12.18.04
Unusual types of green tea
A customer asks…
“Dear Mr. Moore,
I was wondering if you are planning to sell kukicha or yabukita-cha in the future? I know they are not as popular as other ones, but I was just wondering, because I realized these are the ones that I do not see on your website. I lived in Japan for 5 years and I like to stock my kitchen with one of every kinds.
Also, a Connecticut tea company ***** has a type of Japanese tea called ‘Tencha’. Do you know anything about this mysterious/rare tea? If so, are they good? Thank you in advance”
Kukicha: is basically the stems that are left over after the rest of the leaves have been processed - Stem tea. It’s not considered to be high quality, but that said, it can be quite tasty. Another similar type is known as “kariganecha”. The difference between the two is that kukicha uses sencha stems and kariganecha uses gyokuro stems. We sell a blend of green tea , called “Otsuusan”, that consists of sencha and karigane stems (karigane sencha) that’s really delicious. Very green, with a tart taste.
Yabukita-cha: Yabukita is the most common cultivar of tea plant grown in Japan. So, many green teas from Japan would fall under the classification of “Yabukita-cha”. It really doesn’t refer to one specific green tea.
Tencha:. Well, there isn’t anything rare or mysterious about tencha. Tencha is simply the shade grown green tea leaves that are processed and used for matcha. They are basically the same leaves used for gyokuro, except that they are never taken to the rolling process. After steaming, the leaves for tencha are air dried in kind of big vertical wind tunnel. This dries the leaves and eventually helps remove the veins. It is kind of rare to see this on the market for brewing as it’s generally used for matcha production.
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