Tencha
碾茶/TEN-chah/
The shade-grown, dried tea leaves that become matcha.
Tencha is the raw material for matcha. After tea bushes are shaded for 2–4 weeks, the leaves are picked, steamed (to halt oxidation and lock in green color), dried, and de-stemmed. At this stage they are called tencha. Tencha leaves are then slowly stone-ground into the fine powder we call matcha. Tencha is sold in some specialty stores and can be steeped as a delicate green tea, but its main destiny is the stone mill.
In practice
- The intermediate product between the tea bush and matcha. Leaves shaded for 20–30 days, then steamed, dried without rolling, and stripped of stem and vein.
- Not rolling it is the key difference from every other Japanese green tea — the leaf stays flat and brittle, which is what lets a stone mill reduce it to powder.
- Sold loose in some Japanese specialist shops and can be steeped as a delicate, sweet, low-astringency tea.
- Grade is determined at this stage. Whether a batch becomes ceremonial or culinary matcha is decided by the quality of the tencha, not by anything that happens at the mill.
The common mistake
Assuming any shaded leaf is tencha. Gyokuro is shaded too but is rolled after steaming, which makes it a steeping tea and unsuitable for grinding into matcha.
