Tea is classified into six categories: green tea, white tea, yellow tea, blue tea (oolong tea), black tea, and dark tea. This site introduces the various teas that CHAMART has sampled.

Steamed green tea
Unfermented tea
Production area: Various places in Japan
Flavor: Compared with fukamushicha (deep-steamed green tea), the flavor of sencha is better with a slight astringency.
History:
Sencha was invented by NAGATANI Soen
In the Edo Period, NAGATANI Soen (1681-1778), an accomplished farmer of Ujitawara invented the “Aosei Sencha method (青製煎茶製法)”. In this method, tea leaves are steamed and rubbed and dried by hand on a hoiro (ほい炉), a wooden drier for tea leaves. Prior to that, the color of brewed tea produced by boiled or roasted tea leaves in a pan was dark brown. On the other hand, the color of brewed tea using the new method became bluish-green.
This is the house where Soen was born in Ujitawara Town. The house was reconstructed in 1960. Inside, the remnants of the hoiro used by Soen are preserved.
Until the “Aosei Sencha Seiho” was developed, good tea was made using the matcha method, and only the privileged classes could drink it. After its invention, Sencha became widely consumed by common people.

A portrait painter of Soen at the house where Soen was born (October 2018)

Sencha and fukamushicha (deep steamed green tea9

CHAMART’s recommendation 

Pizza with used sencha tea leaf and pound cake & ice cream with used sencha tea leaf

Reference: 
日本茶業学会 茶の科学用語辞典(第3版)編集委員会(2021) 茶の科学用語辞典(第3版) 日本茶業学会
社団法人農山漁村文化協会編(2008) 茶大百科I歴史・文化/品質・機能性/品種/製茶 第一刷 社団法人農山漁村文化協会編
大森正司、阿南豊正、伊勢村護、加藤みゆき、滝口明子、中村羊一郎編(2017) 茶の事典 初版第一刷 朝倉書店
高野實、谷本陽蔵、富田勲、中川致之、岩浅潔、寺元益英、山田新市 執筆 (社)日本茶業中央会監修 (2005) 緑茶の事典 改定3版 柴田書店
永谷宗円生家 https://ujitawara-kyoto.com/sightseeing/scenery/nagatanisouenseika/

*The site does not describe all “Teas of Japan” or all “Teas of the World”. Additionally, each article expresses the writer’s personal experience and feelings.
*The information provided on this site may be updated. If you find any information in this article that is incorrect, new, or incomplete, please contact CHAMART.