Nearly everything we sell is sencha. More precisely it is fukamushi sencha — deep-steamed. The leaves are steamed roughly twice as long as standard sencha, which breaks them down further. That gives a cloudier, deeper green cup, a fuller and rounder flavour, and much less of the sharp astringency that puts people off green tea. It also means more of the leaf ends up in your cup rather than left in the pot.
Ours is grown at Arahataen in Shizuoka, the single farm we work with, using the Chagusaba method with sugarcane soil — a traditional mulching practice recognised by the FAO as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System. Cultivar is Yabukita.
Which sencha should you buy?
Issaku Reserve — our flagship, and a Global Tea Champion winner. First-flush leaf, the most refined cup we make. If you want to taste what deep-steamed sencha can be at its best, this is the one.
Gokuzyo Aracha — aracha, or “crude” tea: the unrefined form, with the stems and smaller leaf particles still in. Most tea is sorted and stripped before sale; this is what the farmer keeps. Bolder, greener, more rustic, and outstanding value. Also available in tea bags.
Nozomi — kabuse sencha, shaded for a short period before harvest. Sweeter and softer than an open-grown sencha, sitting between everyday sencha and gyokuro.
How to brew sencha
Use water around 70–80°C — not boiling. Steep for 30–60 seconds only. Deep-steamed sencha releases quickly, so a short first infusion is deliberate rather than stingy, and the leaves will give you a good second and third cup. A fine-mesh kyusu helps, because fukamushi produces more fine particles than a standard sencha.
Common questions
What is the difference between sencha and matcha? Sencha is whole leaf, steeped and strained. Matcha is shade-grown leaf ground to powder and drunk whole.
What does fukamushi mean? Deep-steamed. Longer steaming, broken-down leaf, deeper colour, rounder flavour, less bitterness.
Is aracha lower quality than sencha? No — it is simply unrefined. It keeps parts of the harvest that normal processing removes, which is why it tastes fuller and costs less.
