it interesting. This video is an episode from an NHK television program that aired in 2009....