The Best Types of Green Tea and How to Choose Yours

By Kiyomi Koike, Founder and ITMA Certified Tea Master · Updated October 2026

What are the best types of green tea? For most people the best green teas are the Japanese steamed teas, and there are seven worth knowing:

• Sencha: sun-grown and bright, the everyday standard, high in catechins
• Matcha: shade-grown, stone-milled and whisked as a powder, so you drink the whole leaf
• Gyokuro: shade-grown loose leaf, the sweetest, the highest in L-theanine and the most expensive
• Kabusecha: lightly shaded, between sencha and gyokuro
• Genmaicha: green tea with toasted rice, nutty and low in caffeine
• Hojicha: roasted, toasty and gentle
• Bancha: late harvest, plain and inexpensive

Which is best for you depends on what you want from the cup: catechins and a crisp taste point to sencha, calm focus and umami to matcha, an evening cup to hojicha or genmaicha. I grew up drinking all of them in Japan and have sold Japanese green tea for more than twenty years; below I explain what separates the types, which is healthiest and why, what decides quality within a type, and how to choose.

What makes Japanese green tea different

All true tea comes from one plant, Camellia sinensis. Whether a leaf becomes green, black or oolong tea is decided in the hours after picking, by how and when the leaf's enzymes are stopped. Green tea stops them straight away, which is why it stays green and keeps its catechins. Japan stops them with steam, usually within a few hours of picking; China, the other great green tea country, stops them by pan-firing the leaf in a hot wok. Steaming keeps more of the fresh, grassy, marine character and more of the vivid color, and gives the vegetal sweetness people mean when they say a green tea tastes "Japanese". Pan-firing gives a nuttier, toastier, mellower leaf. Both are good; they are different teas. Everything on this page is about the steamed family, because it is the one I was raised on and the one we make.

Sun or shade: the choice that shapes every Japanese green tea

If you learn one thing about green tea, learn this. A tea bush grown in full sun converts much of its L-theanine, the amino acid that tastes savory and calms the caffeine, into catechins, the astringent antioxidants that protect the leaf from ultraviolet light. Cover the same bush for a few weeks before harvest and the conversion slows: the leaf keeps its L-theanine, builds chlorophyll to catch what little light there is, and comes out darker green, sweeter and more savory. Every type of Japanese green tea sits somewhere on that line.

Shade-grown: matcha, gyokuro and kabusecha

Matcha and gyokuro are shaded for at least 20 days, usually three to four weeks; kabusecha for a week or two. Shade gives the umami, the sweetness, the deep color and the higher caffeine (a shaded leaf holds more of it), and it costs the farmer yield, which is why these are the expensive teas. Matcha goes on to be de-stemmed, dried flat and stone-milled into powder; gyokuro and kabusecha are rolled like sencha and brewed.

Sun-grown: sencha and bancha

Sencha and bancha are never covered. They are brighter, crisper and more astringent, lower in caffeine, and higher in catechins gram for gram, which is why sencha is the tea Japanese families drink from morning to night and the one I reach for when someone asks for "the healthiest" cup rather than the most luxurious one. Genmaicha and hojicha begin as sun-grown leaf too, and then go one step further: the first is blended with toasted rice, the second is roasted.

The seven types, one by one

Sencha

Japan's everyday green tea and more than half of everything the country makes. Sun-grown, steamed, rolled into fine needles and dried; bright and grassy with a hint of honey, a soft umami and a clean, slightly citrusy finish. A brewed cup carries 24–40 mg of caffeine (an industry range for brewed green tea); our Sencha powder, which you drink whole, tests at about 20 mg a serving and 65 mg of EGCG, from our most recent batch testing; results vary by lot and by packaging. If you want one green tea to drink all day, this is it, and I have written its full story on what sencha is and how it is made.

Matcha

The shaded leaf, stripped of stems and veins, ground slowly on a granite stone mill into a powder you whisk into water and drink entire. Velvety and umami-rich, with the natural sweetness that only shade gives. Because you consume the whole leaf, a serving delivers everything in it: our Organic Matcha tests at about 41 mg of caffeine, 122 mg of EGCG and about 28 mg of L-theanine per 1.5 g serving in the latest batch. It is the tea for calm, steady focus and for lattes, and the one with the widest range of quality on the market; matcha grades explained shows you how to tell them apart, and our complete guide to matcha covers the rest.

Gyokuro

"Jade dew": the same shading as matcha, but the leaf is rolled and kept whole, then brewed with a small amount of cool water, around 120–140°F, in tiny cups. It is the sweetest and most savory of the leaf teas, almost broth-like, the highest in L-theanine, and the most expensive tea Japan makes by weight. It is a sipping tea for a quiet half hour rather than a thermos tea; we do not sell it, and if you are curious, buy a small amount from a specialist and brew it cool.

Kabusecha

"Covered tea": sencha that has been shaded for a week or two rather than three or four. It sits exactly where you would expect, softer and a little sweeter than sencha, lighter and cheaper than gyokuro. A good tea for someone who finds sencha too brisk but is not ready for gyokuro prices.

Genmaicha

Green tea blended with toasted brown rice, some grains of which pop like popcorn in the roasting, hence its nickname, "popcorn tea". Toasty, nutty and comforting, and because a good share of the blend is rice, low in caffeine: our Organic Genmaicha, a whole-leaf green tea powder blended with toasted brown rice, tests at about 5 mg a serving, the lowest caffeine of any non-decaffeinated tea we make. It tastes of buttered popcorn, maple and roasted sesame over a lightly floral base, and it is the tea I give to people who say they do not like green tea. More on our guide to genmaicha.

Hojicha

Green tea that has been roasted after steaming, at high heat, until the leaf turns reddish brown and the grassy notes give way to roasted chestnut, vanilla bean, dark molasses and a wisp of smoke. Roasting mellows the astringency, which makes hojicha the gentlest Japanese green tea on the palate and the one most often served in the evening and in restaurants. Ours is made from first-harvest leaf and ground to a whole-leaf powder that whisks like matcha; it tests at about 17 mg of caffeine a serving, so "roasted" does not mean caffeine-free. The whole story is on our guide to hojicha.

Bancha

The second, third and autumn harvests of the sencha bush, with larger, tougher leaves and sometimes stems. Plainer and a little woody, lighter in caffeine than first-harvest sencha, and inexpensive; it is the tea in the big pot at a Japanese cafe and the usual base for hojicha. Nothing wrong with it, but if you are choosing one tea for the catechins or the taste, first-harvest sencha is the better buy.

You will meet other names on tea menus: shincha is the year's first sencha sold fresh in spring; kukicha is tea made from the stems, naturally low in caffeine and sweet; tencha is the dried, un-ground shaded leaf that becomes matcha; tamaryokucha is a curly-leaf sencha from Kyushu. They are variations on the seven, not new categories.

Which type of green tea is healthiest?

I sell tea, so read this with that in mind, and I will keep to what is measured. People drink green tea for two families of compounds: the catechins, led by EGCG, which are the antioxidants in the research, and the amino acid L-theanine, which is what makes green tea's lift feel calm rather than jittery. Sun pushes a leaf toward catechins; shade keeps its theanine. So:

• For the most catechins per gram, choose sun-grown leaf, sencha above all. In our most recent batch testing our Sencha powder tested at 65 mg of EGCG per 0.75 g serving against 122 mg per 1.5 g for our matcha, so the sencha is slightly ahead per gram, at about half the caffeine.
• For the most L-theanine, choose shade-grown leaf: matcha or gyokuro. Our matcha tests at about 28 mg of L-theanine a serving; sun-grown sencha has much less.
• For the most of everything in one cup, drink the leaf rather than the infusion. When you brew and discard, a large share of the catechins and theanine stay in the pot; a whole-leaf powder, matcha or powdered sencha, gives you all of it. That is the reason every tea we make is a powder, and the case is set out on the benefits of green tea powder.

What the compounds do for you is a question for the research, not for a tea seller. The largest population study of green tea drinkers, which followed more than 40,000 Japanese adults for eleven years, found that the people who drank the most green tea had the lowest rate of death from cardiovascular disease (Kuriyama et al., JAMA, 2006). I make no claims that any type of green tea prevents or treats a disease, detoxes anything or causes weight loss; the studies behind those headlines used concentrated extracts at doses no cup reaches, and their results are mixed. The fuller picture of the plant is on the benefits of green tea, and my look at the matcha evidence specifically is on is matcha good for you? The healthiest green tea, in the end, is the one you will drink every day; a cup you enjoy beats a supplement you forget.

Caffeine by type

All green tea has caffeine, and the type decides how much: shade raises it, roasting and rice lower it, and a powder you drink whole carries the leaf's full amount while an infusion carries part of it. Our figures below are per serving from our most recent batch testing and vary by lot and by packaging; the brewed figures are industry ranges per 8 oz.

If caffeine is the deciding factor, our decaf green tea guide explains how the water and CO₂ methods take the caffeine out and leave the catechins in, and how much caffeine is in green tea lines up every type, brewed and powdered, including gyokuro and bagged tea.

What decides quality within a type

Choosing the type is half the decision. Two senchas can be as different as sencha and hojicha, and these are the things that separate them.

• Harvest. The first harvest of the year, ichibancha, picked from late April, gives the most tender leaf and the sweetest, most aromatic tea, because the bush has stored nutrients all winter. Later harvests are coarser and more astringent. All six of our teas are first harvest; a label that does not say which harvest is usually not the first.
• Leaf. The bud and top two leaves make the finest tea. Whole leaf, rolled or stone-milled, beats the broken leaf and dust that fill most tea bags, which steep fast, taste sharp and lose their aroma.
• Steaming. Light steaming (asamushi, around 20–40 seconds) gives a clear, delicate, grassy cup; medium (chumushi) a balanced one; deep steaming (fukamushi, a minute or more) a cloudier, thicker, softer cup that is forgiving to brew. None is better; it is a style.
• Grinding, for powders. A granite stone mill grinds slowly, around 30 to 40 grams an hour, without heating the leaf, and produces fine, rounded particles that whisk into a creamy cup. Faster jet or ball mills are cheaper and the particles mix more easily, but the texture is thinner. Stone-milled powder clumps a little in the pouch; that is a sign of fineness, not a fault.
• Testing. Organic certification covers how the tea was farmed, not what is in the finished powder. Tea plants take up what is in their soil, so the best teas are organic and screened by an independent laboratory for heavy metals, pesticides and radiation, with the results published; ours are on our lab results and testing.
• Freshness. Air, light, heat and moisture are the enemies. Look for opaque, resealable packaging or single-serve sticks, a harvest year, and a vivid color; a yellow-olive powder or hay-scented leaf is old. Store it sealed, cool and dry, and bring refrigerated tea to room temperature before opening so condensation does not form on it.

How to choose the best green tea for you

• You want the most antioxidants for the least caffeine and money: sencha, as a whole-leaf powder if you want all of it. Sencha vs matcha sets the two side by side if you are torn.
• You want calm, steady focus and a creamy, savory cup, or a latte: matcha. Buy first-harvest, stone-milled, and check the grade before you pay ceremonial prices.
• You find green tea too grassy: hojicha for a roasted, chestnut-and-vanilla cup; genmaicha if you like toast and popcorn. Both whisk like matcha in our powdered form.
• You drink tea in the evening, or you are sensitive to caffeine: genmaicha at about 5 mg, or a decaf: our Decaf Sencha at about 4 mg and Decaf Matcha at about 6 mg a serving.
• You want a special-occasion tea to sip slowly: gyokuro, brewed cool, or a ceremonial matcha whisked thick.
• You are new to Japanese green tea: start with sencha, hot and then iced, then try matcha. The two teach you the whole range: sun and shade, leaf and powder.

Our six green teas

We make six teas, all organic, all first harvest, all whole-leaf powders, all screened by an independent laboratory. Each is whisked the same way, with the water a little cooler for the shaded teas and never boiling; the method, hot, iced and as a latte, is on how to make matcha and our other teas. At our current prices:

Subscribe and Save takes a further 5% to 10% off any of them.

Shop All Green Teas

Best types of green tea FAQ

What is the best type of green tea?

For everyday drinking, sencha: Japan's standard green tea, sun-grown, bright and the highest in catechins per gram. For a creamy, savory cup and calm focus, matcha. For an evening cup, hojicha or genmaicha. The best type is the one that matches what you want from the cup.

What is the healthiest type of green tea?

Sun-grown sencha has the most catechins (EGCG) per gram; shade-grown matcha has the most L-theanine and, as a powder you drink whole, delivers the most of everything per cup. No type of green tea treats or prevents disease; the research associates regular green tea drinking with better cardiovascular outcomes, and that is as far as I will go.

Which green tea is best for beginners?

Sencha, hot first and then iced; it is easy to prepare, forgiving, and tastes the way most people expect green tea to taste. Try matcha second. If plain green tea tastes too grassy to you, start with genmaicha or hojicha.

What is the difference between sencha and matcha?

Sencha is sun-grown, steamed and rolled, and brewed or, in our case, ground to a powder; bright and crisp. Matcha is shade-grown, de-stemmed and stone-milled to a powder you whisk; creamy and savory, with more caffeine and more L-theanine. Sencha has slightly more EGCG per gram at about half the caffeine.

Which type of green tea has the least caffeine?

Among non-decaffeinated teas, genmaicha, because much of it is rice: our Genmaicha tests at about 5 mg a serving. Our Decaf Sencha tests at about 4 mg and our Decaf Matcha at about 6 mg. Shade-grown matcha and gyokuro have the most.

Which green tea has the most caffeine?

Matcha, because the shaded leaf holds more caffeine and you drink the whole leaf: our Organic Matcha tests at about 41 mg per 1.5 g serving. Brewed gyokuro is the strongest of the leaf teas. A cup of coffee still carries two to six times more.

Is Japanese or Chinese green tea better?

Neither; they are different. Japanese green tea is steamed, which keeps it vivid green, grassy and sweet; Chinese green tea is pan-fired, which makes it nuttier and mellower. Most of the research on green tea and health uses either, since the catechins are in both.

Is matcha better than regular green tea?

Matcha gives you the whole leaf, so a serving carries more of everything than a brewed cup of the same leaf would. Whether it is better than sencha depends on what you want: more L-theanine and umami, choose matcha; more catechins per gram and less caffeine, choose sencha. A powdered sencha closes most of the gap.

What should I look for when buying green tea?

First harvest, whole leaf or stone-milled powder, a stated origin, opaque resealable packaging, a vivid green color, and published lab results for heavy metals and pesticides. Organic certification is about the farming; the lab test is about the finished tea.

Which green tea is best for iced tea?

Sencha. Shaken into cold water it turns lighter and sweeter with almost no astringency, and a powdered sencha needs no steeping at all. Genmaicha and hojicha make good iced teas too; matcha iced is richer and more savory.