Japanese green tea seems to have a distinctive flavor, different from the Vietnamese or Chinese green tea that I’m used to. Someone once told me it’s flavored with rice, but I have a bag of YamaMotoYama tea here, and it doesn’t list ingredients, which implies it’s just pure green tea. So is it a different strain, or is the preparation different?
I think you are referring to matcha, which has its own special growing/processing steps.
Does Matcha come in bags?
No, but I was able to find my way from that page to Sencha, which explains that the leaves are steamed instead of roasted.
In Japan it does, don’t know about here.
Ah–I’ve only seen it as a powder, like the green tea version of espresso.
Yeah, at least at the hotels I’ve been at in Tokyo when you order room service breakfast (or for that matter pull out your hot water maker and tea setup that is already there), there will be two bags of matcha and two bags of I think ocha.
There are tea bags with matcha added, but pure matcha bags are extremely uncommon. The whole idea is that you drink the whole leaf.
There are many different varieties (and sub-varieties) of Japanese tea. Sencha is the most common and it’s what you have but there is also:
Bancha: Sencha is made using the tips of young leaves, whereas bancha is made using whole leaves (including the stem) that are older. As a result it has more tanins and less caffein. The taste is noticeably different.
Hojicha: This is sencha or bancha that has been roasted. It is very popular in Kyoto, and it has a very distinctive taste that’s markedly different from other teas.
Genmaicha: This is probably what your friend was thinking about. It is bancha that has been heated to which steamed brown rice and rice puffs have been added. Like hojicha, it has a very distinctive flavour.
Gyokuro: Technically, this is a variety of sencha, but the leaves are grown differently (under shade). It has a sweater, fuller taste than regular sencha. It is the most expensive type of Japanese tea.
Note that in Japanese, “sencha” has two meanings. One refers to a particular type of green tea, made using young leaves, which is what you’re drinking (although it might also be bancha). The other refers to any tea that has been steeped in water, essentially everything but matcha.
There are lots of different kinds of tea in Japan, and some of them are being confused in this thread. I’m no expert, and I’m sure someone who knows better than I do will come along (probably while I’m typing).
Matcha: This is specially prepared, ground tea leaves, from a tea plant that has been shaded to increase the production of chlorophyll. It’s incredibly bitter, and is usually consumed with some kind of sweet. It is expensive, and generally only drunk during tea ceremonies, not as an every day thing. It’s also used in the production of sweets, and more recently, coffee shops have started offering drinks containing some matcha.
Sencha: This is your normal green tea. Comes in bags, or loose leaf. In Japan, loose leaf is commonly used in the home, but bags are hardly a rare thing, mostly for convenience. It generally has a different flavour than Chinese varieties, due to the way it’s processed.
Genmaicha: This is what someone told our OP about; it is green tea with popped rice. It has a distinctive smell and flavour from the rice.
Bancha/houjicha: This is roasted tea leaves and stems to the point where they turn brown. Very different flavour, and commonly drunk in the evening and after meals.
“Ocha” just means “tea,” and can refer to any kind. The one you’re calling matcha is probably just powdered sencha (similar to instant coffee).
edit: Dammit, see?
Yeah, the few times I’ve had matcha, it was served as a special tea at a Japanese client’s house. He would bring out the powdered matcha, along with a special tiny little bamboo (I think) whisk, and froth up the matcha in a special bowl with hot water. It really was a special, intense green tea. Like I said, matcha is to tea like espresso is to coffee. I was surprised that they might have it in tea bags, because that seems to miss the whole point of that particular tea.
I’ve seen a lot of green teas with matcha in them, but it’s generally not the main ingredient.
Ceremony-grade matcha is typically made from Gyokuro leaves, in case that isn’t already clear.
Matcha is reasonably often blended with genmaicha. The result can be delicious.