************************************************************************************************
（Start quote）

 
Enjoy this healthy, delicious drink anytime, anywhere.
Full of highly acclaimed natural constituents.
Nutritious as a drink and as a food ingredient.
The astringent constituent in Japanese tea is a type of polyphenol called catechin. There are various types of catechin, and research showing that they work to lower blood cholesterol and moderate fat absorption has attracted attention. Furthermore, the vitamin C in green tea is protected by the simultaneous consumption of catechin so that it is not destroyed by heat, allowing ample vitamin C uptake. It also contains constituents such as caffeine and theanine, which has relaxing properties. While drinking green tea is nutritious, using the entire leaf in food provides even greater nutritional content.

A flavor with depth, attracting attention from gourmets worldwide.
Apart from sencha, which is drunk after steaming the leaves, a less astringent tea called gyokuro has become popular among gourmets overseas in recent years. The tea used in Japanese tea ceremony is called matcha, Its leaves are grown without exposure to direct sunlight. They are steamed and dried without being rubbed then stone-ground to a powder. Naturally, matcha is full of catechin and provides health benefits. There has been an increase in the use of matcha in confectionary and cooking overseas, so even more people are enjoying its depth of flavor.

 
Surrounded by lush mountains, Japan produces fresh, fragrant green tea.

The matcha, or powdered green tea, in this ice cream gives it a refreshing finish.

Produced in a variety of ways.
Find a type of tea to suit any occasion.
There are various ways of manufacturing Japanese green tea. In addition to sencha, the most typical Japanese tea, and deep-steamed sencha, which is steamed for twice as long as usual, each variety has its own unique taste and nutritional elements. These include bancha, which uses the hard leaves and stalks after the new leaves have grown, houjicha, which is made from bancha or sencha that has been roasted over high heat, and genmaicha, which blends sencha with brown rice roasted under high pressure. There are a variety of occasions on which each type of tea is drunk. Sencha is drunk after a meal in Japan. It is effective in reducing stickiness in the mouth and also helps prevent teeth from decaying. Tea drinking is suggested for various purposes and occasions which are commonly observed in Japan. Sencha is recommended as a drink before playing sports and also for quenching thirst. With their lower caffeine content, bancha or houjicha can be drunk before going to sleep.

“For flavorsome tea, it must be at the ‘right temperature’.”
Unlike black tea, the secret to making green tea is to let the boiled water cool slightly before pouring it over the leaves. This will allow you to enjoy beautiful color and a deep flavor that is similar to umami.

Elizabeth Andoh
（Food Journalist in Japan ）

（Unquote）
Above was cited from Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
http://www.maff.go.jp/e/oishii/ingredients/japanese_tea.html
************************************************************************************************

Very interesting.