Japanese Tea History - A Quick Overview

Back in the day, around 794-1185 tea was brought to Japan in the form of dancha (a hard ball of oxidized tea leaves) by japanese monks that had been to China.  In the 800's Japan and China had a falling out which led to anything Chinese (including tea) to be dropped from Japanese culture.  By the 12th century relations with China were back on track and tea was once again popular.

At this point a Japanese Zen Buddhist monk by the name of Eisai introduced tea seeds and tea etiquette from China.  His main objective was to use the tea as an aid for mediating monks.  Eisai experimented with tea and together with monk Myo-e promoted the drinking of powdered tea as both a health benefit and a Zen training tool.  This powdered tea was called Matcha.   Monks started their daily ritual, and here began the beginning of the rules of preparing and serving tea.

By the 13th century samurai warriors were into the matcha.  They were adopting the Zen ways, but the tea also became a source of entertainment and excess.  Big extravagant parties were held, and tea in Japan was getting quite a reputation.

Then came a fellow by the name of Murato Shuko (1423-1502), who transformed the Matcha from a source of entertainment, to more of a ceremony.  He created the tea and the concepts of Wabi and Ichigo Ichie which became central to the tea ceremony.

Wabi is 'finding beauty in imperfection and discovering a sense of the profound in all things nature'.  It means what it says - one should be able to find beauty in all things, not just in what is visually appealing to the eye.  Ichigo Ichie is 'one time, one meeting', which essentially means that every encounter one has is unique and once it is over it is gone forever.  So even if there is something in your life that you do everyday, it may appear to be the same everyday, but in fact every time it occurrs it happens a little differently.  It is this fact that makes every moment in life unique and all moments should be accounted for as unique and special in its own right.

Perhaps the biggest influence on the practice of tea came from Sen Rikyu (1522-1591) who continued on with the work of his predecessor Shuko, which led to the development of the tea ceremony.  The Japanese tea ceremony is a complex set of procedures for preparng the tea, and for receiving the tea.  It takes many many years, often a lifetime to perfect. 

Modern tea gardens are for the most part designed for harvest by machinery, and that is why the tea rows are so uniform.  The needle like shape of the leaves is a result of the rolling and drying machines that are used.  Most of the green tea is steamed in Japan, but there are some roasted or pan fired teas from the island of Kyushu.

While most tea is processed by machinery, it is important to note that this does not affect the quality of the tea, it simply allows for more efficient processing techinques.  Unlike most of the tea producing countires, Japan has the ability to come up with the capital to support this type of processing. 

The best teas are said to come from the Yame region of Fukuoka Prefecture and the Uji region of Kyoto in the Shizuoka Prefecture.  Green teas from Japan are simply amazing and should be explored and enjoyed by everyone.

Tea from Japan

This week in my tea course we are reviewing tea from Japan.  Today I performed my preliminary tea tastings of 5 teas from Japan.  They are all green teas as that is what is predominately manufactured in Japan, and what they are most well known for.  The teas we tasted were: Sencha, Genmaicha, Hoji Cha, Gyokuro and Matcha.  Here is a photo of the dry leaves, are presented in the order of the list from top left to right and then bottom left to right.

Here is a photo of the tea liquor:

If you start with the big bowl, that is the Matcha, and if we rotate in a clockwise direction we have Gyokuro, Sencha, Genmaicha, and Hoji Cha.  All teas were steeped in water heated to 80 degree celcius for 3 minutes.

Sencha:  The most popular tea in Japan, has a light slightly vegetal aroma, and tastes similar.  I really enjoyed this tea, for it's light flavour.

Genmaicha:  I loved the toasted rice popcorn flavoured coupled with the fresh vegetal flavour of the green tea.  This is one tea that once you taste it you will easily recognize it every time.

Hoji Cha:  This tea is roasted in a procelain pot over charcoal and has a sweet nuttiness to its flavour.  The leaves are roasted until they are brown, and the liquor also has a brown colour to it.  I quite liked it.

Gyokuro:  The dry leaves of this tea are exceptionally green in colour.  The dry leaves have a soft silky feel to them and they already promise a high quality tea.  This tea is grown in the shade, as opposed to Sencha that is grown in the full sun.  I loved this tea.  It has a full see weedy/kelpy flavour to that is somehow still light on the pallet.

Matcha:  Apparently this was the ceremonial grade that we tried.  It had a bitterness to it, and was a bit grainy to drink due the powdered leaves not dissolving in the water.  The health benefits of Matcha are numerous, and I will definitely continue to drink this tea.  I hope I enjoy it more in the future!!

What are my top picks?  It's hard to say as I think green tea is one of my favourites all around.  For just green tea without any special roastings or flavourings I love the gyokuro.  It has such an amazing kelpy flavour that is strong yet subtle.  Bit I also really like the genmaicha for its roasted rice flavourings, and I liked the Hoji Cha for its sweet nuttiness.  Sencha is a great all around green tea that won't break the bank.  As for the Matcha - I will drink this and hope will soon learn to enjoy it more, but the health benefits from this superfood are far to great to ignore it!!

  This was just a quick synopsis of the teas I tasted this week.  As it turns out we are also covering the Teas from Sri Lanka this week so I'll have to get back to work shortly.  The Sri Lanka teas will be 5 black teas.