Sencha - A Japanese Person’s Coffee

As the March Hare said in the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland, “Start at the beginning,” and the beginning for me is sencha, or Japanese green tea.

Sencha is traditionally a Japanese person’s go to like coffee is in America. Although they do not put sugar in theirs. Italians often bond over espresso and wine, while in Japan sencha is traditionally the social drink which gives people a chance to reconnect or relax. Sencha helps to settle the stomach, some research has proven it helps with weight management, has properties that help prevent different cancers and other health benefits.

There are many types of green teas out there, but the teas from Japan are a class of their own with a large variety different types of sencha and each holds special significance to the culture. Matcha is a fine powder tea used in traditional Japanese tea ceremonies. These are quite famous and formal, and yet matcha is now used in a myriad of drinks and food. Another common tea is genmaicha, “pop brown rice” tea, which has a slight unbuttered popcorn taste to it - not my favorite. Depending on how long any of these teas are steeped, will determine how strong the flavor is. When I was younger I preferred it to be as green as bamboo leaves - not too bitter nor strong, but as I have gotten older I want my cup filled with a deeper green that makes it difficult to see the bottom of the cup.

Like nearly everything else in life, the quality of sencha affects the price. Premium sencha which is supposed to be of the highest quality, and the kind which tastes as cheap as the price. The deciding factor for this is when the farmers pick the leaves - premium teas are picked the earliest and at the precise moment of perfection. Most of the time my family and I prefer a reasonably priced Shizuoka sencha.

I remember sitting in the kitchen with my dad while Obachan bustled around the kitchen fussing over whether or not we ate before we came over. Hikawa Kiyoshi - her favorite Enka singer - singing Hakuun no Shiro (白雲の城) floating through the air from her CD player in living room as she came to the table with three cups filled with sencha; each a different shade of green. Obachan placed the cup with the darkest green that reminded me of the forest - strong and peaceful - in front of my dad. For herself, the light green always reminded me of the transparent green look leaves would have as the sun shone through them, light and wistful. And in the cup for me I would think, “this is what jades would look like if they were only a little darker.” The slight bitterness of that first sip danced on my tongue. At first I couldn’t tell if I liked it or not, but after that first cup I was hooked. It no longer tasted bitter to me, but it tasted like home where each sip felt refreshing, rejuvenating and beautiful.

Picture Credit to 日本語 on Pixabay