While Japanese green tea and matcha are rapidly gaining in popularity, the information available about the product in English is still scarce.
As a long term resident in Japan, certified tea ceremony instructor and Japanese tea sommelier with specialisation in organic and artisan teas, I have produced a book that will fill this gap.
The tea bush is known to produce amino acids during tea cultivation. These are transferred to the fresh buds for their initial development. When the sunlight reaches those buds, photosynthesis occurs and causes these amino acids to change into catechin. While amino acids are chemical components that are responsible for a sweet, umami flavor, catechin components imbue the final product with a rather bitter taste.
Japanese tea is often described as ‘green tea’ and limited to the major brands of tea that are fashioned in Japan. These include sencha, kabusecha, gyokuro, matcha, bancha, etc. While it is indeed unique to Japan’s tea manufacturing to steam the freshly picked tea leaf as the first stage of processing of green tea, I …
An exclusive selection of top-grade naturally-grown, traditional Japanese teas by tea-master and organic tea sommelier Tyas Sōsen; first certified Belgian Japanese tea instructor and Tea-ceremony teacher in the Enshū school.
