Mayucha Sencha

Mayucha (pronounced my-yoo-CHA) is fresh and alive with flavor. This extra fine Japanese sencha carries a buttery note, very deep richness, and sweet after-taste. It is difficult to find sencha of this quality in the states; we feel truly honored to share it with you. It is a spring-plucked, 'nibancha' (second plucking of the season) tea. The leaves produced are uneven in size, a completely undesirable characteristic in Indian or Sri Lankan, but relatively unimportant for Japanese teas, as they grade according to flavor quality. The broken leaf style is the result of the Fukamushi (deep-steaming) process that some Japanese Senchas undergo and belies the amazingly rich, wonderful flavor it produces. During the final processing step, our producer fires the tea at a higher temperature than other Sencha makers, which - in part - gives Mayucha it's deep, brothy, Umami flavor. The Japanese term for this increased-temperature firing is 'hi-ire' (hee EE-ray). Additionally, the fine broken part