Sencha Dragon Green Tea

A shade-grown Japanese Sencha from Kagoshima with fresh grassy notes, smooth depth, and a gentle finish—a refined expression of one of Japan’s most important green-tea traditions.

The Experience

Sencha Dragon Green Tea is grown in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, one of the country's important tea-producing regions.

Shade-grown before harvest, the leaves are traditionally steamed, pan-dried, and polished, producing a light green infusion with fresh grassy character, smooth texture, and a gentle finish.

The cup tends toward the lighter side, yet it retains enough depth and medium body to feel satisfying. For customers exploring Japanese green tea, Sencha Dragon offers a beautiful balance between freshness, smoothness, and structure without the concentrated umami intensity of a tea such as Gyokuro.

Tasting Notes

Top: Fresh grass • Green vegetation
Mid: Smooth Japanese green tea • Gentle depth
Finish: Clean • Soft • Lingering
Body: Medium

Why You’ll Love It

• Grown in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan
• Shade-grown Japanese green tea
• Traditionally steamed, pan-dried, and polished
• Fresh grassy character with a smooth, gentle finish
• Light-liquoring while maintaining satisfying depth
• Nothing added—100% green tea
• An excellent tea for exploring Japanese Sencha

Tea, Origin & Grade

Tea Type: Green Tea
Style: Sencha
Grade: Sencha – Japan Spec
Origin: Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan
Elevation: Approximately 1,000–1,500 m (~3,300–5,000 ft)
Processing: Non-fermented, traditionally steamed, pan-dried and polished
Ingredients: Green tea – Japanese specification grade
Added Flavoring: None
Caffeine: Caffeinated
Body: Medium
Classification: Purist
Organic: Yes

How to Brew

Use 1 heaping teaspoon with The Perfect Measure Spoon per 8 oz / 237 ml of water at 185°F / 85°C.

Mild: 1–2 minutes
Medium: 2–3 minutes
Strong: 3–5 minutes

For your first cup, begin around 2 minutes and adjust according to taste. Avoid boiling water. Sencha's fresh green character benefits from a lower brewing temperature, which helps maintain the tea's balance of grassy flavor, smooth body, and gentle finish.

Perfect For

Sencha Dragon is particularly suited to Japanese green-tea drinkers, Sencha lovers, morning or afternoon tea, focused tea tastings, and anyone looking for a fresh green tea with more smoothness than sharpness. Enjoy it on its own or pair it with sushi, rice dishes, steamed fish, tofu, seaweed, lightly seasoned vegetables, noodles, or delicate sweets.

What Makes Sencha Japanese?

Sencha is one of the foundational styles for understanding Japanese green tea. A defining feature is steaming the leaves soon after harvest. This application of heat halts oxidation and helps preserve the fresh green character of the tea.

That processing approach creates an illuminating contrast with many traditional Chinese green teas, which are commonly pan-fired. Japanese steamed teas often emphasize fresh grass, vegetation, marine character, and umami, while pan-fired Chinese greens can move toward warmer grassy, chestnut-like, or nutty notes.

Neither is better. They represent different tea-making traditions and different ways of expressing the same tea plant.

What Does Shade-Growing Do?

Sencha Dragon adds another dimension to the Japanese green-tea story because the supplied information identifies it as shade-grown.

Reducing the amount of direct sunlight reaching the tea plant before harvest can change the character that develops in the leaf. For the tea drinker, shading is associated with a smoother, deeper green character and greater emphasis on savory and sweet dimensions.

Sencha Dragon remains lighter and gentler than the concentrated experience of Gyokuro, but the use of shade helps explain why this Sencha combines fresh grassy notes with satisfying smoothness and depth.

It also provides an excellent bridge for exploring the spectrum of Japanese green tea—from everyday Bancha and classic Sencha to more intensely shaded Gyokuro.

From Kagoshima: Tea & Samurai Country

Sencha Dragon comes from Kagoshima Prefecture at the southern end of Japan's Kyushu island. Kagoshima is also the birthplace of Saigo Takamori (1828–1877), one of the most famous samurai figures of Japan's transition into the modern era.

The original story associated with this tea draws a playful parallel between Saigo's strong character and the character of Kagoshima Sencha. The more meaningful connection, however, is place.

A cup of Sencha Dragon offers an opportunity to explore a region of Japan through tea—connecting landscape, agriculture, history, and culture rather than treating green tea as simply a flavor.

Sencha Dragon vs. Gyokuro, Bancha & Hojicha

These four teas provide an excellent introduction to the range of Japanese green tea.

Sencha Dragon Green Tea (This Tea)
Grassy • Smooth • Fresh • Medium-Bodied
→ Best for: experiencing a shade-grown Japanese Sencha

Gyokuro Green Tea
Umami • Sweet • Deep • Full
→ Try next if: you want a more concentrated shade-grown Japanese tea experience

Bancha Green Tea
Grassy • Sweet Pea • Smooth
→ Try next if: you want a gentler Japanese tea made from more mature leaf

Hojicha Green Tea
Roasted Chestnut • Toasted • Earthy
→ Try next if: you want to discover how roasting can completely transform Japanese green tea

Taste them together and the diversity within “Japanese green tea” becomes immediately apparent. Cultivation, harvest, leaf selection, and processing can turn the same plant into remarkably different cups.

Packaging: Our loose teas are sold by the ounce and packaged in food-grade resealable bags.

Explore Japanese Green Tea

Start with Sencha Dragon to experience the fresh, grassy character of steamed Japanese green tea with the added dimension of shade cultivation.

Then move toward Gyokuro for deeper shade-grown umami, Bancha for a gentler later-leaf expression, or Hojicha for the warm transformation created through roasting.

Together, they reveal that Japanese green tea isn't one flavor or one style—it is a spectrum shaped by how the plant is grown and what the tea maker does with the leaf after harvest.