Fukamushicha

About

Notice the small leaf particles that appear due to the long steaming. Imagine what happens when you over-boil your spinach; the leaves become extremely soft, breaking apart easily, and the water you boil them in is dyed green with the essence of the spinach leaves. This is exactly what happens to tea leaves when you steam them for a long time. Perhaps the most popular tea in Japan today, fukamushicha is a variant of sencha in which the leaves are steamed for 60 seconds or longer (vs 30-40 seconds for normal sencha). Of course, with younger more tender leaves, a shorter amount of time will result in a fukamushicha while 60 seconds may not be enough for larger leaves to create the deep green effect. As a result of the long steaming, the leaves become very soft, and break apart during rolling. The dry leaf is very powdery, and when steeped, the water is dyed a deep, opaque green with the leaf particles, so you are actually drinking much more of the leaf and its components - catechin, cholorophyll, theanine, vitamins, minerals (see the Nutrition Chart for more details). FLAVOR - Deep steaming seems to sweeten the tea leaf, though this is entirely dependent on the base leaf. For higher grade spring tea leaves, you'll find a much richer umami flavor than you would otherwise for a similar, normal sencha. Like other sencha, steeping at a lower temperature (60C/140F) will results in a sweeter tea, while steeping at a hot temperature results in a much stronger, bitter brew. Time is the factor your should watch for as the leaf will steep more quickly than leaves that are more intact. At a higher temperature 30 seconds should be enough to create a decent strength while 45-60 seconds may be needed at a lower temperature (everyone has their own strength preference, so do experiment!) We also recommend cold-steeping with this tea. A good starting recipe is to use 10g per 500 ml of cold water, and let it steep in your refrigerator for 3-4 hours. Sencha was invented 250 years ago in

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