Gyokuro - Shaded Imperial Premium Green Tea

Gyokuro 玉露, one of the most premium Japanese green teas, stands out for its unique cultivation and rich flavor. Unlike other green teas, it is shaded from sunlight for 20–30 days before harvest. This shading process increases chlorophyll and theanine content while reducing catechins, resulting in a tea that is sweeter and less astringent. The carefully cultivated leaves are vibrant, dark green, and needle-like, reflecting the meticulous attention to quality.

The flavor profile of Gyokuro is distinctively rich in umami, offering a sweet and savory taste that sets it apart from other green teas like sencha or bancha, which tend to have a brisker and more refreshing flavor. The higher levels of theanine not only enhance its umami but also provide a calming effect that balances its naturally elevated caffeine content.

Yes, matcha 抹茶 is also shaded, but there are significant differences between matcha and gyokuro in their processing, presentation, and usage. Both teas undergo a similar shading process before harvest, which boosts chlorophyll and theanine levels while reducing catechins. However, the key distinction lies in how the leaves are processed after harvesting.

For gyokuro, the leaves are steamed and dried for brewing as a loose-leaf tea. In contrast, matcha leaves, known as tencha, are steamed and dried without further shaping, then stone-ground into a fine powder. This processing difference gives matcha its characteristic creamy texture and vibrant green appearance when whisked.

The preparation methods also differ significantly. Gyokuro is brewed in water, requiring precise temperature control to extract its delicate umami flavor. Matcha, on the other hand, is whisked directly into water, allowing you to consume the entire tea leaf in powdered form, resulting in a more concentrated flavor and higher nutrient intake. Matcha's robust and slightly bitter profile contrasts with gyokuro's smooth and mellow sweetness, making them distinct experiences despite their shared origins.

Yes, Kabusecha (Nozomi) is often considered a more affordable alternative to Gyokuro while still offering a rich and flavorful tea experience. Both teas are shaded before harvest, which enhances their umami flavor and sweetness, but the key difference lies in the duration of shading. Gyokuro is shaded for 20–30 days, resulting in a deeply refined flavor and higher cost due to the intensive cultivation and processing. Kabusecha, on the other hand, is shaded for a shorter period, typically 7–14 days, making it less expensive to produce.

Kabusecha retains some of Gyokuro’s rich umami and sweetness but offers a lighter and more refreshing taste, closer to sencha. This balance between richness and astringency makes Kabusecha an excellent option for those seeking a tea with Gyokuro-like qualities at a more accessible price point. Additionally, Kabusecha’s slightly lower caffeine content and milder flavor make it a great choice for everyday enjoyment. For those who appreciate the benefits of shaded teas but want a more budget-friendly option, Kabusecha is an ideal alternative.

For optimal flavor, steep 1-2 teaspoons of tea in 12-16 oz (350 ml - 470 ml) of water at a temperature of approximately 175°F-185°F (80-85°C) for 30 to 60 seconds. Adjusting the steeping time and temperature can help you achieve your preferred taste.

Click here to download a printable PDF of this instruction

This tea is available in a refill package option. This eco-friendly choice includes only the inner packaging (silver aluminum package), omitting the outer paper tube, which reduces waste and offers a cost saving per package.

Many customers initially purchase the full paper package and subsequently use the same tube for refills.

By selecting the refill option, you contribute to environmental sustainability while enjoying the same high-quality tea. Click here if you want to learn more about this.

Yes, this tea contains caffeine. A typical cup provides approximately 40 mg, which is higher than most sencha green teas due to the shading process that naturally increases caffeine levels. However, it contains significantly less caffeine than a standard cup of coffee, which typically has 90–120 mg per 8-ounce serving (240 ml).

Yes, here are some combinations you can pair with other popular products to enjoy a discount.

We ship all our tea from our warehouse in the USA (Washington State)
(For Canada, Australia, the UK, Germany and Denmark, please click here)

Our teas are shipped directly from Japan to our warehouse in Washington by air. Then we ship it directly to you from our warehouse using USPS or UPS; depending on the cost and speed to your location. (For Canada, Australia, the UK, Germany and Denmark, please click here)

This shipping approach allows us to quickly send fresh green tea to your door so you don’t need to wait for any international shipping. 

For more information, please see our Shipping and Return Page.

We use USPS, and the following are the rates for shipping. The shipping price is a flat rate per order. All shipping comes with free insurance through USPS.

• USA - Free Shipping store-wide today!  (No code necessary)
• For Canada, Australia, the UK, Germany and Denmark, please click here
• International Customer - USPS International Priority Shipping with Tracking (6-10 Days): US$29.99 per order

Whichever shipping method you choose on the first order will be retained for all future orders. If you choose free shipping today, it will lock in the free shipping for all the time until you unsubscribe.

Yes! We ship anywhere in the USA, including Hawaii and Alaska.

Yes, we now offer free shipping within Canada for the limited popular products listed here.

For these items, we ship items within Canada, so you do not need to worry about import tax.

Click here to see a list of Canada Free Shipping items.

We now ship our products internationally.

For Canada, Australia, the UK, Germany, Denmark, and the EU, please click here

For the rest of the world, please select your country when checking out, and our website will calculate the shipping price.

Unfortunately, our free shipping promotion does not apply to all international orders.

For most countries, the shipping price is a $29.99 flat rate per order. This means that the more you order at once, the better deal it is for you.

The item will be shipped using USPS International Priority Shipping with Tracking, and shipping usually takes between 6-10 days to get to most of the country.

We have other alternatives to save you on shipping if you live outside the USA, Canada, Australia, UK, Germany, Denmark or EU. Please contact us from this link if you are outside these countries

No. Unlike other companies sending packages from Japan, our tea is shipped via USPS, so it does not require your signature or picked up from the local post office. Instead, the package gets delivered to your mailbox like any other US postal mail.

Yes, we do provide a tracking number for 2-5 days (Free) shipping. (USPS Tracking) 

We ship items Mon-Fri at 11 am ET. When the item is ordered after 11 am, we send it the next day. So you get the tracking before 11 am on the day (if ordered before 11 am) or the next day (after 11 am). 

Yes, you can specify the shipping address separately from the billing address so that you can send it to your friends easily. We do not include the receipt in shipment in general.

Yes, we do allow PO Box. Our packages are shipped via USPS, and they have access to your PO Box. 

At Japanese Green Tea Co., we are revolutionizing buying Japanese green tea by partnering directly with Arahataen Farms. Because they grow, process, and package their tea on site, we get shipments to you much faster- usually just one to five days!

By cutting out the middle-men, you get your tea faster, fresher, and without fees.

Your tea is shipped using USPS from Washington State, so you don't need to worry about the hassle of dealing with signing for your package or custom duty.

You get your tea in 2-3 days in the USA.(Click here to check when you will get your tea if you order today.)

We ship the same day!After payment is verified, orders placed by 10 a.m. ET will be shipped from our warehouse daily, Monday-Friday. Orders placed after 10 a.m. ET will be shipped the next day.Our green tea is shipped from Japan to the USA every week to our warehouse in Washington so that we can ship fresh green tea to you quickly using USPS directly from our warehouse. With this processing, you receive your order within one week of ordering.

Each tea comes in a sealed pack to retain its quality.Sealed, packaged tea is shipped in a soft packed envelope or box, depending on the size of the order.

No. Unless you live in the state of Washington, you do not need to pay sales tax.And even if you live in the State of Washington, tea (unprepared food) is not taxable.

No. Unlike other online sites selling from outside the USA, we take care of all custom taxes and import duties so that you do not have to worry about any of them. 

We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, JCB, Diner’s Club. We also accept PayPal, Amazon payment, Google G-Pay, Apple Pay, Venmo and Shopify Pay (Shop Pay). 

Buy with Prime allow you to use your Amazon Prime account to get our products. See the video below:  

Shopify Inc. provides our shopping cart with top security features, including Level 1 PCI CSS Compliant Secure Provider, Visa's Global Compliant Provider List, and Master Card's SDP List.

No. You can check out as a guest by providing your name and shipping address. You are not required to create an account to order. 

If you enter an email address when you order, the order information is tracked with your email address.At any time, you can register on our site with the same email address you used when ordering at https://www.japanesegreenteain.com/account/register. This will allow you to see your past orders so that you can easily make a purchase of the same item(s) again.There is an option to auto-subscribe, which will provide you with 10% off of orders. You can check more detail about the subscription option here: https://www.japanesegreenteain.com/collections/japanese-green-tea-subscription

You can enter your coupon code at the checkout page.
If you cannot find it, don't worry, just email us with your order number and coupon code at Info@JapaneseGreenTeaIn.com and we will refund you the discount.

No, there are no late fees if you miss a scheduled payment.

When checking out with Shop Pay, you now have the option to pay now or later. Paying in installments on Shop Pay allows you to split your purchase amount into 4 equal, biweekly installment payments—with 0% interest, no hidden or late fees, and no impact on your credit score.* In some instances, your first payment is due when you make your purchase; otherwise, your first payment is due 2 weeks after your purchase.

Rates from 0% APR or 10-36% APR. Payment options through Shop Pay Installments are subject to an eligibility check and are provided by these lending partners: affirm.com/lenders. Options depend on your purchase amount, and a down payment may be required. State notices to consumers affirm.com/licenses.

If your refund amount is less than the amount remaining on your Shop Pay Installments balance, then you can expect one or both of the following:

- A smaller payment balance on the final payment.

- Less future payments on the remaining loan balance.

If your refund amount is more than the amount remaining on your Shop Pay Installments balance, then you can expect to receive the difference as a refund to your original debit card or credit card payment method within 3 to 10 business days.

The installments option on Shop Pay is available on debit and credit cards.

If you are a new customer, your first shipment consists of the tea you choose to order.
After that, you'll receive deliveries of the same tea every 15, 30, or 60 days depending on the cycle you choose.

Your credit card will be charged each time your tea is shipped, and you can cancel at any time.

On our product page, please follow the three simple steps described below.  

Whichever shipping method you choose on the first order will be retained for all future orders. If you choose free shipping today, it will lock in the free shipping for all the time until you unsubscribe.

Yes, when you subscribe during a free shipping promotion, the subscription items and the price will be locked in with the subscription.  

Definitely. You can select a 60 days option. After you set up your automated subscription, you may change how frequently you receive shipments.

No. The price you see on the site is for the first order and the subscription's subsequent order. Therefore, the price will not change as long as you are subscribed.

Your first paid order will be shipped immediately after you order. After that, we ship the same day.

Orders placed by noon MT (2 pm Eastern / 11 am Pacific) will be shipped from our warehouse daily Monday-Friday after payment is verified.

Our green tea is shipped from Japan to the USA weekly to our warehouse in Washington to ship fresh green tea to you quickly using USPS. With processing, you receive your order within one week of ordering.

You can alter the tea you subscribe to anytime without any additional fee for the next cycle.

You may also make changes to your subscription, such as altering the frequency of shipments, from your user profile. Or, if you need help, just contact our team at 1-800-380-7030 or info@japaneseGreenTeaIn.com.

Your subscription will be automatically shipped based on the date of your first order.
For instance, if you order tea on September 1st and select a 30-day cycle, your next shipment will be shipped on October 1st (30 days from the first order).

If you want to make changes to the day when the subscription ships, please contact our team at 1-800-380-7030 or info@japaneseGreenTeaIn.com.

You can sign up for our newsletter and get the 10% off coupon in your email immediately after you sign up. Use the coupon when you check out for the first order. Sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.

Please join by creating an account for free here. 

You can spend your points by logging into your account, clicking the reward button on the bottom right corner of the website, and clicking “Ways to redeem” in the reward widget.

Every year on your birthday, we'll give you bonus birthday points, just for being you! 

Our loyalty program is totally free! We do it to say "thank you" to our awesome customers!

Of course not! We want to reward your loyal orders! 

Points never expire!

$1 spent = 1 point.There are many other ways to get points.

Click here to see how you can earn more points.

Yes! Each product we offer is available in a sample size.

Simply select “Sample (10g)” under the size option and checkout as usual.

Our green tea is the best-selling Japanese green tea in Japan online. The reason is simple: it tastes good, and most of our customers are repeat customers who come back for more.

Our tea is grown using the Chagusaba method. The Chagusaba Method is a traditional green tea farming method used for centuries in areas where plants such as the Japanese silver grass are cut and used as organic fertilizer between autumn and winter.Plants are cut into small pieces and are carefully placed on the ground of the farmland. This increases the ground temperature and moisture in the dirt, which fertilizes the soil better. Japanese silver grass also contains many silicic acids, which are excellent for making the dirt richer. This process is highly labor-intensive, but the tradition has been followed for centuries in the area to create the best green tea.

Yes. All our products are 100% Vegan and 100% natural. No artificial flavors are added. 

Yes. All our products are 100% made in Japan. Within Japan, our tea farms are located in the area that is known for the best green tea production in Japan, Shizuoka by Mt. Fuji.

Please see About Us Page for more information.

Yes. All our products are Gluten free.

Yes. All our products are GMO free and cruelty-free.

All our green tea are Yabukita  (やぶきた) cultivar except for Benifuuki which is Benifuuki cultivar. 

When you go to the specific product you are interested in, scroll down and you will see the “Nutrition Facts” tab, and there you can see all the nutritional information. 

None of our Japanese green tea is blended. They all come from our farm in Shizuoka and single cultivar (Yabukita orBenifuuki forBenifuuki products). 

Absolutely not. Our matcha is 100% pure matcha and no filler is used.

Brewing Japanese green tea is simple, but there are a number of tricks to make the tea tastier.

We have created a video and blog post about this. Please click here or the image below.

For losing weight with a smoothie, we still suggest using Diet Puerh Tea.

Since this is not in powdered form, you must steep them first and then mix them into a smoothie.Since this is not in a powdered form, you should steep them first and then mix them into a smoothie. You can follow the instructions under the “loose leaf tea” section of our article How to Make Green Tea Smoothies.

The other option is our matcha. Although not as much as the diet tea above, matcha does have chemical properties for losing weight. You can find it here: Premium Matcha

Yes, we have Aracha, which not only consists of tips of the tea leaf but the entire tea component.

Yes, it is. Since Japanese green tea isless processed than other types of tea, the health effects are known to be greater than different types of tea.  Please check ourJapanese Green Tea and Health blog for all health-related articles related to Japanese Green Tea. 

Although we do not offer  decaffeinated tea, our hojicha is very popular as it has significantly less caffeine. This hojicha is enjoyed by the elderly and kids in Japan as the tea has minimal caffeine. It is also safe for a pregnant woman to drink this tea. Click here to see our hojicha.

We get all our freshly picked green tea from Japan every week. Most of our products have an expiration date of 1 year from manufacturing, so you will have enough time to enjoy your green tea! The date of Manufacturing and expiration are printed on each package.

The tea is good for one year from manufacturing, even after you open the package.

However, we strongly encourage you to seal the tea in an airtight container, such as multiple zip lock bags and store it in a dark, cool place or refrigerator for retaining good taste.

Tea absorbs other odors quickly; therefore, please ensure your package is air-tight.  We also recommend Airscape, which is popular among coffee drinkers and works very well with tea as well. Here is a link to get Airscape products from Amazon.

We suggest tea be refrigerated but not frozen. If you decide to refrigerate, please make sure that you isolate the tea from other food by putting it in an air-tight canister or using multiple layers of zip lock bags. Tea absorbs odors quickly, and the last thing you want is to have your tea absorb other food odors.  We also recommend Airscape which is popular among coffee drinkers and works very well with tea as well. Here is a link to get Airscape products from Amazon.

We do not offer aged matcha.

All our matcha products are freshly cropped and packaged with an expiration date of 1 year from manufacturing.

Some companies indeed offer aged matcha; however, the environment to age tea has to be controlled and maintained carefully to retain the quality without the spread of bacteria for safely facilitating the aging of matcha; we do not sell this kind of matcha, and we do not recommend eating old matcha which is has not been aged safely.

Green tea is best prepared with soft water with fewer minerals. If you have a water softener filter system, use the water filtered by the softener. If you use bottled water, try avoiding ones with "Added Minerals," as they tend to distort the tea flavor.

If you have access to Evian, it will taste better as Evian is known for soft water

Our tea is 100% safe from radioactive materials.Here is a link to an official test resultof radioactive material, and it indicates that there are no radioactive elements found in our tea. (This is a link to an English Translation of the Report.)  Please note that this test was conducted in 2012, one year after the Fukushima accident in March of 2011. Even after many years of the incident, we keep testing and ensuring that no harmful materials are in our tea. 

In Japan, people usually consume green tea plain without adding sugar or honey.  However, in other countries such as in US and India, it is common to drink with honey which doespairvery well. We have compiled some green tea recipes such assparklingtea with lemon and fruit tea. Sign up to our newsletter to get the recipe for free.

We also have an extensive article on how to make a Japanese Green Tea Smoothie which might be of interest to you. 

We also have an entire blog dedicated to alternative ways to enjoy Japanese Green Tea. Please see our blog here.

Yes, in 2016 and 2017. Japanese green tea produced by Arahataen was the best-selling tea by volume on Rakuten online market, which is the largest e-commerce site in Japan. 

We use a pyramid tea sachet bag made out of premium quality nonwoven fabric to allow the tea to open up fully to get the best aroma and taste out of tea.  In addition, it is biodegradable and environmentally friendly.

Please see Why Buy from Japanese Green Tea Co. article.

Japanese Green Tea Co. provides quality wholesale Japanese green tea to various Japanese Restaurants, Spas, and Gourmet Shops throughout the USA. If you are interested in our wholesale service, please contact us from the wholesale contact page.

Yes, we have started to sell some items on Amazon Prime. Click here to go to Amazon Page.

Thank you very much. : )

Please click here for the instructions on the Amazon page.

We hold both of the domains and they are the same company.