Glossary

Sencha or bancha roasted over a strong flame. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries describes it as having a distinctive toasty aroma and a light finish.

A tea made from the leaves cut when a tea garden is tidied up after the new-tea harvest. The traditional method is described as steaming the large, fully grown leaves and drying them in the sun without rolling them.

A tea made by sorting out the stems and stalks while sencha or gyokuro is being finished. Kukicha and bocha are introduced as two names for the same thing.

The step in which heat is applied while tea is finished. The city of Sayama explains that it dries the leaf thoroughly so that it keeps longer, and generates roasting aromas that improve the flavour and the scent.

A tea made by roasting the finer stems of the tea plant. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries describes it as having a fragrant aroma and a natural sweetness.

The general name for green tea made by steaming fresh leaves and then drying them while they are rolled. It is also one of the leaves hojicha is made from.

Sencha or bancha mixed with roasted brown rice and similar grains, as the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries describes it. What is roasted is the rice, not the tea, and that is the difference from hojicha.

The city of Sayama describes it as a tea made from leaves that have hardened, among other material.

Tea made from the first buds to grow in the year, also called shincha. The number of pickings and their timing are said to differ a little by region and by cultivar.

Tea made from the next new buds, which grow back from where the first flush was picked. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries distinguishes it from the first flush in this way.

The form in which a tea grower makes and ships tea. The guide to Uji tea describes it as tea that has been processed but not yet finished.

To heat a food in a pan or a similar vessel until its moisture is gone. A basic guide to Japanese tea notes that the word also means to scorch something over a flame.

A tool held by its handle, in which whatever is inside is roasted over a flame. To roast evenly, the pan is swung from the wrist so that its contents tumble.

A traditional method that roasts with the far-infrared heat of heated stones. A tea merchant explains that it takes more work, but the heat reaches the leaf evenly and nothing scorches.

A term defined differently in physics and in engineering. The paper cited here uses far infrared for electromagnetic waves from 3 µm to 1,000 µm.

A tea merchant describes a light roast as a refined toastiness that keeps the umami of green tea, and a dark roast as a toastiness with a faint sweetness that comes from the stronger roasting.

The sound heard when heat causes chemical changes in green coffee beans and they expand. First crack and second crack are described as happening in that order. The explanation comes from a seller of roasting machines.

An idea that can be defined in several ways: by how much weight the beans lose, by colour, or by a chosen chemical marker. There is no single fixed scale.

The step in which a tea merchant puts several unrefined teas together. The Tokyo Tea Cooperative describes it as the craft of judging the character of each leaf and building the blend that suits it best.