Sencha Zairai

Sencha Zairai – Green Tea

Origin: Japan

Infusion Temperature: 75-80° Celsius

Infusion Time: 60-90 seconds

Serving Size: 1 gram/100 ml

Serving Size: 4 grams/200 ml

Brewing Recommendations: Multiple infusions up to 2-3 times, adjusting steeping time with each round

Water: Use low-mineral water to bring out the clean, vibrant flavor.

This truly distinctive tea in our curated collection of premium Japanese green teas. Sencha Zairai is not just a tea it is a rare connection to Japan’s ancient tea making traditions and a remarkable example of tea cultivation in its most natural and original form.

The word “Zairai” (在来) means “native” or “indigenous”, and in the context of tea, it refers to plants grown from seed rather than propagated from cuttings. While modern tea cultivation favors cloning from select cultivars such as Yabukita or Saemidori for consistency and yield, Zairai teas arise from genetically diverse, seed grown plants each one unique.

Unlike cloned cultivars, Zairai bushes are genetically diverse, with deeper roots, greater vigor, and natural resistance to pests and environmental stress. These seed grown plants produce less leaf volume than modern cultivars, but they offer a broader, more complex flavor spectrum and a deeper connection to terroir and seasonality.

Sencha Zairai is a celebration of imperfection and nature’s variability. Since each plant carries a unique genetic profile, each harvest has slight, beautiful variations in taste making every cup a new expression of the soil, weather, and plant character. The tea yields a lively infusion, with a vibrant energy, an earthy sweetness, and a well-balanced interplay of umami, bitterness, and natural astringency.

Its aroma is earthy, grassy and fresh-cut hay with mid-palate bitterness from tannins. It has a lingering finish with notes of steamed greens and a hint of minerality. Once infused has a clear golden green color. It has an energy characteristics, stimulating and grounding, with a balanced level of theine and L-theanine.

It is a tea for purists and connoisseurs, those who wish to taste how green tea was once made and enjoyed, long before mass cultivation and standardization.

Because it comes from non-cloned, seed grown plants, Sencha Zairai is increasingly rare and labor intensive to produce. Choosing to cultivate Zairai means embracing nature’s unpredictability and surrendering some commercial advantages in favor of biodiversity, resilience, and authenticity. To grow, harvest, and enjoy Zairai tea is to honor the true spirit of Camellia sinensis wild, evolving, and deeply rooted in nature.

If you are seeking a tea that tells a story a tea that breathes with the rhythm of nature and offers something different in every cup Sencha Zairai is an essential experience. It is not merely a beverage, but a living testament to the ancestral art of tea cultivation. Discover this rare and soulful green tea from Kagoshima an ancient flavor for modern tea lovers.