What makes gyokuro different
For the last 20 days before harvest, gyokuro bushes are covered with shade cloth or traditional reed mats (yoshizu). Starved of sunlight, the leaves produce more theanine and less of the bitter catechins found in open-field tea. The result is the characteristic deep umami sweetness that defines high-end Japanese tea.
How it tastes
A well-brewed gyokuro tastes almost nothing like what most Westerners think of as "green tea". The first cup is thick, savoury, almost seaweed-like — more like a consommé than a grassy infusion. The sweetness builds in the finish, and lingers for minutes.
"Drinking gyokuro for the first time is the moment a lot of tea drinkers stop thinking of Japanese tea as a flavour and start thinking of it as a cuisine."
How to brew gyokuro
- Pre-warm a small teapot and your cups.
- Measure out the leaf — gyokuro uses roughly 50% more leaf than sencha.
- Boil water, then cool it by pouring between vessels until it's around 50 °C (it should feel warm but not hot on your hand).
- Pour over the leaves, wait two minutes without disturbing.
- Decant fully, to the last drop. Leaves left sitting in water become bitter.
- Second steep: 60 °C, 30–60 seconds. Third steep: 80 °C, 60 seconds.
See our full brewing guide for the traditional method with matching glassware.
Where it grows
Only a handful of regions make gyokuro at any real scale:
- Uji (Kyoto) — the historical home of gyokuro. Elegant, finely balanced.
- Yame (Fukuoka) — deep, intensely umami. Consistently tops the National Tea Competition.
- Asahina (Shizuoka) — smaller volume, traditionally shaded under reed mats.
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