Start by getting to know Japanese tea!

Text & photos / Experience Kyoto

Through a variety of fun experiences, discover more of Kyoto’s hidden gems!

Located right in the heart of Kyoto’s bustling city center, Fukujuen offers professional and engaging tea lectures ranging from 30 to 90 minutes. One of the highlights is the 90-minute “Highland...” which is a comprehensive session covering fresh Japanese tea, tastings of both tea and sweets, as well as a factory tour, and you can even bring home your own favorite blend.

Fukujuen is a traditional Uji tea shop that has been in business for over 200 years. Its modern-looking main store in central Kyoto has a ground floor tea shop displaying various products. Going down a staircase from the side leads you to an intriguing underground space called “Uji Tea My Tea Workshop – Kyoto Tea Lab.” Here, you can work with tea blenders to find your favorite Japanese tea, create your very own personalized “My Tea,” sign up for Japanese tea lectures, and learn from the basics about different types of Japanese tea, their flavors, and brewing methods.

Basics of Japanese tea
Although their flavors vary, Japanese green tea and Taiwanese tea come from the same tea plant. The differences between green tea, oolong tea, and black tea mainly stem from varying levels of fermentation and processing methods.

Another crucial difference comes from how the tea leaves are grown. Leaves exposed to sunlight produce more catechins, which can result in a bitter taste. To keep the tea leaves sweet and mild, some Japanese tea farms set up shading nets above the tea fields around April each year to reduce sunlight. These are known as “covered tea gardens” (覆下園). Tea grown in covered gardens can be used to make matcha, gyokuro, and kabusecha, all rich in theanine, giving them a naturally sweet flavor. Other teas, such as sencha, come from uncovered, sun-grown tea fields, and are prized for their refreshing aroma and lingering aftertaste. Different types of tea also have distinct brewing methods. During the lecture, participants will see demonstrations of brewing both gyokuro and sencha, with the instructor explaining the differences in water temperature, steeping time, and more while keeping time.

How to brew sencha