Tencha

Tencha is matcha's essential precursor and is rarely consumed directly, though some specialty producers now offer it as a brewing tea. After 20-30 days of shading, leaves are steamed and immediately dried without rolling, yielding flat, fragile flakes rather than needles. A mechanical process strips the stems (kuki) and veins (noko) from the lamina, since these fibrous structures would produce gritty particles if ground. The resulting pure leaf flakes are stored in low-temperature, low-humidity conditions until grinding. Stone grinding tencha into matcha is a bottleneck: each granite mill produces only 30-40 grams per hour. This rate explains matcha's premium price and why high-quality matcha is always stone-ground rather than machine-ground. The quality of the source tencha — determined by cultivar, shading duration, plucking standard, and growing region — entirely defines the final matcha's grade.