- Tea variety
- 玉緑茶
Tamaryokucha
Kyushu's curly leaves, berry-toned and rounder than sencha.
Flavor profile
The strengths are editorial judgments on a scale within the family, not measurements. They can be compared across the green tea varieties, not directly against another family.
Tamaryokucha is green tea allowed to keep its curly shape. The last step of sencha making, the rolling that presses the leaves straight as needles, is skipped, and the leaves instead dry into comma-shaped curls. You can hear it in the other name, guricha, curly tea. The flavor leans toward berries and citrus with an almond-like aftertaste, rounder and less astringent than sencha. The tea is a Kyushu specialty and a small share of Japan's production.
Sensory analysis
Pyramid and character
Aroma
dry leaf and freshly brewed
- citrus
- grass
- berries
Cup
mid-sip
- berry tartness
- round greenness
Finish
what lingers
- almond
- long
- soft
Character 0-100 per axis, set relative to the other entries in the same family. An editorial judgment of a typical serving, not measurements.
Background
Facts
- Processing
- like sencha up to the final rolling, which is left out, giving curly leaves instead of straight needles
- Variants
- two official types, mushi-sei tamaryokucha (steamed) and kama-iri sei tamaryokucha (pan-fired, usually called kamairicha)
- Origin
- mainly Kyushu and especially Saga prefecture, with a smaller production in Izu in Shizuoka
- Proportion
- the two types together make up only about three percent of Japan's tea production
- The name
- tama-ryoku-cha means roughly rounded green tea; guricha means curly tea
In the cup
Brewing
- Temperature
- 70-80°C
- Time
- about 2 minutes at 70°C, about 1 minute at 80°C
- Note
- the curly leaves pack loosely in the pot and take up more room than sencha at the same weight, so measure by weight and not by volume
Evidence
Sources
- Tamaryokucha (Wikipedia) (retrieved 2026-08-11)
- Tamaryokucha (玉緑茶), Global Japanese Tea Association (retrieved 2026-08-11)