Monday, July 26, 2010

Harney & Sons Tea Tasting: Bancha


Bancha tea is an everyday green consumed widely in Japan.  Bancha comes from the same plant as Sencha tea, however it is picked in a later harvest.  This later harvest makes for a lower-grade tea.  Even within Bancha, there are a number of grades.

Bancha is made with both leaf and twig, which you can see in the picture above.


I wasn't expecting to enjoy this tea.  I prefer smooth teas.  Ones that are what I can only describe as "metallic" are not among my regulars.  However, I liked this tea just fine.  I drank several cups.  Mine came from Harney & Sons.  Not sure of the grade.


The wet leaf plumps up.  I steeped for 2 min at 175 degrees.


As Harney described, the liquor is bright yellow. 

All in all, this was a flavorful tea.  To read another review, check out Angela's.

5 comments:

Linda Jennings said...

Thanks for the review.

Marilyn Miller said...

Thanks for the review of Bancha. I haven't tried that one. I think I need to try some of Harney's teas one of these days. I sort of get stuck with the same things.

Ginger said...

Thanks for the nice review.

Marlena said...

Hm, I've never tried Bancha, but this review made me put it on the list.

Angela McRae said...

Thanks for the review (and the mention), and your photos are just lovely!