How Tencha Is Made: From Shade Cover to Powder
Matcha is ground tencha. Tencha is made differently from sencha, and three decisions separate them: blocking sunlight, skipping the rolling step, and removing stems and veins.
1. Covering the field
Covers go over the tea field while new shoots develop, blocking sunlight. The method is called oishita saibai, shaded cultivation.
L-theanine, the savory amino acid, converts into astringent catechins when leaves receive light. Covering slows that, producing leaf high in umami.
Shade has a second effect: with less light available, the plant produces more chlorophyll to compensate. The deep green of matcha is established here.
In Uji, near Kyoto, the covers hide the bushes entirely from April into May.
2. Picking, then steaming immediately
Harvested leaf begins oxidizing, so it is steamed to deactivate the enzymes responsible. This is why green tea stays green.
Black tea and oolong take the opposite path, encouraging oxidation. Same plant, different drink, decided by whether you stop the reaction.
3. Drying without rolling
This is the major divergence from sencha.
Sencha is rolled while drying. The needle shape comes from that, and rolling ruptures cells so compounds transfer readily into hot water.
Tencha is not rolled. It dries spread flat, staying whole — because it will be ground later, there is no need to make it brew well.
4. Removing stems and veins
Dried leaf is separated from its stems and veins. These are fibrous, and grinding will not reduce them to the same fineness. Left in, they produce grittiness and off-flavors.
What remains is tencha.
5. Stone-milling
Tencha goes onto a stone mill. Only now does it become matcha.
The mill cannot turn quickly. Friction generates heat, which drives off aroma and degrades the color. A stone mill produces roughly 40 g per hour.
Sweetened products start here
Everything above produces matcha. Sweetened powder is matcha combined with sugar afterward.
When products differ in price, the reason usually sits somewhere in this sequence.
