Without a doubt, the national drink of Japan is green Sencha tea.
When you arrive at a traditional inn or
ryokan, you are presented with a cup of green
Sencha tea; in restaurants, waitresses often serve
you cups or mugs of green Sencha or roasted
hojicha; and even the 7-11s are stocked with cold
bottles of green tea. Japanese green Sencha tea is
one of the most famous Asian teas, yet least
appreciated outside Japan. Here's an introduction to
the most important types:
Sencha:
Japan's most famous tea, Sencha has been
steamed then dried, resulting in a fresh, vegetal
taste. Sencha tea is steeped very briefly (1 minute or
less) in a tall, handleless cup or in a kyusu teapot,
which has a handle angled out the side of the teapot.
To prevent bitterness, the tea is brewed using water
that is much below boiling.
Gyokuro is a very high quality green Sencha that is
especially green due to the tea bushes being
shaded by black mesh netting a few weeks before
harvesting. This increases the caffeine content and
chlorophyll, producing a very delicate and expensive
tea.
Matcha
or powdered green tea was long reserved
for the Japanese tea ceremony, but in recent years
people have begun to drink it as an everyday tea.
Matcha is also used in cookies, cakes, and ice cream.
Hojicha
was invented in the 1920s by a Kyoto tea
merchant who decided to roast green tea. The flavor
of roasted hojicha is "toasty" and slightly reminiscent
of oolong tea. Because of the roasting process,
there is virtually no caffeine.
Genmaicha
is produced when green sencha is
mixed with toasted rice. It has a very unique flavor
that we especially love on chilly days.
Bancha is an inexpensive, low quality green tea
drunk everyday.
For tea accessories, the ideal Japanese teapot is the
kyusu, which has a handle
jutting out the side. Tea is brewed for a very brief
time and then poured into handleless, porcelain
cups. Japanese tea is usually bought in small
quantities and stored in small, metal tea containers,
with tight-fitting lids.
Article on Japanese Tea Ceremony
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