Japanese tea culture traces its roots to the Heian period when Buddhist monks introduced tea to Japan from China. Over the centuries, the practice evolved into a profound cultural phenomenon, with the vast majority of people in Japan still drinking tea daily.
Grown across a number of prefectures throughout Japan’s southwest, there is a wide variety of Japanese teas. From a bright and grassy sencha to the rich and umami-laden gyokuro, each has its own distinctive flavour profile.
Japanese Tea by YUGEN
On an early trip to Japan, we were lucky enough to stumble across YUGEN’s quiet Japanese tea café and specialty store in Kyoto. A quiet place to stop and enjoy award-winning teas and matcha, their café was an instant favourite. YUGEN emphasises the transparency of their tea’s origins, with a primary focus on teas produced in Uji and the Kyoto Prefecture.
Within our Japanese tea collection, you can find three of our favourite loose leaf teas from YUGEN. Each has a unique flavour profile and together provide a wonderful introduction to the variety of Japanese tea.
Brewing Instructions
When brewing Japanese tea, we recommend using a ceramic teapot and teacups, however porcelain and individual cup tea baskets are perfectly acceptable tea tools for brewing.
If you are looking to taste the full range of aromas and sharpness that your tea has to offer, we recommend brewing at 85℃ with a ratio of 5g of tea to 180-250ml of water. After pouring in your water, allow the tea to steep for 90 seconds. On your first brew, you can enjoy the tea leaves slowly expanding as they bloom in the water. Once the time is up, pour all of the water from your teapot, leaving your tea leaves in the pot for your next brew. Each serve can be brewed up to three times.
If you prefer your tea with a lower bitterness profile, brew at 65-70℃ and allow your tea to steep for 2 minutes. Repeating up to three times.
With each subsequent brew, we recommend increasing the temperature by 5 to 10 degrees. Now that the tea has bloomed, the second and third brew only need to steep of 30 seconds.
Brewing sencha with YUGEN
For a refreshing cold brew Japanese tea, place 12g of your chosen tea in a bottle with 1L of cold water. Store it in the fridge for 8-12 hours before removing the tea and enjoying cold and crisp over ice.
Embrace Japanese Tea with OKAERI
With each brew of your Japanese tea, you can enjoy the health benefits as well as the rich sweetness and umami flavours. Our Japanese green teas are full of antioxidants, amino acids, and vitamin C. To complete your brewing experience, our ceramics collection includes kyusu teapots made especially with YUGEN’s teas in mind as well as several beautiful, handmade teacups.