JAPAN BANCHA KEIKO

In Japan, Bancha's ancestral home, this grassy green brew has long been considered the journeyman of teas. This is to say that while the island nation has long been home to many notable tea varieties, Bancha is the cup most commonly consumed, and is considered by many to be the perfect drink for everyone from small children to the elderly. Bancha itself is notable for the fact that it is plucked from the same bushes as Sencha, arguably the best-known Japanese variety on the international stage. The difference is that the leaves used to produce Bancha are typically plucked after Sencha season, resulting in a coarser appearance that often includes some stalk and stem. The coarse quality of the loose leaf gives the tea a unique character, milder infusion and lowered caffeine and tannin levels compared to many finer grade greens. (Milder cup strength is the reason many Japanese parents consider Bancha to be suitable for children.)

At this point in the story, you may be wondering why we've sourced a traditional Japanese style tea from a grower in China. The answer is two-fold. Part one is that following the Fukushima nuclear event of 2011, much of Japan's tea crop began to exhibit increased levels of radioactivity. For a company like ours where food safety is paramount, the increased risk to our customers was not worth the gamble. Part two is that the Bancha we've subsequently sourced from Zhejiang province rivals any Bancha we've sampled from anywhere. (In fact, our Tea Master mistook this tea for a Japanese grown variety the first time it was offered to him - no small feat!)

All that said, we know your customers will love this fabulous Japan-style Bancha. Plucked and produced according to ancient Japanese tradition, this is the tea to recommend the next time you're asked for something easy drinking, at any time of day. Enjoy.