What is wakocha?
Wakocha (和紅茶, literally "Japanese red tea") is a fully oxidised black tea made from Japanese-grown Camellia sinensis. Japan produced black tea for export during the Meiji period, lost that market to India and Ceylon in the early 20th century, and the category almost disappeared. In the last decade, a wave of small Japanese growers has rebuilt it from scratch.
How it tastes
If Assam is a punch and Darjeeling is a flute, wakocha is a harp. The leaves Japan grows — mostly the same yabukita and sayamakaori cultivars used for green tea — have less tannin and more amino acids than Indian assamica cultivars. The result:
- Very low astringency — no need for milk.
- A clear, almost translucent liquor.
- Flavours of honey, stewed stone fruit, and baked apple.
How to brew wakocha
Quick recipe — 2.5 g of leaf, 200 ml of water at 90–95 °C, 2–3 minutes. A little cooler and shorter than you'd brew an Assam.
Where it grows
Major wakocha-producing regions include:
- Shizuoka — the biggest producer by volume.
- Kumamoto — the Aso highlands, known for especially aromatic wakocha.
- Miyazaki — small-producer wakocha with a cult following.
Recommended wakocha
Kaneroku Matsumoto — WakochaShizuoka small producer, honeyed, balanced.
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Chiyonoen — Benifuuki WakochaMade with the benifuuki cultivar — closer to Keemun in flavour.
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Azuma Tea Garden — HyakumusoA Miyazaki wakocha with baked-apple and honey notes.
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A black tea without bitterness
If you've given up on black tea because it's too harsh, wakocha is the category to come back to.
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