Many people say they want to buy Japanese Tea for sourvenirs. But it is a little confusing sometimes because there are so many different kinds. What’s greent tea? Is it different from Matcha?
Types of Japanese Tea
- Green Tea or Ryoku cha （緑茶）
- Roasted Tea or Hoji cha（ほうじ茶）
- Matcha（抹茶）
- Barley tea or Mugi cha （麦茶）
- Brown Rice Tea or Genmai cha（玄米茶）
When do we drink different kinds of tea?
- Green Tea： Green tea is most general tea you have in Japan. Color of tea is yellow to Green. If we have people come over at home, we often serve green tea. Tea leaves are steamed and dried to keep them green. It is not fermented like English Tea. There are several grades of tea Gyokuro（玉露）
- Roasted Tea: Tea leaves are roasted and have good flavor. Color is brown. Roasted tea doesn’t contain caffein, so children can also drink. It is often served with meals.
- Matcha： Matcha is the best part of tea leaves (tip of the tea leaves) that are grounded to powder. It is used in tea ceremony. You put the powder and hot water and whisk them to mix. You can consume whole tea so it is full of vitamin and nuturitious.
- Barley tea: We often drink barley tea in summer. Full of minerals and also helps lower body temperature.
- Brown Rice Tea: slightly sweet some people drink them like roasted tea. Genmai cha is a mixture of almost the same amount of bancha (coarse tea) or occasionally sencha green tea heated at high temperatures, and brown rice steamed and roasted until it gets a light ginger color or bursts like popcorn.
Famous Tea Shops
You will find many tea shops, but following are some of the famous tea shops:
- Ippodo（一保堂）
- Fukujuen（福寿園）
- Itoen（伊藤園）
You will often find those excellent tea shops in Depa chika or Basement of Department stores. Any Japanese tea shops found in Depa chika are qualitiy tea shops that is good for gifts. If you are staying in Kyoto, Kyoto is one of the famous area that produces tea and they have many local factories that process tea. Those are also good places to buy tea. If you are staying in residential areas, there are often tea shops for locals. Those are more affordable. You will also find Japanese tea in supermarkets that people drink daily. Some are tea bags or freeze dry powder and easy to make.
History of Tea in Japan
Tea first came into Japan from China as medicine about 1200 years ago. It is said that tea was brought to Japan by Bhuddist monk who studied in China. At that time, it was extremely rare and only aristocrates and monks had them. Later, tea came to be popular among feudal lords and tea ceremony (Sado or way of tea) was developed. Tea ceremony is an important part of Japanese culture. By Edo period (1603-1867) tea was widely produced in many parts of Japan and ordinary people also enjoyed tea.
If you want to experience Tea Ceremony
There are places you can experience tea ceremonies. Some of Gardens or temples may serve tea：For example, in Tokyo, Hamarikyu Garden; in Kyoto, Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion) Temple.
Matcha Sweets
Nowadays, matcha flavor is extremely popular. We have many matcha flavor sweets. The most famous one is Matcha Kitkat. You can find other sweetst in department stores and supermarkets.
In supermarkets, you will find matcha flavor cookies, matcha flavor chocolates and so on. They can make a good sourvenir and gift to your friends and colleagues.
Kyoto is famous for green tea. So you will find plenty of green tea flavor products. My favorite is Matcha flavor cooky called CHANOKA.
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