As for the quality of the tea, there is no denying that the grade of leaf used for making Bancha is technically less refined than that used for producing Sencha. Bancha is typically made using second flush leaf plucked during late summer and early autumn. This leaf is characterized by coarse, wide leaves, and produces a robust and full flavored cup. The tea is still grown in Shizuoka prefecture and is generally harvested by the tea plucking machines the Japanese industry is famous for. In Japan, production methods are exacted to a science. Nowhere is this truer than in the organic fields where this tea was grown where the absence of pesticide means that producers must put extra care and time into cultivating their plants. The result is that it is almost impossible to brew a bad cup of organic Japanese tea. But don’t just take our word for it - brew a pot today and steep yourself in the history of tea drinking in Japan.