“High heat” on the front of a bag calls up a dark cup. Yet even in an old tea town known for strong fire, there is stem tea roasted only lightly.
What follows reads the words on the bag again, keeping the heat, the finish and the raw leaf apart.
Three words on the bag
Turn the bag over and the words line up: “high heat”, “light roast”, “karigane”. High heat is the roasting operation; dark roast names the finish.
Karigane is the raw material, and the words on a bag fall into these three layers. A merchant who describes roasting over strong fire also writes that handling it takes real skill. Strong fire does not hand everyone the same aroma.
A stated heat says nothing certain about the leaf or the course of the roast. The sources go as far as showing the words can be read in layers. Next comes one material roasted two ways.
One stem tea, two ways
Fine stem tea sits divided between two bags. The material is the same, but the roast sends it in two directions.
Karigane is the stem tea separated out when gyokuro or sencha is made. One merchant roasts it slowly into a dark tea with a strong roasted aroma. The same shop also roasts it lightly over gentler heat, so the roast and the stem can both be tasted.
What differs is how the aroma of the material and the aroma of the roast are meant to come across. The sources speak only for each shop, not for a whole region's roasting. The reason for roasting two ways lies in how fire changes aroma.