Monk’s Choice™ is a honcha, or traditional green tea, as opposed to other types of tea such as genmaicha (tea with roasted rice) or shiraore.

This is our most standard green tea, meaning the grower’s most popular tea. It’s prepared in the most popular style, and is what your typical Aso resident sips all day.

Another term for honcha is “sencha.” Our sencha is a type called tamaryokucha (“curly green tea”), the most popular style on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu. Unlike the straight leaves of big-city sencha, country-style tamaryokucha is curled after steaming and drying during the tea-preparation process. These and other subtle differences in the tea-making process give tamaryokucha its distinctive fresh taste and muted astringency. The rich volcanic soils of the Mt. Aso foothills, where this tea is grown, make for an exquisitely rich flavor and a hearty aroma, but without the bite that comes from other soil types.

Monk’s Choice™ Green Tea comes vacuum-sealed for freshness in foil packets. Each packet contains 100 grams (3.5 ounces) of tea, enough to make 40–50 cups of brewed tea.

To brew, use 1 heaping teaspoon of tea leaves for an 8-ounce cup or mug. The water temperature should be about 75 degrees Celcius (167 degrees Fahrenheit). (For more on water temperature, see here.) For the first steeping, let the tea brew for about 3 minutes. For the second and third steepings, let the tea brew for about 30 seconds to 1 minute.

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