Tea & drinks ── Nihoncha (Japanese tea)
Bancha
Bancha — everyday tea from later-picked, coarser leaves
Green tea made from later-picked leaves or larger, tougher leaves left over after the prized first flush — an everyday tea. Compared to sencha's young leaves, it's said to carry less astringency and bitterness, and has long been valued as an affordable, everyday drink.
- Fermented and bancha teas
Lineage
What it's made of
Rather than the young, tender buds used for the first flush, bancha is said to use tougher, larger leaves grown from summer onward. The process itself is the same unfermented green-tea method as sencha — steamed, rolled, dried — but with tougher leaf there's less of the compound behind astringency, tending toward a lighter flavor. It's said to be relatively low in caffeine too, and has long been valued as an everyday tea. Its liquor tends to be lighter and more yellow than sencha's, with a light mouthfeel and restrained astringency said to make it an easy tea to drink in quantity.
How it's made
Leaves picked later in the season, or cut back during pruning, are steamed to stop oxidation and then rolled and dried just like sencha. Some regions have their own distinct bancha processes, branching into their own lineages that combine sun-drying or fermentation, as with Kyoto's kyo-bancha or Tokushima's awa bancha. Brewing with water close to boiling, around 90°C as a guide, is said to draw out flavor well, and it resists turning bitter even when steeped for a long time.
Why it took this shape
Bancha is said to have arisen as a way to avoid wasting toughened or leftover leaves, in the shadow of the prized first and second flushes reserved for finer tea. The word is also said to have originally just meant 'everyday tea,' and that role as a casual home drink is said to have been the soil in which each region's own distinct process grew. Tougher leaf is said to be fibrous and slow to let heat or water through, and brewing it with firm heat is said to have settled in naturally across regions as a result.
Before You Go
Dishes in the same style
- Awa BanchaA post-fermented tea from Naka and Kamikatsu towns in Tokushima, fermented by lactic acid bacteria. Coarser leaves picked from midsummer on are boiled, packed into wooden barrels, fermented for roughly 10 days to two weeks, then sun-dried — said to give a refreshing sourness.
- GoishichaA post-fermented tea from Otoyo, Kochi Prefecture, made through two stages of fermentation — an aerobic mold fermentation followed by a lactic acid soak. Named for its square-cut, sun-dried pieces said to resemble go stones, it carries a distinctive sweet-and-sour flavor.
Ingredients and dishes from this land
Contrast
- SenchaGreen tea made from young leaves grown without shading, steamed and rolled dry in what's considered the most basic Japanese tea process. It's said to account for the bulk of the country's tea production, prized for a balance of fresh aroma and gentle astringency.
- Mizu YokanA style of yokan with less agar and sugar and more water, giving a smooth, light texture. It keeps for a shorter time than neri-yokan and was once said to be made mainly in cooler months, though today it is also enjoyed as a cooling summer treat.
- Kyo-banchaA Kyoto-specific bancha made from the large leaves and stems left over after picking for gyokuro and tencha — steamed, sun-dried, then roasted over high heat. Said to carry a smoky, bonfire-like aroma and a faint sweetness, traditionally boiled in a large kettle.
Derived style
- HojichaTea made by roasting sencha, bancha, or stem tea over high heat. Roasting is said to reduce bitter compounds like catechins, giving a toasty aroma and a clean finish, along with relatively low caffeine.
- GenmaichaTea made by mixing roasted, steamed rice at roughly equal parts with bancha or sencha. The toasty aroma of the roasted rice meets the tea's freshness, said to give a light, relatively low-caffeine cup.