Bancha
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Also known as: Ban-Cha
A Japanese everyday green tea from later harvests with larger, more mature leaves; mild, somewhat coarser and cheaper than sencha.
Bancha is made from leaves of later pickings in summer or autumn, partly also from coarser material left over from sorting sencha. The leaves are larger and firmer; processing resembles that of sencha with steaming, rolling and drying.
The liquor is lighter and milder, with less sweetness and umami than early harvests. In Japan bancha is considered a simple tea to drink with meals and is often the base for genmaicha and hojicha. It tolerates somewhat hotter water than finer green teas.
