Sencha Tea: How to Brew Sencha Green Tea

Sencha is a Japanese green tea, made from the upper leaves of the tea bush Camellia sinensis. Sencha tea has a mild grassy flavor that may taste slightly sweet. Sencha green tea is one of many types of similar Japanese teas, including genmaicha and kabusecha.

Sencha is a caffeinated tea and, depending on the brew time, it can contain up to 75 milligrams of caffeine in a cup, which almost matches coffee at 80 milligrams of caffeine in a cup. It is a popular summer drink, because it’s lighter than many of the other Japanese green teas, like matcha. After it is brewed in hot water, sencha can be enjoyed hot or cooled as iced tea. There are different types of Japanese sencha teas, including fukamushi, asamushi, and chumushi.

There are many types of sencha tea, depending on how the leaves are grown and prepared. These are some of the most popular varieties of sencha tea:

1. 1. Shincha Sencha: Shincha is made from the first harvest of Japanese green tea in the Spring, and has a sweeter flavor profile than other sencha teas.
2. 2. Asamushi: Asamushi sencha is steamed for only 30 seconds, the shortest steaming time of all senchas, which gives the tea leaves a bright color and the steamed tea a light flavor.
3. 3. Chumushi: Chumushi sencha is steamed for one minute, and is considered the most traditional flavor of sencha, with a stronger flavor than asamushi.
4. 4. Fukamushi: Fukamushi sencha is steamed the longest of all the sencha teas, from 90 seconds to two minutes which gives the tea a rich, dark and aromatic flavor.

Sencha has a fresh, herbal, or grassy flavor, which can have notes of grass, kale, Brussel sprouts, kiwi, and spinach depending on how long it is steeped. When you first sip it, sencha tea may have an astringent taste which typically evolves from sour to sweet to savory. It may taste more refreshing and lighter than matcha, making it a popular summer tea.

Follow these three steps to brew yourself a cup of refreshing sencha tea.

• Pre-warm your teapot and cups. Sencha is typically brewed in a Kyusu teapot, which has a built-in metal strainer, then poured into small sencha cups. To preheat the teapot and cups, fill each with hot water and let them rest for a few minutes.
• Heat your water and pour it over your tea. Place around five grams of loose leaf sencha tea into your teapot’s metal strainer. Pour the hot water heated to around 158 degrees Fahrenheit over the tea leaves to fill the teapot. If you are brewing sencha in tea bags or sachets instead of a kettle, you can brew the tea in a standard teapot or directly in your mug. Make sure that your sencha tea bags are cotton instead of paper, because paper tea bags will affect its taste.
• Steep your tea. Steep your tea in hot water for around two minutes, which will give your tea a better chance to develop a stronger taste. Top off your tea with a small amount of piping hot water, and enjoy.

Matcha is another popular type of Japanese green tea that derives from the same plant as sencha, but there are several key differences between sencha and matcha teas:

• Color: Matcha tea is typically a bright green color, while sencha has a more muted color that can range from light yellow to bright green.
• Taste: Sencha has a grassy, earthy flavor that evolves from astringent, to slightly sweet, to savory. Matcha also has a slightly astringent flavor but is sweeter and heavier than sencha.
  
• Tea Production: Sencha is a loose leaf tea where the leaves have been steamed and rolled. Matcha tea, derived from the same leaves, is ground into a fine stone-ground powder that dissolves in water or milk to make the tea.
• Brewing: Sencha is a loose leaf tea that is brewed by steeping the whole, rolled leaves in hot water. To brew matcha tea, the powder steeps and dissolves in hot water—and sometimes milk—then the mixture is frothed with a matcha whisk.
• Drinking: When people drink sencha tea, they are drinking a typical tea infused with the sencha leaves without ingesting the leaves. Matcha is a powder that is ingested in the form of a drink, so matcha tea drinkers are technically “eating” matcha rather than drinking it.
• Harvesting: Sencha comes from tea leaves that have been grown in direct sunlight, coming from the top leaves and stems of the Camellia sinensis bush. Matcha comes from tea leaves grown in the shade, and only the two leaves at the very tip of the shoot are used, the youngest part of the plant.

Become a better chef with the MasterClass Annual Membership. Gain access to exclusive video lessons taught by the world’s best, including Niki Nakayama, Gabriela Cámara, Chef Thomas Keller, Yotam Ottolenghi, Dominique Ansel, Gordon Ramsay, Alice Waters, and more.