Bancha (番茶)

Bancha is the tea you drink when the day doesn't need to become an occasion. Larger leaves, a few stems, a later pluck: nothing delicate is pretending to be precious here. That is its charm. It is the everyday cup, lower in caffeine than sencha, forgiving at the kettle, and very good beside rice, pickles, or a quiet sweet.

The first secret is water temperature. Sencha wants cooler water because its tender spring leaves give bitterness quickly. Bancha is made from mature leaves and stems, so it can take hotter water, and it needs that heat to draw out its round, grassy, faintly woody taste. Use water around 90 C to 95 C, just off the boil. Boiling-hard water makes the cup flat and rough, not stronger in any useful way.

The second secret is the dose and the clock. Give the leaves enough room, steep them briefly, then pour every last drop from the kyūsu, the side-handled teapot. That final pour matters because the liquor left behind keeps extracting and will punish the second cup. No kyūsu? Use a small pot or French press and a fine strainer. The method is simple, but simple things are where we learn whether we're paying attention.