Our Sencha Premium tea is grown at Ujitawara, a region renowned for producing some of the highest grade Sencha tea leaves. Surrounded by mountain ravines and misty, sloping hills, the region’s soil is packed with nutrients, providing the perfect agricultural conditions for growing this popular Japanese tea. Grown in sunlight, the leaves have a yellowish green colour when harvested. This belays its nutritional value, however, with our Sencha Premium tea containing more catechin nutrients than other types of green tea.

Sencha Premium can only be picked at certain times of year. The leaves aren’t normally ready for harvesting in the first pick of the year, known as Ichibancha. Instead, our Sencha Premium tea is harvested when the tea trees have only three sprouts, which is believed by generations of Japanese tea farmers to be the time when the leaves will produce Sencha Premium tea with the most potent, fresh and relaxing aroma and taste.

THE WATER TEMPERATURE

The golden rule about water temperature is never use boiling water on the tea, whatever kind of tea you are making.

Green Teas require water at 70°C and black teas require water at 85-90°C.

These days you can get kettles which enable you to choose your water temperature.

THE AMOUNT OF TEA

Custom dictates that 4 grams are sufficient for one cup. But the amount is partly a matter of preference. In the case of Assam tea, which is naturally very robust, you might want to reduce the strength and brew 3 grams instead of 4.

THE BREWING TIME

This is a very important step in the art of tea-making. In fact, the brewing time varies depending on the type of tea. An over-brewed black tea will develop a bitter taste whilst an under-brewed white tea will be flat and insipid.

Black teas are normally brewed for 2-3 minutes, green teas for 3 – 4 minutes. It is a good idea to check the brewing time before making the tea, because some teas need to be infused for very specific times: for example, Jade Pearl is left to infuse for 7 – 20 minutes, whilst Oolong tea will need 5 – 7 minutes for its bouquet to develop fully.

Brewing is normally done with a lid on, so that the tea retains all its aromas.