Sencha tea bags from Uji
These sencha tea bags hold first-flush sencha from Uji, south of Kyoto, made from heirloom cultivars. The leaves are steamed, rolled and dried, then packed in plant-based mesh bags, 3 g of tea in each and 15 to a box. Sencha is a tea many people in Japan drink every day, and these bags bring it to a mug at work or a cup in a hotel room.
Brewing in a mug
Steep one bag in 8 ounces of water at 158 to 176°F for about 60 seconds. Boiling water is too hot for sencha, so if the kettle has just clicked off, let it rest a few minutes first. Lift the bag out on time and the tea stays bright and brisk rather than bitter. Many people steep the same bag a second time for a lighter cup.
Cold-brewed overnight
These Japanese sencha tea bags also make easy iced tea. Drop a bag into a jar of cold water and leave it in the fridge overnight. Cold water tends to bring out the tea's sweetness and leave some of the astringency behind. Among our tea bags, sencha is the brisk, everyday one. If you want to brew it loose in a teapot, with more than one infusion from the same leaves, see our Japanese sencha loose leaf.
