Skip to content
NeKKo

Japanese tea in Sweden

Japanese tea: sencha, hojicha and genmaicha

Japanese tea is green tea from Japan where the leaves are steamed right after harvest, unlike Chinese tea which is often pan-roasted. This gives a fresh, green taste and clear umami. The most common types are sencha, hojicha and genmaicha: sencha is brewed cool around 70°C, hojicha is roasted and mild, and genmaicha is blended with roasted rice.

Nekko Kitchen chooses Japanese tea that is easy to understand, easy to brew and nuanced enough to become a returning everyday ritual.

Here you will find green tea with fresh umami, roasted tea with warm aroma and tea with roasted rice for soft nuttiness.

Last updated 10 August 2026 · By the Nekko Kitchen Team

Sencha

A fresh green tea with clear umami, grassy notes and a clean finish. Choose it when you want a classic everyday Japanese tea.

See our sencha

Hojicha

Roasted Japanese tea with gentle warmth, low bitterness and a nutty, almost caramel aroma.

See our hojicha

Genmaicha

Green tea with roasted rice. The taste is rounded, nutty and easy to drink with food or during a quiet pause. Included in our tasting box together with sencha and hojicha.

Try genmaicha in the tasting box

Tea selection

Choose tea by taste and moment

View the full collection

Brewing basics

How to brew Japanese tea without bitterness

Three things shape the taste: water temperature, brewing time and how much tea you use. Lower temperature and shorter time give a sweeter result. More heat lifts umami and roasted notes but risks bitterness if the leaves steep too long.

Calculate your brew in the tea calculator
Read the guide to mizudashi sencha

Sencha

Temperature
70°C
Time
60 sec
Dose
2 g per 180 ml

Lower temperature gives a sweeter note. Higher temperature lifts umami but risks bitterness.

Hojicha

Temperature
95°C
Time
30 sec
Dose
2 g per 180 ml

The roasting lets it handle near-boiling water without turning bitter.

Genmaicha

Temperature
80°C
Time
60 sec
Dose
2 g per 180 ml

The roasted rice balances the green tea and keeps the taste rounded.

Choosing guide

Which Japanese tea suits you?

For everyday

Sencha is our everyday choice. Quick to brew, fresh in taste, hard to tire of.

Sencha

With food and in the evening

Hojicha suits roasted and grilled food and works as a calm evening tea. Less caffeine, more warmth.

Hojicha

As a gift

The tasting box gives the recipient three teas to compare and a small introduction to Japanese tea.

Japanese tea tasting box

Reading guide

Go deeper into Japanese tea: all our guides

Glossary

Japanese tea from A to Z

Short definitions of the terms we use when we talk about Japanese tea.

Umami
Umami is the fifth basic taste: a soft, savory, slightly salty flavor that in Japanese green tea largely comes from the amino acid theanine. Umami is what gives sencha its velvety depth.Source: Umami Information Center: What is Umami
Sencha
Sencha is Japan’s most common green tea. The leaves are steamed right after harvest to preserve fresh green color and umami, then brewed at a low temperature (around 70°C).Source: Global Japanese Tea Association: Japanese Tea Kinds
Hojicha
Hojicha is Japanese green tea roasted over high heat until the leaves turn brown. Roasting gives a warm, nutty aroma and a mild, rounded taste that suits the evening. According to the Japanese food composition tables, the caffeine in a brewed cup is on par with sencha, far below matcha and coffee.Source: MEXT: Standard Tables of Food Composition in Japan 2020
Genmaicha
Genmaicha is Japanese green tea blended with roasted rice. The rice adds a soft, nutty sweetness that balances the tea’s freshness, making genmaicha easy to drink with food.
Theanine
Theanine is an amino acid found almost exclusively in the tea plant and central to green tea’s characteristic taste. Research links it to a calm, relaxed feeling without drowsiness, one reason Japanese tea feels harmonious.Source: Juneja et al. (1999), Trends in Food Science & Technology