 The Production
of Tea
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All the tea produced in Japan is green tea and 90% of it is sencha.
Sencha has an astringent flavor much loved by the Japanese. Gyokuro is
a top grade tea, and tastes less astringent than the other teas.
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Macha is the powdered green tea used in the tea ceremony, and bancha
is low-grade tea. There are others, but the above are the most familiar.
Macha, however, has been in existence since tea was first cultivated in
Japan.
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This happened in 1191, when seeds were brought back from China by a
priest named Eisai. He planted them on temple land, and told everyone
about the benefits of drinking tea. It will be interesting to note that
the drinking of tea as a national beverage didn't begin until the early
part of the twentieth century!
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This was due to technological advances, making the mass production of
green tea possible. Before that, tea for drinking had been reserved for
the religious, and noble, elite.
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It was not until the middle of the 18th century that the special process
for making sencha was discovered. Gyokuro cultivation techniques were
not developed until the middle of the 19th century. Mass production of
tea at the beginning of the 20th century made it the national drink of
Japan. Isn't that really surprising information? I think so. It makes
me wonder what the people drank before that time.
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Drinks made of grain have been popular all over the world, and it would
be rather foolish to believe that the Japanese didn't have the intelligence
to create something to drink from the grains on hand.
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Mugicha must have been popular for years, and it, or something similar,
was probably the first national drink of Japan.
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