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Bancha

Type of Japanese green tea

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
1 min read
Source updated June 23, 2026
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Bancha (番茶) is a type of Japanese green tea. It is harvested from the third and fourth flushes of sencha between summer and autumn.

It can be found in a number of forms such as roasted, unroasted, smoked, matured or fermented for three years and even post-fermented. For example, goishicha.

01Background

Bancha is harvested from the same tea tree as sencha grade, but it is plucked later than sencha is, giving it a lower market grade. It is considered to be one of the lowest grades of Japanese green teas. There are 22 grades of bancha. Its flavour is unique and varies depending on the type.

Flavours range from smoke, roasted nuts, green grass, earth, soil, wet leaves, some of the types of bancha have a stronger straw smell.

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Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Bancha”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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Hōjicha

Hōjicha is a Japanese green tea. It is distinctive from other Japanese green teas because it is roasted in a porcelain pot over charcoal.

History of tea in Japan

The history of tea in Japan began as early as the 8th century, when the first known references were made in Japanese records.

Tea culture in Japan

Tea is an important part of Japanese culture. It first appeared in the Nara period (710-794), introduced to the archipelago by ambassadors returning from China, but its real development came later, from the end of the 12th century, when its consumption spread to Zen temples, also following China's example; it was then powdered tea that was drunk after being beaten (called matcha today).