Beverage
Sencha
A tier
Sencha is Japan’s primary steamed green tea style, produced mainly from Camellia sinensis sinensis cultivars such as Yabukita grown in full sun (unshaded, unlike gyokuro). Fresh leaf is steamed soon after harvest to stop oxidation, then rolled, shaped, and dried into needle-like dark green leaf that releases a bright, vegetal liquor. Regional craft in Shizuoka, Kagoshima, Uji, and elsewhere varies steaming length (asamushi to fukamushi), rolling intensity, and seasonal pluck quality. The cup ranges from grassy and marine to sweet and lightly astringent, with umami increasing in finer first-flush lots. Sencha is the everyday Japanese green tea for home and office, served hot or cold, and is also used in cooking, soft drinks, and ice cream when a classic steamed-green flavour is required.
Also known as: Shizuoka sencha, Kagoshima sencha, Uji sencha, Fukamushi sencha, Asamushi sencha
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History
Nagatani Sōen of Uji refined leaf rolling and steaming methods that became the foundation of modern sencha manufacture.
Wider adoption of sencha-style processing displaced older brick and powdered-only habits for ordinary Japanese green tea drinking.
The Yabukita cultivar was selected in Shizuoka, later dominating sencha acreage for balanced yield and flavour.
Post-war mechanisation and deep-steaming (fukamushi) techniques expanded consistent mass-market sencha production.
Export and domestic branding of regional senchas grew as Japan’s green tea industry modernised packaging and quality grades.
Specialty single-cultivar and single-estate sencha gained international following among green tea enthusiasts.