Guricha Curled Green Tea

Guricha means curly tea, a Kyushu green tea whose leaves dry into soft coils instead of needles. The cup is mellow, with sweet grass, a chestnut note and a sweet, mildly vegetal aftertaste. Brewed in a kyusu at 75°C.

Origin & Story

Guri means curly, and cha means tea. Guricha is the everyday name for tamaryokucha, the curled green tea of Kyushu, and the shape gives it away. Where sencha is rolled into straight needles, guricha is left to dry into small, comma-like coils.

The trick is in what is left out. After steaming, the leaves tumble freely in a revolving drum as they dry, and the final rolling that gives sencha its needle shape is skipped. The coils that result are loose and uneven, which is part of the charm of a handful of dry leaf.

It is made across Kyushu. The steamed kind is most associated with Ureshino in Saga and Higashisonogi in Nagasaki, and the pan-fired kind with Kumamoto and Miyazaki. This one has a mellow, rounded character: sweet grass, a chestnut note and a sweet, mildly vegetal finish. Tea writers often describe curled tea as tangy and berry-like, with a long almond aftertaste, and there is a trace of that here.

Curled tea sits between two schools of brewing: cool and slow, about 70°C for two minutes, or hotter and quick, about 80°C for one. This page splits the difference with 3 g of leaf for 240 ml at 75°C and a steep of about a minute and a half.

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