Tea & drinks ── Nihoncha (Japanese tea)
Kabusecha
Kabusecha — briefly shaded tea between sencha and gyokuro
Tea shaded for about a week before picking by draping straw or netting directly over the bushes — a style that sits between gyokuro and sencha. Because the shading period is shorter than gyokuro's, it's said to carry gyokuro's umami alongside sencha's brighter astringency.
- Green tea
What it's made of
Buds shaded for around 7 days before picking by draping straw or netting directly over the bushes, rather than building a frame. The period is shorter than gyokuro's roughly 20 days, giving a style said to carry some of gyokuro's shaded aroma and umami while keeping sencha's brighter astringency — a flavor that sits between the two. Its liquor color tends to fall between gyokuro's pale hue and sencha's deeper green, said to carry a balanced mix of both astringency and umami.
How it's made
After the brief shading, the leaf is steamed to stop oxidation and rolled and dried the same way as sencha. The length of shading is said to push the result closer to gyokuro or closer to sencha, and water temperature is said to shift the balance of sweetness and astringency — cooler water drawing out sweetness, hotter water sharper notes. The color and thickness of the netting used for shading is said to affect how much light is blocked, and brewing with water around 70°C as a guide is said to draw out more sweetness.
Why it took this shape
Full shaded cultivation like gyokuro's is said to require the labor of building a frame, and a simpler method — draping cover directly over the bushes — is said to have spread as a way to make an umami-rich tea with less effort. It's positioned as a tea that captures the strengths of both gyokuro and sencha at a more modest cost. Being a shading method that's easy to adopt even on flatter land without major mountains, as in Mie's Hokusei area, is said to be one reason it spread to new producing regions.
Before you go
Dishes in the same style
- Fukamushi SenchaA method of steaming the leaf far longer than ordinary sencha, said to break the leaf down finely and mellow its astringency into a deep green, richer-bodied tea. With smaller leaf fragments, more dissolves into the water, giving a notably smooth mouthfeel.
- 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.
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.
- GyokuroA premium tea made from buds shaded from sunlight for around 20 days before picking. Blocking the light is said to suppress astringent compounds while letting amino acids build up in the leaf, giving a seaweed-like aroma and concentrated umami.