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Have you ever tried Japanese teas or thought of trying them? They are unlike any other teas with their fresh umami taste. The majority of green and black teas are roasted, which produce a familiar smoky flavor. But, the production of typical Japanese tea is very different. It is steamed, not roasted, which is why its has a distinct, fresh taste.

In this post, we review Japanese green teas by Hibiki-An from Uji of Kyoto prefecture, Japan. Kyoto and Uji are considered to be the birthplace of Japanese tea culture.

Hibiki-An’s grows, processes, packages and sends their teas directly from Uji. There are no wholesalers, distributors or other middleman. For this reason, Hibiki-An offers its customers the freshest and highest quality tea for the lowest price possible from their Uji farm. Sometimes, they even offer limited edition teas that make their way to the National Tea Competition in Japan.

We have been using Hibiki-An to get Japanese teas since 2018. They offer outstanding service and quality by sending teas all over the world with a free shipping option on $150+ orders. Besides teas, Hibiki-An also sells handmade authentic Japanese teaware, sweet treats and other tea accessories.

Japanese Tea Varieties

Before our tea tasting, here is what to know about different types of Japanese teas. Generally, there are four main types, which are Sencha, Gyokuro, Houjicha and Matcha. Of course, there are other tea varieties, but these four cover most of Japanese tea types.

As mentioned earlier, most Japanese teas are not roasted. Instead, they are steamed for 15 to 20 seconds after picking to prevent oxidation. Then, farmers roll, shape and dry leaves to create a final product. Steaming creates a leafy, almost grassy flavor with some umami-like hints of seaweed.

Sencha

Sencha (煎茶,  ”infused tea”) is the most typical ryokucha (緑茶, “green tea”). Sencha accounts for roughly 80% of all teas produced in Japan. When farmers produce sencha, they do very little or no shading. Shading is a technique that Japanese farmers use to develop different tea flavors as we’ll see in a second.

Sencha has a robust, fresh grassy flavor that can change depending on the brewing temperature. Also, sencha made from the first months’ tea leaves harvest is called shincha, which means “new tea”. Shincha, which we will review shortly, has an even fresher, sweet and somewhat mellow aroma.

Gyokuro

Gyokuro (玉露, “jade dew”) is another type of Japanese tea. Unlike sencha, farmers shade gyokuro for at least 20 to 30 days before harvesting the leaves. Shading causes increases in L-theanine, chlorophyll and caffeine. At the same time, it decreases catechins and tannins. Tannins are substances that give tea its unique astringent, bitter taste.

With less tannins, Gyokuro has a mellow umami flavor and savory sweetness. Although this tea has more caffeine, it also has more L-theanine, which balances out the caffeine and produces a calming effect.

Houjicha (Hōjicha)

Conversely, there is houjicha (焙じ茶, “roasted tea”) or sometimes also called bancha. The process for producing houjicha is similar to sencha, but with one exception: roasting. It is one of the few roasted Japanese teas.

Besides tea leaves, houjicha often contains stems. Stems are essential for quality houjicha, giving it a unique nutty aroma. Also, because of stems, the caffeine content in houjicha can be lower compared to other Japanese green teas.

Matcha

And finally, there is matcha (抹茶, “fine powder tea”). Matcha is a finely ground powder of green tea leaves. Similar to gyokuro, tea leaves for matcha are grown in shade 20 to 30 days before harvesting. After the stems and leaf veins are removed, the remaining leaf parts are ground into powder.

Hibiki-An Handmade Tea Cups and Pots

Besides teas, Hibiki-An partners up with handcraft artist around Japan that specialize in producing handmade teapots, teacups and other tea accessories.

Teacups and Teapots

More recently, we bought these two handcrafted, pear-shaped teacups called “irodori”. They feature beautiful sakura (cherry blossoms) made by a local handcraft artist.

As with many handmade products, they are available in limited quantities. We love these tea cups. They are very practical and bring a little extra light and warmth into our home when we drink from them.

Also, a few years back we bought another pair of tea cups depicting spring and autumn seasons. They are of momiji/suisen type and are also handmade. We especially like the autumn with Japanese maple leaves and subtle gold details.

Hibiki-An also sells kyusu (急須, “teapot”). While we have not bought teapots from them, we are planning to at some point. They are also handmade and feature beautiful artwork as can be seen on their website.

Other Tea Accessories and Food Treats

Teacups and teapots aside, Hibiki-An also offers sweet treats to its customers around the world. These desserts traditionally accompany tea drinking in Japan. These include the galore of mochi cakes, crackers, flavored jelly, cookies, cakes and more.

Furoshiki Wrapping Paper

Besides tempting sweet treats, Hibiki-An has other things that we bought from them. It is a custom in Japan to wrap gifts in a special wrapping cloth called furoshiki (風呂敷). They usually depict some traditional scene from nature or some other humorous subjects such these:

This is by far one of our favorite items we got from Hibiki-An. It makes us laugh every time we look at these funny cats. Hibiki-An also sends instructions on how to wrap gifts with furoshiki. It looks very nifty.

Tea Incense

A few months ago, we bought a gift for someone from Hibiki-An, which was a green tea incense.

This incense is produced by Shoyeido, which is one of the oldest incense manufacturing companies in Kyoto from 1705. The incense has a fresh and sweet aroma of green tea harvested in Ujitawara. Besides green tea, it also uses other natural ingredients from Chinese herbal medicine.

Long before, incense was very valuable and only used in religions ceremonies or at homes of nobility in Japan. But now, this refreshing green tea incense is available to general public too.

Hibiki-An’s Tea Grades

When browsing tea products on Hibiki-An’s website, you will notice that there are different grades of tea. They all start with “House” grade and finish with “Pinnacle”.

House is the lowest grade that they sell. Each grade depends on the picking method and tea leaves. For instance, most pinnacle grade teas are made from hand-picked, young and supple tea leaves of the highest quality. Also higher grade teas are harvested from tea plants that may have received special attention from farmers.

Conversely, lower grades teas may use mechanical or automated tools to pick leaves without much differentiation. But, the funny thing is that one of our most favorite teas is HIbiki-An’s house sencha, which is one of the cheapest teas they sell. It has an amazing flavor and umami we will review in a second.

Brewing Japanese Tea

One thing about Japanese tea is that you can brew them up to 5x. Each tea type has its own water amount, temperature and brewing time requirements. Here are some guidelines from Hibiki-An.

Sencha can be brewed at higher temperatures compared to gyokuro. For this reason, gyokuro needs longer brewing times to develop and release its flavor. At the same time, houjicha needs the least amount of brewing. Given that it’s a roasted tea, this is not surprising.

The tea flavor changes with each brew. The first one is typically mild and mellow, while the second one tends to be the strongest. After that, the flavor gradually diminishes. We usually pour piping hot water for the final fifth brew.

The guidelines above are just what they are: guidelines. For instance, in Japan, people tend to like their teas brewed strong. We guess that this way you can fully taste and appreciate all the intricate flavor notes of a tea. However, for us it is too strong. Hence, we tend to brew half as much as what Hibiki-An recommends.

The provided instructions represent a good starting point. With time, you will get a knack on the right balance of tea quantity, temperature and water amount to your liking. This’s what we did.

Japanese Tea Storage Tips

Fresh taste is one of the key distinctive features of Japanese tea. This is thanks to steaming. But, this freshness does not last forever and comes at a cost. It requires a special handling, which is less important for roasted teas, such black ones or oolongs.

Exposure to heat, light, moisture and especially air can quickly degrade the quality of Japanese tea. Fortunately, Hibiki-An sends its teas in special packages to preserve taste and flavor. If you store unopened packages in a fridge, it can stay fresh up to a year.

They also recommend minimizing contact with air as much as possible. When opened, Hibiki-An recommends storing tea in a clean, airtight container. These containers are called “chazutsu”, which are airtight steel canisters. Hibiki-An offers chazutsu like these.

As a temporary solution, you can fold down the original packaging, seal it with a rubber band and store in a fridge or freezer in an airtight plastic bag. It’s probably not an ideal method. Getting chazutsu containers is a worthy investment at some point.

Tasting a Selection of Hibiki-An Japanese Teas

Since 2018, we have ordered and tasted many Japanese teas from Hibiki-An. While, we have tried other Japanese teas from Japan, so far, nothing compares to Hibiki-An. We have not been disappointed a single time with their products and the quality has been consistently superb. Here are a few highlights, especially from our recent order.

Yuzu Sencha Tea

As we’ve learned over the years, Hibiki-An occasionally sends its customers small gifts along with their order. When we placed our recent order, little did we know that we would receive this amazing sencha tea flavored with yuzu. It is a seasonal tea variety that Hibiki-An sent as a bonus to its customers this summer.

If you don’t know what yuzu is, it is an Asian citrus fruit that is a cross between ichang papeda and mandarin orange. Originating and growing wild in Tibet and central China, yuzu was introduced to Japan around 800s AD.

The fruit needs at least ten years to produce fruit. But, the wait is totally worth it. Yuzu’s flavor is somewhere between lemon and orange. As it turned out, the yuzu flakes create a perfect combination with sencha. Hibiki-An added just the right amount of dried yuzu to create this exceedingly aromatic tea. We wish that Hibiki-An would sell this tea on a regular basis. Maybe, they will hear our shoutout!

Shincha Gyokuro

Shincha gyokuro is a seasonal tea that is available only from late-March to mid-May. Shincha tea (sencha or gyokuro) is made of earliest first-harvest tea leaves. For this reason, shincha tends to be mellow and mild in flavor.

We like to brew this tea at slightly higher quantity and water temperature to bring out its flavor. Compared to regular gyokuro, the shincha one does not give you a strong umami taste kick. Instead, it is very spread-out, smooth flavor that lingers for a long time.

House Sencha

House sencha is a standard Japanese tea that Hibiki-An offers year-around.

The ironic thing is that while it is an entry grade tea, house sencha is one of our most favorite teas hands down. And, it is the least expensive too. This tea has a very rich flavor of a perfectly cooked salmon or some other tasty savory dish that is unlike any other.

House sencha is a standard of traditional Kyoto-style sencha variety. While there are many tea types that we order from Hibiki-An, house sencha is by far our go-to tea that we thoroughly enjoy drinking every day.

Genmaicha Matcha-Iri

Genmaicha matcha-iri is a blend of roasted puffed brown rice, sencha and matcha. The matcha powder provides a coating around sencha leaves and rice.

Hibiki-An also offers plain genmaicha which is similar to this tea but without matcha. Matcha adds a somewhat mellow taste to this tea, while roasted rice provides a savory flavor. When brewed, genmaicha matcha-iri has a light green color with matcha making it somewhat opaque. Genmaicha matcha-iri is also one of our beloved teas from Hibiki-An.

Houjicha Karigane

As mentioned above, houjicha (also sometimes called bancha) is one of the few roasted Japanese teas. The standard houjicha tea contains a mix of tea leaves and stems. However, Hibiki-An also sells houjicha karigane, which means roasted tea made from stems only. This is what karigane means.

When brewed, it has a brownish color with woody, nutty flavor somewhat similar to black tea, but nowhere as bitter and astringent as black tea. Because houjicha karigane contains tea stems, it has a lower content of caffeine. We often drink this tea when we don’t need a caffeine buzz, especially before afternoon.

Matcha

And no tea review is complete without matcha. Matcha is a tea used in the Japanese tea ceremony (茶道, “the way of tea”). Kyoto is where Japanese tea culture got developed. But, Uji is where one of the highest quality matcha is grown and made (Hibiki-An’s farm is in Uji).

Depending on the grade of matcha, its taste can range from smooth and mellow to somewhat bitter. When properly prepared, matcha has a rich foamy texture with bright green color.

If you want to prepare matcha the traditional way, you can use a special matcha bowl (chawan) and a bamboo whisk (chasen). Whisking matcha is what creates that foamy texture. Conversely, you can use a frother, which can somewhat replicate the result of a whisk.

Kuradashi Matcha

As with other teas, there are different grades of matcha: from house to pinnacle. But, if you want to take matcha tasting to the next level, try Kuradashi Matcha.

While sencha is best when enjoyed right after harvest, gyokuro and especially matcha develop a much richer, sweeter flavor over time. This is where aging process comes into play to produce kuradashi teas. Kuradashi (蔵出し, “taken out from the granary”) is a special autumn tea that has been aged for an extended period of time.

Producing a high-quality kuradashi matcha is a finicky process. Many things have to go right from the type of tea leaves, shading, fertilizers to processing tea leaves. If not done right, the tea can spoil. Therefore, kuradashi teas are very rare and produced by much fewer tea farms in Japan.

Hibiki-An does offer its customers kuradashi matcha (as well sencha and gyokuro) in mid-autumn on a limited basis. Hibiki-An produces kuradashi teas by aging them for one and a half years in their storehouse. We tried both regular and kuradashi matcha. The kuradashi one was on a whole new level with amazingly enriched and sweetened flavor that was unlike any other.

Final Takeaways

There are many other tea varieties that Hibiki-An offers to its customers. Besides sencha, gyokuro and matcha, they carry fukamushi, karigane and other limited seasonal tea types.

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Like wine, a fine tea has complex flavors with different hints of umami, oak, fruits and nuts. When writing this post, it was at times difficult to pin down and describe these delicious flavors. For this reason, just as with wine, it is best to experience Japanese tea firsthand. We hope you will have a chance to try amazing teas by Hibiki-An.