[Review] Japanese Green Tea Company - Award-winning sencha

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I first heard about Japanese Green Tea Company through a matcha giveaway collaboration on Japanese recipe blog, Just One Cookbook. Fast-forward another year after starting my tea blog, Steeped Dreams, and I fatefully crossed paths with the company again.

Japanese Green Tea Company—based in Portland, Oregon—is owned and operated by Kei Nishida who connects Japanese green tea with a global audience. The company’s tea has received several prestigious awards thanks in part to its ancient farming methods and deep steaming processing that set it apart.

Here is my review of one of Japanese Green Tea Company’s award-winning green teas!

• Issaku Fukamushi Sencha - Award-Winning - ($80)

About Japanese Green Tea Company

Japanese Green Tea Company was started in 2015 by Japan-native Kei Nishida in Portland, Oregon to bring quality green tea directly from his home country to a US market. Having originally started his career in software engineering, Kei continues to apply these technical skills to his company website and enjoys the daily challenge of building something new in his business.

Since the beginning, Japanese Green Tea Company has sourced its tea exclusively from a single acclaimed tea farm in Japan. This farm grows and processes a diverse assortment of Japanese green tea like deep steamed sencha, hojicha, and matcha. It’s also one of the few places online to find benifuki tea in the United States, which is celebrated for its allergy relief properties.

What to love about Japanese Green Tea Company:

• Sustainable, ancient growing method - The chagusaba method grows a higher-quality, sweeter, and less astringent tea than mechanically produced tea.

• Farm-direct - All tea comes directly from the same farm, making how the tea is grown and processed more transparent for both the company and consumer.

• Award-winning - Japanese Green Tea Company has won awards from the Global World Tea Championship three years in a row in the loose leaf green tea and matcha categories.

About Japanese Green Tea Company’s teas

Fukamushi sencha in a Japanese teapot called kyusu.

On the surface, Japanese Green Tea Company may seem like just another Japanese tea distributor, but there is a TON underneath the surface that sets them apart.

Bringing Arahataen Green Tea Farms to the US

Japanese Green Tea Company has exclusive rights to distribute tea from Arahataen Green Tea Farms outside of Japan, which Kei shared was already well-known in Japan for its green tea before the partnership.

Unique farming methods

This farm in Shizuoka, Japan is the only one in the region to use the chagusaba method of tea farming. This labor intensive process involves using cut down grassland as mulch, which locks in moisture and fertilizer while keeping out weeds. The process yields a sweeter, higher-quality tea.

Shizuoka's tea growing climate

The region’s climate also creates a thick, sun-soaked tea leaf that requires deep steaming to bring out all the flavors. Different from normal sencha, this produces a deep-steamed sencha known as fukamushi sencha, which in my opinion is more flavorful and rich.

Leader in deep-steamed green tea

Arahataen Green Tea Farms is considered a leader in fukamushi sencha technology and research and works with the local university to study its tea’s taste and the impact of the chagusaba farming method used.

All this behind-the-scenes hard work shines through in the several awards that Arahataen’s tea has won throughout the decades.

So, does the taste live up to the reputation? Let’s find out!

Japanese Green Tea Company Issaku sencha review

Issaku Loose Leaf Green Tea is fukamushi sencha, or deep-steamed green tea.

After connecting with the owner, Kei Nishida, he sent over a canister of Issaku Premium Japanese Loose Leaf Green Tea for me to try. This fukamushi sencha variety has won the Global Tea Championship for three consecutive years and is harvested fresh every year.

• Taste - I am a huge fan of deep-steamed sencha over normal sencha because of the rich taste that’s reminiscent of a dash of matcha. What struck me about Issaku is that it really does taste a bit sweeter and less astringent than other green tea due to the chagusaba growing method explained above and steaming process. Even after accidentally oversteeping once, which would normally result in very bitter tasting tea, Issaku stayed smooth and sweet.

• Color - Fukamushi sencha is notably a tinge greener and more vibrant in color than other sencha. The tea leaves are also more delicate, which causes some sediment to drift to the bottom of a teacup and deepens the color.

• Packaging - This particular tea from Japanese Green Tea Company has no-nonsense, straight-to-the-point packaging in a paper tube with the tea sealed inside a foil pack. The use of paper rather than a tin or plastic is definitely a sustainability win. However, I would have loved to see steeping directions on the tube itself to know how to prepare the tea.

No tea for you, Sophie!

At $80 for 3.5oz (100g) of green tea, the price is a bit steep for the casual tea drinker. And without all the context and background that goes into growing and producing the tea, the value could easily get lost on the consumer.

However, I appreciate the sheer amount of information available on Japanese Green Tea Company’s website that thoroughly explains everything from the tea’s unique health benefits and production to details on Arahataen Green Tea Farms. I’ve seen several tea companies that will completely gloss over anything about their tea’s sources or not have a compelling differentiator that demands a higher price.

With education provided, Japanese Green Tea Company definitely makes a solid case for the more serious tea drinker who appreciates complete transparency and the labor-intensive process that goes into producing a high-quality cup.

When I asked Kei for his insight on how to choose a good green tea like matcha, he had a refreshing dose of advice:

Cheap prices don’t necessarily mean the tea is bad. In the end, your favorite tasting tea is your best tea. For matcha he recommends to not “get confused by terminology such as ‘ceremonial’ or ‘culinary,’ [as] those are just marketing terms, and anyone can call the matcha ‘ceremonial.’ When ‘meeting’ the right tea, you know it without reading the label!”

Learn more about Japanese Green Tea Company on their website: japanesegreenteain.com

Sencha provided by Japanese Green Tea Company for review.

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