Prices collected 26–27 August 2026 from sixteen sellers’ own listings.
Japanese green tea is not one thing. Seven types cover almost everything you will see on a Western shelf, and they range from about 60 cents a cup to four dollars.
| Tea | What it is | Per cup | Water |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bancha | Late-harvest leaf. Mild, low caffeine | $0.62 | 90°C |
| Kukicha | Stems and twigs. Sweet, very light | $0.66 | 70°C |
| Genmaicha | Green tea with roasted rice. Nutty | $0.79 | 90°C |
| Hojicha | Roasted leaf. Toasty, low caffeine | $0.99 | 90°C |
| Sencha | The everyday standard. Fresh, grassy | $1.08 | 70°C |
| Matcha | Shaded leaf, ground to powder. Whisked | $2.34 | 75°C |
| Gyokuro | Shaded leaf, brewed with lots of it | $4.00 | 60°C |
Where to start. If you have never bought Japanese tea, buy genmaicha or hojicha. Both are cheap, both are forgiving about water temperature, and neither will taste bitter if you get it slightly wrong. Sencha is the next step and the one most people settle on.
Which ones you can actually buy
Not all seven are easy to find in the US.
| Tea | US shops stocking it |
|---|---|
| Hojicha | all 15 |
| Matcha | 14 of 15 |
| Genmaicha | 8 of 15 |
| Sencha | 7 of 15 |
| Gyokuro | 7 of 15 |
| Bancha | 5 of 15 |
| Kukicha | 4 of 15 |
Matcha is 63% of everything American shops list. In Japan it is under 30%, and sencha is the biggest category by a distance. The Western shelf is not a picture of what Japan drinks — it is a picture of what the West buys.
Bancha and kukicha are the bargains almost nobody stocks. They are the two cheapest teas here and only four or five shops carry them.
How to brew each one
The single biggest mistake is water that is too hot. Here is the whole rule set:
| Tea | Water | Leaf | First steep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gyokuro | 60°C | 5 g | 2 minutes |
| Sencha | 70°C | 3 g | 60 seconds |
| Kukicha | 70°C | 3 g | 60 seconds |
| Matcha | 75°C | 2 g | whisked, not steeped |
| Genmaicha | 90°C | 3 g | 30–60 seconds |
| Hojicha | 90°C | 3 g | 30–60 seconds |
| Bancha | 90°C | 3 g | 30–60 seconds |
The pattern is simple: the finer and greener the tea, the cooler the water. Roasted and coarse teas — hojicha, bancha, genmaicha — take near-boiling water and are hard to ruin. Shaded teas — gyokuro, matcha — need it cool.
Most listings tell you none of this. Between a third and 92% of listings, depending on the tea, give no brewing instruction at all.
What each one tastes like
Sellers are remarkably consistent about some of these and vague about others:
| Tea | What sellers call it | How consistently |
|---|---|---|
| Genmaicha | Nutty, toasted rice | almost every listing |
| Hojicha | Roasted, caramel, cocoa | almost every listing |
| Gyokuro | Savoury, brothy, umami | most listings |
| Matcha | Rich, creamy | about half |
| Sencha | Bright, grassy, vegetal | about a third |
Genmaicha and hojicha are the two you can order sight-unseen and get roughly what you expect. Sencha is the least predictable from its description — it covers a very wide range.
Caffeine
If you are avoiding caffeine, the order is clear and it follows the roasting and the harvest:
- Bancha and hojicha are the low-caffeine choices. Nearly a third of bancha listings and a fifth of hojicha listings say so explicitly.
- Matcha is the highest, because you drink the whole leaf rather than an infusion of it.
Almost no seller publishes an actual figure in milligrams — matcha is the exception, and even there only one listing in fourteen gives a number.
Matcha is the one that hides where it grew
Every other Japanese tea names its region. Matcha, mostly, doesn’t:
| Tea | Listings naming a growing region |
|---|---|
| Gyokuro | 100% |
| Sencha | 99% |
| Genmaicha | 90% |
| Hojicha | 88% |
| Matcha | 75% |
Matcha is the most expensive tea on the shelf and the one least likely to tell you where it came from. A quarter of matcha listings name no region at all.
The same goes for shading, which is the process that defines both gyokuro and matcha. Seven in ten gyokuro listings mention it. Only two in ten matcha listings do — despite shading being what makes matcha matcha.
If you want to know what you are drinking, matcha is the category where you have to look hardest.
Questions people ask
What is the most popular Japanese green tea?
Sencha, by a long way — about three-quarters of what Japan grows. Matcha dominates the Western shelf but not the Japanese one.
Which Japanese tea has the least caffeine?
Bancha and hojicha. Both are made from later-harvest or roasted leaf.
Which should I try first?
Genmaicha or hojicha. Cheap, forgiving, and distinctive enough that you will know whether you like the style.
Why is matcha so much more expensive?
Three reasons: the leaf is shaded for weeks, which cuts the yield; it is stone-ground, which is slow; and you consume the whole leaf rather than steeping and discarding it.
What temperature should I use?
60°C for gyokuro, 70°C for sencha, 75°C for matcha, 90°C for the roasted ones. If your green tea tastes bitter, the water was too hot.
How many types of Japanese green tea are there?
It depends who is counting — sellers name between ten and fifteen. These seven cover almost everything sold in the West.
Based on 1,123 listings from sixteen sellers — fifteen American or American-facing plus Yunomi, a Japanese marketplace. Per-cup figures use 3 g for leaf teas, 2 g for matcha and 5 g for gyokuro, which is brewed with much more leaf. Matcha and gyokuro prices are from our price index.
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