{{Short description|Type of Japanese green tea}} {{Italic title|reason=:Category:Japanese words and phrases}} {{Infobox Tea | Tea_name = Bancha | Tea_type = Green | Tea_color = Green | Tea_image = File:Shizuoka bancha.jpg | Tea_origin = Japan | Tea_names = Common Tea | Tea_quick = More widely available in the West. A late season crop, goes well with food. }} {{nihongo|'''''Bancha'''''|番茶}} is a type of Japanese green tea. It is harvested from the third and fourth flushes of ''sencha'' between summer and autumn.<ref name="Driem">[https://books.google.co.il/books?id=Z6WODwAAQBAJ&pg=PA211 George L. van Driem. The Tale of Tea: A Comprehensive History of Tea from Prehistoric Times to the Present Day. — BRILL, 2019. — p. 211.]</ref>
It can be found in a number of forms such as roasted, unroasted, smoked, matured or fermented for three years and even post-fermented. For example, goishicha.
==Background== Bancha is harvested from the same tea tree as ''sencha'' grade, but it is plucked later than ''sencha'' is, giving it a lower market grade.<ref name="Driem" /> It is considered to be one of the lowest grades of Japanese green teas.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tsuji|first=Shizuo|title=Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art|publisher=Kodansha International|year=2007|isbn=978-1568363882|location=Japan|pages=332}}</ref> There are 22 grades of ''bancha''. Its flavour is unique and varies depending on the type.
Flavours range from smoke, roasted nuts, green grass, earth, soil, wet leaves, some of the types of bancha have a stronger straw smell.
==See also== * Hōjicha – often made from bancha * Japanese tea * Tea Culture in Japan
== References == <references />
{{Japanese food and drink}} {{Teas}}
Category:Japanese green tea