What Japanese tea is shaded before harvest and used to make matcha? The answer is tencha.
Tencha is produced from tea plants shaded before picking, usually for about two to three weeks. The reduced sunlight increases chlorophyll and helps preserve theanine, an amino acid associated with the savory umami character of matcha. After harvesting, the leaves are steamed to stop oxidation and dried without being rolled.
The resulting flat, lightweight leaf is called tencha. Producers may age and blend it before grinding it slowly into the fine green powder sold as matcha. Because the entire powdered leaf is consumed, matcha differs from ordinary steeped tea, where the leaves are removed after brewing.
Sencha, bancha, and hōjicha are common sources of confusion. Sencha is generally grown in full sun and rolled into needle-shaped leaves; bancha is a later-harvested everyday green tea; hōjicha is roasted. Powdered tea made from those leaves may resemble matcha, but authentic matcha is based on shade-grown, unrolled tencha.